Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. Only the plot and OCs.

Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 10

Popping up over a ridge of sand with a blooming grin Bumblebee scrambled through the slipping sand to make it to the top of the dune. He slipped more than once trying to get to the top, fell on his aft more than once too, but that hardly discouraged him in his task to get to the top.

It was the highest point he'd seen in three orns beyond endless rolling dunes and blowing sand. They'd left the scattered rocks and cliffs behind meaning that for now until . . . well they got wherever they were going it was going to be a whole lot of flat sand along with the few dunes rising up now and again.

From these high points it was easier to get a good look at what lay out on the horizon. Even if that was a whole lot of nothing. There hadn't been so much as another hive hawk in the sky since he caught up with everybot.

Jazz said it was because the group of them scared most of what was left out here away. It made since when Bee thought about it. The only reason any of these creatures were still alive out here was because they had gotten good at not being seen.

That didn't mean Bumblebee didn't want to see them though.

He did.

He wanted to see it all.

Everything that there could possibly be.

This was the first real adventure he'd ever had and damn if he was going to let it go to waste.

Even if he couldn't go more than ten feet before one of them called him back.

"Half Pint," Sideswipe called up at him once he reached the top of the hill of sand.

Bee bit back an exasperated sigh at the sound of his name echoing over the wind from down below him but he made no move to hurry back down. Instead he hiked up his doorwings, spread his winglets, flicked his antennas and listened. Gazing out over the sands in search of anything of interest.

It might help if he actually knew what they were looking for, but considering when he pulled out Jazz's datapad and handed it to him after he'd woken up the morning after he caught up with them and they all kind of freaked out, that might be understandable.

He could still hear Jazz's shout echoing in his audios.

"What do you mean you can read it!?"

Bumblebee had all but fallen of Ironhide's lap when the silver mech spun around. Staring down at him with blue optics blown wide behind his visor. Blinking back at him in his sprawled hold of Hide's arm while the big ebony mech had caught him before he fell onto his back.

With a shrug the little mech found all gazes fixed on him as he muttered. "Not all of it. Just the note at the end. The words move, it's hard to look at."

"Move?" Sideswipe parroted, dark optics flicking between Bee, his brother, and Ratchet in disbelief.

"What does it say?" It was Optimus that ended the shouting before it could turn into much more. The towering mech staring down at the little bundle of yellow sitting in Hide's lap. With another shrug Bee told them leaving the lot of them quiet there in the morning chill blowing across the desert.

Bumblebee didn't know why there was a haunted look in his family's optics. Though, there was no way he could have possibly.

He never heard the warning Wardrums had growled at them not so very long ago.

"And do us all a favor, keep the little runt the frag out of my desert."

Somehow, they knew they had just screwed that up.

"Half Pint!" There was a bite in Sideswipe's voice now. A warning of if Bee didn't listen he'd spend the rest of the orn tucked under the red twin's arm and not allowed to so much as step away.

So with a sigh Bee slid back down the dune. Landing with a hop and a trip he jogged back into place along the line of walking to grin up at the crimson frontliner. He knew Ironhide and Optimus were looking back at him from the front of their line. Optics looking him over to check for injuries he couldn't possibly have gotten in the forty or so nanos he climbed up there and them came back down.

He said nothing about it however.

There really was no point.

He might have snuck his way into his field trip, but that didn't mean at the slightest wrong turn Optimus wouldn't send him back to the ship. The femmes and the others were pissed at him enough as it is. One comm call from Chromia was enough to remind Bumblebee which creator of his was the one to fear the temper of.

Then there were those awful sounds in the dead of night out in the empty blackness of the dessert around them. No bot would tell him what those horrible sounds belonged to, but he knew enough to figure it was something he didn't want to get on the wrong side of.

So he did as he was told.

One because he wanted to stay, and two because despite what most around here thought he was, in fact, not stupid.

Slightly foolish, maybe.

Prone to getting himself into trouble, absolutely.

But stupid . . . no.

No . . . he wasn't stupid.

"Where we goin' now?" Bee asked, striding along beside Sides. He found Sunstreaker on his other side with no surprise at all. Tucked firmly between the two huge frontliners. It was not unexpected, slightly annoying, but not unexpected.

Jazz was scouting ahead—without Bee no matter how much he whined—Optimus and Ironhide were leading along with Ratchet. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were guarding the rear. Bee was doing a whole lot running about when he could get away with it, but for the most part they were all managing to keep him somewhat between them.

That seemed to appease his caretakers so he was going along with it.

Even if he did want to go running around and see what he could find. This was better than the messes he had managed to get himself into before he caught up with them. At least now he wasn't hungry and he wasn't hurting. They were letting him explore a bit all while keeping an optic on him.

"You know we don't really know, Bee." Sideswipe shrugged. "Jazz is doing the best he can, but for the most part we're just kind of wondering."

"It would help if you could figure out what the rest of that thing said." Sunstreaker sighed.

Bee flicked a doorwing at him. "I'm sorry. It all runs together. I can't make sense of any more of it."

"Not your fault." Sunstreaker assured him.

"It would just help." Sides tacked on. "I still can't figure out how you can read it."

Neither could Bumblebee, if he was being honest, but that was far from the weirdest thing he was capable of doing so for the most part he wasn't worried about it. He did far weirder things that should probably be worried about so this one he was just letting go for now.

His spark had calmed down a little since he caught up with the rest of them. That was one less thing to worry about as well. He was rolling with it.

"We all know I'm weird." He gave another shrug, doorwings and winglets bouncing with the movement but something about the comment paused the twins for a step. Leaving them both looking down at him with those dark optics. Then suddenly Bee found himself tucked harder into Sideswipe's hip as they walked. He allowed the arm wrapped tightly around him and just grinned back at him.

This orn his differences wasn't bothering him. He was having too much fun, but if the twins wanted to hold onto him for it well he wasn't going to argue the attention.

"This is getting us nowhere." Jazz grumbled as he came stalking through the darkness late that evening. The others had already settled down and made camp giving up on following the silver mech to where he had disappeared to ahead of them this time.

They knew he would come back and before too long after dark he did. However, that did not mean he was happy when he did.

Optimus was not surprised. They'd been out here with no luck for orns. It was beginning to get more than annoying.

"Do you have a better plan?" Ironhide grumbled looking down at the smaller mech.

"No." Jazz growled, arms crossing over his chest. Glaring out into the darkness he drummed his fingers against his arm. "That's the problem."

"This wasn't much of a plan to being with." Ratchet sighed from beside Optimus, though his gaze was locked over toward the little fire that made their camp. Where Sunstreaker stood staring out into the opposite direction searching the darkness for threats. Sideswipe was leaned back against the side of his leg with Bumblebee tucked between his spread legs keeping the little mech warm from the biting night wind.

It was only when the sun fell and the cold set in that Bee stopped trying to wiggle out of a grip being kept on him since he showed up. Though, this biting cold was not something he could battle. He was still too young to regulate his own core temperature—the others could, but that didn't mean they weren't cold too, that trick only worked to a point—and while the fire helped there was nothing quite like the leached body heat he could get from the grown mechs.

That and considering neither twin was all that keen on letting him go now that he'd shown up had a little bit to do with it.

None of the officers were bothered. They were all keeping an optic on him, but he fought the twins, and Jazz most of the time, far less about keeping tabs then he did Ratchet, Optimus, and Ironhide. It had a whole lot to do with they acted like brothers while the later three took the roll of sire.

It was to be expected.

It was easier for a mechling to agree to brothers' coddling then overprotective creators'. That was simply the way of things.

Ratchet kept his gaze on them making sure Bee drank all of the ration he'd been given, taking note that there was already an empty cube sitting by his foot. Sunstreaker gave him some of his it seemed. Ratchet would have to smack him for that when he got the chance. Smack him, and then possibly hug him for being the squishy ball of warmth that he secretly was inside. At least, when it came to his brothers.

"We can't just keep wondering around out here aimlessly." Ironhide grumbled, thick arms crossed over his chest. "It was one thing when it was just us, but with Bee . . . ."

"He's not totally helpless." Jazz flicked his bright optics to Hide. "You know that."

"I do." Ironhide nodded back to him. "But I also know how quickly he can freeze to death, or get sand burn, or fall into a pit, or get ate by something, or whatever else he seems to attract."

Jazz had nothing to argue that with, especially when another echoing cry came out of the darkness making every piece of armor between them tighten as optics narrowed and gazed out into the darkness. Jazz's gaze darted to Bumblebee tucked safely in Sideswipe's arms. The little mech having scooted a little closer at the cry dancing through the night.

It was the call of a Silver Saber. Hungry and hateful. Searching the night for a meal of any kind and daring any to cross its path on the land it claimed as home.

A full grown one, especially a hungry one, would not hesitate to try and take a chunk out the smaller ones of this patrol. It would not last long, not against the weapons and skills shared between them but that did not mean it wouldn't try. They were territorial, big, and powerful. Sharing space with only their mates and cubs. The rest of the world was fair game for all they cared.

That was not something that would ever change.

This echoing cry was not the ones that had been bouncing around the desert when Bumblebee caught up with them, but it was still one to take note of. If Jazz was being honest with himself, he wasn't completely positive what it was that was making some of those awful noises. At least not the deep, resonating, cries that seemed to shake the very ground around them.

He wasn't sure he wanted to know.

For he had an idea. A crazy, scary idea. Though he didn't want to give it merit. He didn't want to think those things were still out here. Even if he knew that if there was one thing that would never bow in this desert to the will of anything other then its own kind it was those great beast.

Thinking the Sand Sharks were gone had been a fairy tale hope of the tribes. One that was proven wrong each time their cries broke the night or one of them broke the surface of the every flowing red sands.

Jazz had only seen one once, and it was not something he ever wished to do again.

He be perfectly content if Bee never did.

"That is not the point at the moment." Optimus said, turning his gaze away from the darkness and all he couldn't see out there. "The point is we need a plan of some sort now. Wondering around is getting us nowhere, and you can't pick up on anything."

"Wanna see if he can read any more of that thing?" Jazz lifted an optic ridge.

Ironhide rumbled low in his chest.

"Oh don't give me that." Jazz waved at him. "I don't like it either, but apparently what we don't like doesn't matter."

"He shouldn't be out here." Ironhide huffed.

"Why?" Jazz shot back. "Because some old bastard threatened us with a warning we don't understand, Trickster is up to something, he's a bad news magnet, or all of the above?"

"The last one." Ratchet rolled his shoulders, arms crossing over his chest. "Ignoring what Wardrums said is foolish."

"You can't tell me you're really scared of that old, overgrown, glitch." Jazz stared up at the yellow and red medic with a building scowl. "He's a bastard, and he's long gone."

"He called it his desert." Optimus cut in before the medic and the spy could start growling at each other. Fighting between them was the last thing they needed at the moment. Tempers were running high as it was.

"And then he left." Jazz snorted. "You heard him the first time. He doesn't want anything to do with Bee. Let's not look at a gift sideways okay?"

"Trickster is up to something and you know it." Ironhide growled down at him. "We've walked right into something out here and once again Bee's in the middle of it."

"When is he ever not?" Optimus sighed, gaze flicking back to the little bundle of yellow currently poking Sunstreaker in the knees trying to get his attention while Sideswipe snickered. The golden twin was doing his best to ignore the pestering. An annoyed grumble rumbling through his engine, but from where the towering Prime stood he could see the small grin curled at the corners of his lips.

The Prime didn't know what was going to happen next. He wasn't sure where they were headed or what would be there when we found it, but he knew he would protect his family with everything inside of him. No matter if this was Trickster scheming, Megatron plotting, or something else all together.

They were going to have to find out though. No matter if they liked it or not.

Curled tightly against Ironhide's side Bumblebee laid with his head resting on a pillow made of warm plasma cannon. Content to listen to the internal systems of his adopted sire running around him. For the strong grip around him and the powerful presence at his back.

But he was not in recharge.

Instead his bright blue optics glowed through the darkness as he laid sprawled on his back staring up at the stars. The drifting clouds of the night made a strange patchwork of dark and light among the glittering specs of light burning so very far away.

Bumblebee wondered what it was like out there. How many of those bright lights had homes? How many of them gave life?

How many of them could he explore?

What would he find there if he did?

Was there worlds out there more alive than his own?

Smokey, Rider, and Hammer said so. They come home with stories and things to show him every time they returned. Tales of squishy monsters, burning planets, living plants, talking creatures. They told him stories of black holes, and cloud nebulas. Of worlds made completely of water, or lava, or dust. Of alien ecosystems and all they could hold.

Life.

That was what they spoke of.

Life out there in that vast black and cold expanse of space.

There was life out there, and one orn Bee would see it. He would see what lay beyond this dying world, clinging to life on the edge of a knife's edge.

He loved this world. He would never love anything more than his home, but his entire life here had been nothing but war and death. Those that came before him had already killed their home. Cybertron didn't have much time left. Sooner or later the last bit of energon left on this world was going to run out.

They were going to have no choice but to leave.

Everything his race had been fighting—dying—for longer than he had been alive was really all for nothing.

Because death was all that was left here.

No life of any real kind could be had here again. No matter how they tried or what they did. Not even Optimus Prime could turn back the death that had been sentenced to Cybertron.

Bumblebee knew that well.

He knew, deep down in his core, that life was gone from this world. The only chance they had at it again would be to find someplace else to call home. That is, if they could ever stop fighting and killing each other.

Laying there in the sand staring up at the twin moons hanging sad in the sky above him and all the stars that blanketed around them he let out a tired sigh. Because he didn't know if they ever would stop fighting.

He didn't know if any of his race even knew what they were fighting for anymore. Because he didn't.

He didn't understand.

The world they were fighting for was dying around them. The creatures and themselves were clinging on—as life tended to do—but sooner or later the planet around them would fail. It was part of the reason Bee wished to see it so badly.

He wanted to know his home world . . . before it was gone.

They were killing each other—brother verses brother—over a world that would probably not last another forty vorns.

Why?

Why did it start in the first place?

What could possibly be worth all this life?

Bee didn't know, and no matter how many times he'd been told the summed up and one sided version of the start of this Civil War he still couldn't wrap his mind around it.

Apparently, he just wasn't made to comprehend so much death.

He didn't get it.

For he didn't think anything at all could be worth the hungry and empty cries that echoed on the wind around them. The screams of animals clinging to life in the last place they could. Animals that would fail in the end. No matter how hard they tried. Because the planet they called home had already given up.

Bee didn't know how it was he knew that. He was a little afraid to try and find out, but somewhere deep down inside he knew. It was why he couldn't close his optics and get some rest.

He was too busy trying to take it all in. To take it all in before it was gone forever. He wanted to remember. This desert, this world, this life. He didn't know why, but his spark said he needed it.

For some reason.

He must have fallen into recharge at some time or another because it was with a start that he woke from it some breems later. Darkness still held a tight grip on the landscape around him, but the first strays of morning were starting to make their way to the horizon. The moons having sunk low soon to be replaced by the burning glory of the sun.

At first he wasn't sure what had woken him. He hadn't even been dreaming that he could remember. Just the blank rest of undisturbed and exhausted recharge.

Blinking baby blue optics to rid them of the haze of rest he rolled over. Snuggling a little harder into the pillow of Ironhide's arm. The mech shifted a little in his own recharge at the movement, but did not wake. Casting his optics around after a moment Bee found Sides and Sunny tucked together not far from him and Hide. On the other side of the fire Optimus was laying quietly just a few feet from Jazz. Ratchet sat on the twins other side his dark optics staring out into the gaining morning. He must have switched places with Jazz for the watch sometime last night.

Bumblebee yawned quietly, shifting a bit to get out of Ironhide's tight hold. The big ebony mech grumbled in his recharge but did little more than that. The sound of it though along with the quiet ones of his own movement had the medic's optics flickering over to them.

Offering up a smile Bee quietly and carefully padded around the dimming fire until he was snuggled up to Ratchet's side. The medic shifted just enough to lift his arm, giving the mechling a place to wiggle into, before bringing it back down to wrap snuggly around his back.

"You're up early." Ratchet commented softly, keeping his voice low as to not wake the others even while his gaze returned out to the world around them while he kept watch. Snuggling in a bit more Bee rubbed his cheek contently into the bright mech's armor before resting it there as he too gazed out into the fading darkness.

"I'm not the twins, you know." He teased. "I don't wanna recharge all orn if given the chance."

Ratchet let out an amused snort at that. A grin pulling at his lips while those optics flickered down to Bee once more only to return to their task a moment later. "They work a lot harder than you do, little mech; you'd do well to remember that."

It was a teasing jab that made Bee snicker. Doorwings ruffling with amusement behind him earning the medic's fingers pressing in lightly at the base of the appendages to massage for a few nanos. It got him a happy purr and another snuggle.

"Yeah I know." Bee commented after a few moment when the purring came to an end. "But I'd do all you'd bots would let me. If you'd let me."

"You're lucky we didn't haul your aft back to your carrier and her sisters to deal with." Ratchet snorted at him.

Bumblebee shrank a little at that, not at all confused about just how much he'd made those three femmes worry. He knew all too well that there was still a mighty lecture and yelling to be had when they eventually went home. He would admit that it was not something he was looking forward to.

He deserved it, sure, but that didn't mean he had to want it. Because he really didn't.

They lapped into silence after that. The two happy to just sit there next to each other and watch the sun rise.

The thoughts that had plagued the young mech last night were not so easily banished though. Even in the warmth and safety of Ratchet's side he still found himself staring with dim optics at the world around him.

He went from giddy explorer while the sun was up, to melancholy realist when it went down. He wasn't sure if it was just the extremes of this desert pulling at the thoughts that any other time he kept beat back with all his might, or if it was something else. However, they were there all the same and this early morning they did not seem to be wanting to go away.

The downturn of his emotions must have flickered in his field because before he knew it he was pulled from his mind with a questioning pulse through Ratchet's own energy field. He leaned back at the touch of energy. Tilting his head back to find the medic's gruff faceplate staring down at him with concerned optics.

"What's the matter, Bumblebee?"

Bee didn't know how to answer him.

How was he supposed to?

How did he tell Ratchet he knew this was all pointless? That their home was dying around them and they all knew it. Even if they tried to pretend every orn that it wasn't. Even if they did their best to hide that grim truth from him.

How did he tell him or any of them that he understood far more then they gave him credit for?

That he knew this war was a losing battle just like they did. That there was no winning it. Not anymore. And Megatron blowing their home out of the sky and killing half his family was just proof of that.

Sure, they fought back.

Sure, Magnus and Roddy sent him running again. But at what cost?

How much longer would it all go on?

Until there was only him left because they all died to protect him?

Pit no.

No way in fraggin' pit.

Until their world finally did stop spinning around them?

Possibly.

Until they ran out of energon?

Most likely.

They thought he didn't realize what was happening. He knew that all too well. But he did.

He could see the rationing starting to get even worse. He saw what Hound and Trailbreaker looked back when they came back empty handed from scouting for more fuel. He knew that part of what Smokey, Rider, and Hammer were looking for out there was energon.

He knew because they told him.

Not that anybot else knew that.

They didn't know that the scouts wouldn't lie to him. That the last mission they left on, when he'd asked, they'd told. That he'd used the fact that Smokey seemed incapable of denying him anything when he made a puppy-dog face and got the information he wanted.

Up until now he'd kept all this quiet.

Pushed it to the back of his mind and let it stay back there out of the way. Hoping that if he could work hard enough and fast enough they would let him start helping for real. That he could start contributing to this family and be something more than just dead weight taking shares of food and supplies he did nothing to earn.

It wasn't working though.

They still wouldn't pass him. They still wouldn't trust him to take care of himself. They went out here to this desert looking for help and hope in something they didn't even know what was and they left him behind.

So he decided to prove that he could do what they doubted without waiting for them to get around to seeing it.

He had managed to screw that up pretty good too, but at least he was here now. That counted for something.

The problem was there was little to do out here besides think as they walked around looking for something he couldn't even begin to figure out what might be. So thinking was what he had been doing.

It wasn't proving a very good past time.

"Ratchet," He finally mumbled out slowly. "Can I ask you a question?"

"You just did." The medic supplied unhelpfully with a teasing twinkle in his optics, but when Bee didn't rise to the playful bite it slipped away and the medic straightened. "Well then, something really is the matter."

That one was not a question so Bee didn't respond. Just sat there quietly staring out at the sand before him.

"You know you can ask any of us anything, Bumblebee." Ratchet told him gently. "Now what's the matter?"

"Do you think it will ever end?"

The abruptness of it threw Ratchet for a moment. Leaving the yellow and red mech staring down at the small mechling tucked into his side for a long time, but he didn't question what it was Bumblebee meant.

He knew.

He knew all too well.

That was why with a heavy breath Ratchet too turned his gaze out to the rising sun out on the horizon instead of watching the sad glow and the haunting expression on the faceplate of a mechling far too young to wear such a look.

"I want to believe it will, Bumblebee." Ratchet finally said after a long number of empty, painful klicks. "Wars don't last forever."

"Do you think there will be anything left by then?"

Ratchet actually flinched at that one. Field spiking out with pain and many more emotions that flickered too quickly for Bee to catch hold of before the pulse of living energy from the medic wrapped him up tightly and held against his own. Bee didn't fight the feel of the energy field.

Didn't pull his away and try to hide all that was plaguing him. Instead he let his thoughts seep out into his own energy field. Letting Ratchet take it and pull it in, sort through it for himself, all while keeping hold of Bee in both the physical and emotional sense of his actual touch and the hold of his energy field.

And no matter how bad Ratchet wanted to deny it. Wanted to tell the little mech at his side that there was nothing for him to worry about and everything would be okay he found the words died on his tongue.

Refusing to be given, for they were a lie, and long ago they all swore lying to Bumblebee was something they would never do.

They hid things to protect him. Bended a few truths in an effort to take care of him.

But flat out lie to his face . . . no . . . no Ratchet couldn't do that.

He wouldn't do that.

"I don't know, Bee." He whispered, voice thick and tight with all the things both of them knew but neither wanted to say. "I don't know."

That morning as they sat out across the sands it was far more subdued. Bumblebee had known what he asked Ratchet wouldn't come without consciences. None of these mechs around him needed comms to speak privately.

They all had plenty strong enough bonds to speak through links.

So Bee was not at all surprised to find Jazz didn't scout out ahead quite so fast this morning. Instead he walked quietly at Bee side where Ironhide was keeping him. None of them said anything more, but it didn't need to be.

It was in the very air around them.

They all seemed to realize that their little mechling was not quite little enough anymore to not understand what was happening around him. He was aware. He knew.

Bumblebee hadn't meant for that truth to hurt them all as much as it seemed to, but there was nothing he could do about it.

There was nothing any of them could.

So they went on to where none of them were all that sure. Just staying together until eventually Jazz broke away with a slight stroke to the tip of one of his winglets. Then he was gone out ahead, looking for whatever it was they actually were.

When Bee thought to tip his head up and ask Hide what it was they were looking for the big ebony mech could only shrug.

"None of us are all that sure, Bee." He admitted. "Jazz thought it sounded familiar. Like something that was supposed to have been lost long ago."

"And what's that?"

"The All Spark." Ironhide shrugged.

Bumblebee went completely still. Whole frame locked up in shock as his spark suddenly went to screaming in his chest. He'd have doubled over in pain if only his frame would listen to him. Only it wasn't.

Instead he was left to stiffen up there as his plating pinned, his doorwings flared, his antennas yanked down, and his optics widened. Ironhide made it two steps before realizing something was wrong. Stopping and turning back those dark blue optics focused on him before widening slightly.

"Bumblebee?"

But the little yellow mech, lined in his sire's ebony couldn't answer.

Even if he had wanted too.

For his spark was too busy rolling in his chest. A hot, heavy, pulsing drive leaving him almost dizzy as he stood there frozen in the red world around him hardly breathing as something inside him cried out in victory.

That. His spark was yelling at him. That!

Bee didn't have the slightest clue in all the fraggin' world what that meant, but as hands latched hold of his shoulder's and he found himself getting jarred around to face Ratchet kneeling in front of him he blinked.

Staring up into the confused and worried faceplate to find that the medic was speaking to him. Or at least trying to, but Bee couldn't hear him. There was nothing but a dull hiss of drowned out static around him. The only real sound coming from inside his spark. The bouncing, rolling, angry tugging that seemed to be trying to knock him off his feet and pull him . . . somewhere.

Ratchet was still talking, and by the look in his optics and the movement of his mouth it was starting to become rather loud, but still Bee couldn't make sense of what he was saying.

That! His spark cried out again. It's that! That! That! Find it! Follow! That!

He blinked again, slow and dizzy, only for the bright baby blue pools to widen at something over Ratchet's shoulder.

For a moment Bumblebee hadn't believed it. Convinced he must be seeing things—though considering it was a ghost he probably already was—but then when he blinked again it was still there.

There, just a few paces behind Ratchet on a slight up tip of a hill of sand sat Risk. Silver and blue color almost transparent and flickering in an out on the wind. But there all the same with big blue optics watching him.

He thought he might have made a sound. Some kind of choked, aborted word because suddenly the ghost was up to its clawed paws, turning, tail lashing about behind it. Then glancing over his shoulder Risk meowed. A haunted, echoing sound that punched Bumblebee right in the spark. Calling, beckoning.

Then he was off. Jumping down from the hill and running off away from them.

And Bumblebee was off after him before he'd even known he tore himself out of Ratchet's grip and sprinted off. His name echoing at his back, but he didn't stop.

Couldn't stop.

He had to catch one this time.

He had to know what was happening to him.

So he ran. Chasing after the blur of silver and blue. No idea where he was going or why he was going but knowing following Risk was something that had to be done.

The last thing he was expecting was for the Primus damn ground to fall out from under him.

With a yelp that he would deny to the very end of his vorns echoing out like a crack of thunder over the land he plummeted into the blackness below him. And then, there was nothing.

And now he's in trouble.

Thank you guys again for reading and reviewing. I can't wait to see what you have to say. This chapter is a little on the short side, but it was suppose to end here so that is where it did.

Hope you all liked it and I'll see you next time.

-Jaycee