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QATAR- THE MIDDLE EASTPRESENT DAY Qatar was muggy on a good day, sweltering on bad days. The sand from the desert would kick up into the air whenever someone so much as breathed too hard; and that sand would stick to every piece of exposed skin it could find. She found herself treating more heat exhaustion than injuries most of the time. There wasn’t even a brief relief on the Chinook as it brought her squad back to base.“Oh, God, five months of this.” Fig complains as he tilts his head back, “I can’t wait for a taste of home. A plate of mama’s alligators etouffee.”“You’ve been talking about barbecued ‘gators and crickets for the last two weeks. I’m never going to your mama’s house, Fig. I promise .” Epps responds, yanking out an earbud to get his point across.“But Bobby, Bobby, ‘gators are known to have the most succulent meat.”“I understand.”“ With a little rice and beans- ” Fig starts speaking in Spanish but is drowned out by Epp’s mocking.“English, please. English.” Bobby finishes“I mean how many times… We don't speak Spanish. I told you that.” Will cuts in, taking his own turn to tease the man“Why you gotta ruin it for me man? That's my heritage. You’re always annoying me with the same old shit .”“Fig, they ain’t gonna stop. You may as well shut up now.” Hazel chimes in, eyes closed and head resting against the chinook wall.“Nah, nah! See, Clank gets it. She knows where I’m coming from.” Fig gestures a hand towards her, “Hazel, would you eat ‘gator at my mama’s house?”“Don’t you think we’re moving a little too fast, Fig? Aren’t you supposed to ask me out first before taking me to meet your mama?” She replies to the delight of the men around her.“Hey, you guys remember weekends? Huh?” Donnelly speaks up before another round of arguing could ensue. “The Sox at Fenway. Cold hotdog and a flat beer. Perfect day.”“What about you, Captain? You got a perfect day?” Fig asks“I just can’t wait to hold my baby girl for the first time.” Lennox replies, being met with a chorus of sarcastic awe-ing from the rest of the squad.“Shut up.” He responds to it with no real heat, “What about you, Bobby? Perfect day?”Epps smiles, “Any day spent away from Fig’s alligator is a perfect day in my books.”
“You son of a bitch.”
“Hazel? Perfect day?” Epps passes over the metaphorical talking stick, in an attempt to ignore Fig’s curses.“Yeah.” She responds, lifting her head up to glare through the open door of the chinook, “It's about thirty degrees cooler and overcast.”The helis’ land just before sundown. From the landing pads, Hazel’s squad meanders their way over to the housing area of base camp, before eventually getting a ride on the sides of one of the transports. They all split their different ways after jumping off, Hazel setting up in the medic’s tent to resupply and help out with patients.After staying there for a while, Hazel makes her way to the communications tent, preparing to set up her call with her family after Lennox gets his turn. She smiles and waves to Sarah in the camera as she passes by behind Lennox, and walks over to Donnelly. She takes a seat beside him and leans over to look at whatever he's working on.“You take your call?” She asks, leaning back in her chair, “How’s your sister?”“She’s good! Her boyfriend proposed, she mailed out pictures last night so I should be getting them in a couple days.”“That's amazing!” She responds, knocking his shoulder with her own, “I’m so happy for her. When is the wedding?”Patrick opens his mouth to reply when the lights cut out and turn back on. Hazel and Donnelly look around confused for a moment then they look at Will who’s shaking the laptop.“Hey! Sarah, if you can hear me, I love you and I’ll be home soon!” Lennox shouts then sighs, before smacking his hands on the table and walking out of the tent.“Shit.” Donnelly says walking over to the computer, and begins trying to fix the connection.“You think you can get her back?” She asks, standing back up and standing behind the chair, hanging back if he needs help.Donnelly sighs, “No, something’s blocking the connection. I’m sorry Hazel, I don't think you’re gonna be able to have your video call time.”Hazel sighs, “It’s all right. They’ll understand.”There's a burst of energy that sends sparks from the power lines then, causes the computer to spark. Hazel screams and Donnelly yelps, jumping back away from the computer and knocking over the folding chair in the process. Very soon after, there's commotion outside as dozens of soldiers rush from their tents to their battle stations. The two soldiers rush outside of the communications tent and looking for answers when Epps runs past shouting.“They’ve bombed the antenna farm! We’re under attack!”The explosions move closer, Hazel joins the dozens of soldiers running away from the enemy artillery. She runs past and into the med tent, grabbing a gun and her kit, then runs out the other side- grateful they had discharged their last patient for the night hours ago. She finally turns the corner and joins up with the head of the crowd, led by her squad. Donnelly behind Epps and Epps behind Lennox.“Where the fuck is Fig?” She shouts over an explosionA hand touches her shoulder and pushes her forward a tad, “I’m here! Keep fucking running!” Fig shouts behind her.They make it to cover when they hear Mahfouz, the kid that's been hanging around Lennox, shout. Hazel turns her head to see the kid running away from the explosions behind them. The enemy fires, and the ground around the area is lit up in orange, practically blinding her from seeing whatever it was that was firing. She stops short and turns back, running to the boy and grabbing his hand to pull him along faster. They get back behind the cover of a tank and she passes Mahfouz off to Lennox.“Here, come here! Come here!” He shouts, eventually picking the boy up to run.They continue running cover to cover soldiers firing off rounds towards the enemy. There's a loud thunk and an explosion. Hazel can see two of the tanks they were behind minutes before flying up into the air.“Get down!” Lennox shouts, dropping and curling his body around Mahfouz.Hazel drops, crossing her ankles, shoving her face in the sand, and covering the back of her neck with her hands, Fig falls down right next to her as the expected explosion rips itself through the air nearby. The heat scorches her back as it billows up into a cloud, there's screaming and a loud crunch of metal as the two tanks drop somewhere close. The squad doesn’t take time to rest, getting back up and sprinting to their next area of cover as soon as Lennox gives the OK with Epps taking their six.“Captain, that thing is getting too close!” She shouts, hearing the thuds of armor plating and the sounds of chamber reload nearby their position.“Here! Hide in here!” Lennox says, pushing Mahfouz into the side of the tank by its treads.“Oh, my God. Okay.” Fig pants on the other side of Lennox and the kid as they filter in and drop into cover.Hazel takes a peak out looking for Epps, who had fallen behind during their run. He falls when something hits the ground next to him. Hazel turns her gaze up. Metal joints and armor plating connected to a bipedal machine. It whirrs something and looks down at Epps, who had pulled up his binocs and started recording the weapon.“What the hell is that thing?” Hazel whispers in disbelief.From its chest emerges the top of a gun, and Hazel has to smother her scream as it fires out at Bobby. Taking the distraction Fig cocks his gun, Hazel covers Mahfouz’s ears, and takes a potshot into the opening of the weapon in the robot’s chest. The weapon is torn apart as ammo meets ammo in the chamber. While it's distracted, Epps sprints over to them and the robot’s weapon misfires as it again tries to take a shot. Lennox grab’s Epps by the back of his shirt and hauls him to his feet.“Epps, let’s go!”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

QATAR- THE MIDDLE EASTTHE NEXT DAY One tank is all that's left after the attack. One tank and a handful of men.Hazel sits with the others in the shade of the tank taking stock of her kit and listening to Epps talk as he looks at the binocs recording from the night before.“I've never seen a weapons system like this. The thermal shows this weird aura around the exoskeleton like it's cloaked by some kind of invisible force field.”Lennox takes the binocs from his hands and peers inside while Donnelly pipes up. “That's impossible. There's no such thing as invisible force fields, except in like- comic book stuff, right?”Fig pipes up from his seat above her, playing with his tags as he looks out across the desert, “Man, I dunno. My mama, she had the gift you know? She saw things. I got the gene, too, you know, and the thing that attacked us? I got a feeling it ain't over.”“How about you use those magic voodoo powers to get us the hell out of here, huh?” Donnelly replies“He’s not entirely wrong.” Hazel defends, packing the last of her kit away, “Instincts are a powerful thing… I don't think this thing is over yet either.”She can see Donnelly roll his eyes before turning back around, “instincts shminstincs.” She throws a pebble at the back of his head in response.“When I took that picture, I think it saw me. It looked right at me.” Epps repliedHazel stands up, throwing her kit over her shoulders and leans against the tank next to Fig, “Like with the cameras? If that thing wasn't fully automated, someone might have been.”Epps shrugs in response, but his eyes are glazed over as he looks out across the dunes, understandably shaken up.Lennox shakes his head and holds up the binocs, “All right, well we got to get this thing back to the pentagon right away. They got to know what we’re dealing with here.”Epps shakes his head in response, “My radio is fried. I got no communication with aerial.”“Hey, Mahfouz. You know how far you live from here?” Lennox asks the boy“Not far.” He responds pointing to a mountain in the distance, “Just up that mountain.”“Do they have a phone?”“Yes.”“Alright, let's hit it.”The squad moves out, and as the sun nearly reaches the middle of the sky. They still had not made it to the mountain. They take turns inside the tank, dealing with the heat inside then riding the sides of the tank, dealing with the heat outside.“Kid, I thought you said the village wasn’t far?” Fig asks the kid, wiping his face with his shirt“It is not. Only a few hours longer.” Mahfouz responds with a tone of confusion in his voice.“I think we were hoping we would have made it a few hours ago.” Hazel drops her head back to look at the kid on top of the tank, “You walk this everyday?”“No, sometimes there is a car.” the kid shrugsThey keep moving towards the village, meeting the base of the mountain when the sun begins to move away from its peak. They leave the tank at the bottom of the mountain and begin their walk up. The sun practically broils their heads, so much that Hazel could feel it hitting her scalp through her hair.“Fuck.” Hazel says digging through her kit, suddenly reminded, “Captain, I can’t go up any further. I don’t have a cover.”“What?” Lennox asks, looking back at her with a confused expression on his face.“I took my scarf out of my kit to repack it, I left it in the med tent. They might not let me enter the village.” She says.A look of oh shit appears over her captain’s face halfway through her explanation. He looks around for a second before reaching up and unfurling the scarf from around his neck and passing it over to her. She accepts it with a quick thanks, and wraps it around her head- being sure that her hair isn’t too noticeable without pins to hold it down.The eight rangers and Mahfouz reached the top not too soon after, and from there it was a sand filled walk to the telephone poles. Epps looks worse for wear, stumbling through the sand and slowing down. She makes a mental note to check him out for heat exhaustion later.“Let's hope this telephone line works.” Lennox mumbles, walking closer to the pole.She and Epps step away as he stops at a well, using one of the pots to cool his face down with the water inside. She presses the back of her hand to his exposed shoulder, he's running too warm.“I’m hooking you up to an IV as soon as I’m able.” She says, scooping more of the water into the pot and dumping it over his head and down the back of his neck to add some relief, “And get you a hat.”“Sounds like a plan, doc.” Epps replies with a sigh as he takes the ladle from her and runs more water over his head.There's a large crack next to them, Hazel flinches back and watches the large sign that was once standing sturdy fall with a loud clang. Epps grabs her arm and pulls her along with him closer to the rest of their squad.“What the heck was that?” Donnelly asks Fig, with no real urgency in his tone.“ What the hell do you mean, what was that? ” Fig asks, gesturing to the sign, “ That tower fell over and almost killed me! If that thing came any closer it would have broken my ass.”“English, dude. English.”The area was silent for a long while as the soldiers looked around for whatever could have caused the sign to fall. There's a sharp scrape of metal from somewhere behind Hazel, but she turns around at Epps’s scream. She raises her gun like the rest of the squad and begins firing at the metal weapon protruding from the ground- hoping to break it.The thing buries itself into the sand after a few seconds. The gunfire quiets as they look around the surrounding area, waiting until the thing strikes again or until the Captain calls clear. Hazel backs up, sweeping her gun in an arc behind her, keeping an eye on Epps’s six as well.There's a thump of sand and the scrape of metal. Hazel raises her gun and watches as the sand falls behind Donnelly and the weapon leaps out from the sand. She watches in horror as the beast uses its tail to stab Donnelly in the chest and then proceeds to try to get him off by thrashing his body around.“Retreat!” Lennox calls.Hazel doesn’t waste any time, mentally whispering an apology to Donnelly as she sprints away from the beast. They run into the village, some of the villagers run out of their homes with guns and begin covering their retreat. They move farther into the village and Lennox starts shouting orders.“Fig! Cover the rear, cover the rear, move it!” He shouts, pulling Mahfouz farther into the village.Hazel takes cover close to the village, using some of the broken walls to hide behind as she reloads her mag.She can hear Lennox call from behind her, “Where is your papa? Where is your papa?”“Papa!” She hears Mahfouz shout before his voice is covered by the next round of gunfire.She pokes her head out and begins firing at the beast. It returns the squad’s volley with missiles firing off of its tail. She hears someone screaming to get down and she takes cover behind the wall again.“Hey, I need a mag! Give me a Mag!” Fig calls from in front of her.Hazel grabs one of her last mags from her vest, ”Fig. Catch!” and chucks it over to her squad-mate.She watches him catch it and quickly reload before firing again. She begins firing again and not even a minute later she can hear the captain's frustration as he runs behind her.“I need a credit card! Epps, I need a credit card. Epps! Where is your wallet!”“Pocket!” Epps replies unhelpfully.“Which pocket!”“My back pocket!” He shouts unhelpfully again.Lennox pats a few times around Epp’s legs, “You’ve got ten back pockets!”“Left cheek! Left cheek! Left cheek!” He shouts over gunfire.Hazel keeps firing, moving away from her line of cover as a missile comes right towards her. She ends up on the other side of Lennox covering Epps as he makes the phone call to the pentagon.“I ain’t ever seen this in my life! Need gunships on station ASAP!” He shouts into the phone over Hazel’s covering fireShe gets behind the wall again as she loads her last mag into her rifle, bringing it back up and firing at the beast a few more times.“Unknown, man. I don’t- oh, man, if you seen this shit… Clank! any idea what this fucking thing is?”“If I knew, killing it would be a lot easier!” She shouts back, “It's looks like a scorpion? Man, I don’t fucking know!”“Hey! Make way!” Fig shouts from behind them, Hazel takes cover and watches as Fig slides into the wall next to her taking a few moments to catch his breath.“You good?” She shouts at him, receiving a terse yes in confirmation before he moves away.She continues firing, hearing the click as her weapon empties, “Epps! I need a mag, do you have a mag?”He rips one from his vest and pops it over to her. She reloads, watching him pull a smoke canister from his pouch and lob it over the wall, “Eight man team north of orange smoke!”Hazel fires a few more times listening as Epps calls out attack directions, “Attack direction west! You’re clear and hot!”“Lennox, the heat's coming!” Epps shoutsLennox runs over to his side, “Laze the target! We’ve got a beam rider incoming! Laze target!”Hazel clicks the laser on her scope, the green dot projecting itself onto the beast. It fires three more missiles and they hit a wall somewhere behind her.“Ready! Heat’s coming!” Lennox calls as the predators come into view from the distance“What! Bring it!” Epps screams in preemptive victory.The Warthogs fire off rounds at the creature, kicking up sand into the air, followed by four missiles that hit the target directly. The gunfire pauses as the squad looks in the target's direction, waiting for the smoke to clear. When the wind blows it enough, they can see the creature's feet struggle up in the air as it tries to flip itself back over.“There's no way that thing’s still not down.” Epps says in shock and a bit of disappointment, “Spooky three two, use 105 shells. Bring the rain.”The planes begin launching the heavy shells and it strikes the beast five times. The sand is once again kicked up into the air, and when it clears, only its tail is left twitching in the sand. A small squad of three men form up, they carefully make their way through the smoke and dirt before turning around.“Fig? Fig!” She hears Lennox shout.She turns around and sprints through the rubble where she saw her Captain sprint only moments before. It's only when she rounds the corner of the building that she can hear Fig’s pained groans.“Someone get a medic!” She hears Lennox shout, “Witwicky! Where is Witwicky!”“I’m right here!” She calls, sliding down next to him and snapping on a pair of gloves and pressing her fingers against Fig’s throat.She watches the blood leak from in between Lennox’s fingers from where he has them pressed tightly against Fig’s abdomen and immediately rummaging through her kit for the hemostatic agent she packed in a day earlier.“Cap, move your hands.” She orders moving where Lennox once was and tears open the package“I’m sorry.” She hears Fig whisperLennox takes a hold of his hand, “Clank has got you, just hold on.”She begins to pour the agent into the wound, then pulls out a dozen gauze pads and a second pair of gloves, she passes them to one of the soldiers she never got the name of, “Put these on and pass me the gauze. Epps, Patient category: Urgent.”The soldier does as asked and Epps steps away to relay her orders to med evac. Hazel packs the gauze into the wound, applying deep pressure only moving to add more gauze.“I’m sorry.” She hears Fig whimper out againShe looks at Fig’s eyes, they’re glazed over, “Hey, none of that shit. You’re going to be fine.”“I’m sorry.” He whimpers again, trying to close his eyes.“Fig, you have to stay awake. Cap, keep his eyes open.”She can hear footfalls behind her as a group of two men slide in next to her with a stretcher. They begin unbuckling the straps and they slide the backboard underneath him without jostling her hands.“What have we got?” She hears one of them ask“Twenty seven year old male, gunshot wound to the lower abdomen.” She replies, standing up but keeping pressure on the wound as they move Fig onto the stretcher. The soldier directed her to straddle Fig on the stretcher to keep pressure, “Application of hemostatic agent and fourteen pieces of gauze. Pulse thready but present.”They strap down Fig’s chest and legs to keep him steady. She braces herself as the squad, along with the two other men, pick up the stretcher and carry it over to the heli. They’re loaded on, then Donnelly is loaded next to them- covered in a white sheet, before the rest of the squad climbs aboard.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

SOMEWHERE OVER THE ATLANTIC
 
Hazel writes down Fig’s vitals for the last thirty minutes then drops the clipboard on the hook at the end of his bed.

She walks out and closes the curtain behind her before joining the rest of the squad crowded around the table holding the scorpion’s tail. She cringes at the sight of the blood covered point before she turns her attention onto Private Roy as he speaks up.

“It's like a self regenerating molecular armor.” He says in awe

Lennox picks at something with a pair of tweezers, “Look at the scorch mark where the sabot round hit. Melted right through. “ He turns to Epps, “Hey, aren’t sabot rounds hot-loaded for like, a six thousand degree magnesium burn?”

“Close to it.” He responds, “It melts tank armor.”

“So this metal skin must react to extreme heat.”

“It didn’t react to anything else. I know we got shots off on this thing, I can’t even see a scrape where they hit.” Hazel says, taking a look at some of the plates.

There's a sharp whirring and the tail raises up into striking position. The squad collectively jumps back with a series of expletives. It launches the spiked portion of its tail out and it hits the table beneath it before retracting and lowering back down.

“I thought you said that thing was dead, man!” Epps shouts

“Strap it down! Strap-” Lennox takes a breath as about six men move from their positions to hold the thing down, “This thing is wicked. Alright, get on the horn with Northern Command. Tell them that our effective weapon is high-heat sabot rounds. Recommend we load them on all the gunships. Go.”

Lennox walks over to her to where she had moved to the side out of the way. He collapses against the wall next to her and slides down so he’s sitting against it. Hazel releases a gentle sigh and walks over to the other wall where she had left her kit. She walks back and sits in front of Will.

“You gonna let me look you over now?” She asks, “You’re the only one left.”

“I want to sleep, Clank.”

“You can sleep while I look you over. Give me your face.” She says pulling on a pair of gloves and a baby wipe from its package.

Will sighs and allows her to maneuver his head with her hand as she wipes the grit from his face. It practically changes a different color as the dirt and sweat is removed from his skin. She ends up using four wipes to clear off all the dirt and by the time she gets to the cuts on his face his head is practically lax in her hand. She gently prods at the cuts and runs a bit of antibiotic cream over the scabs, hoping to prevent an infection.

“Is there anything that's covered that you need me to look over?”

“No.”

“Are you telling me that so you can sleep or because you’re genuinely not hurt anywhere else?”

Will sighs and pulls up his shirt revealing a large bruise on his ribs, “Just this.”

“That looks horrible, Will.” She says, gently prodding the bruise to ensure nothing is broken or bleeding out.

Once she's satisfied she pulls a cold compress out of her bag, cracks it so it starts to freeze, then presses it against the bruise, “How’s that?”

“Feels good.” He groans, taking hold of the pack and leaning his head back against the wall.

Hazel pulls another baby wipe from the pack and picks up the hand that isn't holding the pack, cleaning off the blood that's covered the skin. She scrubs gently until the wipe turns pink, then she pulls out another and scrubs until the hand is clean. She guides him to hold onto the pack with that hand while she takes the other and repeats the process.

“How are you so calm right now?” He asks

She looks up, he's looking down at her with tired eyes. She looks back down and runs the wipe over his hand again, “I’m not. I’m just better at hiding it.”

“Are

you

hurt anywhere?” He asks quietly.

“A couple bruises and cuts.” She replies, “McKittrick already checked me over. I’ll be okay.”

She replaces the wipe again and finishes off clearing his hand. She gives it a gentle squeeze and lets go to pull off her gloves. Once they're off and in the little discard pile she's made, Will picks her hand back up and gives it a squeeze too.

“It’s okay if you’re not.” He says

“Neither of us are going to be okay for a while, Will.” She says, moving so she's sitting next to him on the wall.

She leans her head back against the wall and closes her eyes. She can feel Will move so he’s laying on her lap. She raises her head and looks at him with an inquisitive eye.

“Is this okay?” He asks, sitting back up a little

“Yeah. It's okay.” She says, leaning her head back and closing her eyes.
 
NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE

The plane touched down after the eighteen hour flight from Qatar to Nellis base. Fig was quickly wheeled off to the hospital and hopefully soon to be in recovery. Donnelly’s coffin was carried off to another plane to be brought back to his family. And after giving their squad member his salute goodbye; Epps, Lennox, and Hazel began their walk to the other side of the base so they could finally go to their respective homes.

Hazel walked on her Captain’s left, keeping an eye on both him and Epps- just in case. The squeal of tires on the asphalt behind her startles her, she spins around to watch the door open on one of three black cars with their blue and red lights on.

A man in a black suit and blue shirt hops out of the back of the car, “Captain Lennox, we need you and your team to come with us right now! Let's go!” He grabs Lennox’s duffle from his hand and sprints back to the car.

Lennox looks at Hazel and Epps in question, they both shrug their shoulders before jogging after the man. They’re sat in the backseat of the van, Hazel squished between her two squad-mates with two men in black suits sitting in the seats in front of them. She looks out the window as the car begins to pull away and she watches as the three other men from their squad that weren’t injured climb into the second car before it pulls off behind them.

“What’s going on?” Lennox demands as they exit the gates of the base and drive southwest.

“There is an invasion, Captain Lennox.” The man replies, “Your team came into contact with one of the hostiles- therefore you’re our experts on the subjects.”

“Hold on a fucking second.” Hazel says, “What invasion? What country made that thing?”

“Not a country, Ma’am.” The officer says cryptically, “That thing was an alien species.”

“Oh. You’re fucking with us.” Epps laughs, “Get a load of this guy, huh?”

The silence that follows afterwards is the confirmation they need that the man was in fact not fucking with them. The team sits in that silence for a while as they process the information given to them.

After about twenty minutes the man speaks up, “Defense secretary John Keller will be meeting with you all at the Hoover Dam.” He passes back three file folders to Hazel, who distributes them to the men besides her.

“The Hoover Dam?” Lennox mutters in confusion opening the file.

They spend the rest of their time in the van reading over the information given to them. They arrive at the dam before Keller and they’re taken to a nearby rest stop to shower and change into new sets of fatigues.

She’s grateful to be rid of the dirt that clung to her skin even with the several passes of the wipes. She gets dressed into her uniform pants and shirt, holding off on her cover while she painstakingly re-gels her hair back into its bun. Finally she pulls on the jacket and Velcro's her patches in place and places her medic pin into its correct place.

When she gets out of the bathroom the rest of the squad is waiting for her. She falls into place beside Epps and Lennox as they make their way back to the cars and secures the black beret over her head. They drive back up to the dam and are escorted to the door where they’re told to stand to the side to wait for Sec Def. Keller.

“Team attention! Present arms!” Lennox calls out.

With no weapons or flags to present, the squad snaps their arms up in salute. Sec Def. Keller walks past the first few men and stops in front of Lennox, who has Hazel and Epps at his left.

“At ease!” the man calls and the team drops their hand to stand at parade rest, “Captain, Sergeants. Got your intel. Excellent work.”

“Thank you sir.” Lennox replies, “What about the gunships?”

“They’re being retrofitted with sabot rounds now. If they hit us again we’ll be ready for them. But, uh, it won't do us much good if we can't get world communication back up.”

“Where’s my car?” Hazel catches the voice over the roar of the dam.

Sec Def. turns around to talk to his people, leaving them at parade rest. She risks a peek out of the corner of her eye towards the sound of the voice. Nearby the three parked cars are four more people: A man in a suit, a man in some kind of uniform, a teenage girl with brown hair and a ripped jacket, and when one of the men shifts to the side she can just faintly make out a familiar head of curly brown hair and green eyes. Sam is in a torn jacket, his face is dirty, and his eyebrows are scrunched up in frustration as he gestures wildly to the man in front of him.

She feels her eyes widen and she whispers just over the roar of the dam, “Epps, please tell me that's not Sam in military custody.”

She can see Epps’s eyebrows furrow out of the corner of her eye as he also takes a glance over, “What the fuck? What did he do?”

There's a moment of quiet before Epps speaks up again, “Cap, ten o’clock.”

“Shit.” She hears the man say.

“Captain.” She pleads quietly.

Sec Def turns back around to face them, and they quickly snap back into place, “Is something wrong, soldiers?”

When they don't respond fast enough the man speaks up again, “Speak freely. What is wrong?”

Hazel takes a step forward and stands at attention, “My brother is over there with those two men. He’s a minor, I’m concerned about his being here, sir.”

Sec Def looks over to the side where the two men are still speaking with Sam and the girl. He nods his head in understanding before waving her off, “Go ahead and see him. It’s going to be a minute before we head in anyways.”

“Thank you, Sir.” Hazel salutes and begins her walk over to the small group.

“We’ll talk about your car.” The man in front of Sam says.

“Not without an adult.” Hazel interjects walking up behind him, “Why the fuck is he here?”

The man steps to the side, seemingly ready to scold but Sam pushes past him and all but throws himself at her. Just like when he was little Sam wraps his arms around her as tight as he can, readjusting a few times to get a better grip on her. Hazel wraps her arms around him just as tight, cradling his head against her shoulder as she rocks them back and forth.

“You’re okay. It’s okay.” She says, loosening her grip and pulling him off her so she could look him over.

She moves his head back and forth, a frown growing when she spots a cut near his hairline. She pushes his sleeves up on his jacket and smothers a wince at the large bruises curing up his left arm.

“Are you hurt anywhere else? What the hell happened?” She asks prodding his ribs making sure there was no damage.

Sam shakes his head and pushes Hazel’s hands off of his side. He presses his head back into her shoulder and wraps his arms around her again. Instead of pushing him away again she wraps her arms back around him.

“Okay, okay. You’re okay Sam.” She whispers, rocking them again.

She can feel her brother’s head shift so he could speak, “You didn’t get on for the call. We heard about the base and we thought you were dead but they didn’t give us notice.”

“Oh. Oh no, Sammy. I’m okay.” She says, “A lot of shit went down, I hadn’t gotten the chance to let you guys know I was okay. I’m so sorry.”

“I’m glad you’re okay.” He says before pulling away, using his sleeves to wipe away his eyes, “Uh. Mikaela, this is my sister, Hazel. Hazel, this is Mikaela.”

Hazel sticks her hand out for the girl to shake, “It's nice to meet you Mikaela. Are you okay?”

She shakes her hand, “I’m okay. Thank you.”

“Good. Now do either of you want to tell me why you’re in military custody?”

“That will be answered soon, Miss Witwicky.” The man in the uniform says holding out a hand, “Agent Seymour Simmons.”

She turns her head over to him with an unimpressed look, “It's Sergeant Witwicky, Agent Simmons.”

“Right.” The man in the suit interrupts, “Well if you will follow us this way, we’ll start to get everyone caught up.”

Hazel nods and turns around to face the kids, “You two stay near me the entire time, you understand?”

“Yeah, okay.”

“Yes ma’am.”

The group consisting of; Hazel’s squad, Sec Def and his people, the kids, a woman named Maggie and a man named Glenn, and finally Agent Simmons and Dr. Banachek (the man in the suit), are lead down the belly of the dam and onto a concrete platform next to the river.

“All right,” Simmons speaks up as he leads them towards a set of metal doors, “here’s the situation. You’ve all had direct contact with the NBEs.”

“NBEs?” Epps asks from next to him

“Non-biological extraterrestrials. Try and keep up with the acronyms.”

He leads them through the doors and through a brick tunnel into a lab, “What you’re about to see is totally classified.”

At the end of the room surrounded by white lights and large robotic arms is a giant frozen robot. It stands bipedal on top of a platform, arms at its sides and something like a permanent scowl etched on his face. White smoke drifts from the ceiling above it, adding to the frost that coats the metal like extra armor. Hazel steps in front of the kids, trying to obscure them from its view but she can feel them peek out from behind her anyways.

“Dear god. What is this?” Sec Def. asks in shock as they fall into the lab behind him.

“We think he made his approach over the north pole, our gravitational field screwed up his telemetry.” Banachek says, leading them farther into the room, “He crashed in the ice, probably a few thousand years ago. We shipped him here to this facility in 1934.”

“We call him NBE-One.” Simmons finishes

Sam pushes past Hazel, despite her protests and speaks up, “Well, sir, I don't mean to correct you on everything you think you know, but- I mean, that's Megatron. He’s the leader of the Decepticons.”

“Decepticons?” Hazel murmurs in confusion, she sees Mikaela nod out of the corner of her eye.

“He’s been in cryostasis since 1935. Your great-great-grandfather made one of the greatest discoveries in the history of mankind.” Banachek says, looking at Sam and Hazel.

“Fact is, you're looking at the source of the modern age. The microchip, lasers, spaceflight, cars, all reverse engineered by studying him. NBE-One. That's what we call it.” Simmons says getting in Sam’s face as if trying to push the name into his head.

Hazel steps forward followed by Lennox and Epps, pushing the man away from her brother, “Back away from the boy.”

Simmons gives her a glare, but backs away a little, turning back to look at Megatron. Sec Def steps forward this time walking over to Banachek, his face flushing red.

“You didn’t think the United States military might need to know that you’re keeping a hostile alien robot frozen in the basement?”

“Until these events, we had no credible threat to national security.” Banachek replies tersely

“Well you got one now!” Sec Def replies incredulously before walking away from the doc.

“So why Earth?” Lennox asks from beside her

“It's the Allspark.” Sam pipes up again

Sec Def. turns to him, “Allspark? What is that?”

“Well, yeah, they came looking for some sort of cube looking thing. Anyway, mister NBE-One here, a.k.a Megatron, that's what they call him,” He says looking at Simmons pointedly, “whose pretty much the harbinger of death, wants to use the cube to transform human technology to take over the universe. That's their plan.”

Hazel looks at her brother in concern. He looks confident in his answer, like he knew for certain that that's what the Robot was there for. Her thoughts are confirmed when Simmons speaks up.

“And you’re sure about that?”

“Yeah…” Sam searches the man’s face, Hazel turns to look at the man as well. His face looks ashy like the color had been drained from it. “You guy’s know where it is, don’t you?”

“Follow me.” Banachek replies.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“You’re about to see our crown jewel.”

They’re brought into a white tiled room lit yellow from the old bulbs in the ceiling. The wall opposite of the door was entirely glass overlooking another lab. In the center of the lab is a giant cube surrounded by stories of scaffolding.

“Carbon dating puts the cube here around ten thousand BC. The first seven didn’t find it until 1913. They knew it was alien because of the matching hieroglyphics on the cube as well as NBE-One.” Banachek says from behind them, “President Hoover had the dam built around it. Four football fields thick of concrete. A perfect way to hide its energy from being detected by anyone or any alien species on the outside.”

“Wait, back up. You said the dam hides the cubes energy. What kind exactly?” Maggie asks

“Good question.” Banachek says, stepping back and gesturing for them to follow him.

They walk into an adjoining room. The walls are metal tinted green-yellow from the light. On the left wall near the door there are scratch marks cut into the metal. The center of the room has a glass box glowing blue with cables attached to it.

“Please step inside, they have to lock us in.”

“Oh, wow.” Hazel can hear Glen whisper in front of her as she moves to the opposite side of the box

“What’s that? Freddy Krueger done been up in here or something?” Epps ask

“Oh, no, man. Freddy Krueger have four blades, man. That's only three. That's Wolverine!” Glen replies laughing, miming wolverine's claws and growling, “Right? That's Wolverine.”

“That's very funny.” Simmons deadpans, “Anybody have any mechanical devices? Blackberry? Key alarm? Cell phone?”

“I've got a cell phone.” Glen responds, tossing the phone over to Simmons.

He catches it and opens a small door on the side of the box, opening the phone and placing it inside. Technicians on the side pass the group mirrored goggles to put on as Simmons situates the phone underneath the lazer. Looking in, Hazel can see the claw marks over the frame of the door and across the floor. Once its set, she pulls the goggles over her eyes

“We’re able to take the cube radiation… and funnel it into the box.” Simmons says flipping a few levers on the side of the wall.

With a flash of light and a strange whirring noise the phone seemingly origamis itself into a little robot on four legs. It throws itself at the glass of the box and the side cracks with the impact.

“Mean little sucker, huh?” Simmons says walking behind them, “Kind of like the itty bitty energizer bunny from hell, huh?”

The little robot clicks and a tiny gun appears from its shoulder. Little bullets bounce off the glass leaving more tiny cracks in its wake. When that doesn't get the desired result the robot clicks again and a small rocket launcher appears from its shoulder in place of the gun. The launcher hits the glass with a small bang but it doesn’t do much more than scratch it. It follows this routine for a moment of firing a rocket, then firing its gun, then throwing itself at the glass.

“Damn, it's breaking the box.” Simmons presses a button and with another flash of light the robot is upside down, no longer moving.

A second later there's a bang and the lights in the room flicker, SecDef turns to face Simmons and Banachek ,”Gentlemen, they know the cube is here.”

Slapping a button on the phone the doc practically shouts into it, “Banachek. What's going on?”

“The NBE-One hangar has lost power-” “What!” “and the back up generator is just not gonna cut it.”

Will pushes his way forward and slams his hands down on the table in front of Banachek, “Do you have an arms room?”

In a not so orderly fashion, the group is herded through the door and down a long white hallway. The lights begin to fizzle out as they run into the arms room, “They're popping our generators!” Banachek shouts and explanation back to them

They swing around the doors and into the large hanger type room lit with hanging LED lights. Some of the men in the room have already started loading cars with sabot rounds. Hazel leaves Sam and Mikayla with Banachek, Maggie, and Glen; following behind her squad to start gearing up.

“Forty millimeter sabot rounds on that table!” Simmons shouts pointing to a table at the center of the room.

Hazel grabs a gun from one of the sector seven guys, then passes in front of the small group to grab her kit, which had been placed down on one of the tables on the right side of the room for her. The lights begin to flicker and all movement in the arms room stops.

The second of silence ends as Sam begins marching up to Simmons, only to be stopped by Hazel who quickly moves in to intercept him, “Sam, go back to the line with Maggie and Glen.”

“No, I need my car.” he says trying to shake her off

“We can get you a new car!” Hazel says, “It’s not the priority right now.”

Sam finally yanks his arm from her grip, “It's not just a car! Bumblebee is one of them!”

“What do you mean, one of them?” Hazel whispers out, “One of the robots? Like NBE-One? You called it Megatron?”

“Yes…” Sam says, “No, not like Megatron, but like him. They’re aliens, from the same planet. But, Bumblebee is a good guy, Hazel. He’s an Autobot, one of the good ones. They’re hurting him.”

Hazel takes a second to process, and while she doesn’t like the idea of Sam confronting the S7 commander, she steps aside. With a small smile of thanks Sam continues his march over to Simmons.

“You got to take me to my car.” Sam says loudly, “You have to take me to my car. He’s gonna know what to do with the cube.”

Hazel watches the interaction with a close eye as she grabs her kit and starts stuffing her vest full of extra mags. She then moves over to Will’s side, helping him to secure a pouch to the back of his vest.

“Your car? It’s confiscated.” Simmons says shaking his head no.

“Then un-confiscate it.”

“We do not know what will happen if we let it near this thing!”

“You don't know-”

“Maybe you know but I don’t know!”

“What is happening over there?” Will whispers watching the interaction now

“Sam’s car is one of those things, apparently one of the good ones… I think he thinks it can help beat NBE-One’s crew.”

“You want to just sit here and wait and see what happens?” Sam shouts

“I think anything would help at this point.” Will says, moving around her towards Simmons.

“I have people’s lives at stake here, young man!” Simmons shouts in Sam’s face.

She can see Will’s posture change in a split second, this wasn’t going to end up as a peaceful resolution.

Will grabs Simmon’s vest and slams him against the car behind them. “Take him to the car!”

The man to the left of Will raises his gun and Will raises his pistol in response, “Drop it.”

Private Roman comes up behind the sector seven guy and raises his gun at the man's back, providing support. Almost immediately the room breaks out. Corporal Burke smacks two sector seven guys in the head with his grenade launcher, pointing his pistol at one and the launcher at the other to ensure they didn’t get back up. Epps elbows his guy in the face and raises his gun as he falls. Private Meyer on top of one of the cars kicks his guys back, pinning him in place between the rail and his gun's muzzle. Hazel kick’s out her guy’s knees and holds her gun at the man’s head once he’s fully kneeling.

Even with their hostages taken, Hazel can feel the eyes on her back and the guns pointed at her chest. She looks around critically at them, ensuring no one is coming close or getting a little trigger happy.

“Woah, woah!” Banacheck says, raising his hands in the air stepping a little closer

“Drop your weapon, soldier.” Simmon’s says, raising a placating hand in the sector seven guy’s direction, “There’s an alien war going on and you’re going to shoot me?”

“We didn’t ask to be here.” Will replies

“I’m ordering you under S7 executive jurisdiction.” Simmons tries

Epps turns slightly; his weapon still trained on his hostage, “S7 don’t exist.”

“And we don’t take orders from people who don’t exist. Hmm.” Will agrees, turning his head fully to face Simmons.

“I’m gonna count to five-”

“Well I’m going to count to three.” Will says, turning his pistol from the S7 soldier to Simmon’s chest.

Hazel can feel the more eyes from the S7 soldiers on her back. Muzzles of guns turn on her head instead of her chest.

“Simmons?” She can hear SecDef Keller speak up from his position in the room

“Yes, sir?”

“I’d do what he says. Losing is really not an option for these guys.”

“All right. Okay. Hey, you want to lay the fate of the world on the kid’s Camaro? That’s cool.”

Will shoves himself away from Simmons, walking back to the tables to make sure they’re all geared up.

Hazel puts the safety back on, and reaches out a hand to help her guy back up. “Sorry about that, you good?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” The man replies grabbing ahold of her hand and pulling himself up. “You’ve got a hell of a kick.”

“Comes with the job. You sure you’re good?”

“Clank! Let's move out!” Lennox shouts over to her as the rest of the squad makes their way over to him.

“Comin Cap!” She shouts back, hooking her kit over her shoulder and begins to walk backwards, “Nice to meet you man, good luck.”

“You too… Clank?” the man says following her forwards as she takes a few steps back.

“Witwicky.” She replies, shaking the hand the man offers

“Cooke. Harry Cooke.”

“Witwicky, let's go!” Lennox shouts again

Hazel turns around and jogs over to the rest of the squad. They’ve stood towards the entrance, waiting for the S7 guys and the civilians who look like they’re getting a short briefing from SecDef. When she finally approaches them she can see a look of concern plastered on their faces.  It's almost natural, out in the field, for her squad to circle her. The threat of her being picked off because she was recognized as a medic was a high concern whenever they went out. However, this circling was less to protect her and more to hide her from view.

“Was that guy bothering you, Clankie?” Burke asks, crossing his arms.

“No?” She replies with her eyebrows furrowed, “He was just introducing himself.”

She can see her squad relax then tense back up as Banachek walks over to them.

“We don’t know how NBE-Two is going to react once we get the guys to stop hosing it down with the liquid nitrogen.” Banachek says

“Bumbleebee.” Hazel says, pushing her way forward

“Excuse me?” Banachek asks as if she had just said something completely ludicrous

“His name is Bumblebee.” She replies, “If he's gonna help us save the world we may as well call him by his name.”

“Bumblebee, then.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Even before they entered the hallway, Hazel could hear the mechanical screaming of Bumblebee like nails on a chalkboard. As they turn down the hall and begin the walk down, Hazel grabs Sam’s arm and slows him down to speed walk next to her, “If Bumblebee freaks out don’t do anything stupid. Do you understand?”

“Define stupid?” Sam asks cheekily.

“You’re a straight A student, Sam. You know what stupid means.”

“Alright, I understand. It’ll be fine, Hazel. Bee will keep me safe.”

They near the door and Sam pulls away, working his way up to the front of the group and pushing open the doors behind Banachek. They both enter with their hands in the air. Lennox leads them to press against the wall with their weapons raised in case Bumblebee freaks out.

“No, no! You gotta stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!” Sam shouts

“No, no, stop, stop, stop!” Banachek shouts to the crew

“Let him go! Let him go!”

The crew shuts off the cold guns at Banachek’s insistence. Bumblebee lets out something of a whimper as he pushes himself to sit up and whirs as he looks over to Sam.

“You okay?” Sam with his head craned fully up to look the bot in the face.

Bee whirs something in confirmation before he seemingly registers the people surrounding them. Two plates slide down to cover his face and as he rolls over his arm shifts until some kind of laser cannon appears. He sweeps it over the room, looking at everyone in a way that says ‘back off!’

In an attempt to get him to focus on something else Sam speaks up again, “Listen to me. The Cube is here and the Decepticons are coming.”

Bumblebee pushes himself up into a sitting position and jabs the gun out towards Hazel and her squad. They step back as Sam runs interference.

“No, No, don’t worry about them. They’re okay. Right? They’re not gonna hurt you.”

Bumblebee stands up and takes a step back with the cannon still pointed out at them.

“Just back up a little bit. He’s friendly, he's fine.” The S7 guys do as Sam tells them, but Bumblebee still has his guns up. “Okay, come on. Put the guns down. They’re not gonna hurt you.”

Sam looks back at the group and makes eye contact with Hazel as Bee lets out another whir, “Hazel? Come on.” He waves her over.

Hazel glances over at Lennox who still has his gun up but shrugs in response. She glances back at Sam who is looking at her pleadingly. Making her decision she lowers her gun and hands it to Burke who takes it with a shocked look. She walks forward, weaving through the crowd until she stands next to Sam, looking up at the bot.

“Bee, you remember my sister? Hazel? I told you about her.” Sam asks gesturing towards her

The bot whirs a high note and nods his head in confirmation.

“Hi Bumblebee,” Hazel starts, “I hear you’ve been keeping Sam safe. Thank you, I owe you one.”

Bee whirs again, as if dismissing her but his gun is still up and trained on the people behind them.

“No, I really do. And I’m gonna use it to make sure no one here does anything more to you.”

Bee whirs again and lowers the gun. The plates over his face lift up and his arm shifts again until it looks like his other hand.

Sam takes another step forwards, “Here, come with me. I’m going to take you to the Allspark.”

The group leaves the room and runs to the Allspark hanger a few hallways over. Some of them being a cramped fit for the yellow bot. When they enter the room the technicians stay clear of them and allow Bee to get close. Hazel stays next to Sam and Mikaela as they walk Bee up to the Allspark.

The bot warbles in awe and places his hands on the corner of the cube. With a few comments and remarks, the rest of the group watches in awe as the Cube seems to fold in on itself, shrinking smaller and smaller until it fits within Bumblebee's hands. With the cube now within carrying shape Bumblebee turns to the rest of them.

“Message from Starfleet, Captain. Let's get to it.” The bot says through a recording

“He’s right.” Lennox speaks up, “If we start here, we’re screwed with Megatron in the other hangar. Mission city is twenty two miles away. We’re gonna sneak that Cube out of here and we’re gonna hide it somewhere in the city.”

“Good! Right!” Sec Def. Keller agrees with a strange amount of enthusiasm

“But we cannot make a stand without the air force.” Lennox finishes

Keller turns to Simmons, “This place must have some kind of radio link!”

“Yes!”

“Shortwave CB!”

“Right! Yes!”

“Sir, you’ve got to find some way to get word out to them. Let's move!” Lennox says, beginning to grab his gear again

“Alright listen. I hate this but I don’t have much of a choice here.” Hazel turns to the two kids and holds both of them by the shoulders, “You guys stick with Bumblebee, you listen to him and the other soldiers out there. If you get stuck you run.”

“Okay, Hazel.” Sam breathes out

“Yes Ma’am.” Mikaela replies

She pulls her gun up over her shoulder, getting ready to run and looks up at Bumblebee who had been looking down at him, “Keep them safe please. I owe you another one.”

Bee whirs in confirmation and walks forward to get to a larger area clear of obstacles so he could transform.

Hazel jogs over to her squad, with the kids following as Keller and Simmons start chattering excitedly about an old radio console. S7 guys radio in that the armored cars have started to pull out of the hangars to pick up the group. They begin their run over to them.

As they get closer to Bumblebee in his Camaro form Lennox starts shouting orders, “All right, Sam get in the car! Mister Secretary! Get our birds in the air. When we get to the city, we’re gonna find a radio, and I'll have Epps vector them in. Okay?”

“Affirmative!”

The Camero takes off with the squeal of his tires. And an announcement over the loudspeaker informs them that Megatron is breaking from containment. Lennox leads them down a tunnel, shouting out to the S7 guys, “Set a perimeter around the yellow vehicle!”

They reach the cars, an empty one is set out for the squad. They pile into the car, Burke taking over the mounted gun, Epps in the passenger seat, Lennox in the driver's seat, Hazel smushed between Meyer and Roman in the backseat.

They drive fast down the highway, speed not dipping below ninety miles an hour as they follow Bumblebee towards the city. Halfway to the city they pass a five car convoy led by a blue and red Peterbilt truck. The brakes on the truck hiss as it makes a sharp U-turn, along with the rest of the small convoy, to follow behind their own convoy.

“Are they good guys too?” Hazel shouts from the back

“Bumblebee isn’t speeding up so I assume so!” Lennox shouts back after looking at the speedometer

With a quarter of the way left the convoy of bots takes point and six around the armored cars on the highway. Soon after Hazel looks out the back window to see a few cars in the back acting strangely, and it's soon joined by the sirens of a single cop car and a Buffalo, a minesweeper, which definitely should not be in the states.

“Captain, I think we’ve got hostiles.” Hazel shouts, gaze still on the scene behind her

She can feel the car begin to speed up and the sound of the wind picking up outside of the car. She turns her gaze when she hears the squeal of brakes from the Peterbilt again and the shifting of metal as both the truck and Buffalo transform into bipedal forms. The minesweeper swipes cars out of the way or breaks through them with a few nasty explosions. The Peterbilt, meanwhile, rushes towards the minesweeper, doing his best to avoid the cars in the road.

The Buffalo tackles the Peterbilt with an angry shout of, “Prime!” The Peterbilt loses his footing and they fall off of the overpass onto the highway below with a crash of concrete breaking. They continue driving, the other cars from the convoy blocking the cop car from passing them, yet it makes no move to attack, and instead takes off at the next exit.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

MISSION CITY

PRESENT DAY

They make it the rest of the way to Mission city and they hop out of the cars at the city’s center in front of a RadioShack. Lennox jumps out of the car and runs into the store, running back out a few minutes later with a bunch of radios in his hands.

“Come on, let’s go! Mount up!” Lennox says, following Epps and Hazel as they jump into the car.

“Here, I got shortwave radios.” He says, passing a bulk of them to Epps and one back to Hazel.

“Wait. What am I supposed to do with these?”

“Well use them! That's all we got!” Lennox shouts

As soon as the rest of the squad gets into the car the convoy takes off. Bumblebee moved to the center of the convoy to allow Lennox to take point through the city.

“This is like RadioShack dinosaur radios or something, man. I’m only gonna get 20 or 30 miles out of these things.” He shouts, his voice holding an annoyed tone as he raises the radio to his mouth, “Are there any aircraft orbiting the city?”

There's no answer but soon the sounds of jets flying overhead tear through the convoy, “F-22 at twelve o’clock.”

“All right, I want planes for air cover and get Black Hawks on station to extract that cube. You got it?” Lennox says as they pull to a stop at the center of the city.

The squads climb out of the cars onto the asphalt. They stare up at the F-22 as it makes another pass overhead, “Air Force has arrived! Pop smoke!”

“Raptor, Raptor do you copy?” Epps tries, and when he gots no response he tries again, “We have you visual. Green smoke is the mark. Provide air cover and vector Black Hawks for extraction.”

There's a scrape of metal behind them as the Topkick transforms into its bipedal form, “It’s Starscream!”

Bumblebee transforms and begins running with the Topkick to an empty truck, “Back up! Take cover! Bumblebee!”

Hazel watches as the Rescue Hummer backs up closer to their group while the Topkick and Bumblebee lift the truck up at an angle. Topkick turns his head to look back at them, “Back up! Back up!”

Lennox starts shouting the same, as a missile fires from the F-22, “Retreat! Fall back!”

“Incoming!” The Topkick shouts as the squads make their retreat.

Hazel doesn’t make it very far when she's knocked off her feet and thrown several feet through the air. She’s quick to sit up and assess her own body, and after confirming she's not in shock she starts to stand up.

“Everyone okay?” She hears a voice shout to her left.

“Clear the area!” Another voice shouts.

She looks at the area around her. Rubble covers their cars and ash falls to the ground. Her squad is getting up, she can see small cuts but other than that she doesn’t see any obvious injuries on their persons. She scans the rest of the area and sees Sam and Mikaela climbing to their feet next to Bumblebee.

She sees a few soldiers still on the ground so she calls out, “Who needs a medic! Is anyone hurt?”

“Over here!” She hears a shout to her right.

She turns to where she hears the call and sprints over to the man laying under a large piece of rubble, tagging Burke on the shoulder so he knows to follow her over to the man. She kneels down next to the man who's breathing heavily in pain. She pulls her gloves from her kit quickly and presses her fingers against the man’s jugular.

“Hey, man. I’m Sergeant Witwicky, what’s your name?” She asks the man, noting his high heart rate.

“Private Waller, Ma’am.” The man wheezes out

“Alright Waller, I’m gonna get that thing off of you but we gotta take care of a couple things first.” She explains pulling out the blood pressure cuff and her stethoscope.

She sees him nod and she begins taking his vitals. Determining they were outside the range of crush syndrome she begins to pull out the items she needs. She quickly hooks him up to an IV, making Burke hold it while she continues, and pushes a slight amount of morphine through the line and flushes the line with saline.

She turns to the rubble that's keeping the man’s leg trapped, “Hey Waller, I’m gonna reach under the rubble to feel for a pulse in your leg. I need you to tell me if touching your leg causes the pain to go over a ten alright?”

“Okay.” The man whimpers.

“Clank.” She hears Burke whisper.

She looks up to watch as a tank begins firing at the wall of rubble where the front of their line would be.

“What’s that?” Waller asks, turning his head up to look for the source of the noise.

“It's the bots trying to hit the jet that fired on us.” She lies, “Burke, try to keep this thing steady please.”

Hazel shimmies under the rubble and presses her fingers to the inside of left leg, then his right. His right leg is twisted with no pulse and she can hear Waller scream out in pain as she gently presses down.

She slowly moves back out from under the rubble and sits up on her knees, “Okay Waller, here's the deal.” she shouts over the tank fire, “There's a build up of blood in your leg, I don't have the tools to take care of it. You need a hospital.”

“It's bad. Oh god.”

“Hey, I need you to calm down. You aren’t going to help yourself by panicking.” She tells him, then stands up and leans over to Burke and whispers, “We gotta get him out from under this thing now, and a civilian to drive him to the nearest hospital otherwise he’s gonna lose the leg.”

Burke passes her the bag of saline back and runs off and comes back with a metal pole. He wedges it underneath the sheet of rubble and tries to lever it up but there’s not enough space to pull Waller out. She looks around for someone else to help with the lever but finds most of the S7 guys and her squad pinned down. She stands up and adds her own weight to the lever and it lifts another centimeter but ultimately is too heavy.

Burke and Hazel slowly lower the lever and Burke turns to her, “Clank, what are we gonna do?” He whispers.

She looks around and spots the bipedal Topkick not too far off from their position. He could make it to them, but she doubts he would notice her calling him over with a couple “Hey’s”. She grabs the walkie from her belt and presses the call button.

“Witwicky calling Dagger squad.”

“Go for Epps.”

“What's the name of the Topkick? Over.”

“The Topkick? What do you need the Topkick for?.”

“I've got someone stuck under rubble, Burke and I can't lever him out but I’m thinking Topkick can. .”

“Stand by.”

“Standing by.”

She waits thirty seconds before the radio static picks back up, “Epps calling Witwicky. Over.”

“Go ahead.”

“Sam says Topkick’s name is Ironhide. India, Romeo, Oscar, November, Hotel, India, Delta, Echo. Over.”

“Copy, Witwicky out.”

Hazel skirts around the edge of the rubble so she is within clear view of the Bot who is looking out on the field in concern as the Solstice and Hummer drive out to intercept the tank.

“Ironhide!” She shouts.

The bot continues looking out on the field, she calls again. “Ironhide!”

Snapping out of his trance, the bot looks over at her. The bars above the blue lights, his eyes, dip in confusion or concern- but in the next moment he transforms and drives across the field. Once he gets closer he transforms back into the bipedal mode and stops in front of her.

“Sergeant Witwicky, you called?”

“I’ve got someone stuck under the rubble, my buddy and I can’t get him out. Do you think you can lift it so we can drag him out?”

The bot looks over where Burke kneels next to Waller’s head and nods. The two of them skirt around the rubble to where the lever is and Ironhide grabs ahold of the rubble, waiting for Hazel to give the signal.

“Okay, we’re gonna do this slowly. Waller, are you ready?”

“Yup, yeah. Get me out of here.”

“Ironhide, go when you’re ready.”

“Got it boss.” The bot responds and begins slowly lifting the piece of concrete from off of Waller’s legs.

Hazel and Burke each grab onto Waller’s uniform and drag him out from underneath the rubble and far enough away that Ironhide could put it down without crushing him again. Hazel quickly pulls out a pair of scissors and cuts away at the right leg of Waller’s pants and pulls off his boot, exposing the leg and avoiding the leg from swelling into too tight pants. Once that’s done she grabs the sharpie from her belt and writes down the man’s vitals on his arm as she takes them again. She writes down her diagnosis and how the injury was caused and caps the marker.

She looks up at Ironhide who is looking down at Waller in concern, “Thank you. We appreciate the help, man.”

“No problem. Do you need anything else from me?”

“No. Thank you, we’re gonna get him to a hospital. I can’t treat his injuries here.”

The bot nods and transforms into the topkick again and drives off into the battle as well. Hazel scans the area and spots a civilian sprinting to her car closeby. It’s within cover, and they’d be able to meet her there if they moved now. She turns back to the men and sees that Burke has already picked up Waller, doing the best he can to not jostle the injured leg. They make their way across the field and to the woman who just got into her car and shut the door.

Hazel hurries ahead and knocks on the window before opening the door the woman had just shut. The woman gasps in surprise, and her hands tighten around the steering wheel.

“Listen, I have a buddy over there who needs a hospital. Can you take him to the closest one?”

The woman looks at her dumbstruck before shaking her head no, “No, no I can’t.”

Hazel shakes her shoulder, “Hey! If you don’t take him to the hospital he is going to die. Everything the doctors need to know is written on his arm. I just need you to be the driver. That's it.”

The woman shakes her head but says nothing. Hazel pops open the back seat of the car and shifts everything to the floor. She moves so Burke can stick Waller in the backseat and shuts the door behind them.

She turns back to the woman, “Closest hospital. Drive fast. Triage on arm. Go.” She shuts the door and the woman drives off.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

MISSION CITYPRESENT DAY “Move out! Let's go!” Will shouts ahead of them.They move to take cover behind some overturned cars. Hazel watches as Ironhide transforms in a few seconds to jump over two missiles that were about to strike him. He uses his arm cannons to blast the asphalt underneath him, using the percussive blast to knock him farther up into the air and over the head of a civilian.In the next moment the Solstice is transforming and jumping over top of the tank. Pulling its cannon away from the moving S7 guys. The tank transforms with the Solstice on top of it  and the Solstice kicks away its missile launcher. The Tank then throws him off of it and into a building. Ironhide then intercepts, hitting the Tank with a few of his missiles and a blast of his laser cannon. The Solstice recovers quickly and slides in front of the Tank, hitting it a few times with his gun. The Hummer, now in his own bipedal mode, jumps over the tank and cuts off one of its arms with a rotator saw.They finally reach the group of overturned cars and Lennox calls out, “Concentrate your fire!”She, and the rest of the squad, are quick to lift up their RT-37s. With a few hits from the Sabot rounds and some cannon fire from the Hummer, the Tank is knocked off its feet and falls into the side of a building with a crash. A secondary crash follows shortly after as Megatron lumbers out of the alleyway a few streets over.“It’s Megatron! Retreat!” The Solstice calls, taking a few potshots off on the bot.“Move! Fall back!” The Hummer orders the soldiers, gesturing the way for them to run.Lennox begins moving backwards, “Fall back!” Pushing people in the direction of an empty hardware storefront and has them climb through the broken window. Hazel is quick to set up shop as S7 guys are carried into the building. She takes their vitals and checks them for serious injuries before moving into the next person.  “Sergeant Witwicky!” She hears calls from the window of the shop.She looks to Burke who shrugs his shoulders. She takes a peek out from behind the shelves she's set her triage station behind. There’s a scrape of metal and cannon fire as Ironhide slides into view of the shop windows.   “Where is Sergeant Witwicky?”   Hazel steps out from behind the shelf. She can feel the eyes from her squad on her once she comes into view. “What do you need?” She calls jogging towards the window.   “Our medic is combat locked and we have an injured.” The bot replies, “Do you think you could help?”Hazel hesitates for a moment before replying, “I don’t know your physiology. Your medic would have to talk me through it while fighting.”  “He can do that. Do you have a communication device?”   Hazel pulls the radio off her belt and presents it to the bot.     He stares at it for a moment, “So primitive… I can work with that.” And reaches out a hand for it.    She places the walkie in his hand before stepping back and looking around the area. She grabs an empty duffle the store was selling along with a few wrenches, pliers, and a pack of zip ties.    “Grab some clamps. You’ll need them.” The bot replies watching her gather what is around her.She grabs the entire rack of rubber tipped clamps, about fifteen, and shoves them in the bag hoping she wouldn’t have to use all of them.“Anything else?”He tilts his head and after a moment replies, “A welding torch.” Hazel stops and looks at the bot in shock, then runs to the other side of the store where one of the S7 guys holds out a pair of spark glasses, gloves, and a welding torch. She shoves them into her bag and makes her way to the front. Once she reaches the broken window, Ironhide transforms into the Topkick and pops open the driver's side door for her.  She looks over to Lennox and Epps stationed behind another wall of rubble, who look over in shock before she shrugs and climbs into the cab. Picking her fixed-up walkie and a random tablet from the seat and setting the bag and walkie on her lap.“Grab the tablet. For the walkie, press the call button once, it will connect you with our Medic, Ratchet.” Ironhide explains, driving around the rubble, “Our injured’s designation is Jazz.”“What’s his injury?”“He was torn in half.”“Excuse me?” Hazel asks with wide eyes, “Are you certain he’s alive?”She can hear the bot scoff, “Considering he's talking my audial off, yeah. He’s still kicking.”Hazel nods in shock, “Okay. That's good.”Ironhide stops abruptly and opens the door for her to get out. When she slides out of the cabin Ironhide backs up and transforms to his bipedal mode. She takes cover around the corner of a building as Ironhide takes point, checking to make sure there were no Decepticons in the area. When he gives the all clear Hazel comes around the building and looks at the bots before her.Jazz, the solstice, was laid out on the ground with his head pointed towards her. His missing half is laid out a dozen meters away. Something glowing purple is slowly leaking out from his halves, but he still waves his arms at Ironhide“I thought you went to get me Ratchet, slagger!”“I said I’d get a medic. Sergeant, this is Jazz. Jazz, Sergeant Witwicky.” Ironhide says gesturing to her once she jogs in closer.“Hey Sergeant.” Jazz says, “No offense, but what is a human medic supposed to do here, Ironhide?”“Follow directions from your buddy, Ratchet, and hopefully get your ass fixed up.” She replies, dropping the duffle bag at her feet.“See if you can fix his processor too.” Ironhide says as she pulls out the walkie from the duffle.“I am currently leaking Energon here buddy, I think-”“Can you bring his lower half closer?” Hazel interrupts to avoid a fight, then presses the call button on the walkie, “Sergeant Witwicky calling Ratchet. Do you copy?”“Oh good. Your primitive technology works.” The voice of the Hummer calls from the speaker, as Ironhide gently drops Jazz’s legs on Hazel’s other side then transforms and speeds off.“What is the patient’s status?” He asks after letting loose a grunt.“He's alert and responsive. But steadily leaking Energon?” She asks, looking to Jazz for confirmation of the name.Jazz nods in confirmation then speaks up, “Don’t kill me though this kid, Hatchet.”“Oh what a shame.” Ratchet responds through the speaker, “He really is alert. I was hoping there wouldn’t be enough time for you to have to access his medical line.”Hazel’s eyebrows furrow in confusion at the terminology before relaxing, “What’s first, boss?”“You will need to access his medical hardline panel and hook him up to the tablet Ironhide has given you.” The ‘bot says, “Jazz, am I correct in assuming you are not able to pull the plate back?”There's a click from a large panel Jazz's wrist and he sighs, “You’re right. This is gonna hurt like a bitch.”“Okay Sergeant, you’re going to have to weld the panel open. Grab the torch, draw a line at the top of the plate, make sure the metal is bright red, then pull it off. It will be the third up from the back of his servo.” Ratchet says.“Understood.” Hazel replies, setting the walkie down and grabs the torch, spark glasses, and gloves out of the duffle. After putting on all the gear and setting up the welder she turns to Jazz, “Ready?”“Ready.”Hazel turns on the torch and draws a line at the top of the plate, doing her best to ignore Jazz’s pained keening. While the line is red hot, she pulls off the plate revealing a metal skeleton and a load of wires. At the center of the exposed area is what looks like a small port.“Panel’s off.” She says, setting the panel to the side with the torch and her glasses and gloves“Do you see the port?”“Yes.”“Connect the tablet to the port. I have set it up so it will read human numbers for his vitals.”“Understood, connecting now.” Hazel replies, grabbing the tablet and wire connecting it to the port, once the tablet connects, it lights up with a running diagnostic pattern with numbers streamlining through. “Tablet’s connected.”“There will be a large number in the corner, read it to me.” Ratchet commandsShe finds the number in the top left corner, “Three-twenty-two.”Ratchet warbled something out that she suspects is a curse, “Jazz can you see right now?”“Optics are a little fuzzy. I’m still kicking.” Jazz replies.“Can you turn off your pain receptors by yourself?”It's quiet for a moment as if he's measuring his words and Jazz speaks up again, “If I was then poor Hazel wouldn't have had to listen to my screaming.”There's a sigh from the line, “Sergeant there's three sliders at the bottom of the tablet, slide the middle one all the way down. Don’t touch the others.”“Understood.” Hazel slides the middle bar down. Immediately after she sees Jazz’s frame slacken. “Jazz, are you still alive?”“Still here.” He replies more cheerfully than before.“I’m assuming that worked. Sergeant you have the clamps, correct?”“Yes. I have fifteen.”“You’re going to apply the clamps to the bottom of his main energon lines, there will be four of them. They’re large.” Ratchet says, “Once you clamp them it’s likely Jazz will fall into stasis.”“Stasis?” “His systems will shut down to preserve his processor. Start on the clamps now.”“Starting the clamps.” Hazel says, grabbing four from the bag and hooking them onto her belt.She moves down to Jazz’s lower body, “You ready?”“I feel ready to take on Megatron again!” Jazz exclaims, somehow with a slur to his voice.She can hear Ratchet scoff from the radio, and she begins clamping down the main lines in his torso, “Maybe leave that for someone else.”When she clamps down the last line Jazz falls slack, “Last clamp in place. Jazz is out.”“Read out the numbers again.” Ratchet demands“Two-sixty.” She replies“Primes damn it all!” she hears the bot curse, “I need you to look closer, is anything else leaking?”Hazel gets down on her hands and knees, ignoring the wet stickiness that begins to cling to her clothes. She picks the flashlight off her vest after her initial inspection doesn't turn up anything. Finally she hears sizzling coming from somewhere in Jazz’s left side, and points her flashlight to where clear fluid drips from a line onto pieces of metal, causing white foam to develop on top of what it hits.“I found something. Clear fluid dripping from a small line, it sounds like sizzling.”“Pit-damned-slagging-! Sergeant that line is incredibly fragile. You’ll need to clamp it but not with the same clamps you used for the main energon lines.”“I have zip ties?”“That will work. Clamp it shut, wipe off anything the fluid had touched.”Hazel grabs the zip ties and welding gloves. She grabs a couple out of the bag and grabs onto the line with her, now, gloved hands. She attaches the zip ties above the breakage of the line and then focuses on wiping off the fluid.When her glove doesn’t do much but smear it she takes a step back, looking up at the sky to take a breath but instead watches a missile hit a Blackhawk at the edge of a roof. She watches as the tail flips around to scrape the top of the building and a scream comes from the top of it.“What the fuck?” She whispers“Focus on your patient, Sergeant.” Ratchet’s voice comes from the speaker, “What is the number now?” Hazel peels off her jacket as she looks over at the tablet, “Two-sixteen.” She replies as she mops up the fluid with her uniform jacket. Listening to the loud boom of the helicopter as it hits the ground.“Do you see any other leakage?”“No. Don’t hear anything else either.” She responds after a moment, “The fluid in his torso is mopped up, but some of these parts look damaged.”“That's what I was afraid of. There's nothing we can do until I get there.” She hears him sigh over more crashing rubble falling. “Go fix his legs before there's nothing to fix there.”“Yes, sir.” Hazel says, picking up the duffle and moving to the top of the legs.She does the same repair, clamping down the four main Energon lines, ensuring that no more spillage is happening. She then takes the zip ties and cinches off the clear fluid leak and wipes it down with the jacket.It's at that point where Ironhide pulls up beside them and glances down at the tablet which has been displaying the numbers as they slowly lower down. Ironhide looks down at her, and she looks down at herself, covered in both human and robot fluids, jacketless, and with a few minor injuries of her own.“Is he stable enough to move?” Ironhide asksHazel looks down at the tablet that's been holding the number at one-zero-zero for the last few minutes and shrugs, “Ratchet?”It's quiet through the radio for a moment then he speaks up, “Yes. Bring him to me, Ironhide.”Ironhide delicately picks up the bot in his arms and begins walking back to the battle. Hazel leaves her items behind and jogs behind him, holding onto the tablet and watching as the numbers begin to lower again and the screen goes dark. Ironhide keens when he notices the black screen.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

They reach the site of the main battle, which has since ended and join the group of Autobots and Soldiers that have since come together.

The Peterbilt crouches over Sam, who, since she had left, has been covered in bruises and cuts. His jacket and jeans are ripped and she can see his skinned knees and hands.

“Sam, I owe you my life. We are in your debt.”

Hazel walks over to her squad as Ironhide presents Jazz to the Peterbilt, “Prime, we couldn’t save him.”

“Oh, Jazz.” The Peterbilt, Prime, turns to face them, “We’ve lost a great comrade, but gained new ones. Thank you. All of you. You honor us with your bravery.”

“Permission to speak, sir.” Hazel hears Bumblebee speak, his voice surprisingly young and chipper

“You can speak now?” Sam shouts shocked

“Permission granted, old friend.” Prime replies

“I wish to stay with the boy.” Bumblebee says

“If that is his choice.”

Sam looks back at Mikaela, then to Hazel and the rest of the soldiers as they wait for him to respond. He then turns back to Bumblebee with a simple, “Yes.”

Bee gives a happy little chirp in response, eyes brightening in happiness before he jogs over to meet Prime and the other bots. Hazel watches as Sam walks over to Mikaela and pulls her off to the side. Hazel’s squad comes together, and she gets looks of concern as she joins their circle.

“What happened? Where is your jacket?” Lennox asks, slinging his gun over his back.

“Disintegrating.” She responds, “What did I miss?”

“Disintegrating?” Lennox shouts, his eyes bulging out of his head.

“You missed us kicking ass and Sam killing Megadouche.” Epps responds to her question for Lennox.

Hazel felt her heart leap from her chest, “Sam killed Megatron?”

“Mhm. When the Blackhawk failed to grab him the big guy over there did.” He says, gesturing over at Prime, “Sam then shoved the AllSpark into Megatron’s chest.”

“Wait, what was Sam doing with the Cube?” Hazel asks, looking over at Will who refused to meet her eye, “Captain?”

“He was right there. He knew what the cube could do better than us, he had more of a reason to not give it up.” Will says, still staring at the ground

Hazel takes a deep breath, “We’ll talk about this later. For now, I would like to check on my

kid

brother. Does someone have my kit?”

Burke steps forward, passing her the kit. She thanks him and begins her walk over to Sam and Mikaela, who are sitting against the curb quietly murmuring to each other as another medic takes their vitals. They quiet as she approaches.

Closer now, She could see the kids were shaking like a leaf. On top of that, Sam was pale, and bloody. Frankly put, he looked like he was about to kaput at any moment. Mikayla sits next to him. She isn’t much better, with cuts across her stomach and a bruise forming on the side of her head. She slings her kit in the ground next to where Sam sits, pushing the other medic to the side and pointing at someone else for the man to go attend to.

“Where does it hurt the most?” She asks Sam first, determining him to be in worse shape after apparently falling off a damn building.

She picks up his arms to ensure he had no broken bones then switches to pressing down lightly but firmly on his stomach to check for internal bleeding. Then to his ribs to ensure none of them were broken either. Eventually Sam shifts and moves her hands away as he leans forward to press his head on her shoulder. Once he does he breaks out in sobs. Hazel wraps an arm around him and squeezes him tightly.

She looks over to Mikayla who looks at the ground with tears in her eyes. Hazel reaches out a hand and grabs the girl's wrist. When Mikaela looks up, she gives it a gentle tug, offering her to join them in the embrace. Mikayla’s eyes tear up again as she moves closer, putting her head on Hazel's other shoulder.

“I’m so proud of you both.” Hazel says, pressing a kiss to both kids' hair, “you were so brave, and it’s over now. You’re safe.”

Once the kids calmed down they allowed Hazel to look them over. Miraculously, neither of them were hurt too badly. Sam didn’t have much more than large spread bruises across his back and arms. There was a cut on his forehead that would have to get stitched up but she didn't think it would leave a scar. Mikaela had a concussion from being thrown against the side of the tow truck door but otherwise nothing broken or needing stitches.

As she worked on patching them up, the kids talked adamantly about the battle. Sam talks about running up a building and away from Megatron and falling off of it into Optimus’s hand (Prime, she notes, is a title). Mikaela about how she drove Bumblebee around in the tow truck so he could still fight- swerving away from incoming fire and missile explosions. Hazel listens to all of it, hiding her winces when the kids mention the more dangerous things they had to do.

Once she finishes, she guides them over to her squad. Lennox and Epps weren't in their circle when she and the kids entered it, Hazel looks around and spots Will standing at Optimus’s feet. He practically tilts his head all the way up as looks up at the leader of the Autobots. He's gesturing something with his hands, something he only does when a conversation is getting intense. She wonders if she should go over there to save him, but she can see his shoulders slump in either relief or surrender.

He steps back over to the group and looks around to all of them, “The Autobots are planning to stay. Optimus thinks that the Decepticons might launch a revenge attack.”

Epps comes back into the circle, “I got into contact with Keller, they’re safe. He's planning on disbanding Sector Seven and giving Nellis to the Autobots.”

“Well, this is gonna be a change.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE

SIX HOURS LATER
 
Keller got what he wanted.
  An hour after the battle, the government set up the Alien/Autobot Cooperation Act. Two hours after the battle, Nellis Air Force Base was transferred under the command of Optimus Prime. Three hours after the battle, Sector Seven was disbanded and a new military organization was created. Four hours after the battle, Will was promoted to Major and Hazel to Sergeant First Class. 
 N.E.S.T., The Non-biological Extraterrestrial Species Treaty, was set up under Will’s command as an attempt to form a combined Human and Autobot force. Dagger squad ended up splitting up. Epps transferred back into air force command, Roman and Meyer were transferred under a different command. Hazel, Burke, and Fig transferred to N.E.S.T, Hazel and Fig staying in Will’s team, while Burke switched into an ops squad.

Two hours after their arrival at Nellis the Hummer pulls up in front of her and rapidly transforms to kneel in front of her.

“Sergeant Witwicky.” Ratchet says once he comes to a complete stop.

Hazel snaps to attention, offering her new superior officer a salute, “Sir.”

“Walk with me.” The ‘bot says rising to his feet and beginning his walk

Hazel has to jog to keep up with Ratchet’s large gate. Eventually the medic looks back and slows down so she could walk by his side. He leads her all the way to the hanger that acts as the Autobot med bay, and stops in the door frame.

“Your repairs were adequate. You follow directions well.” Ratchet tells her, “And although Jazz didn’t make it, I can see promise.”

“Sir?” She asks, confused.

“I am not usually on the front lines, and with the creation of Nest it's unlikely that Prime will keep me there.” Ratchet continues, “I would like to teach you to be an Autobot medic. I will be teaching you our anatomy, basic repairs, major repairs, and first aid to ensure the bot will make it back to me to continue repairs.”

He turns to look down at her, “It will be long days, I will not take it easy on you. But Prime has no objections and your human superiors have approved. Do you accept?”

“I don't understand, sir. Jazz died on my watch and you want to make me an Autobot medic?”

“Jazz was too far gone by the time you got there, it wasn’t on you.” Ratchet says, “Accept the offer, Sergeant.”

“If you really think I could do it, then I accept.”

“Excellent.” Ratchet lowers a hand to the floor and gestures for her to climb on, “We’ll begin by preparing Jazz for his funeral.”

___

Thirty minutes later, the Sergeant was elbows deep in Jazz’s chassis as Ratchet ordered her through the repairs. Earlier he had shown her how to link a medical hardline again. They were currently using it to download some of the info from the battle Jazz had gathered before his death onto a data pad. He had shown her the basics of navigating the line; how to turn off pain receptors, how to place and remove someone from stasis, and how to read a spark signature.

“Connect this line to the one across- yes, precisely.” Ratchet says watching the human femme work under his guidance.

He guides Hazel Witwicky as she connects the severed Energon lines. He teaches her how to block flow, unclamp, and reshape Energon lines. He demonstrates how to cut metal mesh to size and solder it to the gouges in Jazz’s chassis. He explains that normally a Cybertronian’s self repairs would activate, and the mesh would harden and smooth out until eventually it looked just like new.

He watches as Hazel connects the rest of the lines. She is a quick learner, doesn’t complain about his brashness, only asks necessary questions. It would be good to have an extra set of servos in the medical bay- there are certainly worse beings that he could have been stuck with.

At one point, they both had their servos in the Mech’s chassis, connecting and repairing lines, when the data pad beeps on Hazel’s side. She pauses her work to look over at it and her hands still. She pauses opening the valves in Jazz’s chassis in favor of grabbing the pad to pull it closer to her. Ratchet looks at her confused as she taps the notification that had popped up on the tablet.

Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she looked up at Ratchet, “I thought you said the spark dissipates upon death?”

“It does.” Ratchet confirms.

“Why am I getting a spark reading then?” She asks, holding the pad up so he could view the reading for himself.

Ratchet’s optics widen and he quickly takes the medical hardline from his arm as Hazel removes the one connected to the pad so he could plug in. She was right, it is faint, but there. Likely diminished to next to nothing until the two began repairs. Faint enough that the data pad wouldn’t have been able to pick up on it and would have assumed death.

“Sergeant Witwicky, I’m afraid we will need to do a crash course on Cybertronian anatomy as we work.” Ratchet states, disconnecting himself from Jazz and plugging the pad back in. “Jazz is in stasis lock. If we complete the repairs to the point where intervention will allow his self-repairs to come online then it is likely we will be able to bring him back.”

“Understood boss. Where do you want me?”

They work through the night. Ratchet explaining what he is doing as he works and guiding her through the minor fixes. Eventually, they find themselves in a steady flow- Hazel conducting the minor repairs Ratchet had walked her through by herself, as he worked through the larger things. He was even able to work over her hands without each other getting in the way, another perk of having a human around he supposed.

They continue the work until finally Ratchet can hear the steady thrum of Jazz’s self repairs activate. Hazel lifts her hands up, slightly startled he guessed by her facial expression, before she returned to the repair she had been working on.

An hour later Ratchet looks up, “Sergeant, can you show me the most recent spark signature reading?”

“Yes, sir.” The femme replies, clamping down what she was working on and picking up the pad moving to the most recent reading.

It was incredible. In a mere matter of hours Jazz’s spark was strong enough to bring him out of stasis. It certainly would have taken longer to do by himself, the tediousness of the minor repairs would have hindered his time.

He remembers how nice it was to have an assistant working alongside him on Cybertron. How fast things got done. How nice it was to have company besides the injured. Perhaps, if Jazz wakes up with no more damage than before, he might talk to Prime about bringing the Sergeant in as a permanent fixture in his medbay.

Almost as if summoned, Optimus walks into the medbay and looks at the two as they work on the saboteur on the table.

“Are his repairs almost finished?” Optimus asks, “I have arranged the gathering and delivery for the necessary items for his funeral.”

“You can cancel all of that, Prime.” Ratchet says, offering no explanation as to why.

“Has something gone wrong? Do you require more time?”

“I believe he is saying you can cancel the delivery because it’s not needed. Jazz is still alive, sir.” Hazel speaks up, pulling her right hand out of Jazz’s chassis to swap out a tool.

“He still has a spark signature?” Optimus asks in disbelief, “How?”

Neither of them reply, focusing on their respective repair until finally Ratchet transforms his tools back into his servos. He waits for the femme to finish her last repair then places a servo on the table next to her, “Step on, please. I will be pulling Jazz out of stasis lock, and I would rather him not squish you when he wakes up.”

He’s thankful that he doesn’t have to repeat himself as the femme gently pulls herself into his servo. He lifts her up and sets her down on the next berth over.

“Prime, I might require your assistance in holding Jazz down when he onlines.”Ratchet says, plugging into the Jazz’s data port, “His battle systems will still be running hot and I’d rather him not destroy my medical bay.”

Optimus moves quickly over to the other side of the berth and pushes down on Jazz’s shoulders. Ratchet allows a command charge to enter Jazz’s systems and pulls him out of stasis.

Jazz’s optics snap open and he tries to lurch up but Optimus manages to hold him down. He struggles against the berth, his arm transforming into a gun as ratchet pins it down to the table. Eventually, Jazz’s processor catches up to his body and he calms down, looking at Optimus then Ratchet with wide optics.

“Holy shit, I thought I was a goner!” Jazz exclaims.

Optimus and Ratchet exchange a look, Ratchet looks back down at the Saboteur, “We thought you were too.”

“What?”

“Your spark signature faded to next to nothing. We wouldn’t have known you were alive unless Sergeant Witwicky hadn’t set the data pad to measure signature strength.”

“Sergeant… Hazel? The human medic?” Jazz asks, sitting up with Optimus’s help.

“Yup, that's me.” Hazel calls from behind them.

Ratchet turns his helm to face the femme. She's moved to sit at the edge of the berth, kicking her feet back and forth in the air with her hands folded in her lap. Her gaze is soft, but Ratchet could see the glint of concern in her eyes.

“Oh shit.” Jazz says, shifting his helm to regard her, “Thanks Hazel. I appreciate you not letting me be buried alive.”

“Thank

you

for not dying. I appreciate

that

.”