For The Race: Queen Bee.
Summary. The AllSpark Essence is in Sam, but it is beginning to fade and die. As a last-gasp effort, it uses the energy it has left to do what it can to ensure the survival of the Cybertronian race. In doing so, it gives one unsuspecting 'bot an unexpected transformation.
Continuity: Bay Movieverse
Rating: M for safety.
Disclaimer: Transformers never has been and never will be mine. Probably a good thing. It belongs to Hasbro and Paramount.
A/N: "For The Race" was only ever meant to be one story, not a series, but like the AllSpark Essence in these stories, it appears to have a mind of its own ;-) Skyress89, this one's for you.
For The Race: Queen Bee.
Chapter One.
It had thought that by jumping into the little organic who had tried first to save it, and then to destroy it, it could avoid being used for destruction by one of its children without perishing, but in the end, it had only prolonged the inevitable.
The Cube it had inhabited had also served as a battery and a conduit back to its main energy source, and without that, it was starting to fade. Yes, in the right circumstances, it would generate the energy it needed for a short time, but not in this form, which gradually leaked the energy faster than it could generate it.
The AllSpark Essence reflected that this slow death was still a better fate than destroying life instead of creating it. It only regretted that it's children might also die, as they were so scattered.
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Sam and Bumblebee were sitting in Ratchet's Medbay, discussing things about Cybertron that Sam was interested in, while Bumblebee obliged by showing Sam the holos he had stored of the planet he had called 'home.' As he showed him the weird (to Sam) architecture of the city of Iacon, Sam examined the pinnacled and rounded metal buildings with interest, trying to take his mind off the unpleasant feeling he had inside that something was going to happen.
He couldn't explain the feeling, it was as if something inside him was withering or dying, but that made no sense. He'd had this feeling for a few days now, and was learning to ignore it. It mainly troubled him now if he wasn't keeping his mind occupied with other things. Like just before he went to sleep, and that was a real downer.
Bumblebee, however, had learned to read Sam better than the boy had realised, had noticed he seemed pale and quieter than was usual for him, and quietly commed Ratchet. As the Autobot medic walked through, Sam said "Why are you through here, Ratchet?"
"Well, this is my Medbay, but I'm here right now to see you. Bumblebee is concerned about you."
Sam groaned. "'Bee? Did you have to? I told you, I'm fine!"
"Sam, I am concerned about you, as a friend. There is so much that can go wrong with your kind, and I know you have said you are fine and that it is nothing, but you have been different recently. Please, just to set my mind at rest, would you let Ratchet do a scan of you?"
Sam sighed again: he did wish Bumblebee had not gone through half the Internet looking up about humans, scaring himself with details of diseases Sam was unlikely to be able to even pronounce, let alone come into contact with during his lifetime. He loved having Bumblebee as a friend, but his overprotectiveness could be a bit of a drag sometimes. However, he acquiesced, knowing Bumblebee would just fret about it otherwise, and he didn't want to worry his yellow friend. Anyway, what harm could it do?
"Yeah, sure thing 'Bee," Sam said, and sat still with his eyes closed as Ratchet ran a scanning beam over him,
For the first few minutes, Ratchet checked Sam for infections ranging from those as harmless (if uncomfortable) as the common cold, right through to and including lethal ones like Ebola. Finding nothing worse than a mild case of athlete's foot, he moved on to deficiencies. He found Sam was on the edge of anaemia, and his vitamin levels were lower than he would have preferred, but it was nothing that a multivitamin and iron supplement (or a healthier diet) couldn't fix.
He didn't do a genetic scan of Sam as he had done that before, and planned on having some gene therapies ready by the time any of his predispositions began to affect him later in life. He checked for cancerous cells, found none that Sam's efficient immune system was not dealing with, and, just to reassure Bumblebee, checked the boy for every kind of energy emission he knew of, and that was how he found it.
"Hold still, Sam," Ratchet said, perturbed, and as Bumblebee's head came up and his face swung their way, Ratchet realised he had best give some explanation before the boy or his twitchy guardian assumed something was wrong. First, though, he recalibrated his sensors in case of error, and scanned again. The reading did not change.
"What is it, Ratch?" Sam asked.
"You appear to have AllSpark energy inside you, Sam," Ratchet explained. "It could be residual, you know, left over from Mission City, but Wheeljack has put forward an interesting theory that we can possibly test, with your permission. It's non-invasive, and doesn't require anything except you and Bumblebee, and Bumblebee's sensitivity to the AllSpark."
"What theory is this? And what will this energy do to me?" Sam asked.
"Wheeljack's theory is that the AllSpark may not be gone, as such, but has moved, and he suggested that if we find anyone, or anything, with even a hint of AllSpark energy, a Sensitive hold it in his hands and try to contact it via song."
"We tried with the fragment, Sam, and got some faint echoes, but nothing more," Bumblebee explained.
"I think the greatest likelihood with you is that we won't get even that, as I said, I suspect it's residual, something left over from your contact, but if we check, we can get anything Wheeljack might want to do done before he even finds out about it, and he will find out, Wheeljack has a way of finding things out," Ratchet said. He blew air through his vents in what Sam recognised as exasperation. "Sometimes, I suspect that that crazy inventor of ours has this whole Base bugged. As for what the energy will do to you, the likely answer is, nothing. If it's residual, and dissipating, if it hasn't done anything to you yet, it likely won't."
"And if it's not residual?" Sam asked.
"Let's not borrow trouble if we don't need it. If it turns out to not be residual, we'll work it out, but so far my scans suggest it hasn't done anything measurable to you."
"Okay, so what do we have to do?" Sam asked.
"Bumblebee is a Sensitive, and could sing to the AllSpark while holding you in his hands," Ratchet said. "Would you trust Bumblebee to do this?"
"I've trusted 'Bee with my life, and would again if I needed to," Sam said. "I think I can trust him with me on this."
"Okay, Sam, climb into my hands," Bumblebee said. "I'll sing, like I did at the Hoover Dam, that's how we Sensitives communicated with the AllSpark." Sam looked from Ratchet to Bumblebee, and nodded.
Bumblebee stooped, presenting his interlaced hands to Sam, who climbed into the proffered hands and lay down until he was comfortable. Bumblebee straightened up, checked Sam was okay, and began to sing.
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The AllSpark Essence became aware that one of its Sensitives was trying to contact it. It reached out, sensing a lifeline. The Sensitive was a form it could live in, would not leak as much as the organic form it currently inhabited. It felt the warmth of the Sensitive's Spark, and pulled back a little.
To exist in the Sensitive's body would mean removing or absorbing it's creation's Spark, and this, the Essence decided, it would not do. Perhaps it could, when it had strengthened, transfer itself to a new form built for it and give the mech his Spark back, but the idea of taking over like that was abhorrent. The other danger was that another power-hungry mech, or one of the Organics, would again try to take it over and use it for it's own ends, possibly prolonging the war, or being the cause of a new one, a thought that was more abhorrent than the first.
No, the Essence decided, it had to allow itself to die, but perhaps it could do something to help it's creations. It could no longer sense all of them, only the closest ones, and they all had one thing in common. It may be that there were still others of the rarer type about, but without knowing, and without knowing if they would meet the ones here, it decided it would like to try and ensure it's creation's continued existence as a race.
It sent a query to the Sensitive, for it would not take this action without permission. The Sensitive sent a query for more data, which the Essence gave. The Sensitive paused, and for a moment the Essence thought the Sensitive would refuse, but instead he then gave permission.
The Essence used everything it had to make the necessary adjustments, a process that took the remainder of it's energy.
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Sam appeared to relax even further as Bumblebee began singing, his eyes losing their focus. His lips began to move as if he were silently activated his scans, for, as he had told Sam, he had expected nothing to happen.
His scans told him that the AllSpark energy in Sam was showing activity, the human's heart rate and respiration increasing even as he relaxed further into Bumblebee's hands. Ratchet registered an increase in the AllSpark's activity, as Bumblebee sounded a querying tone, followed seconds later by a musical trill, and then Sam began to sparkle.
As Bumblebee continued to sing, a glowing halo spread from the human he held to also surround the young Autobot scout, outlining him in a soft blue haze. Then the haze rapidly increased in intensity, becoming so bright Ratchet had to use three sets of optic filters to shield against the glare, until he could not see the two figures at the centre of the blue-white light.
Backing up prudently, Ratchet continued watching, hoping to see something, and continuing to scan even though the light seemed to act like a shield around the two, stopping his scans from penetrating. The raw AllSpark energy was too powerful, too turbulent, but it didn't take a genius to work out that something big was taking place.
The glow eventually began to shrink and fade, revealing the figure of Bumblebee, still holding the human boy cradled in his arms. At first, Ratchet could not tell exactly what was different about Bumblebee, as the light still seemed to be blurring his edges. Ratchet focused his scans on Sam, but the boy appeared unharmed, stirring and waking with a confused look upon his face. As Bumblebee turned his head to look at Ratchet, Ratchet stared.
The scout did not appear to be harmed himself by the outpouring of AllSpark energy, and was still recognisably Bumblebee, still yellow, and still had the same round blue optics as before. The scout's face, for the most part, was unchanged, except for the fact that Bumblebee now possessed a mouth, and the head was a slightly different shape.
The doorwings were still there, although they appeared larger, but Ratchet realised this was an optical illusion fostered by the Autobot scout's less bulky and more slender frame. Bumblebee had lost no height, but was less broad, the form still strong looking, but unmistakably...
As Bumblebee gave Ratchet a querying warble, Ratchet's optics widened as his conclusion caught up with his observations, and Ratchet realised that for some reason, the AllSpark appeared to have turned Bumblebee into a femme.