Author's Notes: Wow, it has been forever since I worked on this fic! I started strong but then quit too soon. Well, finally I have another chapter out, and hopefully I can update this fic at a more regular pace now. Please review, since I love to hear from you guys, and I hope everyone is having a great week :)

Chapter 4

The Clients

Sun Vulture was in his room with Daniel in his servo. He took the boy's space suit off, and Daniel instinctively gasped when Sun Vulture walked by the airlock next to the exit. Surprisingly though, Sun Vulture didn't eject him and was content to absentmindedly pat the boy's head while he walked to his berth.

"Alright little man, I'm gonna need you to be quiet while I make a call on the monitor over there. Can you do that for me?" Sun Vulture asked patronizingly.

Daniel hated the way this big bully talked to him, and hated even more being petted by the glistening tyrant, but he also knew that the call could be important to the Autobots, so he nodded his agreement to be quiet so he could listen in on the call. Sun Vulture smiled a crooked smile and flipped a switch on his remote control to activate the monitor. As soon as the picture cleared, it revealed one of the five faces of a Quintesson!

"So good to hear from you, Sun Vulture," the Quintesson said, and then flipped its faces around so another one could speak, "Do you have the cargo?"

"Sure thing, squid dude!" Sun Vulture replied in an overly casual way, "We caught two Autobots. No Decepticons yet, but give it time. We'll get them. I trust my payment will be ready when we get there?"

"Of course, your credits will be transferred upon your arrival," the Quintesson replied with a sinister tone. To be fair, everything they said sounded sinister.

"Great! See you then," Sun Vulture exclaimed and then turned off the screen to hang up on the Quintesson, "Listen Danny boy, when we get to the planet, I'm gonna need you to stay on the ship. I don't want you to see what those things do to the Autobots. It'll screw you up for life, believe me!"

"Bumblebee and Arcee will escape, you'll see!" Daniel shouted defiantly up at the golden colored seeker.

"Such a brave little human," Sun Vulture cooed mockingly, "Don't you get it? They're Sharkticon food! The Quints want them for those fake trials they hold, and between my brig and the squids' defenses there's no way they're getting out!"

Daniel face was angry and full of reproach, but the tears streaming down his face gave away his real feelings. He was starting to believe the bounty hunter captain was right, and that both saddened and terrified him.

Just then the door swooshed open and a teal colored triple changer walked in holding a small steel box.

"Ah, Roughhouse my mech!" Sun Vulture greeted him openly, "Did you find anything in our barter-payments room?"

"Yessir," Roughhouse nodded curtly, "I found water for the human, as well as a type of food they eat called crackers. There's also a jar of brown stuff called peanut butter that's supposed to go on the crackers. There's enough here to keep the little squishy fed for months. Maybe an entire earth year."

"Perfect!" Sun Vulture exclaimed happily, "Just set it on my nightstand. It's probably time for his feeding anyway. What do you say, Danny? Wanna cracker?"

Daniel just stared up at Sun Vulture for a moment and appreciate the absurdity of the situation. Here was Sun Vulture, the closest thing Cybertron had to a bird, offering Daniel, a human, a cracker. He just hoped Sun Vulture didn't rename him Polly.

Rodimus and his band of Autobots landed on planet Charr. The landscape was just as barren as ever. Nothing but red sky and brown rocks for as far as the optic could see. Honestly, Rodimus wasn't even sure why this place was called a planet. It was too small. Rhode Island was bigger than this place!

Kup scanned the surrounding area, but he picked up no life signatures. There was nothing there. Not a Decepticon, not an organic, not even a microbe. It was just another dead world amid the millions of dead worlds in the universe.

"Where do you think they went?" Kup asked Rodimus.

"I'm not sure," Rodimus answered honestly, "Probably to meet up with the Porcelain Throne. I can't believe Galvatron was so cowardly that he hired a group of bounty hunters to capture our friends. It makes me sick."

"Maybe Galvatron didn't hire them at all," Ultra Magnus posited, "Think about it, Rodimus. Galvatron is the type that charges into battle without thinking and attacks without mercy. Hiring a mercenary doesn't sound like him. Whoever hired Sun Vulture clearly didn't want to get their hands dirty."

"Hm...Maybe Cyclonus?" Rodimus asked.

"No. Not his style," Ultra Magnus refuted, "He's a Decepticon, but he's also a warrior that believes in honor and duty above all else. He would at least give Bumblebee and Arcee a fighting chance. An ambush doesn't sound like him."

"But you know who it does sound like?" Kup spoke up then.

It hit Rodimus in that moment, and immediately he said what Kup was already thinking…

"The Quintessons!"

Bumblebee and Arcee heard someone coming for them. They tensed up and waited to see if it was their captors or their rescuers. They were disappointed to see two of Sun Vulture's goons flanking them. They were roughly forced to their pedes and shoved out of the cell and down the hall. Arcee tried to punch one of them in the nose cone, but she couldn't get her arm free. Bumblebee was still too tired to fight from the energy restraint cuffs from before. Whatever awaited them they would just have to see.

"Where are you taking us?" Arcee asked gruffly as she struggled in a burly mech's grip.

"The cap'n has ordered us to take ya down to the planet," one of the triple changers (the one holding Bumblebee) informed them, "We're at the coordinates, and soon the lot of ya will be given a nice new home with the squids."

"Squids?" Bumblebee asked, "You don't mean the Quintessons, do you?"

"Shut up and keep movin'!" The triple changer ordered.

They were forced onto a small transport vehicle and chained to their seats. Arcee searched for a lock pick or anything that could help them commandeer the shuttle, but there was nothing. Bumblebee tried breaking the chain over his knee a few times, but it wouldn't budge. This syndicate clearly had credits to burn on reinforced alloys and other means of keeping their prisoners helpless.

The shuttle landed on a desolate planet with a grey rocky surface and a plain black sky. It was little more than an asteroid, which made the artificial ring of light they were landing beside all the more noticeable. Sun Vulture stood center stage and waited for his clients and their cargo to arrive. When Bumblebee and Arcee were presented to the obnoxious captain they both glared at him hatefully but said nothing.

"Ah, glad to see you arrived safely," Sun Vulture greeted them with a warm smile that did nothing to hide his sinister intentions.

"Where's Daniel?" Bumblebee asked roughly as he scowled fiercely at the seeker.

"He's safe," Sun Vulture replied casually, "I didn't want him to see the squids take you away. He's such a young organic. I don't see why you would put him in danger like that. I thought the humans were your allies."

"Don't speak to us about our friends, you monster!" Arcee barked furiously as she tried to break out of the hold her guard had her in.

"Such a temper," Sun Vulture chided the pink femme, "I'm sure the Quints will enjoy pronouncing you innocent."

Sun Vulture then laughed evilly, and the full implications of what was happening finally sunk in. They were being sold as food for the pets of some of the worst beings in the galaxy. The Quintessons were soulless creatures that built Cybertronians to be slaves and killed innocent life form for their own amusement.

"No! You can't do this!" Bumblebee shouted at Sun Vulture.

"So cliche," Sun Vulture shook his head ruefully, "Well, just to add to the cliche: I can and I will. The Quintessons are paying me quite handsomely for your carcasses, and once they pay me I'll go back out there and collect more victims for them. Trust me, I have my reasons. Hopefully, I won't need to collect too many more. It does get rather tiresome after a while."

The Quintesson ship came into view even as Sun Vulture was speaking. The ugly disjointed corkscrew shape was feared all over the galaxy, and those foul five-faced demons would arrive any moment. Bumblebee was desperate now, as he knew there was no way to escape Sun Vulture and his mechs. He had no tricks left, and only one card left to play...

"Wait! Sun Vulture, don't give them Arcee," Bumblebee pleaded quickly, "You'll still get paid for me, but let Arcee return to the ship with you! She doesn't deserve this, and Daniel still needs her! She's, uh, Daniel's...adopted mother! Yes, she is Daniel's mother. Please, let her go back to Daniel."

Bumblebee couldn't believe he was lying like this. It was crazy! That sociopath wasn't going to care about some fake sob story, and Arcee was just as doomed as him. It was all Bumblebee could think of though, and he had to try.

Sun Vulture looked first at Arcee and then at Bumblebee. He looked thoughtful as he touched a digit to his chin and stared at his prisoners. Finally, he said "Roughhouse, take the femme back to the shuttle."

"What? But captain! She's worth-" the triple changer tried to argue.

"I don't wanna hear it!" Sun Vulture interrupted his lackey, "You know my rule. Nobody comes between a boy and his mother. She returns with us."

Bumblebee couldn't believe what he was hearing. It worked. It actually worked! There was a soft spot in the bounty hunter's spark. Bumblebee knew he would be forced to face the Quintessons, and he would probably die, but seeing Arcee loaded back onto the transport made it all worthwhile. At least one of them would make it home.

The Quintessons landed a few minutes later and three of them disembarked from the ship. They all wore the face of War; a fat face with a red crown. The Quintessons didn't have names for each individual, but each of their five faces had a name. There was War, Death, Wisdom, Judgment, and Wrath. Apparently, these were the only emotions they were capable of expressing...if those even counted as emotions. They were truly abominations the likes of which most beings had trouble comprehending. Bumblebee saw them, and felt hatred brewing in his spark.

"Good day, Sun Vulture," a War greeted the seeker, and then spun around to show Death; a face that looked like a pharaoh's skull, "Do you have our prisoners?"

"I only have one," Sun Vulture shrugged, "The other one escaped. Sorry. Anyway, just transfer my credits for this specimen and I'll be off to gather more defendants for you. I prefer my payments be sent to an account I keep on Topitron."

"Negative," Death said, and turned around so that Wrath faced Sun Vulture, "You promised us two prisoners, and two is what we shall have."

The two other Quintessons surrounding them then used their thin wiry tentacles to shock Sun Vulture into stasis lock! The crew members watched in stunned silence as the Quintessons loaded Bumblebee and Sun Vulture into their ship and left with them. They had to tell Barge immediately! If they didn't go after the Quintesson ship, then they would never get paid!