Disclaimer: I don't own the Transformers verse or the characters contained within that verse. Hasbro does. I make no money from this fic, unfortunately.

FOR THOSE OF YOU HAVING EDITING PROBLEMS! Because believe me, I did for like two weeks, and it pissed me off something major. I even used my DeviantArt account so I could at least post this chapter temporarily. Turns out, all you need to do is change "property" in the URL to "content." Yahoo Answers FTW.

Author's note: Alright, I'm getting some kind of a plot looking thing. I may end up changing my mind and making this into two parts, this little collection being the first and some sequel to follow to be the second. I don't officially know yet, so we'll all be playing it by ear. Anyway, a big thank you to: writergurl616, the insane one of another mind, sissimay (thanks for a long review! Makes me happy), Shadir, DreamStoryWeaver, 9aza, and IReadNoNonsense (except for that one time). You all are amazing, thank you for taking the time to review. For those of you who have favorited and alerted, there are so many of you now! It's awesome. Thanks!

Okay, enjoy ya'll!

An Odd Occurence: Crisis

After Bee was rescued, he ended up in Optimus Prime's office for debriefing. Optimus immediately noticed Bumblebee's bright social nature had gone into a dark, deep withdraw. The little bot didn't smile and say hello in his usual cheery way. Instead, he received a pathetic salute and a mumbled out step by step report about what had happened to him.

Prowl and Ironhide were also in the office, listening intently to every word. Prowl felt immense guilt as he listened, while Ironhide felt the intense burning rage of a thousand suns. The Weapons Specialist exploded right after the last words fell out of Bee's vocalizer.

Basically, Ironhide had a royal fit about the youngling's unpreparedness for battle, "I told you, Prime! You should've listened to me from the get go."

Optimus glanced at the youngling. Bee didn't respond to the insult.

Optimus sighed and swiveled back to glare at Ironhide, "He was well trained and he reacted in the correct fashion as benefiting a soldier captured by the enemy. You and I both know that, Ironhide, to say any less is a disservice to Bumblebee's bravery."

Ironhide flinched from the words, "But Prime-."

"I don't want to hear anything more about Bumblebee's actions. Instead, I'd rather simply give him his space to recuperate from his harrowing captivity." Optimus turned to look at Prowl, "I hope you don't mind, Prowl, but I would like Bumblebee to return to headquarters until he feels up to working again."

"Of course!" Prowl looked into Optimus' eyes with desperate fervor, "I apologize immensely over the incident, and blame myself for not realizing the Decepticons were so close-."

"You did well, Prowl." Optimus said with sincerity in his words, "You discovered his absence quickly and managed to get him back within the same solar cycle that he was taken. Commendable work. Remember, it's not how the mistakes are made that matters, but instead how we try to fix them."

Prowl gave one of his rare small smiles, "Thank you, sir."

Optimus nodded, "You and Ironhide are both dismissed."

The two bots saluted and then walked out of the office. Optimus put his full attention on Bumblebee. The downtrodden state of young bot was spark wrenching. While Prime found that getting Ironhide to see reason and alleviating Prowl's guilt had been a bit difficult, he had a feeling nothing he said or did could get Bee to go back to his cheerful self.

Optimus knew deep in his spark that something happened during Bee's captvity, something that disturbed the young bot greatly.

He tired to comfort his charge, "Bumblebee, despite what you may think, you did very well for your first capture."

Bumblebee attempted a smile, "Thank you, sir, but can I just go to my room? I'm really tired."

Optimus nodded his helm, "Yes, of course. You're dismissed."

Bumblebee got up and saluted goodbye. Optimus watched the yellow form retreat from him with trepidation. Something was wrong, and he couldn't help. It was the worst feeling, like suffocation. Optimus forced himself to focus on his duties. He'd just have to believe that Bee would talk when he was ready. Until then, he could only keep going. After all, there was a war to fight.

Meanwhile in the Decepticon headquarters in Kaon, a certain pissed off seeker colored red, gray, and blue stomped down the corridors like a five year old denied his favorite toy. Lately, he hadn't been allowed to take to the skies in battle. Megatron had claimed it was something about Starscream's need to "pull his helm out of his tailpipe before getting everyone below killed" or some such nonsense, the seeker didn't really listen. All Starscream knew was that he wanted to destroy every single one of those Autobots, and if possible he wanted to destroy them with his bare servos and rip them apart piece by piece.

Stupid Autobots with their stupid, foolish little ideals and their foolish, pathetic little need to feel hurt by words! Starscream suddenly twirled on his thruster to punch a wall with all his might. Megatron stood just out of range from the seeker's wrath, watching the display with frustration. Ever since that little sun drop had infected the base, Starscream had begun performing poorly. The leader had always noticed that the seeker's emotions influenced him greatly in action, but never before had it become a problem on the battlefield.

Megatron calmly walked over, "Are you done?"

Starscream growled, "No!" He turned to glare at his leader, "I've been grounded! Do you know how that feels to a seeker, oh mighty leader. I'll tell you. It feels like slag!"

By this point, Starscream was one inch away from Megatron's face plates. Megatron simply continued to stare him down. Eventually, the seeker deflated and moved away to mope. Megatron rolled his optics. It was like handling a femme that had been jilted.

Starscream mumbled out, "I was cruel to him."

Megatron quirked an optic ridge, "Were you?"

"Yes, and without even throwing a single punch." Starscream smiled sardonically, "Takes talent doesn't it?"

Megatron shrugged his shoulders, "You've done it before, it never bothered you then."

"Yes, well, this is different." Starscream added silently, it was personal.

Megatron could infer the words in the heavy silence, "Well, as much as I'm enjoying our little moment, I have to go take care of an entire army before they destroy either the base or themselves...or possibly both."

Megatron turned about face and headed towards his office. His Second in Command watched the back retreating from him.

Slowly, he put up his null rays, "Too easy."

Megatron shouted, "If you shoot me, I'll rip your wings off. Fair warning."

Starscream sulkily put his arm down, "Spoil sport."

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe figured that racing might do the youngling some good. Optimus had told them that Bumblebee needed all his friends to support him right now, and since Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were practically his older brothers they might want to step up first. The twins had immediately began plotting different ways to make him feel better, and many of them involved either some sort of borderline illegal activity or prank. Bee had always loved racing, so they thought that might be a good place to start.

They were disappointed when Bee merely trudged along not even trying to win. No matter how many times they teased, cajoled, or even outright challenged him, Bumblebee just couldn't put his spark into it. It bothered the twins more than they cared to admit. They decided they'd leave the ideas of painting Prowl's desk bright pink with glitter for a later date, and instead they'd just be there for their friend.

No one knew the true storm within the youngling's spark. He questioned himself daily, "Am I an Autobot? Or could I be...?" He didn't want to think about it, but if a Decepticon had been the one to put him with the Autobots instead of killing him, then there was a chance that he too could be a-a...He couldn't bring himself to confront the word in connection to himself.

Soon, he'd have to figure it out soon, or it would drive him mad.

Everyone at Autobot HQ continued to bitterly blame the Decepticons for doing something to their Bee. It was no coincidence that the Autobots managed to gain an enraged advantage over the Decepticons in the following cycles, driving the hated bots out of Iacon completely and pushing them back to Kaon. The Decepticons, in mild shock over the sudden heated fighting on their foes' part, decided it would be best to recuperate back at their headquarters before they went back into battle again.

Of course, the changing of the tide managed to also enrage the Decepticon leader, who in turn punished his Second in Command with patrol duty for his mere existence. Despite Starscream's harsh protests against the unfair punishment, a round with the fusion cannon made him begrudgingly accept his boring fate. Still, it did give him more time plot overthrowing the tyrant so he could take the lead.

Yet, all the while, the seeker remembered his harsh words and tasted the rust of regret.

When Sunstreaker and Sideswipe caught Bee on Teletran 1, they thought that he must've just been looking up something mundane, like femmes. However, when Sideswipe leaned over his shoulder to look, the mech had to do a double take.

He asked, "Hey, Bee, why are you looking up some old battles?"

"I have a clue about where I came from." Bumblebee decided to hedge around the fact that he got the tidbit from a Decepticon, "I want to find out about stuff that happened around the time I was brought here."

Sideswipe looked to Sunstreaker. Using their private channel, he said, "We've got to help him, Sunny."

Sunstreaker tilted his head to the side, "What? Why?"

"Because! It's the first time I've seen him actually, you know, doing something! And we're supposed to support him, right?" Sideswipe nodded in the direction of the monitor, "Besides, you'd want to know, too, about your past and about who created you."

Sunstreaker shifted from pede to pede, "I guess he does look a little like his old self. Alright, I'm in, I guess we're just doing research."

Sideswipe vocalized, "Want any help? We'll go through the files with you."

Bumblebee turned around and gave them his first real smile in ages, "Thanks! That'd be great!"

It took longer than they thought, as in two more solar cycles of shifting through data to get to a station that had been destroyed around the same time as Bee's appearance at the Autobot's front door. They managed to find a battle at a small station, but that was it.

Bee looked at the data with excitement, "Alright, we need to get to a place called Gammaflash. Where is it, Teletran?"

The computer replied, "Within Decepticon territory, a cycle's travel away from base."

Bee looked over to Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, "I still want to go."

Sunstreaker shook his head, "Nuh-uh! No way!" He waved his hands in a dramatically negative back and forth gesture, "We are not going into the Decepticon territory. If it was on the borderline, okay sure, or even maybe if it was just somewhere a little less NOT CLOSE TO KAON!"

Bumblebee pleaded, "It'll just be the three of us and we'll be back before anyone knows we're gone. We'll say we went on an excursion, just like when I was a sparkling. Come on, guys! I want to know who I am."

Sideswipe sighed, "I don't know, Bee, it seems like a lot of trouble for a possible dead end."

Bee snapped, "But it's the only lead I have! Please, guys, I promise we'll be in and out before anyone can capture us."

Sunstreaker looked over at Sideswipe, "What do you think, bro?"

Sideswipe shrugged, "We've done stupider things before."

It turned out getting into the Decepticon territory was a piece of cake. With the battles raging so close to Kaon, the three bots managed to get through the so-called security without much hassle. As they neared the station in their car modes, Bumblebee felt his spark whirling fast. He hoped with all his might that something was there, even just a name or a designation, just something he could find that could answer one question: Autobot or Decepticon?

When they arrived, they found nothing but charred ruins. Bumblebee transformed to his bi-pedal mode, and looked around in dismay. The holes had long been blown to smithereens, and none of the computers even had hard drives within them anymore. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe helped Bumblebee search in the record for four orns before thy finally gave up to go back home.

Sideswipe frowned, "I'm so sorry, Bee."

Sunstreaker gently patted Bumblebee's helm before they transformed, "You know, Bee, we're your family now. That's all that matters."

Bee shook the hand off, "Yeah, all that matters." He transformed and shot off towards home.

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker followed close behind.

When Starscream caught sight of two shiny dots speeding like the Pit, he knew they couldn't have been Decepticons. Decepticons were never shiny enough to draw attention to themselves. Only certain Autobots were arrogant enough to have such flamboyant colors and shine.

Starscream hated one in particular.

"Sunstreaker!" Starscream screeched.

His wingmates flying close on either side shouted, "Where?"

He didn't answer, but instead burnt his thrusters to jet towards the enemy. Skywarp and Thundercracker followed their commander with all due haste. They didn't particularly care for the Jet Judo freaks, and where there was one the other was sure to follow. As they zeroed in on their prey, Thundercracker wondered why they were even in Decepticon territory. There was nothing of value out there...

Wait, he recognized this landscape. Thundercracker double checked the coordinates. His spark felt a bit of foreboding. He called over the private frequency to his commander, "Starscream, do you know where we are?"

"If you don't know how to read your coordinates by now-."

"No, I mean, do you realize that this is where we found him?"

Skywarp interrupted, "Found who?"

Thundercracker replied, "The yellow bot."

"Oh, Bumble?" Skywarp sighed, "He used to be so cute, and when you guys told me about his capture, I was kind of excited. But, he just seemed like your average punk to me. A big let down."

Starscream snapped, "Stop chattering like femmes and get into formation!"

Skywarp chuckled, "You know what? I think I'll pop in to say hello."

"Skywarp, obey me or I'll-!"

But it was too late. Skywarp teleported down to the ground, landing right in front of the three speeding cars. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe sped up to get in front of Bumblebee, and transformed to protect their friend.

Skywarp smirked, "You didn't think I came alone, did you?"

The twins froze. Quickly, they looked over their shoulders.

And found Bee trapped in a helm-lock with Thundercracker holding his thrashing form.

Starscream pointed to them both, "Are you two the babysitters?"

Sideswipe growled, "Let him go."

Starscream glared at him, "Don't presume to give me orders, Autoaft. I have your friend in a vulnerable position. I suggest you obey."

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe went silent, choosing to glare with unabashed hatred at their enemy.

Bee struggled enough to shout out, "You lied!"

Starscream turned around to face the youngling, "I what?"

"You lied!" Bumblebee screeched out desperately, "You had to! There's no way a Decepticon could've saved me." Bumblebee coughed out, "It doesn't make any sense!"

Starscream shook his head, "You fool." He walked over to Bee, "Is that why you're here? You're trying to find answers that don't even matter?"

"It does matter!" Bee screamed, "It matters if I'm an Autobot or a Decepticon!"

Silence. Starscream stared at the bot in shock. It never occurred to him that his words could've been misinterpreted like that.

Sunstreaker was the first to recover, "Bee, you're an Autobot. No matter how you were sparked, you're one of us."

Bee glared at him, "Easy for you to say. You know! You know your coding, I don't."

Starscream crossed his arms in front of him, and then threw them away from himself, "Enough!" He pointed at the bot, "Listen here, Bumblebrat, you were found in an Autobot base. Your creator was an Autobot. End of story, now shut up."

He pointed towards the distant horizon, "And get out of my sight! I don't want you three taking up precious brig space because you were foolishly chasing ghosts."

Thundercracker shoved the troubled youngling towards his friends. Sideswipe caught him, and they quickly transformed and rolled out.

Sunstreaker stayed behind to cover their backs and inform Starscream, "That's right. He's ours." He spat viciously, "Not yours. Never yours."

Skywarp quipped, "You can borrow him for a bit, but ain't it funny how he keeps ending up with our merry little band?" He smirked, "It's like fate or something."

Thundercracker nodded in the direction of the fleeing pair, "And he may be with you, now, but you were one of us once."

Starscream smirked, "There's still time to turn him around. Don't think we've given up just yet."

Sunstreaker sneered, "He'll never join you! I'll make sure of that." He turned around, transformed, and sped off.

Starscream glared at the cloud of dirt the bot had kicked up, "We'll see."

Prime and Ironhide were waiting for them when they get back. Starscream had informed them about their wayward adventure. All of them are put of cleaning duty for the eternity according to Ironhide, and Prime didn't disagree. As the twins were dragged off by Ironhide's not-so-gentle servos, Bumblebee was simply confronted by Prime.

Prime asked, "Why did you do such a reckless thing, Bumblebee. You put yourself and your friends in serious danger."

Bee spoke softly, "I just wanted to know who I was, and I figured the only way to do that would be to find out about my creators and their coding." He looked up at Prime, "I thought, it might be possible, that I was sparked a Decepticon."

Optimus could see the naked fear within that confession. Calmly he explained, "It doesn't matter how you were sparked, but instead what you decide to do that matters. Every mech is different, and even though Decepticons chose their ideals and the Autobots theirs, in the end everyone has their own independent ideas on what's right and wrong. You didn't have to beat yourself up over your lineage. Figuring out who you are comes through life experience, actions, decisions, and relying on the mechs who love and care about you to guide you to the right path."

Bee trembled with suppressed sobs, "Everyone kept saying that, but I didn't believe them. I'm so sorry, sir."

Optimus patted Bee's helm, "It's only natural to question your origins, Bee. Next time, come to me and we'll figure something out together."

"I didn't..." Bee let out a small whimper, "I didn't want you to think I didn't care about you or the others, because you are my family, I just-I just-!"

Optimus ex-vented, "It's alright, Bumblebee."

"I swear, it'll never happen again."

Prime merely nodded his head, but he doubted it. Eventually, the questions would need answers.

After his talk with Bumblebee, Prime headed for the command center and called up Starscream. The stern face snapped at him, "Well, did he make it or was he slagged on the way back?"

Optimus tilted his head, "Why do you care?" Prime pointed out, "You've intervened on Bee's behalf more than a few times now. It's like you're attached to him."

Starscream got the implication and set Prime straight, "I'm not the creator of the little pit-spawn. However, I," he rolled his optics, "suppose I can't help but feel a tad responsible for finding the little bot in the first place."He snarled, "And I hate the mistake I made in giving him to you."

Prime asked, "If you hate that he's with us so much, why do you keep letting him go?"

Starscream looked at Prime in the optics, "Well, at first I had a war to fight. It never even occurred to me that I should keep him. I thought he would end up with a civilian family, raised by a mech and a femme looking to adopt. If I had know he'd end up caught in the middle of this mess I wouldn't have given him to you." He sighed, "But I did, and until the war is over he'll fight us alongside your pathetic people." Starscream sneered, "One of my few good acts turned against me, how ironic."

Prime admitted to his foe,"I made a mistake."

Starscream started, "You-you what?"

"I made a mistake. I brought Bee up with the bias against Decepticons. Granted, the entire base helped to exacerbate the problem, but it was my words that Bumblebee took to spark. I should have been more careful about what I said." Prime looked straight into Starscream's optics, "I forgot to tell him that we're all Cybertronians, all mechs and femmes with family and friends lost to the war, and all of us have sparks. Most of all, I should have told him that regardless of faction, we all have worth, and we all deserve a chance to see the end of the war and live in peace."

Starscream looked away, "As pitiful as your Autobot mentality is, I also believe that despite the lines we do need to get to the end. The little brat will inherit the world we give him, so we have to make it worth inheriting."

Prime nodded his head, "I couldn't agree more."