Author's Notes: I thought the idea of a character study between the two most radically different transformers in the G1 series was a really cool idea. I'll update this story regularly. Please follow or favorite if you want to see more and find out when the next chapter comes out. Thank you very much for your support :)


Chapter 1

The Switch

The Autobots were rushing around inside the Ark; the ones still able to run carrying their injured to the medical bay to be repaired. Ratchet cursed softly as he saw the devastation on the bodies of his comrades and knew that he and Wheeljack would have to be the ones to patch them back together again.

The Decepticons had delivered a terrible blow to the Autobots that day. Sparkplug began opening up Ironhide to repair his fuel tank while Ratchet tweaked Bumblebee's poor damaged processor. He only prayed the damaged wouldn't be permanent. The poor young scout had been damaged while fighting Starscream. It could have been even worse.

Jazz looked up at Wheeljack from the medical berth he was lying on and tried to give a reassuring smile to his caregiver. It somehow seemed even sadder than if he'd been complaining. To be fair though, Gears was complaining enough for everyone.

"Slagging Decepticon scum!" Gears shouted over the loud noises of mechanics expertly repairing the wounded, "I can't believe we risked our tailpipes trying to get that stupid ionic conductor away from them, only for the stupid thing to break when that fragging lightning hit! And the Decepticreeps got away!"

A few long-suffering moans could be heard in the medical bay, but otherwise no one said a word to the grumbling mech. They were just grateful that the earth had been spared a horrible fate at the hands of Megatron and his goons.

Ratchet wiped some excess energon from Bumblebee's inner circuits in his head. Out of all the Autobots Bumblebee was the most damaged, and he was also the hero of the day. If he hadn't wrestled that ionic conductor pole away from Starscream then the machine would have continued to drain the earth of oxygen in an attempt to convert particles into ions, and ions into usable energon. Prowl interviewed each conscious member of the team in an effort to ascertain the condition of each one of them. When he was satisfied that most were in decent shape he ordered them to return to duty.

After several hours the only mech that was still offline was Bumblebee. Spike was worried sick, and he and his father never left Bumblebee's side. Ratchet worked tirelessly, and after he was done all they could do was wait and hoped the new components allowed his processor to recover.

Slowly, after nearly 8 hours on the recovery berth, Bumblebee began to online his optics. Ratchet hovered attentively over the younger mech and hoped there was no serious damage to his cognitive function.

"Wake up, Bumblebee," Ratchet said as the yellow mech returned to consciousness, "You've had a long night."

Bumblebee then fully onlined his optics and stared in wide-eyed horror at the doctor. He bolted upright and had the most shocked and offended look Ratchet had ever seen on his face!

"What have you done to me?!" Bumblebee shouted, but then stopped and clutched his throat abruptly.

"Easy, Bumblebee," Ratchet tried to sound comforting, "A bolt of lightning struck you when you were trying to retrieve the ionic conductor. You're going to be alright."

Bumblebee held his head in both hands and looked ready to go insane! He seemed to be trying to gather his thoughts.

"Wait...What did you call me?" Bumblebee asked hesitantly.

"Don't you remember your own name, Bumblebee?" Spike asked; concerned.

"Now you listen to me, you fl-" but before Bumblebee finished snapping at the boy, he looked at his outstretched finger pointing at Spike.

Suddenly Bumblebee became fascinated by his hands. He stared at them, and he worked the fingers as if it were the first time he had ever seen them.

"Take me to a mirror," Bumblebee said without inflection.

Everyone was starting to worry about him now. Bumblebee was acting very strange, and Ratchet feared he might have suffered amnesia or some form of processor damage.

Still, he complied with the little mech and led him to a full length mirror on the other side of the room. Ratchet noticed that Bumblebee wasn't paying attention to anything else in the room anymore. The young Autobot was enthralled with his own image. He stared at his own face as if it were the face of a stranger, He touched the glass to make sure it was really him. Ratchet knew that whatever had happened had taken a lot out of Bumblebee, so he left to attend to cleanup and allowed Bumblebee to be alone with his thoughts.

It was too bad Ratchet and the others couldn't hear those thoughts…

What have these slagging Autobots done to me?! Starscream thought as he stared at the yellow reflection before him. It must be a trick! They're trying to get information out of me by logic-wiping me! Am I really in a new body, or is it just one of Hound's infernal projections? Well, only one way to find out…

Starscream tried to activate his thrusters to fly. He couldn't even find where they were supposed to be! Then he transformed and looked in the mirror again. A car! He turned into a tiny car! It looked like it was made for baby humans!

"Noooooo!"


Meanwhile, back on the Nemesis, Hook was joylessly repairing the Decepticons that were injured in the battle. The other Constructicons were supposed to help him, but of course they bailed! They were there to help fix up the Stunticons and Laserbeak, but when the last patient left was Starscream they all left him alone to finish the task. He hated them for it, but he couldn't blame them. Starscream was a terrible patient and would often blast one of them with a null ray if he felt even the slightest discomfort.

Part of him wanted to forget the whole thing, but if he didn't repair Starscream then he would never see Megatron punish him for costing them the ionic conductor. It wasn't really his fault; he had been struck by lightning. Still, Megatron had to blame someone, and Starscream was one of his favorite targets.

After finishing with the Seeker's fried processor, Hook turned to repairing a broken ball joint connecting Starscream's left knee to his leg. It was a good thing the SIC was out cold; Hook was not very gentle in his work.

Hook had been finished with the surgery for several minutes and was washing a cloth caked with energon when Starscream came back online.

"What...What happened? Where am I?" Starscream asked softly.

Hook chuckled and said "You're gonna get it now, sir. Megatron is going to grind you into powder!"

"What!?" Starscream shuddered as he frantically took in his surroundings, "Are you saying that I'm a prisoner of war?"

"Hah, you wish!" Hook laughed derisively, "Worse, you're the idiot that cost us our chance at limitless energy! We worked months on that conductor, and now it's gone! Who do you think Megatron is going to blame?"

"Me?" Starscream asked softly.

"Of course you, slag head!" Hook scoffed.

Then Starscream did something that Hook would have never expected him to do. The Seeker straightened his back proudly where he sat on the berth and proclaimed "I would do it again!"

Then suddenly Starscream stopped, and got this weird look on his face.

"What did you do to my voice?" Starscream asked suspiciously.

Hook couldn't hold back from laughing then.

"Seriously? It took you what, like, 200,000 vorns to figure out you sound like a dying bird?" Hook shouted in glee as he continued laughing at the confused Seeker.

"I'm not that old," Starscream replied matter-of-factly.

Seeing that Hook was distracted by laughing, Starscream gingerly got off the berth; never taking his wary optics off the Constructicon. He backed away from the room, and when he thought he was far enough into the hallways, he ran as fast as he could down the hallways!

He ran first down one hallway and then another; getting lost amidst all the purple walls that looked exactly the same.

When he tried to turn a corner one of his wings got caught in the wall and caused him to trip and fall down!

He hollered in pain! Seeker wings were sensitive, but how was poor Bumblebee supposed to know? He didn't even realize they were there!

As he got up on his hands and knees on the floor, he looked down at the reflective metallic surface. The shape of his form was blurry, but he could tell that the black, red, and silver reflection was not his own!

He looked at his hands. They were blue, and his peripheral vision let him see the wings on either side of his body!

"Hey 'Screamer!" Skywarp shouted as he ran down the hallway, "What are you doing just crawling around down there? You lose an optic enhancer?"

Bumblebee quickly got to his (sort of) feet, and faced the Decepticon. Skywarp wasn't nearly as tall as he remembered, but it was still unnerving to stand so close to a mech that had killed so many innocent Autobots over the course of his career.

"Hey, come on 'Screamer! Don't just stare at me like that!" Skywarp said in an easygoing manner. It was weird, "Listen, I know you had a rough day with the ion thingy, and you'll have a rougher night as Megatron's punching bag, so why don't you come on down to the rec room and have some high grade with Thundercracker and me? It'll do you good."

"Oh, I don't drink high grade," Bumblebee replied; trying to sound polite but firm.

"Haha! That's a good one!" Skywarp whooped as he slapped Starscream on the back and led him toward the break room.

Bumblebee didn't know what was going on. His mind was reeling. He looked like Starscream. He didn't know how, but he looked like Starscream and the Decepticons had no idea! How did this happen, and how was he going to get out of Decepticon Headquarters?

Another ominous thought also occurred to him. If he was here, then where was the real Starscream?