Hidden Spark on Earth (TFP)

Chapter 9

"Are you okay?" Jack asked with a worried expression, his eyes glancing to the bruises on her upper arms.

"I-I-I..." Saphira stammered, taking deep breaths to try and calm her heart. "I'm fine." She glanced at Raf who stood over the cut line. "Can we still stop the decepticons?"

"No." Raf turned to look at Saphira with a grim expression. "He cut the hard-line, the dishes are locked onto Cybertron. For good."

Saphira shuddered a little upon hearing that. "Does that mean we failed?"

"No, we did not fail, Saphira," Jack said to her reassuringly. "Raf did what he could. He at least stalled a little bit of time for the autobots...even though...it is not much."

Saphira still felt like they failed, feeling sad to the pit of her stomach. "I guess we should go and tell Ratchet the bad news. He will be so thrilled."

"I think he will just be glad we are okay. Though...I think you have more bruises to worry about now." She rolled her eyes a little at Jack, even though he was right. Her stomach and ribs were hurting a lot right now. "Let's get back." Jack grabbed out his radio. "Ratchet, bridge us back to base. We did what we could."

"Very well. The ground bridge is ready for you," Ratchet responded calmly through the radio. "Thank you trying, Jack. It might not have done much, but it was a good try."

She rolled her eyes a little, believing Ratchet was only saying that because he didn't want to sound angry at them. She walked out of the building with Jack, holding her arms nervously. No one questioned her about leaving her jacket behind, she had wanted to leave all her clothes if she was honest. But she wasn't about to be half naked when they return to the base. They enter the vortex, walking through with sad expressions. Ratchet widened his optics a little when he saw Saphira had taken a layer off.

"Did something happen?" Ratchet asked with concern.

"Optimus was right, there was a decepticon onsite," Raf said sadly. "He...he stopped us and we can't change the satellite coordinates now. He made sure of it."

Ratchet nodded a little, acknowledging their words. "No one was hurt?" He glanced down at Jack who gestured to Saphira, she did not look up at Ratchet as she walked towards the stairs. "Saphira..."

"Just focus on Optimus, Ratchet!" Saphira snapped at him, her voice broke slightly when she spoke. She coughed a little to not let her words break again. "I will be fine once we know we won't have an undead army to deal with."

Ratchet exhaled deeply. "Very well. We will wait." He turned to the com link to speak to the autobots. "Optimus, it seems the children were unable to prevent the decepticons from going through with their plan. It was a good idea, but it didn't go through."

"We have worked that out, Ratchet," Arcee responded in a frustrated tone. "We now have to deal with whatever Megatron is about to do."

Saphira looked at the monitor sadly as she reached the first-floor platform. "I am sorry we couldn't stop them..."

"Don't apologize, Saphira," Ratchet said to her in a calm, gentle tone. She did not look at him as he spoke to her. "What you did was a brave thing to do. I am sure the world would be blessed to know of you four children willing to put yourselves on the line to stop worldwide chaos and death."

Saphira did not respond. She was too focused, she saw on the monitor that the space bridge had been activated. She felt shivers through her body, she gripped the railing in front of her tightly as she was nervous about the whole thing.

"Hmm? What is this?" She jumped when she heard Fowler's voice and turned to see him standing from the bed. "Since when was there another child?"

"Saphira was here the day you saw us, sir," Jack explained to the man with a smile. "She just happened to be in another room."