35:42:01

"Hey guys, I'm back!" Sari shouted, letting her duffle bag fall to the floor. Her bright blue eyes scanned the rec. room for a certain yellow bot. She had so many camp prank stories to tell him about. The sun was setting behind her, casting its orange-tinted rays through the dusty windows of the old plant. Ratchet sat on the couch, fixing some piece of equipment someone probably bumped into and broke. Optimus was watching a bit of TV, trying to grasp the humans' strange terminology and slang. So far, he hadn't quite understood the concept known as "Bromance." His best guess was that it had something to do with Prowl and nature.

Bulkhead was sitting by his canvas, his faceplates donning a pensive attitude. A servo grasping a paintbrush rested below his jaw piece and the other held the canvas steady, just waiting for the next brushstroke.

The teenager noticed that neither Prowl nor Bumblebee were in the room. She assumed Prowl was meditating under his tree or outside on the roof to watch the sunrise. But Bumblebee…he should have been playing video games or playing pranks on the ninja-bot. The fact that he wasn't in the rec. room at all raised an eyebrow.

"Hey guys, where's Bee?" she asked. Bulkhead's grip on his paintbrush tightened as he off-lined his optics, turning his helm away from the blank canvas. Ratchet and Optimus looked at each other before the Prime sighed and walked over to Sari.

"Come with me Sari," he said, "it's a long story." The techno-organic followed Optimus through the halls of the base, passing Prowl's room, Bee's room, and the training room in the process. They finally stopped at the end of the hallway. Optimus opened the door to reveal his office, equipped with an Autobot-sized desk with a chair behind it and two other chairs for visitors(of course, they were Autobot-sized too). Sari was a little unimpressed, expecting it to be Optimus' room or a cool new lounge room they'd never shown her. She shrugged it off. Not everything about the Autobots was "cool" anyway. Optimus gestured for her to go in and have a seat.

To her surprise, once she sat down (with the help of her jetpack), Optimus chose to sit in the seat next to her after closing the door. Well, at least Optimus knew when to be informal. Sari could picture nothing worse than an uptight, "prim and proper" mech. Granted, she probably just insulted their leader or someone else of higher authority, but at the moment, she could care less. Besides, it wasn't like she actually said anything about the subject.

"Sari," Optimus started, jerking Sari out of her thoughts. He paused, pondering where to start first. After thirty seconds, the teenager huffed with impatience.

"I just wanted to know where Bee was," she mumbled, crossing her arms, "so why does it need a long-winded explanation?"

"Well, I guess I'll start here: you are aware of what a double-agent is, right?" he asked.

"Um, duh! I watch those movies all the time. What does this have to do with Bee?" She leaned towards the Prime, raising an eyebrow. Was Bee a double-agent or something?

"Back before Bumblebee became a Space Bridge Maintenance bot, he was in Autobot Boot Camp for training, like the rest of us. During that time, he found a Decepticon double-agent posing as a new recruit. The evidence he discovered all led to a mech designated Wasp."

"So Bee's like a detective?" Sari smiled, relaxing back into the chair, "Now that's pretty cool." Optimus hated to burst Sari's bubble (as the humans put it), but it had to be done.

"Well…he kind of…framed the wrong mech." He replied hesitantly. Sari slapped her forehead.

"Come on Bee…" she groaned. Memories of the Space Barnacles popped into her head. Bumblebee's blunders were ridiculously funny in hindsight, but at the time, they were just plain irritating and idiotic. She knew Bee didn't mean it or help it. Hearing this story proved her best friend's incompetence was entirely subconscious. In all honesty, she felt absolutely terrible for him. Did the Cybertronian deity have it out for him or something?

"Right…so Wasp was sent to the stockades. Recently, Wasp escaped, came to Earth, was turned into a techno-organic by Blackarachnia, and is now hunting Bumblebee down for some sort of sick revenge. Before, he'd been transwarped someplace with Blacharachnia (every time he said her name, Sari had to contain a giggle. It was obvious he still liked her) and we weren't expecting to hear from them ever again. But Wasp-or Waspinator-came back earlier today."

"He trashed the city? I thought it was Blitzwing or Starscream." The teenager shrugged. Great, one more lunatic in Detroit: just what the city needed.

"As you can imagine," Optimus continued, "he went after Bumblebee first-"

"He hurt Bee?" Sari interrupted, "Oh, that guy is so getting it now! Wait, you still haven't answered my question."

"Sorry, I was getting to that. Ratchet came back here to fix Bumblebee. From what I could get out of Bulkhead (which wasn't much) and from what Ratchet clarified, Bumblebee and Bulkhead are in a fight. Bulkhead's been trying to paint and get his mind off of it. Last I heard was that Bumblebee's in his room. But the reason I told you all of this, rather than just telling you where Bee is, is because whenever Wasp shows up, Bumblebee (to put it lightly) doesn't take it very well." Sari nodded: kind of happy that Optimus' story was done and feeling bad for her friend. She just had one question.

"How'd you find out that Wasp wasn't the double-agent?"

"The real one told us." Optimus sighed, "He's stationed on Cybertron, a Prime, and he's head of the Autobot Intelligence. Sentinel won't listen to us whenever we try to tell him. Well, he did right before Wasp became a techno-organic, but he hasn't really acted upon it yet."

"Alright Optimus, you want me to go talk to Bee?" she offered. The Prime nodded.

"It would do him good to talk to someone. Bulkhead usually helps him through all the Wasp stuff since he was there, but now…" he trailed off, the rest being self-explanatory. Sari jumped off the chair and exited the room.

"I'll see what I can do." She called over her shoulder. Within minutes, she stood before Bumblebee's door. Although she knew where his room was, she never actually got a good look inside of it. She knocked four times without hesitation. There was shuffling on the other side of the door and soon, Bumblebee poked his head out of the doorway.

"Oh, hi Sari," he greeted with a small smile, "what are you doing here?" The teen pouted, putting her hands on her hips. Bumblebee was definitely off. For one, under normal circumstances, Bee would have tackled him in a hug screaming something about never letting her leave again. While Bulkhead was more likely to carry out that daydream, Bee would certainly act happier to see her again after a month of camp.

"I'm here to see my best friend, duh!" she exclaimed, pushing her way into Bee's room. He closed the door behind her and sat down on his berth. The room was filled with miscellaneous Earth devices and games. The walls each had a poster of a band on them. CDs were stacked in a corner by a box crammed with video games and movies. Datapads were scattered throughout the room and a broken game controller lay on the desk to her right. Looking the room's main occupant over, she could see a few bandages wrapped around his frame. She frowned, walking closer for a better look. Whatever attacked him had a sick desire to make as many marks on his chassis as possible. "What happened to you? I'm gone for a month and you already try to get yourself killed before I can see you again." Sari joked. Bumblebee gave a forced chuckle before deciding to watch the floor intently.

"It's a long story." The yellow mech sighed, focusing his gaze on the poster to his right.

"Optimus filled me in on the Wasp details," Sari curtly replied, "I'm just here to talk to you."

"What do you want to know?" Soft baby blue met fierce azure as the two friends met optic-to-eye. The sadness and confusion embedded in his optics was almost unbearable. Sari's heart broke as she finally understood her friend's pain. He was always so outgoing and rash to a fault, a dangerous one at that, and now he looked so weak and lost, a lost child. Perhaps now she could get the answers she was looking for.

"Whatever you want to tell me," she replied, placing a hand on Bumblebee's right leg, "I'll listen." Sari gave him a reassuring smile, wanting nothing more than for him to open up. "I guess we can start with Bulkhead."

"I said some stuff to him that I never meant to say. I was really stressed and I said it and now he doesn't want anything to do with me." Bumblebee revealed. Sari nodded her head in consideration as he continued, "Whatever I said, I might have said back in Boot Camp when I didn't want anything to do with him. I still feel terrible about that, I was such a jerk.

I want to apologize but…I don't feel like I can right now."

"What's bothering you, Bee?" Sari asked, "There's more, I can tell and don't you dare lie to me about anything!"

"No, no I won't, promise." He replied, rubbing the back of his helm. "Just, promise me you won't tell anyone what I told you, got it?"

"Best Friend Honor Code." She said, holding up one hand while the other was over her heart.

"Well…when Wasp attacked, it reminded me of…when I was a sparkling." Primus, this was going to be harder than he thought. Of course, he knew the past was a sore subject, but actually talking to someone about it was kind of…crazy.

"What's a sparkling? Is that like a baby or something?"

"I guess, more like a 'toddler' as you'd say. Anyway, I was abandoned a few stellar cycles after being sparked. For us, stellar cycles are nothing. In human terms, I think I was only a few months old. My creators had the courtesy (there was a bit of venom in his voice) to dump me at a patrol bot station. From there, they took me to a Sparkling Center."

"Are Sparkling Centers like orphanages on Earth?"

"Yeah, they are. As soon as I was old enough to start walking and talking, the older younglings decided to use me as their personal punching bag." Bumblebee rubbed his servos, as if warding off the cold from his frame. He felt so uncomfortable talking about this. Why couldn't he have just said no?

"They abused you?" The teenager's incredulous tone didn't make things any better for him. All he could do was nod.

"I always used to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Whenever the others got in trouble, I was always the closest to one of the caretakers. Add the fact that I had these 'wings' that made me look like a Decepticon and…well, it's not hard to believe that they hated me so much. Most of their creators had been killed by 'Cons, so they took it out on me. I started staying near the caretakers because they always beat me up. The day I left was probably the happiest and the worst day of my life. As soon as I left, I went straight to Boot Camp and you know what happens from there." Bumblebee finished his story with a sad smile.

"Ok Bee, you want to be alone now?" Sari could see how distressed her friend was and she didn't want to push him any further than he was ready for. Yet, she could tell he didn't tell her everything. She got a brief summary of the most miserable time of Bumblebee's life. It was so obvious that he left out so many details, but now, all Bee needed was some time to recover.

Bumblebee nodded while off-lining his optics to try and regain a hold on his emotions. He could tell Sari wanted to hear it all, every punch, every ounce of spilled energon, and every single piece of truth that came from the insults he received. He was so lost in thought that he didn't realize Sari left, the door now swinging slightly on its hinges. Letting out a sigh, he walked over to lock it again. There was no way in the Pit he was facing anyone for the rest of the day. At least he knew Optimus wouldn't blow a gasket at his unusual anti-social behavior, seeing as he knew enough to let the youngling be when something like this occurred.

He lay back down on his berth, lost in thought, going through the day's events once again. As painful as they were, he needed to remind himself of the truth. Now was one of those rare times where Bumblebee let the barriers weaken. Every self-deprecating statement he could think of raced through his processor. He'd been way too arrogant and obnoxious to realize how strong his friendship with Bulkhead was. Because of his idiocy, he managed to completely obliterate it in a mere matter of minutes.

It's your fault this happened! It's your fault they attacked our Youth Sector! Get away from us, nobody wants you here fragger!

You know why you're here? Well, I do. I heard the caretakers talking about you. They said your creators abandoned you the first chance they got. They were smart to get rid of you when they had the chance. Who would like a 'Con-sparkling like you anyway?

Why do they all hate me?

"Because you're just so easy to hate…" Bumblebee whispered to himself. An hour later, the yellow mech found himself deep in recharge, plagued by memories, bound by the reality of it all. He blocked it all out as much as he could, yet even now, the message was clear:

Nobody wanted him around. He was destined to be alone.

Yet, when he woke from recharge, the façade was back. He would continue on in his obliviousness and happy-go-lucky attitude. Besides, if he didn't, he could barely call his life one worth living. It wasn't, but he didn't have to admit that. So, on he went with demons in his mind. Nobody would see them until it was too late.

Everyone has a breaking point, it's just a matter of time.


The moon cast its rays upon the large techno-organic looming above Bumblebee. By now, the youngling didn't even think to check the time, nor did he want to. It was just a glaring reminder of how little he had left. While the rock hadn't penetrated a main energon line in his chassis, if he wasn't treated soon, he would off-line. Now, death didn't really seem like an option, more a requirement. He would join the Well of All Sparks soon enough. Of course, Waspinator just had to make it so much slagging worse.

"Bumblebot make grave mistake," Waspinator hissed, leaning over Bumblebee's helm so his audio sensors wouldn't miss a word.

"What do you want?" Bumblebee stuttered, optics glaring daggers at the other. The techno-organic's next words would haunt him in his darkest dreams. Waspinator smirked, stepping away slightly from the injured mech.

"Waspinator wants to watch Bumblebot off-line, slowly and painfully." His voice was nothing more than a whisper carried through the breeze, yet the message was clear to Bumblebee.

The youngling's optics widened before resorting to looking down at the energon-coated rock. So far, he'd been holding onto the only thing he could: hope, the hope that his friends would find him and bring him home. Hope that he could apologize to Bulkhead and mend their broken friendship. Hope that he would be accepted and forgiven by the team.

But now, fatally damaged with the last mech that he wanted here, he felt it shatter. It was mutilated, ruined beyond repair. What good would hope do him now? What good would anything do him now? Nothing was his answer. He was helpless and dying, one of the worst combinations in the universe.

As the moon ducked behind the trees, Bumblebee accepted Primus' will. He was going to die, cold and friendless. It was inevitable. Only a complete idiot would think otherwise. He didn't have any more clever plans or quick wit to get him out of this situation. Bulkhead wasn't here to pick him back up. Ratchet wasn't here to fix his injuries. Optimus wasn't here to give him moral support. Sari wasn't here to back him up on whatever ridiculous plan he could concoct or provide comfort. Prowl wasn't here to calm him down.

He was alone and he would always be alone. It was the way his life had always been. No sense in changing it now.

With a shuttered vent through his intakes, he looked into the optics of Waspinator. His expression made the techno-organic's smirk twitch; the sheer acknowledgement and grim determination made him falter. Their optics never left each other as Bumblebee spoke, slowly and deliberately, as if to prolong the truth for as long as possible. His voice was quiet, yet carried well through the silence of the trees and wildlife around them, the forest providing natural acoustics to the dismal scene. His voice, filled with so much depression and self-loathing, echoed through the mountains in a final refrain.

"I'm going to die," Bumblebee stated with a sad smile, "and it's about time too."

Nobody ever cared about him and nobody ever would. Every friend he'd find would leave him eventually, for they always did. What was the point of life if it led to loss and suffering after every turn? Life had been cruel to him, time and time again. He wanted an escape. He rejoiced at the sight of death's doors. It was calling to him, begging him to walk through, hang up his coat, and stay for all eternity in comfort and happiness. It welcomed him to stay, providing the home he never had. For once in his life, Bumblebee truly believed he was making the right choice.

He would stop the senseless fighting for a lost cause, one lost many vorns ago. He would allow his optics to off-line, plunging him into never-ending darkness and familiarity. He would allow every drop of energon to leak out of his battered frame until his internal systems ran dry. He would finally allow himself to rest, to stop running from the past.

So when the sirens rang through the foliage, drawing closer and closer by every passing second, Bumblebee already succumbed to his lethargy. He had given up the battle for life. He chose the last egress. He chose death.


A/N: Sorry it took so long to update. Thanks for all the reviews everyone! And no, I'm not quite done. I haven't even touched upon the Prowl aspect yet. As for the abusive younglings, in my version, there was a bit more to their motivation:

Bee's small and an easy target. There had to be some form of superiority in the "system" and wailing on Bee gave off some sick sort of superiority complex. In return, Bee developed a Napoleon complex later on.

Oh yeah, sorry for the cliffhanger. :3 Happy Thanksgiving everyone!