"Did you find energon Optimus?" Ratchet asked hopefully.
"No. But I did uncover this." Optimus spoke softly as he placed what he was carrying on the nearest available surface.
"But it's impossible, they died out before this planet was fully formed." The red and white medic exclaimed in disbelief.
"What died out before Earth fully formed? What is it?" Jack asked while leaning forward over the rails of the platform he was on to get a better look.
"The ancient remains... Of a Predacon." The Prime stated. Ultra Magnus' optics widened and Bumblebee's span and dilated.
[A skull of one of those mighty beasts that are Amalgamous Prime's descendants? The same ones that you told me stories about as a youngling?] Bumblebee beeped. [How can even a trace of them be here of all the planets in the universe, let alone fossilised remains?]
"That is a question even I do not know the answer to, even with the knowledge the Matrix of Leadership grants me, there is no record of such an occurrence."
Ratchet approached the Autobot leader as the others dispersed.
"Optimus. With a live Predacon among the Deception ranks, even if it is frozen solid in the Arctic, we need an edge. Creating a Predacon clone may answer some queries we have."
"You know I will not permit a sentient being to be locked up for no reason. Even if it is only temporary." Optimus replied.
"I am well aware that it is wrong to restrict a living being's freedom. I intended to give the beast the choice of helping us or not anyway. I'll be working with human cloning technology since we do not possess the cybertronian equivalent. Human technology is only capable of exactly duplicating a creature with intelligence up to that of the most intelligent dog anyway. anything beyond that is just an empty shell. That way if the Predacon's mind, primal as it is, cannot be replicated, the beast won't suffer."
Optimus was silent for a little while, deep in thought. Eventually he answered.
"Very well. Clone the Predacon from the CNA that you will surely be able to extract from this skull and you can study it's weaknesses so we can bring the beast under Megatron's command down without lasting damage to our own. If it ever returns, that is."
Time skip
"Ultra Magnus to base; the Predacon has returned. I repeat; the Predacon has returned. We require immediate backup."
"There is no time to waste. Ratchet, bridge myself, Bumblebee, Arcee and Smokescreen to their coordinates now!" Optimus commanded, his battle mask activating with a moderate clang that resonated through the base. The Autobots all got out their weapons and rushed through the ground-bridge that opened, leaving Ratchet with the humans and the husk of a Predacon.
They emerged in a canyon and started firing at the beast that was ploughing through the Wreckers like they were cannon fodder. Optimus rushed the beast head on while Bumblebee, Arcee and Smokescreen ran to help their comrades.
The black and yellow scout grabbed Wheeljack's hand and pulled him upright as the others did the same. Vehicons rained red bolts of laser fire down on their position and the six Autobots returned fire.
Bumblebee transformed as quickly as he could into his Chevrolet Urbana 500 vehicle mode and drove towards the drones at the highest speed he could sustain with the terrain he was dealing with. Arcee caught on to what her partner was going to attempt and drew the Deception fire to herself by making it look like she was trying to circle around and get them from behind.
The black and yellow muscle car roared into the air behind the drones and transformed, smashing two red eyed Cybertronian's heads together, effectively offlining them both. Three more fell before the 'Cons realised they were being attacked from behind.
Bumblebee danced around the shots and blasted as many as he he could with his stingers. A true scouts weapon. Killed with as few shots as possible for something so small, fired two shots at once, compact and, in the right hands, could wreak collateral havoc in seconds. The others helped him out and soon, just under half the 'Cons were pushing up lugnuts.
"'Bee! Optimus' got Big Ugly occupied, go for its weak spot!" Bulkhead yelled over the noise of blaster fire.
[I'm all over it!] The scout beeped back and jumped off the canyon wall onto the flying, dragon-like creatures back. He wrapped his arms around its wings at the base and held on while it fell to earth, literally. Once it got back on it's feet, the Predacon lashed Bumblebee off it's back with it's long tail and roared at him angrily.
[Oh scrap!]
The Predacon batted Optimus aside with it's wing when he flew at it with his jetpack and proceed to dismantle the Autobots one by one, starting with Bulk'. Next it blasted Wheeljack into a pile of rubble with a stream off fire, then smacked Smokescreen into the ground despite his tricks with the Phase Shifter and decommissioned Ultra Magnus for the time being.
With a flick of it's tail, the mighty beast swept Arcee's legs from under her and pounced, swinging it's forepaws down to rake open her chest and snuff out her spark. It's swords of claws buried themselves in Bumblebee's back as he shoved his partner aside and took the blow for her.
[Argh!] The youngling scout let out a high, pain filled beep that was his equivalent of a scream. Ripping it's energon stained claws out of Bumblebee's back, the Predacon literally tore the scout apart. His right arm was mangled and shredded beyond repair by the beast's jaws, his legs were blasted off below the knees by dragon fire, the black and yellow doorwings were crushed and ripped off the scout's back. Autobots and Deceptions alike were horrified by the sight of the primal creature devastating the youngling's frame.
None were more torn than Optimus Prime as he watched helplessly as the young one he had raised as his own since he was a sparkling was the beast chew toy.
Eventually the Predacon was finished and flew away back to the Nemesis along with the Vehicons. Back to Megatron who would relish in the carnage the drones would report. The Prime reached for his comlink and called for a ground-bridge as he forced himself over to the youngling's wreaked frame.
"Ratchet emegancy bridge now! Prepare the sickbay for lifesaving surgery! Do not delay, no questions, we need that bridge NOW!"
"Already opening the bridge and prepping the sickbay."
Optimus reached down and lifted his surrogate son in his arms. The Autobots were already getting to their feet so he ran straight through the swirling green vortex, closely followed by Wheeljack, who was the first to recover.
As soon as they were all in the base, chaos reined. Arcee was trying to see her partner, Raf was crying, the bots were crowding round their leader and Miko was rush toward for a better look.
"Ohhhh. What happen 'Bulk? How many 'Cons did you mash?"
Optimus was angry and had enough of the chaos so he snapped.
"ENOUGH! Agent Fowler get the humans out of here and keep them out, Ultra Magnus restrain Arcee immediately and all but Ratchet and Wheeljack GET OUT OF THE ROOM! NOW! BUMBLEBEE IS ON THE VERGE OF OFFLINING!"
The everyone but Ratchet and Ultra Magnus were shocked that the leader of the Autobots would yell so loudly and angrily at them. All Wheeljack, which was the only shocked one who wasn't motionless, said was a low,
"Woah."
Trying to take advantage of her motionless comrades, Arcee rushed forward only to fall on her face due to a leg sweep from the white and red Wrecker. Ultra Magnus bent down and grabbed the two-wheeler by he upper part of her arms, lifted her off the ground and carried her out of the room and barked to the others.
"You heard Optimus, get out of the room soldiers. And natives."
Miko also tried to get a better look but fell on her backside when a large blue pede smashed down a foot in front of her. She looked up to see Optimus, with the wrecked from of his scout in his arms, glaring with anger like nothing any human had ever seen, even from the Deception warlord, Megatron. Smokescreen picked her up and rushed out of the room with a quick,
"Sorry Optimus."
The three left in the room all approached medical berth and the Prime placed Bumblebee's wreckage on it gently. The medic gave him several looks over and scanned him with several devices. Eventually he gave his verdict.
"Bumblebee has sustain irreparable damage to his frame. If the Forge of Solus Prime still had power you could use it to repair his wounds but alas, it has been drained of all energy. Only his servos, left arm, his crushed voicebox, the modulator I put in so he can beep and buzz, his optics and his spark chamber have been left intact. A spark transplant will not do anything to help him."
"Surely there must be some way to save him. There has to be!" Grief filled Optimus' voice for the first time in eons.
"Only one thing would work but we don't possess one of the parts of the procedure. A full mind and spark transfer to another frame."
"We have the Predacon body with no mind!"
"True. But he would be stuck a beast forever for all we know."
"It's better than letting him offline! Even if he would rejoin his original creators when he becomes one with the Allspark." Optimus was shattered and showed it for the first time in forever. "Please Ratchet, I am begging you, do it."
"Very well. I will need to transfer his mind to your neural net with the Cortical Psychic Patch so he will not join the Allspark when I remove his spark to transfer it. Then I will have to swap his spark for the beast's and reattach it in the Predacon body. After that has been done correctly we can upload his mind into the beast's neural network which no conscience was generated during the cloning process so it will be blank."
"Go ahead. Swiftly."
"Alright then. Wheeljack, get the Patch and my other tools." Ratchet ordered, pulling away the wrecked paneling on the back of Bumblebee's helm to uncover his medical port, unaware of what the last Cybertronian ever born was experiencing.
Bumblebee
All Bumblebee could see was darkness. Was this it? Was this what it meant to be one with the Allspark? Because it didn't seem like it.
"I guess I not worthy to become one with the Allspark. This must be oblivion."
A bright dot floated down so it was a short ways away from him. It expanded slowly into a blinding light that would have overloaded his optics, had this been the reality Bumblebee lived in. Unseen by the black and yellow mech, a figure his size appeared in the light, at the very centre.
"Still beating yourself up over what you can't change. You sure you're my brother, 'Bee?"
The figure stepped forward and Bumblebee saw who it was.
"Jazz!"
The glowing white Autobot, Jazz, continued.
"You can't undo what's already been done. The past is in the past, let go of your anger, your regret and your grief. Only then will you become one with the Allspark brother."
"I... Don't know how."
"That was then, this is now."
Bumblebee opened his gates and took his time to come to terms with and accept the suffering and grief he had experienced during his short life. It took a while but he let go of everything and boy, did he feel free.
"I'm ready."
Jazz extended his right servo to his brother.
"Then take my hand. Join me. Join with the Allspark. Primus, you've earned your place with the rest of us, a hundred times over."
'Bee reached out with his hand and just when he was going to touch his brother and join with the Allspark, he felt a force tug him back to the realm of the living. Jazz looked around and saw blue and red cracks breaking up the darkness and the white light.
"I guess it's not your time yet. Live for both of us brother and when your time truly comes, know that I have always loved you. And from the first moment you were sparked, I was proud of you. I always have been and always will be."
Autobot base
Ratchet plugged one end of the patch into Bumblebee's port as quickly as he could without further damage. Optimus plugged his end into his own port and Wheeljack powered up the patch, allowing Optimus to pull his surrogate son into his own neural network. The patch was powered down and the spark transplant began.
First Ratchet and Wheeljack removed the remains of the black yellow chest armour. Then Ratchet opened up Bumblebee's miraculously untouched spark chamber and delicately removed his spark with the utmost care and correct tools. With a nod of the medic's head, Wheeljack triggered the correct sequence on the monitor to open up the Predacon's chest, exposing it's spark chamber. The beast, surprisingly, when compared to the Prime in the room, it was like comparing a horse and the largest human on Earth.
Another typed command opened the chamber and the red and white medic extracted the beast's spark in the same fashion he did with the Autobot scout's. After placing the no longer pulsing, sphere shaped object out of the way Ratchet placed the other loose spark in the chamber and attached it to the energon lines running through out the body so it was like the blue object heart had never been touched and belonged there. The temporary assistant handed the field medic the necessary equipment to start up the spark once again. It only took three tries to bring the whole body online.
Now that the surgery and the immediate threat of Bumblebee offlining was over. The three could relax a little. Ultra Magnus, seeing that the patient was no longer in danger of offlining, walked over to his leader.
"Optimus, I got the others out as you ordered but I was forced to put Arcee in stasis lock manually."
"Thank you Ultra Magnus. You should get back to them now, to supervise."
"Very well. When should they be let back in?"
"I'll let you know when it's safe for them to be in." Ratchet interjected and he readied the Cortical Psychic Patch, but this time plugged the other end into the Predacon with Bumblebee's spark. A minute later and the upload of the scout's mind was complete.
Time skip
When Bumblebee awakened, he was in a cage. How did he get in here? When he tried to rise to his feet, he fell down. He tried again and again but to no avail. He rolled over and looked up at his limbs to see what was causing it.
Only to see that they were clawed feet, all four of them. Bumblebee recognised them and the rest of his body as that of the lifeless Predacon Ratchet had cloned. He had become what hurt his family and destroyed him.
The 'bot in a dragon's body forced himself to to his feet and smashed through the cage and the tarpaulin covering it, setting off an alarm which alerted the Autobots to his escape. The doors of the army hanger that was the base were closing but he made it through before they closed.
The new Predacon burst out into the night air and yelled,
"NOOOOOOO!"
But all that came out was a deafening roar.
He was a monster.