"Yes! I did it!" Hot Shot shouted as the success slide appeared on the TV screen. "I finally won!"

He jumped up from the makeshift couch, starting to dance along with the music from the game. It wasn't very coordinated, and he almost ended up dancing his way back into the wall several times. The movements were so sporadic that it wouldn't have been surprising if his flamethrowers had randomly decided to go off. He finished it with a victory pose, jabbing his pointer finger triumphantly into the air, as if he was expecting applause.

Bumblebee was laughing so hard that he wasn't able to set the poor `bot straight. Fortunately, Sari was more composed than he was.

"Actually, Hot Shot…I won." She corrected.

Hot Shot's chestplate instantly deflated, his morale destroyed. "But that's my player in the winner's circle!"

"No. That's me. I'm Diddy Kong. See?" Sari pointed at the character resembling an organic creature called a 'monkey', "You're Jigglypuff. Over there. The pink one."

The two mechs took a quick look at the pink blob she was referring to, and Bumblebee couldn't help but burst into laughter again. He pressed his servo over his mouth to try and calm down, but every time he glanced back at Hot Shot's disgusted faceplate or the creature he had unknowingly chosen as his own, the giggles escaped through his fingers. It was quite obvious that video games were not something that came naturally to Hot Shot.

"Pink!?" He cried, horrified, "Why the slag am I the pink one!?"

"Don't ask me." She shrugged, "You picked it."

"Well can I change it to something less…femme-y?" Hot Shot asked.

"Sure. We can start over right now." Sari aimed the controller over and began to reset the game.

"While you're at it, you might want to maybe teach him the controls again." Bumblebee interjected.

"What? I know the controls fine!" He replied, clearly offended.

"So that's why you kept running off of the platforms?"

"Just need more practice…s'all…" Hot Shot frowned and crossed his servos.

"Why don't you teach him, Bumblebee?" Sari offered, "You're better than me at this game anyways."

"Nah. You go on ahead. I'll just watch." He insisted.

Sari stared at him for about a nanoclick in disbelief. "Okay then. If that's what you want."

Bumblebee was surprised that he didn't have an overwhelming desire to join in the game as well. There usually wasn't a time that he didn't want to play. Especially when he had the opportunity to show off his superior skills to someone so mediocre at playing like Hot Shot. But he was oddly satisfied at just sitting back and watching. Enjoying. Living. It felt good to know that everything was finally in a state of somewhat-order.

That Sari was no longer in a life-or-death situation.

Watching her having fun, playing video games, living normally once again gave him all the satisfaction that he ever needed. He sighed and leaned back, stretching his stabilizing servos out on the bench in front of him. It had been such a long, stressful time since he had been able to relax at the Plant. Last time he was here he had been bickering with Perceptor over the lack of knowledge to save Sari. Now he didn't have to worry if she would still be alive tomorrow or not. For the time being, at least. Until the time arrived for him to be concerned one more, he would revel in the present serenity. He only hoped it would last longer than the recent period of peace they had.

Hot Shot was on Earth for a temporary and self-dubbed 'deserved' vacation. Though what he did that was so strenuous to deserve it was beyond everyone else but himself. True, he had helped with the jobs created to repair the city, but so had almost everybot else that wasn't hospitalized during the time. Bumblebee figured his real reason for coming was either to get out of any other work other `bots might try to pile on him. Or to spend more time with Sari.

Bumblebee hated to admit it, but he was incredibly jealous of Hot Shot, and not because of his lousy video games skills. He had gotten to go through an important part of their lives with Sari, while Bumblebee had been left in the dark, not even aware that they were still present as ghosts on Cybertron until he had heard Sari whispering to him. Telling him that he was her best friend, that she loved him, and she would miss him when she was gone (which fortunately never happened). Apparently Prowl had been lifting her up when she said it. He felt awful that he hadn't realized that he had been there, right next to him, and he had missed it!

Bumblebee knew that this was not only selfish but stupid, but he wished that he had had his spark taken too. That he had been with Sari instead of searching desperately for a way to save her and everybot else. Of course, he also knew that he wouldn't have liked to deal with the repercussions. Whenever he asked Sari about what it had been like to have her spark wrenched away from her, she had locked up and refused to say anything about it. He respected her privacy and decided it was best not to remind her of it ever again.

If anything, the whole notion of being jealous of Hot Shot was stupid. He was a good `bot, and had qualities that reminded Bumblebee of himself. No wonder he and Sari had hit it off as friends so quickly. No wonder he and Bumblebee had done the same. Besides, here was Sari, spending time with both of them equally. It wasn't like she had chosen to almost die.

As he zoned back into reality he realized that the next round of the game had been going on for some time now. Hot Shot, rid of his Jigglypuff persona and manning Star Fox instead, was doing considerably better than before. It actually looked like he faintly knew what he was doing. Sari was still kicking his gearshaft into the next century, but this improvement showed that he had promise as a player. Eventually.

"Hey, BB." Sari asked, leaning back to look at him, "D'ya think it was bad for me to upgrade myself?"

"Uh... there are pros and cons I guess…" He said quickly, not prepared for a question geared in that direction.

"Like…?"

"Like…" He fumbled around for an answer, "Like you can fight with us now. You've got super-cool powers and stuff."

"And the cons?"

He felt his faceplate grow red. "Well…uh…you just grew up a little fast…and it takes some time to get used to…uh…that. That's all. Not much of a real con if you think about-"

"If I hadn't upgraded myself, Dirge wouldn't have used my power and he wouldn't have been able to take all those sparks." She said solemnly. She wasn't paying much attention to the game anymore, inattentively guiding the remote around. Hot Shot, on the other hand, was over-concentrating, his viz scanners glued to the screen.

"Don't say that. He could've used anybot."

"No one else had part of the Allspark inside of them."

That was true. Bumblebee wasn't sure if he had a comeback to that. But he had to find some way to cheer her up. Her complexion was growing bluer and bluer as they continued on. He was afraid this would somehow cause her spark-removal to come up, and that she would go into a mode of silence again, just as she did whenever he purposefully tried to get her to talk about it. It hurt enough when he did it on purpose; he didn't want to do it on accident either.

"Well…" Wait. That was it! "The Allspark! It was the one in control of your key! Like all the times it forced you to use it or didn't let you use it!"

"And that means…?"

"It wouldn't have let you use it on yourself unless it knew that it would be alright there." Bumblebee explained, suddenly feeling very intelligent at figuring all this out on his own. "It wanted you to upgrade yourself."

She brightened for a nanoclick, then frowned. "What about Soundwave? It let me charge him too, and look at all the problems he's caused!"

"Nothing too bad, though. We've beat his gearshaft twice, and if he's ever going to show up around here we'll do it again! Your key brought him online, but I think the Allspark limited what he was able to do. It made sure that he wouldn't be too much of a threat. And you learned a lesson from all that, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember." She smiled, "No one was really hurt from what Dirge did…so I guess the Allspark worked with that too, right?"

"Er…right!" Bumblebee felt it was best not to tell her of the few `bots that had gone offline because of complications with their sparks, or who had just never got back to their chassis. She had enough on her mind and conscience as is.

"That's a relief. I was starting to think that upgrading myself was something really horrible." She sighed, then resumed playing the game properly. Hot Shot groaned as the damage on his character increased dramatically. "As for the powers, I agree, they're really sweet! Dad said he's going to try to build some sorta training place for me to practice. I don't know if he'll be able to do it, though."

"Hey, if he can make Wii-motes big enough for me to hold, then he can do anything!" Hot Shot insisted, shaking said remote vigorously. Bumblebee watched his movements carefully, waiting for the moment when his grip would slip and something in the room would be broken.

"I dunno if I really want a training arena, though. I think I have enough control over my powers."

Bumblebee was about to tell her that he thought an arena would actually be pretty cool when the sound of cheerful singing drifted from the entrance to the Plant.

"With great power comes great responsibility! That's the catchphrase of old Uncle Ben!"

"Wreck-Gar!" Sari exclaimed, recognizing the voice. She paused the game, much to the dismay of Hot Shot, and ran over to meet him.

Wreck-Gar looked about the same as he had been when Bumblebee had last seen him. Standing tall, singing fairly off-key, and a goofy smile on his faceplate. He had a new Autobrand to replace the one he lost in the river, now proudly displayed on his chestplate, oddly the only part of his chassis that didn't seem to be at least slightly dirty. He must often clean it to keep it in a heroically good shape. There was an ugly green couch in his right servo which he swung back and forth in perfect rhythm with his song.

"If you missed it, don't worry, they'll say the line…again and again and-" He had continued walking even after Sari had spoken up, and didn't stop until he had almost stepped on her, as if he just noticed her. "Oh! Hello there, Sari, commander of the Substitute Autobots!"

"Wreck-Gar, the Substitute Autobots are disbanded, remember?"

He blinked. "It is?" Using his free servo, he reached back into his pack, searching frantically for something. When it came back into view, a pile of rubber bands had appeared in the middle of his palm, "Will these help fix it?"

"No, no. You can't do anything to fix it."

"Then…what will I call you? Sari, commander of the now-disbanded Substitute Autobots?" He asked.

"How about just 'Sari'." She offered with a smile.

"Oh, whew." Wreck-Gar breathed out, "That sounds like a lot less of a mouthful to say."

"That's the point." Sari informed. "What are you doing here, anyway?"

"That's right! I needed to come here for something…now what was it again…" He mumbled, returning the rubber bands back to his pack and tapping the couch against his thigh. "Oh! Yeah! I wanted to know if Ratchet was around so that I could show him this!" Wreck-Gar thrust the couch high in the air, reminding Bumblebee of Hot Shot's victory stance.

Everyone stared at Wreck-Gar for almost half a cycle, not sure of what to say. Hot Shot looked like he was going to make a derogatory comment, but both Sari and Bumblebee gave him a look that made him step back. He didn't know Wreck-Gar or understand his unique nature.

"…sorry, Wreck-Gar, but Ratchet's still on Cybertron with Arcee." Sari explained, "As soon as he comes back, though, you can show him."

Bumblebee imagined Ratchet's flustered faceplate as he was welcomed back to Earth with that couch and restrained his laughter for Wreck-Gar's sake.

"And when will that be?" The young `bot asked.

"Uh…sometime soon, I'm sure."

"How long is soon?"

"It…it doesn't have a specific time. 'Soon' is just not…a long way's away, I guess."

"Too bad. Too bad." Wreck-Gar shook his head, "Well, I guess that means I better be heading off. Got official Autobot business to do, y'know."

And with that he walked back the way he came, continuing his little song from where he left off. They all watched him as he departed, Sari slowly waving 'good-bye' even though Wreck-Gar wouldn't see it.

"…What was his malfunction?" Hot Shot asked warily.

"We'll have to tell you some other time. It's kinda complicated." Bumblebee said, grinning.

The game was quickly started up again, but Bumblebee didn't watch as closely as he had before. He was focusing more on the players than the actual game. Sari and Hot Shot, both laughing and having fun, even with the latter sorely beat every round. The innocent happiness surrounding them was something that actual made Bumblebee think of Wreck-Gar, the never –failing optimist. Times like these were deserved of such joy. Everything that had happened, the pain and suffering, was over.

Slag, it was good to be home.

A thousand Whose Line points to the one who knows what song Wreck-Gar was singing.