Howdy, my readers! This is the third and final chapter of Torchbearer. Hope ya like it!

Bittersweet

The next morning after my walk in the desert, only silence was shared between Arcee and me. That silence was not uncomfortable, but welcome. I worked on the monitor, while Arcee sat on one of my medical berths, reading a datapad. I never said a word to her last night when I returned. She knows I'm still keeping something from her but decided not to push it.

Those emotions I felt last night are all still there. My little walk solved nothing. I feel no better now than then. The storm is still waging, consuming me from the inside out like chronic rust. It was always there, unable to be cured, only covered. No one can help me with this, not even Primus. He cannot help this wound heal. I know I have failed many people... but to let my little sparkling's life slip from my grasp... How could I have done so?! I snarled wordlessly at the monitor, my burning hatred of myself spilling over.

Arcee jolted at me sudden, animalistic display but wisely chose not to question me about it. I vented. I had to calm myself before I broke something. No use in venting my frustrations on tools that I'm going to have to fix later. I shoved pleasant memories back into the vault at the back of my processor. That was the past. This is the present. I must look forward, not back. Looking behind me only invites future problems.

Heavy footfalls sounded in the halls, drawing closer to the main control room. I straightened and looked at our approaching leader.

"Ratchet. Arcee. How are you two this morning?"Even though Optimus' was steady and well controlled, you didn't have to be a doctor to tell that he needed more recharge.

"I'm fine. You?" Arcee responded casually. To both of our surprise, Optimus rubbed his optics.

"Tired." He admitted. I scoffed.

"Then what are you doing up? If you need some recharge, go get some recharge!" I frowned and glared. Primus, Optimus! Depriving yourself does not help anything!

"Ratchet, I must be ready at any given time, in case I am needed at a moment's notice."

I huffed, crossing my arms over my chassis. "You won't ever be ready if you offline because of recharge deprivation! At this point, I'm pulling rank over your command. As medical officer, I am telling you to go back to your berthroom and get some more recharge." Arcee gave me an incredulous look while Optimus gave a slight smile.

"Yes, Mother."My left optic twitched at the human term as our leader turned and headed back to his berthroom.

"Wow, Ratch'." Arcee stared at me, optics ridges raised.

The glitchhead apparently doesn't know the importance of recharge!" I ranted. Arcee shook her helm, smiling slightly.

"Who knew you could be such a mother hen. " I scoffed at the comment.

"I'm just doing my job, which is made much more difficult by you glitches. You all can't seem to stay not hurt!"

"You harm me, Ratchet. Right here." She placed a servo over her spark chamber, looking at me sarcastically. I scoffed again, but chose not to respond. I turned back to my work and perhaps two earth hours of silence passed before the monitor beeped loudly. There appeared to be a concentration of Decepticon activity near the southern end of Lake Michigan. The blue femme walked up to my left side.

"Why are the Decepticons in Chicago?"

I turned to look down at her. "Arcee-"

"I'm on it. I'll go wake up Sleeping Beauty." Bulkhead and Bumblebee were out, mostly likely on patrol after dropping the children off for school. Some days, Bumblebee gave Jack a ride to school, along with Rafael. I went over to the Ground Bridge controls and punched in the next set coordinates.

...

The sharp sound of the monitor tore me from my train of thought. I stood and looked at the screen. It was a distress signal! I scanned it to see if it contained a message only to hear gentle moans of pain. I investigated a bit more in transmission, to see if it held anymore information.

...By the AllSpark! I scrambled over to the Ground Bridge controls and pounded in new coordinates with swift, shaking servos. The Ground Bridge lit up and spun to life, giving off a soft green glow.

I must get over there as soon as possible!

...

I stepped cautiously through the forest. I have yet to find the vessel that crashed in the trees. Thankfully, the Decepticons seem to be occupied elsewhere. I have to find that ship before it's too late. The trees and leaves blocked the majority of my view, making the search increasingly frustrating.

Hopefully, I don't have too far to g-what was that? I listened harder, tuning my audio receptors to try and pick up the strange sound again. Then I heard it. It was the same moan I heard in the transmission back at the base! I bolted to my left, using my surgical blade to cut down the branches that were in my way.

Suddenly, I reached a clearing. There was a small ship, halfway buried in the soil, both engines smoking heavily. Metal shrapnel everywhere and the trees around the small vessel burned at the tips. My olfactory sensors picked up the scent of spilled energon coming from inside. I carefully pried open the door and headed for the cockpit.

I could hardly see in the darkness of the small room. How can there be a ship here, but no bot to pilot it? From what I could tell, the pillot of this vessel was mortally wounded. Perhaps they left to find help-no.

I gasped. No. It can't be...

"Are you alright?" I ran over and crouched down next to a femme. She had her back against the soot covered metal wall and her optics were so dim, it worried me. She moved her light green helm slightly to look at me. There was a huge stab wound next to her spark chamber, likely caused by flying metal launched in the crash. Other smaller but serious wounds riddled her slender frame. From what I could tell, using a very small amount of light coming from a hole in the ceiling, she was a flyer. I looked her over completely and was shocked by another discovery.

This femme in the final stages of carrying.

Her midsection was large and round, evidence that the sparkling she was carrying had a large frame type. The birth was going to be very difficult for her.

Springing into action, I moved in front of her and instructed her to spread her legs, preparing for the birth that was coming very soon. A pool of blue tinted fluid trickled out of her exposed valve as she ventilated hard. Her dirty face contorted in pain as contractions hit her repeatedly. I grabbed her servo, comforting her. I had not delivered a sparkling in a very long time, but some things you are taught in the medical field you don't ever forget.

"Alright, when the next contraction hits you, I want you to push." She strained to focus on me as the pain wracked her damaged and dented frame. I flared my EM field to comfort her once I felt her fear

"Alright," She whimpered in a barely audible voice. She squeezed my servo tightly and pushed.

...

The little sparkling chirped softly in my servos as I stared into her shining blue optics. She stared back at me with those enormous optics. They were so familiar in a frightening way. The vault in the back of my processor opened suddenly and I was hit with powerful emotions.

Hope for the future.

Failure in times past.

Hatred of the failures.

Passion for many things.

All of them hit me at once, making my pause to cycle air through my systems.

The sparkling passes with a clean bill of health and was rather chatty. Her carrier, however, was not faring well at all. I could not diagnose what exactly was wrong with her so I tried everything I could think of to try and get her up to a stable condition. I can't let another one die under my watch, not again. I took a clean rag from my subspace and wrapped the sparkling up. I had yet to fully see her colors since there was little to no light in the dark room. I felt a smaller servo touch mine. My attention snapped back down to the sparkling's carrier. She was ventilating roughly and hard, her optics giving off barely any light. Her bright color scheme had dulled considerably. Her jaw worked to form words. I leaned in closer to hear her.

"I won't be long..." It was lower than that of a whisper, tone raspy. What did she mean by-?

"She's yours now." Her fragile voice faded even more. No! She was not going to perish here! I have to get this femme back to base. Most of my tools are there. Frag!

Her servo moved slowly to rest on her sparkling's helm, rubbing it gently. Her sparkling stared at her in wonder.

"Tell me... what...is..." She fought hard to form every word in mouth, faceplates straining. She said more but I had to strain hard to hear her. Curse these audio receptors!

"...your... name..." It took me a moment to realize what she was asking of me. She was asking for my name. I shifted the sparkling over into one arm and rested my free servo on her small shoulder.

"My name is-" And just like that, she died.

"-Ratchet." I said sadly to the corpse. I vented and looked down at the sparkling looking back at me in the crook of my arm. Her carrier had not even given her a name, let alone told me her own name. My thoughts wondered back to the past. Back to the sparkling went on to join with Primus next to me on my berth. She looks so much like my little sparkling that died so long ago. I will keep her. She will not perish, not this time. I now know her name. I will name her after the little sparkling that once lived so many vorns ago.

Searchlight.

I stood slowly and walked out of the crashed vessel. A high-pitched sound rung painfully in my ears and the vessel blew. Burning metal and energon shot out into the sky, blinding me. I turned my back to the wall of fire and superheated steam blew past me, protecting the newborn sparkling. Searchlight cringed at the heat, pressing her shiny little faceplates into my chest.

"Ratchet to base, I need a Bridge, pronto!" I shouted into my comm link. Not even a second after I ended the transmission, a Ground Bridge portal appeared a few yards to my left. Cradling Searchlight, I sprinted as fast as my legs could carry me through the waiting portal.

On the other side, I was bombarded with questions from the children and the other bots, with the exception of Optimus, who wore a very worried look on his faceplates. I ignored all of the questions and pushed my way over to my medbay. I want the scan Searchlight to be sure she was completely healthy.

"Ratchet, w-what are you carrying?" Rafael asked me quietly. I looked over at the child. Everyone else ceased their chatter and waited for me to answer the question. I vented.

"Her name is Searchlight." She looked up at the mention of her name, confirming to all of them that Searchlight was indeed her name. She looked around aimlessly, focusing on no one. Then she chirped, looking back up into my optics, drawing a loud 'awww' from the children and Bumblebee.

"OMG, you have a kid?! Who's the momma? Is it Arcee?" Miko asked excitedly, eyes glittering. Said femme growled loudly in response.

"No, the sparkling's carrier is not Arcee." I proceeded to tell them about the vessel I had found and the deceased femme.

"Are you sure nothing's wrong with her?" Bulkhead asked, staring hard at the sparkling. I scoffed. How could there be anything wrong with her? I already checked and found nothing wrong. Bulkhead stood right in front of me, looking down at the sparkling, who paid him no attention. She was staring blankly just past him. Almost as if...she saw nothing.

Our leader stepped towards me. I instinctively shifted, ready to protect her with all I had. I looked up at Optimus. There was a saddened, yet, serious look in his optics. What was going to tell me? I have only seen that look once before, and that was when Optimus made the decision to leave Cybertron. Something else that I could not quite put my finger on shone in his optics as well.

"Ratchet, Searchlight is blind."

So how was that? Good? Ok? Horrible?

I adore the idea of sparklings, so... yeah.

I'm considering cooking up another story in order to continue this, so you got any ideas for me? Leave them in a review and I might use them!

Peace!