Merry Christmas everyone! As my special present to you, I am posting a double chapter! Enjoy:)
Hooray! More memories!! They all come together in this chapter… :D
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Kathryn woke up early the next morning. Apparently Barricade hadn't had any more dreams. She was slightly disappointed; they had been very interesting to hear, even if they interrupted her sleep.
"Good morning," Bumblebee said quietly as Kathryn sat up. She smiled at him.
"Morning," she said through a yawn. "Damn, I'm hungry."
"Well," Bumblebee said. "Ratchet said I should be able to transform just fine now. Do you want me to take you to get something to eat?"
Sweeeet! Kathryn thought. She grinned hugely. "I'd love to! If you're allowed to," she added.
"I just told Optimus," Bumblebee said. "It's fine." He held out a hand for her to climb onto, and lowered her to the ground.
She watched in awe as he shifted into his alt mode. He was beautiful. Bright yellow with racing stripes… "Wow," she sighed happily, running one hand down the length of his hood.
"You like it?" Bumblebee said.
"You look amazing," Kathryn said, unable to take her eyes off him. She wondered how he had gotten a hold of the specifications for the car. Bumblebee opened the passenger door as the engine purred to life.
"Hop in," he said.
Kathryn pouted slightly. "I want to drive," she said. She loved driving, the feeling of freedom it gave her. She also loved to speed. She tried to suppress the urge most of the time. This was different, though. She wanted to see how fast Bumblebee was. He could probably outrun anything else on the road…
Bumblebee sighed. "Fine, he said, opening the driver's side door. Kathryn squealed with glee and skipped around to it. "You had better be a good driver, though. And I'm taking over if I think you're a bad one."
Kathryn smirked as she slid behind the wheel and buckled her seat belt. "Don't worry," she said. "I do this all the time."
It was a miracle that Barricade wasn't woken up by the roar and screeching of tires as Kathryn pushed the gas pedal all the way to the floor and they peeled out.
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Fifteen minutes later, Kathryn finally slowed down as they approached the outskirts of Mission City. She was panting slightly, and her adrenaline levels were very high. Bumblebee thought that was terribly unfair, since she hadn't been the one pushing her limits.
"Damn," she said. Bumblebee wondered if her face would freeze that way. She hadn't stopped grinning since he'd said she could drive. "You are… amazing. That was soooo much fun! Do you do this with Sam?"
"Actually, I haven't really had the chance," Bumblebee said with a hint of regret. "I'm sure he'd enjoy it, though."
"Oh, definitely," Kathryn said. "Boys love speed."
"You are a boy then?" Bumblebee teased. Kathryn snorted.
"I wonder how fast Barricade is…" she mused as they drove.
"Fast enough," Bumblebee said, a little more snappishly than he had meant to. Kathryn gave the radio a look.
"You don't like him," she said. It was not a question.
"He attacked me!" Bumblebee said. "Of course I don't like him. But he seems sincere, so I'm trying to get along."
"Why did he attack you?" Kathryn said. Bumblebee sighed.
"Well, perhaps 'attack' isn't an entirely accurate term. He was after Sam," he explained. "Barricade was trying to find out the location of something that would allow him to find the Allspark. As Sam's guardian, I had to protect him, so I went after Barricade. We had an all-out brawl." Kathryn's eyebrows shot up, but she kept her eyes on the road. Bumblebee continued thoughtfully. "Barricade has quite the reputation for killing, you know. I thought I was going to die, but I beat him. I think I scared him somehow."
"Really?" Kathryn said.
"Yes. When you were off yesterday morning, Barricade had a dream about the fight. He said he looked into my optics and then woke up."
"Huh," Kathryn said. She looked thoughtful. "Another memory… I bet it's somehow connected to the ones he had before."
"If there is a connection," Bumblebee said, "I don't see it." Kathryn shrugged.
"It may be only tangential," she said. Then she brightened. "Hey, we're here."
"A McDonald's?" Bumblebee said. "The food from this establishment is of questionable nutritional content."
Kathryn snorted.
"Hey, it won't kill me, and I like the taste," she said.
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Barricade spent a thankfully dreamless night. The next morning, Kathryn was gone from his chassis. Bumblebee was similarly missing. When questioned, Ratchet told him that the two of them had gone out to get food for Kathryn. Barricade sighed inwardly. The almost constant requirements that humans had could really get annoying at times.
But why was he even bothering to get annoyed? Why did he care? Barricade tried not to think about it.
The only other thing he had to think about, though, was what was going to happen today. Kathryn had dubbed it "Moving Day," which was an appropriate title. The Autobots, Barricade, and Kathryn were going to their permanent base in Nevada. Barricade was going to be hauled in Prime's trailer.
Barricade was apprehensive about it. He had, for lack of a better term, trust issues. He had, in a quiet moment, admitted to Prime that he was apprehensive about being transported for such a long time without being able to see where he was going and unable to defend himself if anything should happen. He remembered Prime's response.
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"I will not allow you to come to harm, Barricade, if there is something I can do to prevent it," the Autobot leader said quietly. Barricade shifted slightly.
"I know," he said. "I just don't like it."
"If there's anything I can do to help…" Prime said. Barricade shook his head.
"I'll be all right. I probably shouldn't have mentioned it." Prime nodded. Barricade could tell he didn't believe it.
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The more he thought about it, the more Barricade was convinced he shouldn't have mentioned it. Prime probably thought he was paranoid now.
But he couldn't shake the feeling of unease that he felt thinking about the trip. He might feel better if Kathryn were with him, but the inside of a trailer was really no place for a human, and he didn't want to go through the awkwardness of asking her to do something that was totally unnecessary and would probably be interpreted as a sign that he had some kind of deep affection for her.
Primus. This was a vicious cycle. Barricade sighed, out loud this time, and flexed his left foot absentmindedly. He could feel the jury-rigged connecting pins shift slightly, and winced.
He was distracted by Bumblebee walking into the hangar. Prime detached himself with the conversation that he had been having with Ratchet to greet him and Kathryn, who was tagging along at his heels and holding a bag with the word 'McDonald's' on it.
"Bumblebee," Prime said. "You look… dusty." Kathryn giggled.
"I'm afraid that's my fault," she said. "I've never gotten the opportunity to spin donuts before…" she trailed off with a dreamy look on her face. Bumblebee grinned guiltily.
"Well," Prime said. "Now that we're all here, we can prepare to move out." Barricade suppressed the urge to cringe.
The preparations took less time than Barricade had been unconsciously hoping. They consisted mostly of hitching Prime up to the trailer, getting Barricade inside, stacking the storage containers against one wall, and deciding who Kathryn should ride with (she chose Bumblebee).
Once they were under way, Barricade wondered what he should do with himself. There was no internet connection here in the middle of nowhere, and he did not want to be left alone with his thoughts.
Recharge it was, then.
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"I need you to get to the Autobot medics," Blackbird said. "Can you do that?" His brother nodded, and began crawling along the ground to avoid getting hit. Blackbird tried to follow, but discovered to his horror that he could not move his legs. That shot he had taken must have hit something important; the pain was terrible. Feeling helpless, Blackbird lay on the ground and twitched.
His brother spared a glance back, and came back towards him.
"NO!" Blackbird shouted. "Go find a medic! That's an order!" Completely ignoring the fact that Blackbird did not have any kind of seniority over him, his brother nodded reluctantly, then disappeared into the melee.
Blackbird attempted to drag himself along the ground using only his arms. It was very slow going, and the pain in his back was a big distraction. He had only gone a few yards when something grabbed him.
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"Where did Ratchet go?" Kathryn asked.
"I don't know," Bumblebee said. "He was talking to Optimus earlier. I think he has special orders or something."
"Hn." Kathryn looked in the rearview at the huge form of Optimus Prime, drumming her fingers idly on the steering wheel. Bumblebee had insisted on driving this time, and Kathryn hadn't objected. After all, she'd had her fun.
"Why don't you like Barricade?" she said after a while. Bumblebee was surprised at the sudden change of subject.
"He was a Decepticon," he said. "Like I said before, he attacked me."
"But there has to be some other reason why you don't like him," Kathryn said. "I mean, to you he was just another Decepticon. He's been okay to you since defecting, right? Why don't you like him now?"
Bumblebee paused. This femme was smart. She'd picked up on something. And she was a lot closer to the truth than she knew.
When Barricade had grabbed him by the shoulders and looked him in the optics, he had reminded Bumblebee of his brother… and that was a painful memory. He had resented Barricade for resembling his brother, which had caused him to fight a little more brutally than was perhaps necessary.
Maybe it was time he told someone. Primus knew, he'd been carrying this particular burden for millenia.
"He reminded me of my brother," he said finally, in a quiet voice. "And I resent him for it." Once it was out, Bumblebee wondered if he should have admitted that. Kathryn would probably think it was stupid.
A look of mixed understanding and confusion crossed Kathryn's face.
"It's love-hate," she said. Bumblebee googled 'love-hate' and agreed. "Where's your brother now?"
A long silence followed. Kathryn started to fidget uncomfortably in her seat, sensing that she had hit a sensitive subject.
"He's dead," Bumblebee said. "The first battle we were ever in… he took on Starscream all by himself. It didn't go well, but he managed to get away. Later, he was trying to save me, and Starscream shot him. He told me to get to safety… and I did… but he couldn't… I never saw him again…"
He was only vaguely aware of the tears making their way down Kathryn's face.
"Blackbird…" he sighed, lost in his memories.
He almost didn't hear Optimus shouting that a Decepticon was incoming.
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BWAHAHAHAHAAAA!!! Cliffie!!! XD Well, now you know the significance of the dreams Barricade was having!