Chapter Summary: Bumblebee gets a new, sinister look, and the Autobots think they know where their scout is.

{MECH base}

They had scraped the Autobot insignia off. That, more than the paintjob, had bothered him, and it had hurt. Bumblebee was sorely reminded, though it was easy to forget, that the human race was just like the Cybertronians; capable of good and bad. The symbol they had used to replace wherever his affiliation insignia had been had freaked the little Autobot out.

Now, instead of the symbol of the sleeping guardian, a grotesque image adorned Bumblebee. It was an eagle with two snakes wrapped around its body, their heads ready to strike at the bird's face. It was a weird twist of the American military symbol, Bumblebee was not completely ignorant of who Silas was more interested in getting the better of. Agent Fowler had given them all a debriefing of Silas, or Leland Bishop, after their first encounter with the crazed human when they had helped their liaison move the DNGS.

Leland Bishop had not taken his discharge from the military well and had vowed vengeance. Every encounter with MECH showed Silas' obsession with bringing a new world order to Earth, and punishing severely all those who got in his way. In some ways he was like Megatron, Bumblebee supposed, wanting to change the current regime for a system more to his liking.

Bumblebee had seen various different colors while the men had been painting him and so he was pretty sure that he would hate his new paintjob. They had first painted him black and then used dark blue and even a little red. Without being able to get an external look at himself while still in alt mode, Bumblebee could do nothing more than metaphorically twiddle his thumbs as he had so often seen Raf do while his little human friend waited for something to load on his laptop.

Raf. Bumblebee's spark ached at the mere thought of his little ward, who had become more than a responsibility since that first day he had seen Raf while helping Arcee fight those two Vehicons under the bridge. He could still see those big brown eyes, too scared to move yet still yelling at the Vehicons to leave 'Bee alone just when they were about to snuff out his spark. The little human boy had understood him, not needing a translator like the Autobots or Decepticons had both downloaded into their processors so as to understand him.

Guardian and ward had each given each other a scare a time or two since their first meeting. Each had grown stronger and learned to lean on one another for support instead of keeping everything bottled up inside. Now, with everything that had made Bumblebee unique and valued being taken away by Silas the Autobot found that his memory of Raf was the only thing untainted. The child was the one thing Silas did not know about, since the man had only had contact with Jack, so MECH could never use Raf against him.

The opening of a door sounded through Bumblebee's audios and his sensors picked up Silas. The man has degraded him in almost every way imaginable, changed him and threatened to destroy his Autobot beliefs. Bumblebee wished he could find a way to wipe the smug look off of Silas' face but could do nothing but wait for a command.

"Much better," Silas said approvingly. "Stingray transform."

Bumblebee's form shifted and he stood up. He caught sight of himself on one of the viewing screens and wished he could throw a tantrum worthy of an infuriated sparkling. While his entire frame had been painted black it was the dark blue that was the more dominant color, going over the black so that the darker color only appeared as a stripe here and there going down his arms and legs. His battle mask had dark red lines shaped to give him a more sinister appearance. Bumblebee had been right: he hated it. The color scheme made him look depressed, dark and angry, the complete opposite of his personality.

Being the youngest of the Autobots on Earth Bumblebee had always held the role of 'lightening the mood'. His constant energy and willingness to joke around to make others laugh had been infectious at the Autobot base, the only time he ever became serious was when a comrade died or if he was in a battle zone. Even then he would grab the opportunity to play a prank on the Decepticons if he could, a habit Ratchet said that he had picked up from the Twins.

"I wonder," Silas tilted his head, an action Bumblebee now recognized as not a good sign. "Is there a possibility we could change its eye color?"

"We would have to test with the eye sockets we got from the other one before I could give you definite answer, sir."

"It's not a priority but do look into it." Silas circled Bumblebee, before standing in front of him again. "Was the audio receiver installed?"

"Yes, sir. You can now give it orders no matter how far away you are."

Bumblebee did not like the sound of that but Silas was pleased.

"Very good. Stingray, return to vehicle mode." Bumblebee transformed back into his vehicle mode and twitched as Silas ran a hand over his frame. Silas grinned and turned to his men, "It's time for a test run."

{Autobot H.Q.}

"Optimus, I have pinpointed the Nemesis' location." Ratchet reported, earning everyone's attention when he spoke. "Its orbit is now taking it past Russia."

"Are we sure that they took Bumblebee?" Arcee asked.

"Who else could it be?" Bulkhead demanded.

"Arcee has a point," Optimus said. "Why take Bumblebee but leave you behind? However, as searching the Nemesis is our only option at this point we will take it and if we cannot find our missing comrade then we can at least find out what has kept the Decepticons quiet this long."

While the Autobots prepared to disembark they did not notice that Raf slipped away from them. The smaller human ignored the elevator in preference of climbing up one of the ladders that led to the top of the hidden silo. Once outside Raf sat down to watch the setting sun.

He had done what he could to help Ratchet find the Nemesis, now the rest was up the Autobots. Raf drew his legs in, circling his arms around them and buried his head in his knees. He'd been very proud of himself with how well he had been keeping his emotions in check since Bumblebee had gone missing.

Only when he was away from the others had he allowed himself to cry. Bumblebee was his friend, his guardian, and he had saved his life more times then Raf had fingers. Yet at this time, when Raf could return the favor, he found himself helpless to do so. There were no leads; the area where Bumblebee had been taken had been cleaned thoroughly, which had made Raf think that perhaps it was not the Decepticons who had taken the yellow scout. Megatron certainly would not have cared whether his people left signs behind nor would he have cared if the Autobots had found out that he had taken Bumblebee. Plus take into account that both the Autobots and Decepticons seem to fight shy of using any type of EMP device against each other, the possibility of themselves being taken out as well in the blast was just too high to use it.

Raf felt the ground beneath him tremble, signaling the activation of the ground bridge. He had been the one who had originally raised the question of Decepticon involvement in Bumblebee's kidnapping when Ratchet had asked him for help in finding the Nemesis. Raf had been surprised when Arcee had raised the issue again, after Ratchet and Bulkhead had so firmly put Raf's observations down the first time.

Sighing, Raf leaned his head back and froze when he looked up into the sky. There were two flaming objects heading down towards him and he wasted no time in jumping to his feet. His short legs could have won him a marathon with how quickly they carried him back into the safety of the hatch and he hit the alarm.