So this actually started out as a Remembrance Day oneshot, but I kinda exploded on me. I realised that nobody has done a FF about our favorite CMO Ratchet. So, like I said, I'm gonna try this.

for A Broken World fans, I have not given up on it, I just need another story that I can jump between and I really really needed to get this out of my head.

Like most of my stories, it starts right off the hop, so hang on.

Nanoklick-second

Klick-minute

Joor-hour

Orn-day

Cycle-week

Decacycle-3 weeks

Groon-month

Metacycle-year

He had finally done it. He finally had the medical insignia branded onto the thin armor on his shoulder guard. After so much hard work, he had finally graduated from the Iacon Medical Academy.

Having left the building with the others of his class, he couldn't help but stare up at the building in wonder. It had been his home for the last couple metacycles as he studied to become a medic.

"Ratchet! Ya coming!" A pale green mech, also a fresh graduate, yelled from the street. Ratchet turned slowly, his shoulder still smarting slightly from the brand and he couldn't help but run his digits over the grooves. He had finally done it!

"I'm coming Focus!" He called back, running over to join his best friend.

"I can't believe we finally did it!" Focus said with a laugh, transforming down into his sleek SUV like alt mode. Ratchet was quick to follow him, his alt mode almost identical except he was a bright yellow color instead of the mint green of his friend. They dove into the insane rush hour traffic of Iacon's streets and somehow navigated the mayhem to the outer rings of the massive city-state. Along the way they had been joined by another two apprentice medics, Quicklight and his femme sister Nova. The four made their way to a familiar bar on the outskirts of Iacon. It was a small, dingy looking place but served the best high-grade around to celebrate with. As soon as they walked into the small bar, the barkeep, an old golden mech, designation Firestar, looked up at them with a huge grin.

"Did you make it?" He asked, sliding a glowing cube down the counter to a rough looking mech at the end of the counter.

"You bet we did!" Focus laughed, throwing an arm around his yellow friend. "Ratchet graduated top of class!" Ratchet smirked before pushing his lighter friend away from him.
"You were close as well!" He insisted before looking at the rest of his friends. "Quicklight and Nova did really good too." He continued as he followed Focus to the counter.

"Really good?" Nova demanded with a smirk. "Ha! We looked like slackers compared to genius over there." She elbowed Ratchet hard as he took a seat at the counter.

"No kidding. We all worked our afts off but Ratchet just glided right past them. Everyone said he was going to be the best medic Iacon will ever see." Quicklight continued, sitting beside his sister. Ratchet dropped his gaze, not used to all the praise.

"Ah, lay off on him already." Firestar said, setting four-high grade cubes down in front of the apprentice medics. He stood taller, holding a cube of high-grade in the air.

"Hey! A round on the house!" He yelled, gaining a cheer form the occupants of the bar. Focus jumped to his peds, his own cube raised.

"A toast to Ratchet! The best medic Cybertron will ever see!" He yelled as the bar roared in a huge cheer for one of their own. Ratchet couldn't stop the grin that crossed his faceplates as he raised his own cube to honor the toast.

The next orn found Focus sleeping off a hangover and Ratchet up bright and early. He left a quick note for his roommate and left the small apartment that they had rented while at the Academy. He took the lift down to the street level and transformed. The roads were just starting to get busy with mechs heading away from Iacon to the energon mines while some headed into the city. It didn't take long before he was on the very edge of Iacon, even farther from the center of Iacon then the small bar they had celebrated in the orn before. Finally, after taking two wrong turns he found it. He transformed, walking toward the small hospital. For something this far away from Iacon, it was in remarkably good shape. Hesitantly, he approached the building. Taking a deep vent, he approached the door and it slid open. Instantly the overpowering smell of cleaner hit him. He vented deeply, loving the smell as he walked into the small hospital. He was standing in what looked almost like a waiting room while a dark doorway on his left led to a back room. The main part of the hospital was on his right.

"Who is it?! Rock, you had better not be back already!" A furious voice bellowed and Ratchet jumped.

"No sir…I'm…ah…I'm looking for…for the medic Chrome." Ratchet called.

"Who's asking?" The same voice demanded.

"My designations Ratchet. I just graduated from the Medical Academy." Ratchet replied. There was a crash and a sharp curse, followed by another crash. A tall, broad mech stomped out of a back room and Ratchet instantly knew it was Chrome. It was impossible to mistake him. Ratchet had heard that the medic had once been bright silver. But he had been caught in an acid rain storm and the acid had burned his armor, leaving his once silver frame now scared with rust colored acid stains. The mech stalked over to Ratchet, his piercing green gaze seeming to pin Ratchet to the floor. The young mech hardily came up to Chrome's chassis.

"An apprentice huh?" Chrome asked, still glaring at Ratchet.

"Yessir."

"And I'm guessing that you are here because you want to become my apprentice." Chrome demanded.

"If you are willing to. Sir." Ratchet said, staring up at Chrome. The once silver mech crossed his arms over his chassis, still glaring at Ratchet.
"Why should I mentor you? You are not the first apprentice to come here and I've turned them all away. Why should you be any different?"

At that Ratchet hesitated, unsure why he was would be better than the others. Chrome snorted, rolling his optics at the apprentice before him.

"That's what I thought." He growled, turning his back on Ratchet and going back onto the backroom he had come from. Ratchet released the vent he hadn't realised he had been holding. Just as he was about to turn and leave, a dark grey mech burst thought he door, nearly taking the door off its track and almost running over Ratchet.

"Chrome! Fraggit! There's another mining accident! Rockjaw and Dusty's crew are trapped!" The mech bellowed. Another crash and a string of curses rang out form the backroom and Chrome ran out. He paused when he saw Ratchet still in the room.

"You said you were an apprentice?" Chrome asked.

"Yessir."

"Were you any good?"

"I was the top of my class." Ratchet said, keeping his voice neutral.

"Do you have tools?"

"Yessir."

"Then let's go. I might need help." Chrome said before he ran out the door after the dark grey mech. Ratchet had to sprint to keep up as Chrome and the mech both transformed, the grey mech into a heavy dump truck, Chrome into a pickup. Ratchet transformed as the two mechs raced off.

To Ratchet's surprise Chrome pinged him with a comm. link upload. Ratchet right a ways accepted, listening into the conversation.

"Which mine blew?" Chrome asked over the comm link.

"B-16. Unicron's Mine. That aft Smokepipe hit an energon vein with a drill and it blew up in his faceplates. We know for a fact that he's offline as well as at least seven others. The explosion collapsed part of the mine though and we have to stabilise it before we can get in. Some of the miners are in bad shape." The unknown grey mech said.

"Primus. Do you know how many were in the mine when it collapsed?"

"At least forty, if not more than that. At least a dozen were already out when I left to get you."

"You hear that kid? It won't be pretty. You listen to me and you stay out of everyone's way. Compute?" Chrome barked, making Ratchet jump again.

"Jumpy little thing isn't he?" The grey mech snorted.

"Yessir." Ratchet responded, speeding up as the adults raced on.

Ratchet was hard pressed to keep up with the two as they took a road, more like a set of tracks, across the steel landscape. The terrain got rougher as the mountains protecting the north side of Iacon rose up in jagged sheets to meet them. In the distance, smoke rose from a hole in the side of a mountain. As they got closer, Ratchet could hear at least a dozen different voices yelling in what looked like organised chaos. Ratchet realised in horror that this was not an uncommon event. The two mechs and the apprentice transformed as they hit the front of the mine. Already two rough grey mechs were helping a third out for the mine. Ratchet could only stare at what was left of the mech's leg.

"Kid! Get over here!" Chrome bellowed and Ratchet bolted after him as Chrome kneeled down beside a huge tan colored mech. Energon streamed from the stump that was the mech's left arm.

"You ever done something like this?" Chrome asked, already sealing one of the cut energon lines in the mech's arm.

"Yes, but not this crazy." Ratchet confessed, his optics wide as he watched.

"Then pay attention. Only do what needs to be done to stop the mech from leaking out. These mechs are tough so don't put them into stasis unless you can't get near them. Don't worry about cosmetic slag. Once they are stable move on." Chrome barked as he finished with this mech. He was right a ways onto another, this one with a crushed leg from the knee joint down.

"His leg can't be saved, shut down the pain relays, take the leg off and stop the energon. I can build him a new leg after everyone's stable." Chrome said. And in less than three klicks he had done that.

"That's the basics to mining surgery. Now get going, most serious first!" Chrome ordered as he moved onto yet another injured mech. Ratchet was suddenly standing alone in the middle of the mayhem. Taking a deep exvent he scanned the mechs already out and went for the worst wounded. A dark silver grey mech was gasping in pain as energon ran from his side, a jagged piece of steel imbedded in his side. Ratchet got to work, disconnecting the last pain relays before carefully removing the metal and sealing the energon lines in the mech's side. As he was about to move onto the next, the mech caught his wrist, yanking him hard to the ground beside him, The mech twisted over him, his bulk shielding the young apprentice as there was another ground shaking explosion from deep inside the mine.

"Fraggit!" Ratchet heard some curse. The mech moved and Ratchet scrambled to his peds in shock to see more smoke pouring out of the mine.

"Chrome! Over here!" A voice yelled and Ratchet saw the scarred mech bolt toward the entrance.

"Thanks." He said to the mech beside him before he sprinted onto the next. And the next. Ratchet had never worked so hard in his life. He was coated in energon up to his elbows and the stuff was splattered across his chassis.

"Kid!" Chrome's voice rang out over the noise and Ratchet twisted around to see the scarred mech run over. Ratchet was in the middle of taking a mech's lower arm off and Chrome quickly finished the job.

"The rest can wait, we need you at the mine." Chrome said and Ratchet realised that he was covered in dust. "Come with me."

The medic and the apprentice ran to the entrance of the mine. Everyone that could be reached was already outside, away from the mine. The only ones left were the ones that were still trapped. Chrome wasted no time running into the mine and Ratchet followed him, though more leery about the horrible groans coming from the ceiling. Ratchet glanced at up at it nervously but followed Chrome deeper into the mine. Temporary lights flickered as they climbed over fallen beams and jagged cracks in the floor. Eventually they made it to the cave in. Four mechs raging in different shades of grey stood there, watching as Chrome and Ratchet walked up.

"Whenever he's ready." One of the mechs, Ratchet recognised as the one that got them, said. Chrome turned to the apprentices, dropping down to one knee to be on optic level.

"Kid, I know that this is a little more them most apprentices are used to. But right now, you are the only one that can get past that cave it to the miners on the other side. Most of them, thank Primus, are ok except for a few scrapes and tears. But Dusty's in bad shape, we don't know how bad and he needs a medic. I understand if you are too scared to go and we won't hold it against you." Chrome said in the first calm voice Ratchet had ever heard. He glanced past Chrome's green optics to look at the miners. They all looked worried, scared for their friend. Ratchet's optics drifted back to Chrome's.

"How far down do I need to go?" He asked.

So this is obviously set before the War and before Megatron becomes a power hungry gladiator. And yes he and Optimus are brothers but that's a whole different plot line.

So what do you think so far? I'm curious to see where this goes myself.

I will already warn you know, I am not thrilled with the title and I might change it if I can think of one better.

Bear with me, I am writing in 3rd person and that is completely out of my comfort zone for something this long.

Let me know what you think and please review!

2211Nighthawk