Thanks to all reviewers!
Guest: Nice to hear that!
Game-Watch: It'll end, sadly. You'll see.
RoboDiamondDragon09: Thanks! I'm glad to know you're liking it.
SpiritFighter208: Definitely getting intense... Both factions are starting to cross the lines they've set for themselves. Maybe Axis could be a medic. Glad you were looking forward to the update!
unicron1000: Here's your update.
Sidekicks-anonymous: Yep. You'll see.
Enjoy!
Entry #19
Today was fun. Today was a rare day, too. No invasions or attacks or anything like that, can you believe it? We kept waiting for something to happen, but it never did, thank goodness. Still, the suspense nearly killed us.
When Axis and I got up from recharge (she recharges in my room now, 'cause Highlander left and she's afraid of powering down all alone) Ratchet immediately assigned us to work. We started with measuring out the needed quantities of medical grade and storing them in a small cart, while Ratchet visited a few critical patients from yesterday. I got bored halfway through, but Axis just kept on going. And going. And going. She's crazy!
Then when we were done, Ratchet came back and gave us another task. And after that, another. And another. Finally, in the afternoon, I got bored and I begged him to let me go and play with Arcee or something. After a lot of pleading, he let me go, but not before telling me to look at how nicely Axis was doing all her work without protest. I asked Axis if she wanted to come play. She actually had to think about it! She's abnormal!
Finally, I threatened that I would start calling her Buckethead if she didn't come ('cause her head does actually look a bit like a bucket) and she came. Ratchet tried to scold me about how I was being mean, but we were out of the room before he could say too much.
We headed straight to Arcee's room, but she wasn't there. We asked a femme passing by and she answered that Arcee was in the training room, in a giggly tone. Axis asked her what she trying not to laugh about, but she didn't answer and left. That confused both Axis and me, but we went over to the training room anyway.
I've never been to the training room except for once or twice when I was really little, so we had to ask a couple of 'Bots for directions. When we finally got there, almost everybot was gone from there, 'cause it was time for break. Only Arcee was left, leaning against the door frame. I was surprised to see Tailgate with her. I thought that he didn't like her that much. Apparently, he does. He was standing in front of her in the training room, holding a huge weight and telling her something about how he and another bot named Juncture had been sneaking up on a 'Con on the battlefield. He was gloating a lot and most of it seemed kind of exaggerated.
If Highlander had been here, she would have told him that, but since she wasn't, Axis and I just stood and listened to his ridiculous tale. I didn't know why Arcee didn't just roll her optics and leave, until Axis asked me why Arcee was smirking like she was crazy. Then we all found out: Tailgate had been holding that weight for far too long. It slipped from his digits. The weight fell down onto his pede and he yowled. Arcee started laughing and so did we.
He stared at us, annoyed, and demanded whether anybot was going to help him up from the floor. Arcee told him that he deserved it for being such an idiot to her all morning. He pleaded, 'cause that weight had been heavy and walking – or getting up – would be extremely painful, 'cause of the dent in his armor. Finally, Axis took pity on him and we helped him up. He hobbled into the medibay under our support, where Ratchet gave him a nice long lecture, but we didn't bother waiting to listen to most of it. We decided to go out, to this little park that we had found tucked away in Iacon's older sections.
Arcee sat down on a bench on the side. I asked Axis if she wanted to play Hide-And-Go-Shriek, but she pointed that there were only the two of us and so it would be boring. So we stood thinking for a while about what we could do, until Axis suggested that we play a new game called Autobot-Autobot. I asked her what that was, since I've never heard of it. She just gave me a look and told me that we were going to pretend to be Autobots and she was a Wrecker and I was a scout. (Why am I always a scout? It's not even like she's big enough to be a Wrecker!)
Then she said that Arcee was a Decepticon. Then she commanded the 'scout' to see how many 'Cons there were and report back on the situation. I figured that this game would be fun, so I went along with it.
I crept up to Arcee from the back. She didn't even notice. Then I reported back to the Wrecker. "Only one 'Con." So she yelled, "Charge!" and we sprang towards the unwary Decepticon and wrestled with her till she was on her back and we were sitting on top. Then we asked her to submit. Arcee just laughed and tried to push us off. And we wrestled some more.
I haven't had so much fun in vorns.
Axis told me that she and Highlander used to play that game all the time, but then Highlander grew up and thought that it was stupid. But I think that it's fun to play once in a while, at least. Whenever Arcee isn't suspecting it.
When we came back to the MCCC, Ratchet freaked out at the state of our armor. It was covered with dust and scratches. But for once, I didn't really care. It was worth it. He told us to wash ourselves and head off straight to our berths. I haven't done that yet. I think probably should, though, 'cause I feel pretty tired... Well, then, Bumblebee out.
Entry #20
Highlander is offline. I saw her frame slowly turn gray as her optics dimmed and faded out. I saw it... and I'll never forget it.
The morning started out fine. There was an attack on Iacon's east side. They always target the east side. I don't know why. Anyway, it wasn't too bad, because we'd been tipped off earlier by one of our spies. So we managed to push it to a victory. Thankfully, only a few were injured.
Then, in the afternoon, we began to get reports that the Nuon city training center had been bombed to the ground and their medibays were unable to cope with the inflow of patients. That made me immediately think of Highlander, 'cause that's were she had gone. I could see that Axis looked a little worried too. Ratchet and the rest of the medics were called upon to give medical assistance. He wanted to make Axis and I stay at the MCCC, but we begged so much that he eventually let us come along.
That was the first time that I have ever been through a groundbridge. It's this huge mass of floating particles of hannitrons (I'm not really sure what those are) which give out photons (not sure what those are, either) which create blue, green and purple lights while transporting us to our destination. (That's what Ratchet said, anyway. I have no idea what that's supposed to mean. He's freaky sometimes.)
So we went through. It gave me an odd tingly feeling when we got to the other side. And then we saw a sight of utter destruction. There were little bits of blackened walls left, but they were about to fall down. There was rubble everywhere. A cloud of ash and dust hung over us all. Ratchet muttered that the 'Cons had pulled an underhand move. They'd crossed the line.
We started walking, when I heard something crunch under my pede. I removed it and I saw... I saw that it was an optic. And everybot else was just walking on through the haze.
A little further, we came upon a youngling who had been cut in half. Energon was leaking out from the upper portion of his frame. I don't even know how he was even alive. Axis ran to Ratchet. She wondered why they were all walking on and begged him to save the mech. He told her that he was beyond saving. Then he made me hold on to her servo and told me to lead her away, and that he'd be back in a moment. So I did. Later, when he came back, his blades were out and the tips had energon on them. I – I think Ratchet killed that mech.
He's done that before, in the medibay. He'd explained that it ends the pain and the sparks rejoin with the Allspark, to be sparked again. But this was different. It was more... real. It was all very vivid. It was my first time on the battlefield today. I don't ever want to go there again.
Finally, we reached the makeshift sickbays. There were only a few medics there and loads of patients. Most were just lying on the ground, 'cause there weren't any salvageable berths left in the bombing. Ratchet started giving orders for them to be transported right away. We ran through to try and find Highlander, but we couldn't see her anywhere. That made Axis cry. She had been really brave up till then, but now she broke down. I almost cried, too, but then I remembered that Ratchet's always telling me to use my processor. So I did.
I figured that all the medics that I knew would be from Iacon, so the unknown ones would be from Nuon. So if I could find one like that, he might lead us to Highlander. So I dragged Axis through all the medics until I spotted one that I didn't know. I asked her if she had seen a bulky green and white femme. But she hadn't seen anybot like that. She started to question us about why we were here and everything. So we escaped from her and asked another femme. She led us right to the spot.
Highlander was lying down on the ground. We rushed towards her and she smiled when she saw us crouching down next to her. She asked us whether she was in a dream cycle. We told her that she wasn't. Axis wanted to hug her, but I was afraid that it might make her condition worse, so I held her back. I told Highlander that it would be okay; Ratchet would patch her up as good as new.
She said, "He can't do that. I'm gone, Bumblebee, I'm gone."
That finally made me cry.
She made me promise to look after Axis. Then we hugged her one last time. Then she joined the Allspark. I think it was painful at the end, 'cause she got this really odd look on her face before she finally offlined.
Then we just sat down and cried. And cried. And cried.
Bumblebee out
"I'm not going any further than this." said Bumblebee. He was almost shaking. "I... I thought I might be able to read through the whole thing, but... Some memories are just not meant to be relived." He said bitterly. "And besides... The next entries are very depressing."
There was silence for a few moments.
"How about we read the entries after that?" suggested Wheeljack. Bumblebee shook his helm. He appeared to have been drained of all his enthusiasm and the good old Bumblebee fighting spirit.
"'Bee," started Arcee tentatively, "How about I read for a while? Would that make you feel better?"
Bumblebee did not reply for a long moment. Then he finally passed the datapad to her. "Start with the thirty-fourth. Or actually, the thirty-third. That's fine, too."
"But what happened between the twentieth and the forty-third?" Smokescreen demanded. "Or are you not going to tell us?"
Bumblebee sighed and began in a flat tone. "Axis was obviously shaken at Highlander's death and refused to speak for a pretty long time. When she did, she blamed me for bringing them to the MCCC, because she reasoned that if if that had never happened, Highlander might have still been alive. Eventually Arcee managed to make her see reason. But that didn't happen for a long time and Axis all but gave up speaking to me. The end result was that I began to blame myself, too. They weren't very fun times."
" But you said that when the War started up, refugees poured into Iacon and you got somebot to play with." Smokescreen pointed out. "Didn't that make you happy?"
Ratchet took up the narrative, seeing as Bumblebee wasn't in much of a mood to answer. "That may be true, but from what I can remember of those times, there were only two. Axis avoided them and Bumblebee followed her, though she was the younger of the two."
'Bee gave him a look. "What? It's true! You followed her like a – what did the humans call June?"
"A helicopter mom?"
"Exactly." There were several snickers. "Just start reading already!" Bumblebee protested.
"Alright, alright." Arcee pressed the next button thirteen times, until she had skipped to the thirty-third entry. "Here we go..."
What did you feel about Highlander's death? How were these two entries? Tell me in a review!