AN: Okay, so here comes the first batch of Outtakes to my Transformers story: United We Stand, the following chapters are all pertaining to scenes requested by my reviewers, so if there is a scene you want to see send me a review and I'll get right to it.

AN Spoiler Warning! If you have not read United We Stand I strongly encourage you to read it, as there will be references to that story throughout these chapters.

This outtake takes place sometime during the 55th chapter.

{Bumblebee and Starscream's Friendship} – requested by Guest

Bumblebee sat in the rec room of the Nemesis, using one servo to hold his cube of energon while his other held a pad. The ship was hardly functional yet, and security had to be kept tight in case any of the human governments tried to sneak in and gather intel. Megatron might have softened his outlook somewhat towards the humans thanks to the wards of Bumblebee, Arcee and Soundwave but that did not mean that the Lord Protector was going to allow the organics to just wander around.

Lifting his energon cube up, Bumblebee's blue optics glanced around the room and he paused when he saw Starscream. The seeker was sitting at a corner table, his back to the wall so that he could see everyone in the room and he was holding tightly onto an energon cube. The grounder belatedly remembered that Starscream had been assigned to working on the Nemesis since the Twins no longer needed constant supervision, and the seeker's knowledge of the engineering specs of the ship rivaled all others.

Making a decision quickly, Bumblebee gathered his stuff and headed over to Starscream's table. The seeker watched his approach; his red optics narrowing but the grounder could see the apprehension in there as well. "Mind if I sit here?"

Starscream glanced around the rec room, noting the many other empty seats before looking back at Bumblebee, he sad nothing but he did incline his helm towards the seat directly opposite him. Bumblebee smiled and sat down, taking a sip of his energon drink before getting back to work on his pad. He could feel Starscream's eyes boring into him, watching every move he made but the grounder kept an air of calm about him. He made sure not to make any threatening moves while he drank and scrolled through the information on the pad, Bumblebee did not hurry but he knew he could not take his time either as Dreadwing was expecting him back soon.

Finally finishing off his cube, Bumblebee got up, ignoring the reaction of Starscream, who tensed, and gathered up his pad. "See you later, Starscream."

Bumblebee knew that those red optics followed him to the recyclable bin, where he put his empty energon cube, and were still on him as he exited the rec room. The grounder knew what had made him sit with Starscream, the feeling of mutual understanding because of the experiences they both had had thanks to the slave code.

Megatron had told Bumblebee that Starscream had been one of the few Decepticons who had not been had the slave code put into them previous to Megatron's uprising. Like Bumblebee, Starscream had become a victim to Shockwave's updated version of the golden council's old slave code and had been forced, like the grounder, to do things he normally would never have done. Bumblebee knew Starscream had not talked about the time he spent in Shockwave's lair with anyone, the seeker nearly always went very close into a panic mode should anyone bring it up. Knockout had tried to do sessions with him as he had with Bumblebee, but the seeker had been far from receptive. The only thing Starscream had taken from Knockout was the red medic's playlist of classical music, and that was as good as Knockout supposed the situation would get for the time being.

Bumblebee, however, was not so sure and he felt certain that while he worked on sealing the hull breaches on the Nemesis he could also befriend the traumatized seeker. It certainly could not hurt to put forward the effort, as Bumblebee knew that getting Starscream to relax just a little bit more in company would ease the way for everyone else to get closer to him. The grounder felt sure that he was best candidate to work with Starscream, even though neither mech had liked each other prior to their individual capture and subsequent enslavement and Bumblebee was not exactly feeling chummy towards the seeker now, still the grounder knew, to some extent, what the other had been through and at the least he could offer an understanding if nothing else.

So that was how it started. Every energon break Bumblebee went to the rec room and sat with Starscream. He did not try to engage Starscream in conversation, beyond asking if he could sit with him and he was sure to always have a pad with him so as to keep himself occupied. The first few times Starscream did nothing but watch him, while guarding his own cube of energon, but after seeing that Bumblebee made no move to steal it the seeker began having his own pad with him to work on.

Four days passed before Starscream spoke, and when he did it was with a question Bumblebee was quite prepared to answer.

"Why are you sitting with me?"

Bumblebee looked up from his pad and stared at Starscream, letting him see nothing but sincerity in his optics as he replied, "Because I know what it's like to be alone."

Starscream snorted, "Don't get all sentimental on me, grounder. You hate me! They all hate me! I'm only staying here because I have no other place to go. Don't waste my time feeling sorry for me, I don't want your misplaced sympathy!"

Bumblebee remained calm, "You also stay here because you know no one here would do to you what Shockwave would do."

Starscream had stood up, but at Bumblebee's words he sat back down. "You speak as if you know what you're saying."

"I do know what I'm saying, Starscream. Shockwave made the slave code and then gave it to MECH, you remember them?" The seeker stiffened, he did indeed remember the human criminal organization that had stolen his T-cog. "Well, they ambushed me and Bulkhead, they took me and downloaded the slave code into me. I had no defenses against it, and was wholly unprepared for the things Silas made me do. I butchered humans because Silas was testing his control over me, their deaths were meaningless to him and he did not care who they were. Soldier or civilian, military base or airport, it mattered not. I almost gave in, that's something I haven't told anyone. It was after I attacked the military base and killed humans for the fist time. I was brought before Lockdown, and he offered me a place by his side and it was so tempting to accept the 'comfort' he offered when everything was so chaotic in my processor. Had he not mentioned needing a human test subject and wanting my help in procuring one I think I would have accepted his offer. However, when he said he wanted my help in bringing in a human I thought he meant Raf and I refused, locking away all my memories of my ward under a medical lock so even I could not access them. When I refused Lockdown beat me, but the pain was worth it knowing I had protected my little brother."

Starscream stared at him, his processor whirling, "Lockdown beat you? He used to beat me too. Shockwave would order me to obey the bounty hunter for a set amount of time and Lockdown would use me like a human punching bag. He took pleasure in messing with my wings, that was where it was the easiest to hurt me and he always left them in a mess that Shockwave would have to fix. I hated and feared him." Starscream tapped the table with his servo digits; "I was the one Shockwave had collecting human test subjects, and I had to clean up his work station after he was done mutilating them. When the first human survived the experiment I rejoiced, because I knew I wouldn't have to clean up any more body parts."

After that the mechs' meetings came easier and more frequent. Starscream was not always the first one to the rec room but Bumblebee tried to keep the seating arrangements the same so that the seeker would be at ease. Sometimes they spoke and Bumblebee would learn of the things Starscream had done for Shockwave and Lockdown, and sometimes they just sat in silence from which both of them found an understanding with each other.

Bumblebee found that in forging this acquaintance with Starscream his own dark memories were losing their weight in his processor. While he would always remember, Bumblebee was no longer haunted by what MECH had forced him to do and he had accepted the fact that there was nothing he could have done to stop Silas. He was innocent, and he believed that even though Starscream had initially forged an alliance with Shockwave, the seeker was innocent as well for he had had no more control over himself than Bumblebee had had.

"This is what friends do, isn't it?" Starscream asked, a year to the day Bumblebee had first sat down at his table. The steady thrum of the ship engines made a nice background noise and the rec room was only had a handful of Vehicons who were taking turns using the giant video game system Sunstreaker had installed.

Bumblebee looked up from where he had been studying the inner depths of his energon cube, "Yes, it is."

Starscream tilted his helm, red optics studying the yellow and black grounder, "Are we friends?"

The scout smiled, "Yes, I think we are."

The gray seeker snorted, "How did that ever happen?"

Bumblebee laughed and raised his cube to salute Starscream, and the seeker returned the gesture. Unlikely though the friendship had been at first it had happened and neither the seeker nor the grounder could say that they wished it had never been formed. "However it came about, Starscream, I am glad I chose to sit down here on that day."

"I'm glad you did, too, and that's all the sentiment you're going to get from me on the subject."

Bumblebee hid a grin behind his energon cube. Despite what Starscream said, the grounder suspected that the seeker was tremendously grateful for their friendship and Bumblebee felt that it was the best decision he had ever made.