Twelve years later...
Ratchet sat in his quarters. He had fled into the room as soon as he heard that humans were coming to the base. He snorted again in disbelief, then looked down at his servos. Not for the first time, he thought of Glyph. He would be Bumblebee's size now, he thought sadly, and he hugged himself tightly as if he might fall apart if he didn't.
Optimus opened the door to his quarters, the only mech in existance with the ability to do so without getting yelled at or the target of a flying object. "Ratchet," Optimus started gently. He didn't flinch when Ratchet fixed an icy glare on him. "The humans will be here soon."
"Excellent. I'll be right here." He wanted that to be the last thing he said, but Optimus pressured him.
"Ratchet, you cannot sit and mourn your so-"
Ratchet whirled on him. "What do you know? You didn't send anyone into space!"
Optimus stared at him. "I did not send anyone out because I had no one to send."
"That's right. You have no family. Now stop pressuring me to forget mine."
That time Optimus flinched. For a moment, Ratchet regretted his words. But not for long.
Optimus dared to speak again. "I only wish for you to come out and see the humans. I think you will find them very interesting."
Ratchet rolled his optics. "Sure, Optimus...sure."
But he couldn't help himself. Optimus was often impressed with everything on the Earth, but he kept those thoughts to himself. Only when he said something was impressive did Ratchet look at him and trust him.
So he went out of his quarters and padded to the computer, typing in a command just as the humans were escorted in the base. When he looked down, his optics were drawn to one being in particular.
He was a small human, but he was strong emotionally and he was in fact impressive. He came equiped with optic-protectors, or "glasses". Ratchet looked into the human's eyes and he nearly faltered. A flash of blue clouded over his brown eyes for a moment. Humans, as far as he knew, could not spontaneously change their eye color at will.
The little human smiled and Ratchet felt drawn to the human, wanting to hold him like he had held Glyph, and part of him saw the little one as his sparkling.
But his hopes were crushed.
"Hi," the human said. "I'm Raf."
Ratchet grumbled and turned away. He closed his optics and forced the tears to return to their hiding place. He wondered if he would ever see his Glyph again.
The blue in Raf's eyes returned, as well as sadness, but it was quickly replaced with awe at the sight of Bumblebee, who chittered and chattered a greeting.
"Nice to meet you, too!"
The Cybertronians were stunned. Even Ratchet had to take a moment to recollect himself.
Bumblebee led Raf to the catwalk and Ratchet watched them for a moment before he slowly turned back to the computer.
He searched for any strange findings of "alien robots" on Earth.
Nothing came up.
Meanwhile, Raf's giggles and squeals were getting louder and Ratchet wanted to leave the room, but something held him there, something about how Raf responded to Bumblebee.
But Ratchet dismissed it as soon as the thought came to him.
