Being hidden and contained was really starting to bother Bumblebee now. It wasn't the cage, that he could understand. It was the fact that no one but Optimus, Ratchet, Wheeljack and Ultra Magnus knew had seen him like this since he had become the monster he considered himself to be.
Despite the other three pitying the Autobot in a beast's body, Ultra Magnus looked at the formerly black and yellow mech like vermin, the way Scraplets were treated on Cybertron. It almost made Bumblebee empathise with the little critters. Almost.
Outside of the cage, which had been repaired and covered with a new tarp, the old one was on the floor as a blanket, Optimus and Ratchet were trying to gently break the news to the other 'Bots.
"C'mon doc, let us see 'Bee already. You hiding him around here somewhere?" Smokescreen joked, unknowing of how close his joke was to the truth. Raf was looking around as if expecting Bumblebee to pop up out of nowhere as scare them.
"Perhaps it would be easier to show them Ratchet." Optimus spoke evenly but was anxious about the reactions of the others. The old frame of the Autobot scout had been placed carefully in a storage crate. Or at least, what remained of it.
Ratchet agreed silently and walked over to the covered cage. He took hold of the grey sheet and pulled, uncovering the seemingly asleep Predacon.
"Yeah, we've all seen Big Ugly junior, what's the deal?" The blue and gold mech questioned. What happened next made Smokescreen fall on his aft.
Optimus opened the cage and reached out his servo in what looked to the humans like a stop hand gesture. The yellow eyed beast rose semi-steadily to its pedes, prowled haltingly over to him and nuzzled his forehead against it.
"So let me get this straight. You taught Beast Little to act like a dog?" Bulkhead inquired. Ratchet sighed and explained.
"No, I transferred Bumblebee's mind from his dying frame to that of the beast's using Optimus's Neural Network as a temporary vessel while I transplanted his miraculously untouched spark to the spark chamber of the Predacon, removing the spark occupying it, so he would keep his memories when he was uploaded into the blank processor. He is now a Predacon, whether he likes it or not."
"I'm still an Autobot, no matter what frame I live in." Bumblebee tried to say it it came out as growls and quiet, dull roars. Despite the fact he was a beast, Optimus could understand his snarls, Raf however, could not.
"He did not mean you are not an Autobot anymore, young one. Ratchet was only saying you inhabit the body of a Predacon."
"You... Understood that?" Jack was bewildered, as was everyone else.
"As I told you before, the Matrix of Leadership grants me the collective wisdom of the Primes that proceeded me. That includes the knowledge of Amalgamous Prime, the creator of Predacons. Thus I can understand some of their form of speaking. The one that serves Megatron said he was hunting when we fought."
Miko's jaw dropped and she said one thing.
"Mind... Blown."
Bulkhead groaned at the ignorance of his charge. Raf timidly approached Bumblebee, keeping to a safe distance.
"Um... Hi 'Bee."
The dragon-like technorganic lowered his head so it was eye level with the 12 year old. The yellow eyes softened and conveyed the message he tried to say.
"It's me Raf. Don't be afraid."
Raf ran over and hugged the snout of his guardian. Arcee, however, was not convinced. Losing two partners had made her very cautious.
"Ratchet, if dragon boy is 'Bee, prove it."
"Very well." The field medic complied and called up the video footage of the surgery and the whole room watched it. If the video wasn't enough, Ratchet wheeled over the crate and opened it up to reveal Bumblebee's dead frame.
While they were watching the surgery video, Bumblebee picked up the Patch and an adapter that would allow the neural connecter to show memories on the monitor in his mouth and carried them over. All it took was a growled message to the Prime and he was hooked up the monitor.
Bumblebee called up the memory of his near death experience for the others to watch.
"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."
A skip to the next relevant occurrence of what happened and it continued.
"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."
He ended the memory then before the personal stuff came on. The beastbot didn't feel comfortable showing that to Ultra Magnus and the others.
"Proof enough Arcee?" Ratchet asked. She nodded and the day went on. When Fowler and Jack's mother arrived, Bumblebee went back in the cage and the cover was pulled over again.
The days passed slowly, each one dragging on longer than the one before. Bumblebee spent his time curled up on the tarp blanket in his cage. When no one was around outside, the Autobot beast worked on his motor control, improving his control over the frame that was so unnatural to him. Everything worked differently. The wings stemming from his back felt like his doorwings on his previous frame but he could control their movement, as much as was possible in his cage, much better.
Ratchet, Raf and Optimus visited him everyday, the medic to check up on him. Optimus also made a promise that he swore upon the Allspark, the most serious of oaths and, the most binding.
"No matter the means, regardless of what I must do to help you young one, I will find a way for the others to understand you. I am the only one at present who can understand you but one day, everyone will. Humans say actions speak louder than words. I believe they are right, and your actions have spoken the truth of you. You are a true Autobot, worthy to be a Prime.
"I swear, by and upon the Allspark, that we will find a way to make you like us once again. No matter where I must seek the answers from."
Once he was left alone again, Bumblebee reflected on that promise.
'Try as I might, I have never fully fitted in anywhere. Optimus, you've tried your best to get others to accept me. But even though you try, I can never be like the rest, I never will be. It's one of those things no one can change. I shall always be the different 'bot, the odd one out, the outcast.'
If he was honest, Bumblebee didn't think Optimus would be able to make his vow a reality.
In the outside world, the field medic and the Prime were trying to think of a way to let the youngling roam without hurting anyone by accident or damaging the base.
"Ratchet do you remember the time Jazz put Phase Displacement Armor we took from the Deceptions on before it was destroyed and spent a quintun phasing through everything?" Optimus asked.
"Yes, what's your point?"
"Would it be possible for you reverse-engineer a workable version for Bumblebee so he can roam freely?"
The red and white medic thought about it for a few minutes then replied, "It's possible, but how would we apply it to our young, enviably former, scout?"
"Perhaps a collar of sorts would work. After all, he now resides within a beast's body and has begun to take on some of the host characteristics."
Over the next week the medic worked tirelessly to build the design on the 3D hologram blueprints projected in front of him and from studying the Phase Shifter. Several times, Miko interrupted his work. Jack of Bulkhead had to pull her away so the medic could work. When Ratchet got extremely frustrated, Raf piped up.
"Can I help?"
The ambulance had a soft spot for the youngest of the humans. Half reluctantly, he let the 12 year old help.
"Yes. Just, please, do what I say and nothing else."
"Okay." Raf was elated that he could have something to do other than sitting around, removing Cybertronian sightings off the web and visiting his guardian who was stuck as a dragon creature.
"I am trying to create a collar version of the Phase Shifter for Bumblebee but the parts I have to work with, while workable, are so delicate to my big hands."
"I can help with that. Just tell me what goes where and how to do it properly and I'll sort out those bits you're having trouble with."
And thus over the next few days the two tech geniuses worked side by side. At the end of those days, the phasing part of the collar was done. The collar itself was hard.
"The trouble is, the materials are either to weak or they don't work with the phase core." Raf told the medic, who was presently his temporary guardian.
"Hmm. Of course! How could I have been so oblivious?" The medically officer exclaimed in a bout of realisation.
"Oblivious to what, Ratchet?" Raf questioned. He was now confused.
"When Wheeljack foolishly took Miko with him and the other Wreckers before he left, she came back with the Apex Armor. It extends and expands to fit the wearer and it is impervious to any and all attacks."
"Which in turn you could use to make the collar. But what are you going to make the replica out of?"
"Why would we make a replica out of something that could break when, with Optimus's help, the armour could be altered to fit a beast."
"Okay I get the using the original thing but how can Optimus help alter the armour?" Raf was getting into things way out of his league yet he tried as hard as he could to keep up.
"Optimus said it himself. The Matrix of Leadership gives him the knowledge of the Original Thirteen, the Primes that preceded him. This includes the knowledge of Solus Prime, the one who created the relics for the others to use."
"So he knows how to change the settings on it?" Raf threw his conclusion to the Autobot.
"Precisely."
After getting the Prime to alter the Apex Armour, they combined it with the phase core that was to let the beastbot roam free and some other functions. When they were finished, Optimus put the collar on Bumblebee, who at first didn't like the idea since it made him feel like a pet but agreed.
An alert popped up on the monitor screen and the team was sent to investigate while Bumblbee got the hang of using his new collar. In no time he was phasing through anything in sight. Another plus was that Smokescreen couldn't go intangible to escape after pranking him anymore, not now that he could cancel out the little jokers phase shifting with his own. When the Autobots returned, they came back with a hostage.
It was Soundwave.