Disclaimer: Don't own Transformers

Resisting Fate

Ratchet met him in the way that he became familiar with many of the Autobots he knew…

In the medbay.

He had heard a great many things about this mech, many of which he listened to with skeptical audios. That was… until he met the said mech.

As with most Autobots, as a patient in his medbay.

Ratchet knew this bot was different, not even taking into consideration the accident that brought said mech into his care. Ratchet was still deciding whether the explosion was an accident or if it was intentional.

He could think of all the other times this odd bot ended up in his medbay following that first encounter.

Ratchet was told the mech's designation was Wheeljack, the mech that made many uncomfortable to work in the same room as him. How Perceptor managed it, many didn't even question.

Time after time, Wheeljack woke up with a smile, helm fins flashing in delight as he looked up at the CMO, but all this Ratchet had grown accustomed to.

Wheeljack remembered when he had first ended up in the medbay of the new CMO. It wasn't exactly expected; after all, he had simply been playing around with a few wires and was trying to upgrade the transmitter, even though Perceptor suggested calling it an orn.

No.

He had to finish that one last project. Which would undoubtedly lead to another, and another, and another, until Perceptor showed back up for another orn of work in the lab.

Placing that wire in the wrong socket was one of the happiest mistakes in his life.

Wheeljack had onlined to see the white medic with a gray chevron and cherry red paint covering his servos, pelvic armor and the markings on his shoulders. What a sight to behold.

Then there was the second accident. Followed by the third… And the fourth.

So many times he ended up in the care of the CMO. He doubted he could count all the times.

The designation was Ratchet.

A great medic with a bad temper and a good aim.

And what was he? An engineer who was beginning to believe that half of his accidents in the lab were genuine mistakes and the other half may have been due to wanting to see the medic again.

Wheeljack stopped dead in his thoughts.

Purposely causing his own accidents?

Wheeljack's helm fins flashed in delight at the thought of seeing Ratchet again.

He chuckled to himself; he'd never do such a thing. It was then that he dropped a match into a container of a highly combustible fluid. He just had to see what would happen.

Decepticons.

He had put up with them many times before, but this time things didn't seem quite right. Ratchet kept his guard up and tried to ignore the feeling that his plating was going to crawl right off of him. Something was wrong.

It wasn't until it was too late that the medic realized what was wrong. His spark felt cold, as if it was rapidly losing energy. A feeling of dread rushed through his frame as he analyzed the injury he had sustained from the single shot.

He wasn't going to make it.

Was it possible that he knew that he was going to die?

Falling to the ground, he quickly set up a comm. with Wheeljack and with what time he had left, confessed to Wheeljack and urged the inventor to be safe and live a fulfilling life for the both of them.

Wheeljack hid behind his mask and fake enthusiasm after the death of his loved one. He should have said something sooner. They had been side by side for Primus knows how many centuries. He never expected Ratchet would offline before him.

His explosions became even more fierce and destructive. He finished his tasks, but on the side, he forced himself into the medbay what seemed like daily. If it was said that he had a death wish when Ratchet was still around, that death wish was certainly larger.

Deep within his spark, Wheeljack hoped that if he had enough accidents, big enough explosions, he'd online to see Ratchet scowling at him. And if Ratchet didn't somehow reappear in the medbay, then maybe Wheeljack would one orn offline and locate Ratchet himself.

Following his death, Ratchet had found himself in a rather large, bright structure. It was here that he met the one called Primus. It was an interesting meeting. However Primus made one mistake that he'd forever regret.

He told Ratchet to make himself at home.

It must have been only an orn when he had gotten a message from one of the other inhabitants of his realm that he had a medical appointment with the CMO just as every single mech had to.

An even bigger mistake was made when he forgot about the appointment and didn't show up.

Primus had been hunted down, hit with a wrench, dragged to the medbay he had the mistake of creating and ranted at the entire time by a very cranky medic.

It was then that Primus decided that he would be better off making a new, alternate universe and send Ratchet there with the guarantee that when Wheeljack offlined, he'd be sent there just like many of the other deceased Cybertronians.

Wheeljack rejoiced when he had been told by Primus that Ratchet had shown up in that realm before. After spending a decacycle in the realm and creating a rather large explosion in the lab, he found Primus by his side after being repaired.

Being questioned once again about Ratchet, Primus decided it was time to send Wheeljack on his way from where Primus had called G1 to Animated.

Ratchet onlined in what appeared to be Omega Supreme. Getting up, he wandered around the ship, locating each and every one of his team members. It had been a long time since he had last first woken up on this strange new universe. Everything seemed so round.

He massaged his chevron tiredly. How long he had been looking was eating away at his frame. Ratchet knew he secretly longed to have his old frame back.

Looking and looking, he could never seem to find Wheeljack, let alone some of his close friends like First Aid. It had been difficult to be able to cope to the new universe and he found himself more and more irritated as the orns went on. He questioned if he was the only one who still had his memories from the previous universe. Some of the actions of his teammates didn't make sense. He noticed things that bots in Animated would do that would never do in G1.

Oddly enough, Ratchet found himself missing the pranks of the Lambo twins, his medbay and having Wheeljack almost constantly being his patient. Well…

There were always the Jet twins to play pranks on him, but it wasn't quite the same.

Wheeljack ran to and fro on Cybertron, checking out every single medbay. If only Primus had told him something useful.

Such as where to look for Ratchet other than 'Ratchet's a medic again so why not check medbay?'

So helpful…

With a stroke of luck, he found Perceptor who told him where to find Jazz. Wheeljack was told that Jazz most likely knew where to find the exact location of the medic he had been searching for.

After a few decacycles of searching for Jazz, he explained who he was looking for and thankfully, Jazz was all for helping him and hunted down a bot called Prowl who to Wheeljack's surprise wasn't a cop car or even a tactician, but a ninjabot of some sort.

It had been centuries since he had last seen, let alone heard Ratchet's voice. When he had seen the medic once again, his spark fluttered and he knew it was all too good to be true.

Primus hid behind his comfy chair as the medic stormed in, straight towards him, ranting with every step. It was something about being separated from Wheeljack, a slagging shoddy frame, accusations of Primus being over energized when making a new universe and oddly enough, missing his appointment… twice.

Trying desperately to get rid of the raging medic, he created yet another universe that he quickly named Prime and sent Ratchet there.

Wheeljack found himself looking around in Primus's Realm once again and looking around for Primus. It was a few breems of standing around in silence until the god finally poked his head from behind a cozy chair. With a sigh of relief, Primus explained what had happened only moments before the engineer's arrival before sending Wheeljack after Ratchet.

Ratchet paced back and forth in the base on Earth. How familiar the planet was to him, and yet everything looked so different. He adjusted his plating, smirking at his new form.

Ratchet waited for the last of the Autobots to enter their own respective quarters for the night before accessing the master computer he had worked so hard on. He scanned through frequency after frequency, hoping to find his loved one once again.

With tired optics, he glanced at the clock, noting how late it had become. With only a few more Earth hours before sunrise, he hurried into his own quarters to get some recharge before doing his work as a medic.

Wheeljack's helm fins flashed in delight at his new mission involving Perceptor. Once the mech was found, Wheeljack was to be his escort for business purposes and then he'd be able to get in touch with the other Wreckers.

Hopefully they'd know where Ratchet was.

Ratchet watched the guest as Bulkhead introduced the mech as Jackie. Something was wrong. Every since that day in G1, he didn't take this feeling lightly, not like he ever really did to start with.

This wasn't the right Wheeljack.

He kept his distance from the newcomer, his guard up, audios sharp and vocalizer careful.

Wheeljack hung in captivity, knowing fully well how close he had been to getting back to Ratchet. He had grown to like his own frame and wondered what Ratchet even looked like. Would Ratchet be the same after so long of being apart?

Manipulation after manipulation, Wheeljack carefully maneuvered his way closer and closer to the Autobot base, even going as far as to set a bomb on his impostor before shoving him through the landbridge onto the Nemesis.

But when he found Ratchet, he noticed not an angry medic, but a cautious one. Wheeljack found himself uncertain as what to do.

Ratchet watched as Autobot and human alike wandered to their own quarters to get some sleep. He found himself alone with the new Wheeljack. The last of the shuffles of peds faded before the mech approached him. Turning to face the newcomer, Ratchet watched his every movement with a cautious optic.

Helm fins flashed up and a grin crossed the currently unmasked face. With a happy wave, Ratchet knew by the display that it was indeed the Wheeljack he had fallen in love with all those millennia ago.

Ratchet pulled out his favorite wrench and gave it a quick twirl before throwing it in the air and catching it effortlessly.

Wheeljack's grin grew even wider and Ratchet found himself caught in the arms of the mech.

They found each other. Again.

Those few orns Wheeljack spent with Ratchet were complete bliss. During the day, he was busy working around the base and fixing his small ship, while at night, he spent every moment that he could with Ratchet.

With a heavy spark, Wheeljack parted ways with Ratchet, vowing upon his spark that as soon as his mission was over, he'd come back. Even if he offlined, he'd find Ratchet, no matter what it took. The two had gone through so much to give up so easily on each other.

Ratchet watched as Wheeljack left Earth's atmosphere, recalling how it felt like only yesterday that he confessed in his final moments. Wheeljack would be back. Ratchet would make sure of that.

Wheeljack sent a comm. to Ratchet, commenting on how space looked so empty and yet it was filled with so many great things, such as a certain bad tempered medic with a really good aim.