Optimus and I quickly followed Lennox close behind. He seemed extremely frantic to get us to the base's human medbay. "Will, what the hell is going on?" I frantically asked him. He didn't turn around to respond, he just continued to quickly walk. "You're asking the wrong person." He responded. Optimus and I both exchanged a worried glance. The three of us arrived and entered the room. Ratchet and Epps were conversing between each other and stopped when they saw us.

"What happened?" I asked without greeting them. Ratchet walked over to me and gently grabbed my arm and directed me to the hospital bed. "Sit." He commanded. My loud heartbeat was making my head pound. Lennox, Epps, and Ratchet all looked at me worriedly. Optimus spoke, "Ratchet, what is the matter?"

"I...I finished examining Sophia's blood sample." Ratchet answered hesitantly. Every possible case of bad news ran through my head. "And?" I hinted with urgency. Ratchet looked at Optimus with a worried expression on his face. "And... I found energon mixed with your blood." I felt my heart come to a complete stop for a quick second. "Hold up...you are talking about the stuff that you guys and the decepticons were fighting over?" I asked with disbelief. Ratchet nodded his head, confirming my statement. "That's impossible." Optimus added under his breath.

Epps joined in on the conversation. "How did this even happen?" He asked. Ratchet crossed his arms as he spoke. "The only reasonable explanation is that Sophia's blood mixed with energon due to the decepticon's experimentation on her mother." I shook my head, not wanting to hear this all over again. "Ratchet," Optimus called, "humans are unable to adapt to energon. They die due to it poisoning their system."

"That is correct," Ratchet agreed, "but as a fetus, she must have adapted to it which caused her to also gain her ability." I just sat there in silence trying to take this all in. "What does energon have to do with her abilities?" Lennox asked. Ratchet turned to him to explain. "When energon enters a human's system, it forces the brain to access different parts of itself. This allows them to alter the laws of physics around them which in turn gives them new strength and abilities, as we saw with Sophia's mother."

I couldn't sit still due to being antsy and uncomfortable at the sound of the conversation. Trying to put the pieces together, a thought came up. "How does energon poison humans? What does it even do to them?" I asked in curiosity. Optimus answered instead of Ratchet. "The human heart cannot adapt to energon, causing it to stop beating." There was a short silence that felt like eternity. Optimus' looked defeated as he glanced in my direction.

"That doesn't make sense..." I addressed looking at the ground. "What do you mean?" Lennox asked me. In my mind, I was scrambled, lost. "If the human heart cannot cope with energon, then why didn't I die while my mother was carrying me. From the sound of it, I was already developed as a baby at the time my mother was experimented on. As a fetus, my body should have already been adapted to normalcy. How could I have adapted to energon at that stage?" Ratchet's face contorted to an expression of deep thought. "I did not consider that factor. I'm afraid I can't think of a reasonable explanation for that." Ratchet told me.

"Could the energon in her blood be the reason why her heart beats at an irregular rhythm?" Optimus asked Ratchet. "Precisely." Ratchet confirmed. "Sophia has a better chance of survival due to her adaption at an early stage of life. I'm sure beating irregularly is the way her heart adapts to energon, but I don't know how long it's going to last." I stiffened at the sound of those words. "W-what do you mean?" I interjected. Siting on the hospital bed, I looked at Optimus in fear as I waited for Ratchet to respond. Ratchet responded, "I don't know how long the heart can keep beating at an irregular pace." Silence filled the room. I wanted to collapse and cry then and there. Ratchet continued, "You have had the same amount of energon in your system your whole life, you should be alright. As long as you do not receive any more amounts of energon."

"That's why you must avoid the decepticons at all costs." Lennox blurted. My mind and thoughts became clouded with terror and worry. I've never been in contact with the decepticons before in my life. I was powerful, but I don't know if I was strong enough to protect myself. Epps noticed my worried expression. "Don't worry Blackwood." I looked at him. He smirked. "We won't let them lay a finger on you." I weakly smiled without showing my teeth.

"Sophia," Ratchet called to draw my attention to him. "You have no reason to worry. You are in good hands. You are still completely healthy and there's no need to fret." I nodded my head in affirmation. "Make sure to ice yourself before you recharge tonight." He reminded me.

"Will do." I told him quietly. "Ice yourself for what? What happened?" Lennox asked in confusion and looked straight to Optimus. I didn't answer. "When we went to gather her belongings, she fell down the stairs while she was carrying boxes." Optimus lied. I looked up in disbelief and secretly smiled. I almost believed him myself. "Clumsy much?" Epps chuckled. "Very." I added in enlightenment.
Lennox's hand quickly went up to his ear, signaling that he was talking with someone. "We'll be there in a minute." He ended the call.

"What's up?" Epps asked. "Colonel Sharp needs an update of how things are going at base. Optimus, he needs to hear from you." Optimus nodded his head. "Of course." Epps and Lennox exited the room, while Ratchet's holoform disappeared, leaving Optimus and I alone. "Are you going to be okay?" Optimus asked me. "Yeah. I'm just gonna head back to my apartment." I told him in defeat.

"Very well. I will see you as soon as I'm finished." Optimus informed me. "Okay, see you then." I huffed. And with that, Optimus nodded his head and his holoform vanished into thin air.

Making my way back towards my apartment, I could not stop myself from thinking about the news I've just been told. Unlocking the door and heading inside, I collapsed on the bed to stare at the ceiling. My mind wondered and one thought crept into my head. Did my dad know of this? No...he couldn't have. I'm sure he would've told the autobots once he'd find out.

I shook the thought from my head and silently thought about when my life could end. If it was going to end sooner then I thought. Ratchet's words haunted me.

For more than half an hour I have been replaying the news in my head over and over again as I stared at the ceiling while laying on my bed, but stopped my thoughts after realizing that I had forgotten to ice myself. Looking in the mirror, I took the gauze off from my stomach, seeing that my stomach was black and purple. Sighing in defeat, I headed towards the fridge in the kitchen and grabbed the bag of ice that Ratchet had given me.

Without the support the gauze gave me, I carefully laid myself onto the bed, wincing in pain as I did so. My hand placed the ice pack on to my abdomen. The coolness of the ice pack touching my bare skin caused me to slightly jump.

At that moment, my mind began to venture off to a dark place as I laid there icing my injuries. Injuries caused my Uncle Jesse. Pain caused by Uncle Jesse. Thoughts of him flooded my mind and within me, anger boiled my blood. That bastard needed to be taught a lesson. He deserves what's coming for him. I'm not going to leave this world without him leaving it...first.