Summary: Blurr survived being cubed, but it isn't very pretty. A struggling Bumblebee is finding it hard to cope with the loss of a friend, the realization that he sent an innocent bot to the Stockade, and as of most recently, that "The Blue Racer" isn't in very good condition.

Not rated T because it's robot violence, and they get away with worse on TV (That, and getting cubed and put in the incinerator is waaay darker than what I have to give).


News traveled quickly, and Optimus Prime's team was soon notified of Cliff Jumper's terrifying discovery, and Blurr was on critical spark support. They hadn't been immediately allowed to see him, and when they were, only one at a time. Bumblebee was the first to see him; he had begged his team to let him, but Blurr hadn't been awake and it was projected that it could be orns before he did. If he did.

It was horrifying to see the condition of his friend/rival.

All of his servos were missing, the left shoulder plate was the most of a limb he had. The little plating that had been scavenged was crinkled like tin foil, and most of his paint was scratched off. Many of his organs, including his spark chamber, were exposed and laying across the table, only the barest of patched up cords keeping them fueled by energon.

Speaking of cords, Blurr had almost two dozen clipped to his chassis that was keeping him online. Many were clasped to the helm, covering much of his faceplate. Bee had been had been kind of thankful for that, since his whole head had been pried apart to save as much of the delicate processors and sensors as possible.

After five megacycles, Bumblebee had disappointedly let someone else have a turn of sitting there in hopes that he'd come out of stasis. The yellow bot came out of the little room with wide optics and stumbled to his team waiting in the lobby.

"B-Boss Bot, it- it's y-your turn..."

Prime got to his stabilizing servos and walked over to his team member, placing a servo on his shoulder plate. "Are you alright?

"Me? O-Oh, yeah, I'm fine..." Bumblebee staggered over to a seat.

"Hey kid, you sure yer okay?" Ratchet asked, taking a seat beside him.

"I- I've never... even when one of us got hurt, never... He's in rough shape," Bumblebee stuttered.

Ratchet hummed in acknowledgement. They'd had intense fights, even lost a teammate, but they'd never seen anything as gruesome as the Great War. From the expression on Bee's faceplate, maybe he just had. "That gruesome, huh?"

"His legs are gone."

"Those can be replaced," Ratchet assured him.

"And his servos."

"The doctors here are really good; they can take care of those too."

Bee shuddered and mumbled," He's all taken apart. I don't know he'll make it."

Sari hovered over and perched herself on his lap so she could hug his midsection. He reciprocated by placing a servo across her back. "Don't worry," She said," You admitted it yourself, he's the fastest guy out there. He'll outrun death without breaking a sweat."

Bumblebee let his optics rest unfocused on Blurr. They hadn't known each other long, but Bee had an unparalleled desire to see him online, and not in this creepy stasis that seemed too close to offline. It was probably the loss of Prowl that increased his wish to surreal heights to make sure Blurr was online.

It had been brief in an almost exaggerated way of how little he had known the other as anything other than the Blue Racer, and then he'd only really known him as a rival, but he almost felt that his own spark depended on Blurr's recovery.

The little metal spheres that were supposed to be his optics abruptly lit up and it was instantly clear that Blurr was online. "Am I still on Cybertron, because it is imperative that I speak to Cybertron Command about important information that I have regarding Megatron's informant, Shockwave, who tried to offline me, but by the internal readings I am now receiving of my pain, has obviously failed to do, Shockwave is assuming the identity of Longarm who is-"

"Head of Intel. We know," Bee said, processors spinning at trying to keep up with Blurr's speech. The injured bot's voice was distorted from the vocalizer being laid out in three pieces, only thin cords keeping the important parts connected, and every word was clipped for maximum speed and efficiency. It had been hard enough to understand him before; now Bee was sure that he'd get a processorache trying to keep up with him.

"We won the war," The yellow bot informed the other.

"We did? Then I guess all the knowledge that I have attained is going to to only be useful for clearing up any discrepancies, but of course I am still willing to relay it all and hope that it will retain value despite being late, if we won the war are Megatron and Shockwave offline or is this a similar situation and outcome as the end of the Great War?"

"No, they're both offline for good."

"I did a thorough search on all of the members of your team for my assignment of keeping tabs on you and in your file I found that in autoboot camp you turned in your fellow teammate, Wasp, as a decepticon spy, now Wasp had been one of the strongest cases for the informant under Megatron's control, however I have discovered the true informant to be Longarm, another bot that you trained with, if this is the case, then the bot you convicted back in autoboot camp was-"

"Innocent, I know," Bumblebee gritted out. "Everybot's eagerly pointed out I've ruined Wasp's life and now he's become a techno-organic science experiment stranded who knows where! Anything bad that happens to him for the rest of his life will be all my fault, I know! So why dontcha' just shut up for a megacycle or two!" Bee's expression changed to pure horror; he hadn't meant to say that.

After a long hesitation, Blurr said," Sorry." His voice sounded painfully slow in comparison to how fast it usually was.

"Blurr, I- I didn't..." It had just been misplaced anger... He hadn't meant to say that...

Blurr remained completely silent.

Feeling crushed by silence and his overwhelming guilt, the yellow bot awkwardly announced," I'll be back later, 'kay?" The other didn't have a response, and Bumblebee quietly left the room.

He was angry at himself! Why did he take it out on Blurr?

He ruined Wasp's life, having falsely sent him off as a traitor, and now he was trapped with Blackarachnia somewhere because he couldn't apologise soon enough. Then Prowl sacrificed himself, and he never even got to say goodbye... Bumblebee punched the wall and leaned his helm against it.

Everything felt like his fault. If he wouldn't have been deceived by Shockwave all those stellar cycles ago... Maybe if he would have been able to do more in their fight against megatron... Why did he yell at Blurr?

Blurr was injured, torn apart after having been compressed into a fourth his size, and the first thing he did was snap and tell him to shut up. Sinking to the ground, Bee curled up and buried his helm in his servos. He may be an autobot, and now he was regarded as a hero by all of Cybertron, but he didn't feel like a good bot.


Just a few megacycles later, Bumblebee poked his head in the room that Blurr occupied and tentatively asked," Blurr...? Is it alright if I come in?" He had finally got his courage up to apologise to the other. Blurr, however, didn't grant him access. Deciding that he'd already been a total jerk, and had bad karma leaking from his joints, he might as well just enter the room anyways. He planned to say sorry if Blurr liked it or not, and then he'd leave.

Approaching the the broken mech, he nervously said," Hey, Blurr. Before... I didn't mean to say that all. I've just been so... I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to..." The bot didn't even acknowledge his presence, and Bee asked," Hey, you listening?"

Blurr made a soft humming sound and said," If you're still rattling on about having told me to 'Shut up' don't bother, I already got over it a megacycle ago and you can't even begin to comprehend how many times I've been told to do so throughout my entire existence, I've always been one for rambling myself, and most bots can't put up with a steady stream of insightful information. I understand, that while I don't personally know what it's like to have completely devastated a fellow cadet's livelihood or had them be falsely accused of treason and being a traitor because me, that I bet that a bot like you is already beating himself up enough and you don't need my help to do so, and for that I apologise..."

Bumblebee tried to come up with something to say. He was beating himself up about it, but he did feel truly bad about having told Blurr to shut up, and he didn't really feel that Blurr needed to apologise...

"That little incident is not at all why I am depressed and in such a doleful melancholy however," Blurr continued, not even having let Bee come up with words for his previous monologue," My whole entire life, I've always done everything fast, I've strived to be the fastest, and I've always walked, talked, learned, drove, and ect, fast, but now with my recent injury-" He cut out, leaving Bumblebee confused.

"Yeah?" Bumblebee urged the other to continue his explanation.

"W-what if they... what if they can't rebuild my body so I'm fast again...?"

Those were heavy words supporting a heavy question. Bumblebee didn't know how to answer. Stumbling over his words, he finally said," You've always been fast at everything, right? Then you'll be fast to recover to your old self again."

More dreadful silence took over the two bots, but it was broken up by Blurr as he quietly said," Thank you."


"You know, just because you're helping one mech, doesn't change the fact that you irrevocably decimated another bot's whole career," Sentinel Prime said as Bumblebee exited Blurr's room.

The yellow bot whipped his helm in surprise to look at the unexpected visitor and gritted his dental plates. "I'm helping a friend. I can't change the past, and I figured that out already," He mumbled, walking past the mech leaned against the adjacent wall like he was something special.

"It's a sure good thing that you confessed all those many stellar cycles ago, about the incident involving the tower, 'cause it would have sure been unfortunate to have a bot like you on the Elite Guard. And to know you would've got there off the steam of decepticon sabotage..."

Trying to ignore the moron, Bee calmly brushed off," Yeah, the incident involving you getting crushed by a tower. I couldn't let my friend take the blame, 'cause y'know, I have a spark. It's called taking the fall. Something I hear you're incapable of."

"Excuse me, you have something you want to say to me?"

Bumblebee's energon was boiling at this point. How such a rude, inconsiderate, idiotic, morally astray mech was capable of getting on the Elite Guard, achieving Magnus, was beyond him. "You've always let others take the fall for you," Bumblebee snapped. "I may not be the best of the best, and maybe you're right, I'm not fit for the Elite Guard, but at least I'm willing to own up when blame is cast my way or at a friend."

"I've let others get positive credit they don't deserve too," Sentinel Prime retorted. "Like letting Prowl take all the credit for those decepticons I captured-"

"Don't you speak of Prowl! Don't you dare speak about Prowl! You didn't know him!"

"Of course I didn't know Prowl," Sentinel scoffed," He was just some anti-war piston head forced into autobot service because you incompetent maintenance bots broke his ship-"

"He gave the ultimate sacrifice," Bumblebee roared as he leapt at the much taller bot and punched him in the faceplate. How dare this mech downplay how instrumental Prowl was in the autobot victory!

As his servo dented into some of the thin plating of the faceplate and they toppled to the ground, he continued," Prowl was twice- no quadruple, probably like twenty times the mech you'll ever be!" Sentinel's helm made an impressive ring as it made contact with the floor, and Bumblebee raised one servo as a stinger.

"Assaulting a superior officer? That's a crime punishable by-"

"Bumblebee!"

Both bots looked to the new voice, and recognised it as Ratchet. Bumblebee didn't have anytime to say anything as he was pried from Sentinel by means of the doctor's electromagnetic prowess. Roughly yanked towards the the medic, Bumblebee hit the ground and rolled to a stop just a little bit before the medic and averted his optics.

"Come with me," Ratchet ordered, not waiting around for his instruction to be carried out. Already anticipating Sentinel Prime's outburst of rage, he glared at the mech and said," Have fun explaining how a runt like him beat you ta' the ground; I'm sure none of the other bots would find that amusing at all." Nothing like ensuring silence through mockery.

The yellow bot rose quickly to his stabilizing servos and followed his teammate. "Look, whatcha' saw there was a huge misunderstanding. We're just getting to know each other, and a crazy thing happened, and ya' see-" Receiving a harsh glare from Ratchet, Bee wisely shut up.

When they were comfortably out of any mech's audio receptors, Ratchet sighed and said," Look kid, I know how you're feeling. You find out that you caused something terrible that ruined a bot's life, and that it had further repercussions. You've lost a close teammate, a real close friend. You've got yourself a friend on spark support whose lost more energon than even thought possible, and it's very well possible he won't survive."

Ratchet stopped walking and turned around so he could stare back into Bee's sad optics. He didn't hold back any punches, and it was obvious in his younger comrade's expression. "Butcha' can't get so mad all the time." He didn't want this young, idealistic bot to turn out like himself; grudgingly, he admitted to himself that he cared too much about the kid.

"Yeah, no offense Doc Bot, but this coming from you is just ironic," Bumblebee said with a shrug, trying to diminish how striking Ratchet's words were.

"I'm not very personable, I know, but I never was, and the Great War didn't help that none. I've gone through exactly what yer going through, every single day of that war. I was forced to take Arcee's place after... an unfortunate accident, and lead Omega Supreme into devastating battles were not a spark survived. But yer not like me, yer a... a social..."

"Butterfly?" Bumblebee supplied, thinking to their days on Earth.

"Yeah, a little bit on the annoying side, but a social butterfly."

Bee looked down at the ground and whispered," Prowl liked butterflies."

Ratchet brought Bee into an embrace, patting his back in a soothing manner. "Yes, yes he did."