Title: Transformers II No World for Tomorrow
Genre: Action/Drama/Romance
Rating: T for mild language, some strong violence, some crude and sexual humor.
Summary: An Autobot who betrayed Optimus Prime and her best friend shows up again, being hunted by those who she conspired with, The Decepticons. For what purpose, only Sam and Mikaela can wonder.
~Chapter Twenty-Six~
Painful Aftermath
No one could expect that this would have happened. No one could prepare what kind of pain everyone would feel after seeing the demise of Spitfire. And certainly, no one could prepare their selves when a very angry and confused Megatron lurched up from his immobilized state, roaring as he clambered to his feet and glared around at everyone in the clearing.
"What the name of Primus?" Megatron snarled as he noticed all of the Autobots standing around him. He turned to glare directly at Optimus who tensed up only a little with all of his companions. "Optimus Prime! What in the slagging name of…..! What is going on here? Decepticons, attack!"
"Hold your fire!" Starscream ordered, getting very surprised looks from most of the Decepticons and even Megatron. He was looking around for his wings and arm that had came crashing down onto the forest ground. And when he spotted them, he went over and snatched them up. "Hook! Groundhog! Get over here and fix me!" He snarled at them, quite aggravated.
Megatron glared right at Starscream as he pushed himself to his feet and started forward to beat the living Pit out of the Seeker. But he stopped when Jetfire landed heavily in between them. He merely growled at the very sight of the Legendary Decepticon. "Jetfire? You're here? Starscream, I demand an explanation right now! How dare you undermine my authority! I will have your…!" He was snapping.
Optimus stepped up carefully towards Megatron and held up a hand to get his attention. He braced himself when the Decepticon Leader whirled around, aiming his large cannon at him. "Your cannons are not online right now, Megatron. It would do no good to you to fire at me." He said carefully. "You've been offline for a long year. We can explain why we are here and not fighting."
"You better talk fast, Prime, before I lose my patience with you! Why are you here? Why are you not fighting with my Decepticons!" Megatron demanded.
Starscream looked over at him with a glare but shot Hook a dark look for being a little too rough with attending to reattaching his arm. "My Lord Megatron, it was necessary to work with the Autobots this time. Without their help, all of us, you would have been destroyed by that pitspawn, Cataclysm!" He growled.
Megatron blinked only once as he looked at his Second In Command. He hadn't been expecting to hear that name. But it had his attention. He dipped his head down a little and glared straight at Starscream, narrowing one eye. "Cataclysm? What was Cataclysm doing here? What in the Pits has happened while I've been offlined?" He demanded to know.
Optimus nodded as he lowered his hand to his side. He was only too glad that Megatron hadn't decided to start attacking him or his Autobots, who were crowding behind him. Hot Rod, Ratchet and Arcee were crowded around Bumblebee, who was staring off with a very blank but pained look on his face. He was still having a hard time recovering after Spitfire's sacrifice. "Megatron, for the past year, you've been at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. It was your grave. We could not allow you to continue to live…." He was saying.
"You're trying my patience, Prime." Growled Megatron, glaring fiercely at him. "Explain Cataclysm!"
Optimus frowned at him but shook his head. "Cataclysm came to Earth to revive you. He claimed that he was going to punish you for betraying Unicron and going on with your own agenda. He was a bigger threat than each one of us is to the other. And you know that. Starscream, here," He motioned to the Seeker, who was glaring at Megatron with a leery look. "He made a decision and it was for the best of all of us and this Planet. We fought side by side to destroy Cataclysm and now it's done. But it did not come without a sacrifice. You remember Spitfire?" He asked, though in a very grave tone.
Again, Megatron blinked in surprise before he frowned darkly. "Oh, yes. The little Autobot who betrayed you to save her precious little bug." His fiery gaze flickered over to the disturbed look on Bumblebee's face. "And then she went and betrayed me. Betrayed the Decepticons. I made a promise that I would see her suffer. But by the looks of it, her suffering is over." He looked back at Optimus, who was frowning gravely back at him. He could tell that the Autobot Leader wasn't liking the way he was talking about the Autobot femme. "Let me guess, she's deactivated."
"You son of a Glitch!" Hot Rod snarled, getting to his feet and glaring over at him. He would have charged over if Ratchet hadn't caught his arm and held him back. "Spitfire destroyed herself to save all of us! She even saved your worthless deactivated aftpipe! So don't you dare talk about her like that!"
"Hot Rod." Optimus warned, waving a hand at him. He turned back to the glaring even fiercer Megatron, shaking his head. "Spitfire is gone, Megatron. And she indirectly saved your life as well as all of ours. Like it or not, she's the one who destroyed Cataclysm before he could make all of us a huge crater in this Planet. She does not deserve any disrespect that you may make out of her."
Megatron narrowed his eyes dangerously at Optimus but he bared his sharp metal fangs at him. "I don't care about your little Spitfire or what she did to save your measly life, Prime!" He then groaned and doubled over, nearly going to one knee. No one moved to help him though, due to the fact they knew he'd probably hit them. "It seems that I do not have enough strength to destroy you. But mark my words, Prime. This is not over. I will see the day that you are destroyed! For now, I'll let you grieve for your femme! Decepticons! Retreat! Starscream, I will have a full report out of you by the end of this!" He snapped before attempting to transformed into his jet form. It was a poor of an excuse transformation and he eventually ordered for some of the Seekers to help him.
Meanwhile, Starscream was finished with fixing his wings and he glanced over at Bumblebee, who still looked like he was in real pain. He only narrowed his eyes darkly at the young Scout before blasting off into the air, flying after the other aerial Decepticons while the ground Decepticons drove after them.
For a very long time, no one spoke but just stood there. The Autobots and the humans were actually surprised that Megatron had decided to leave without a fight. But they also didn't blame him in his weakened state. But still, they all looked gravely around until all eyes fell onto Bumblebee. They felt horrible for him. He had lost Spitfire once again. And this time, she was not going to come back.
"So, what now? What are we going to do?" Hound asked, quietly.
Optimus looked directly at Bumblebee and sighed softly. He knew that the young scout was in terrible pain. He remembered the pain he had felt for when Elita One had died. The pain he had felt had been so terrible that Optimus hadn't wanted to live on without her but did for the sake of his Autobots. But for Bumblebee, he knew it was going to be a very long time before he was okay again.
If he ever was going to be all right again after losing Spitfire.
It was not long after that did everyone return back to their lives. It was not the same as before but they did what they could. Sam, Mikaela, Trent and Elena had to return back to school but it was very clear to others that something had changed. They could tell with the way they walked through the main doors of Tranquility High. Many students knew that something must have changed for the three high Schoolers. They could tell by the extremely grave looks on their faces.
But one thing that the Tranquility High School couldn't put their fingers on was the fact that Sam, Mikaela and Trent were now hanging out with each other during school. It had quite a few students and even some of the teachers baffled when they saw the three together, talking as if they had nothing against each other.
People questioned the three about what had all of them so down. But none of the three could even answer. They couldn't just tell everyone that they had just helped save half of the Western Coast from a giant tyrant and one of their best friends had perished in that fight. They could only say that a close friend of theirs passed away. They even mentioned that the only reason why that Sam and Trent weren't biting each others' heads off was the fact that they had actually hung out and decided to be friends. Quite a few of Trent's friends did not approve of his friendship with Sam Witwicky but he told them to blow off and let him decide what he wanted.
Still, there was mostly one thing that bothered the three teens and everyone else the most. It troubled all of the human allies and the Autobots of Bumblebee's behavior.
Since the day of Spitfire's sacrifice, all Bumblebee could do was sit in Sam's garage and stare at the wall. He couldn't speak because of his damaged vocal system but he didn't do anything either. He just sat in his Camaro form and stared. He made no attempts to move. He just sat there as if he was a normal car that wasn't working. He didn't even take Sam to school so the teen had to ask Mikaela or Trent for a ride.
No matter how hard Sam tried, he couldn't get through to Bumblebee. He had tried talking to his Guardian, nudging him a little with his hands. But Bumblebee made not one move or made a single sound. It was like he had died right along with Spitfire. Sam had even tried to get Optimus to talk to his best friend but no matter what the Autobot Leader said, the young Autobot Scout would not talk or even acknowledge him. It was troubling enough to Optimus about how things were going. There was no sign of the Decepticons and he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. They were too quiet even with Megatron back online and Optimus didn't like it.
There was one shed of good news though.
Even after Spitfire had sacrificed herself, things had been extremely hard for Elena. She had gone home, clearly upset. She had locked herself in her room and nearly cried all night until Nikki Valentine went in and asked her what happened. Elena didn't want to tell her what had happened. She didn't want anyone to know that her best friend had been killed. She could only ask herself how she was going to tell Nikki that her best friend as a giant alien robot and she had been destroyed saving millions of lives? She knew that she could have been committed to a mental asylum.
But after some coaxing, Nikki finally got the entire story out. And that included what Spitfire was.
Of course, Nikki Valentine just stared at Elena as if she had just grown three heads on her shoulders before she sighed and accepted the news. She was taking it very well to hear that Spitfire as Ember had been an alien robot and had gotten herself blown up. But the most part, she promised Elena that she would never tell anyone. Not even her mother of what the Lotus Elise had been. She even tried comforting her as much as she could.
Eventually, Elena felt somewhat better after being able to talk to Nikki about Spitfire and the Autobots. She felt better enough to be able to ask if Ratchet could take a look at her father. She had been pretty stressed out with the death of Spitfire and she did not want to lose her father either.
Ratchet, fortunately, agreed to look at Timothy Lincoln.
It was not even a long observation of Timothy Lincoln before the Autobot Medic came up with the conclusion of what was wrong. He explained to Elena and Nikki that what was keeping Tim in a coma was the fact that he had a pinch in his nervous system and that was keeping his awareness from surfacing. It was a little hard for Elena and Nikki to actually understand because Ratchet was using too large of words. But he did tell them that he could operate on Tim and help him come out of his comatose state.
It was very risky but after some hesitation, Elena asked him to do it.
The operation took place only a week later. Ratchet had Timothy Lincoln moved to his medical bay in the Hoover Dam so he could perform the operation. Sam, Mikaela and Trent had decided to be there as Elena's support , as well as a few others. Even some of the Autobots waited with them to hear if Ratchet's operation was successful. But one thing was for certain, it had quite a few people on the edge; Elena being the most edgy.
After nearly ten hours of operation time, Ratchet emerged from the medical bay and smiled gently at Elena. He told her that he had managed to get the pinched area in her father's nervous system unpinched and it was only a matter of time if he woke up or not. They would have to wait and see what would happen.
Two days later, after a nearly four year coma, Tim Lincoln woke up from his coma. He was not aware of where he was and by the time he managed to gather his awareness, he was already back in his own bed in the Lincoln residence. Never in Elena's life had she been so much happier. She could not recover from Spitfire's death, but getting her father back had healed a part of her. Everyone was very happy.
Even Deanna Lincoln was happy enough to pull herself out of rehab to return home.
Of course, after hearing that Deanna had blamed Elena for her husband's state had put quite the pressure on their marriage together. Tim had not been happy to hear that his wife had blamed their daughter for what happened to him and he made it very clear that her blame on Elena would have to stop. They all decided to take some family counseling while Tim was recovering from his coma. So far, it was working.
Things have indeed changed for everyone in a good and bad way. Everyone was still in a lot of pain after Spitfire had died and it did show. But the Autobots and the humans did their best to cope with it.
Trent had even finally sat down with his parents to talk about his future. He made it very clear to Roger DeMarco that he was going to quit Football and he was going to become an Animal Doctor. There had been another argument between Trent and Roger but this time, they did it without yelling at each other or getting physical. Roger, eventually, caved in and told Trent that he could do whatever he wanted as long as he did good at it.
And to prove it, Roger DeMarco presented Trent with an Australian Shepherd puppy.
Trent nearly fell over the back of his seat trying to scramble for the puppy, which had greeted him with adorable little barks that melted his heart. He was grinning from ear to ear the entire day as he played with the puppy and tried to come up with a name for it. And since it was a boy, he decided on the name; Primus.
Introducing Primus the Puppy to the Autobots was hilarious enough. Every single one of them, including the humans fell in love with the puppy and it was only a bigger surprise that the pup did not show any fear of the giant alien robots one single bit. They even had a little laugh over the puppy's name and showed their approval with big smiles to Trent. Hot Rod, especially, loved Primus to death. He had no problem with the puppy riding with him and Trent where ever they went.
Of course, there was still one Autobot that Primus the Puppy had not met, due to the fact that he had exiled himself into solitude in Sam's garage.
Bumblebee's behavior was worrying the Autobots to no limits. They couldn't help but check on him every day and try to get him to acknowledge them. Even while Ratchet had taken his vocal system and given it back to Hound to fix, who was not happy at all. Quite a few of the Autobots even tried scolding Bumblebee, trying to get him to do anything. But there was no avail at all. And it was just worrying everyone even more.
There was even some strange events going on elsewhere in the world that had many of the Autobots frowning with suspicion. It didn't help that Teletraan was still down after Scourge's attack on it and it kept glitching every single day. It kept setting off alarms, stating that there were Decepticon attacks going on all over the Nation. Optimus had lead convoys of Autobots to find the Decepticons but they discovered that it wasn't true. Teletraan was constantly glitching and no matter how hard Hound and Wheeljack worked on it, it still had major problems.
There had been many false reports about Decepticons and it was getting frustrating. It was like the entire story of "Cry Wolf" and none of the Autobots were starting to believe it. But they honestly couldn't take that chance and Optimus sent out one or two Autobots to check out the hot spots that Teletraan was constantly sporting out.
There was even a report of how two Cybertronians ripped up a truck stop in Louisiana while fighting.
Again, no one believed it but they didn't want to take that chance. So Optimus sent out Ironhide, Hound and Hot Rod with Lennox and Epps to check it out. They hadn't heard anything else about it, but they were still looking.
During the time that Ironhide, Hound and Hot Rod were out on the Cybertronian search in the South, Sam tried once again to get through to Bumblebee.
"Bumblebee," Sam began one day as he looked down at the yellow Camaro with worry. "You can't keep doing this. I need you. Optimus and the Autobots need you. Please, just talk to me. Do the whole radio thing. Turn on your engine. Do something, Bee. I can't stand here and let you just sit there in solitude any more. Please, Bee. Spitfire would not want you to be like this. She would want you to be out with Optimus Prime and the Autobots, defending Earth from the Decepticons."
But Bumblebee stayed quiet as a dead car.
With his heart very heavy, Sam went back to Optimus, hoping that he could get Bumblebee to do something other than play dead car for the rest of his life. Optimus agreed to try and have another word with Bumblebee but it didn't do very much good. He had tried to even order Bumblebee out of the garage but it didn't seem that the young Scout was listening.
It just added more stress on Optimus' shoulder after he couldn't even get Bumblebee to listen to him. It was no use. No matter what he did or said, Bumblebee seemed to be a lost cause. He wouldn't give up on him, though. He would continue to stop by Sam's house and try to talk some sense into the young Scout, no matter how useless it seemed.
Eventually, someone got very fed up with all of the stress that Bumblebee was putting on Optimus and the others.
The garage door flew open with a loud bang and blinding sunlight fell onto the hood of Bumblebee. The young yellow Camaro did not move or make any sound, even as the sunlight blinded him. He just looked sorrowfully up with his hidden eyes at who was invading his exile and saw that it was Reno Banes.
Reno stood in the middle of the garage entry with his fists on his waist and giving Bumblebee a very scolding look. He did not look happy whatsoever that Bumblebee was doing this to all of the Autobots or even to Sam. Behind him sat Optimus Prime in his Semi Truck mode with Sam, Mikaela, Elena, Trent, Ron and Judy Witwicky, and even the Corvette twins. All of them were looking at Bumblebee with solemn looks but were not going to stop Reno from getting on his case.
"All right, you." Reno said in a very stern tone before he stepped forward and swooped down in a crouch in front of Bumblebee's bumper, placing his hand on Bee's hood. "Bumblebee, you have got to stop this. Right. Now. You have got to stop beating yourself up for what happened to Spitfire. I swear, I don't know Spitfire like you do, but I do know that if she saw you like this, she would kick your aft to Cybertron and back." He sighed, shaking his head. "Bumblebee, you have a whole lotta people who are worried about you. Your best friend has been making himself sick by worrying about you. Optimus Prime is worried about you. Ratchet is considering on dragging you right out of this garage by force. I know you are hurting, Bumblebee. I know it's killing you to have lost the one you loved. I know because I went through the very same thing that you did."
Several people lift their heads, frowning in surprise but Mikaela didn't look surprised. She actually lowered her gaze to the ground, looking grave. She only looked up when Sam touched her arm, shaking her head at him.
"Her name," Reno began again. "Her name was Colleena. I met her in high school, which had been in the state of Wyoming at the time. She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. I fell in love with her the very minute I saw her. We started dating in our Junior year and all through our Senior year. Colleena and I fell in love so deep that we eventually decided to get married once we graduated from High School." He sighed heavily and shook his head. "There was only one problem with that, Bumblebee. Her father did not approve of me. He hated me with everything he had, thinking I was trying to steal his little girl from him and his family. He threatened me that if I married her, he was going to kill me." He laughed softly, shaking his head. "Eventually, Colleena was being forced to make the decision to choose between me and her family. Guess what she chose?"
Bumblebee did not answer but he seemed to be listening because he lift up on his wheels a few inches. It was at least some kind of sign that he was acknowledging Reno for the first time in nearly eight months after Spitfire's death.
"Colleena chose me, Bumblebee. She loved her family so much but she loved me just as much. She wanted to give up her family, be disowned for marrying a poor nearly penniless mechanic like me." Reno answered but shook his head with a very sad look on his face. "Bumblebee, I made a choice and I regret it since the day that I made it. I would not have Colleena give up her family for me. So I broke off the wedding the day before it happened. I told her that I couldn't let her give up her family for me. Her family was everything to her. And I couldn't let her give that up." He lowered his hand and pressed his fingers together, looking directly at the Autobot insignia on the bumper. "It broke Colleena's heart that I left her. It very well nearly shattered her. She was so depressed that she eventually committed suicide right before her father tracked me down in Las Vegas, begging me to return to her and heal her heart. He was willing to let me be with his daughter if it could save her. But it was already too late. He was just barely meeting me when he got the phone call that Colleena took her own life. I've had to live with that horrible memory for nearly twenty years, Bumblebee. I know you're going to live with the memory of Spitfire for the rest of your life, longer than mine. It's something that we regret when the love of our lives meets a horrible end like Colleena or Spitfire. Colleena's twin sister even tracked me down and beat the living Pits out of me for what happened with her sister. I can't say that I blamed her for it. I let her beat me up. But it only made her angrier. It made me angry that I didn't fight for Colleena either. She could have kept her family and we could have been together without any problems if only I fought for her. But I backed down. And now I have to live with this regret for the rest of my life. But you don't, Bumblebee. Spitfire would not want you to be rusting away in this garage when you could be out there, fighting alongside the Autobots against the Decepticons." Reno paused for a moment, before standing straight up and backing up a little. "And you, Bumblebee, are an Autobot. You are a soldier and a warrior. But right now, your behavior is unacceptable. Your Prime needs you, young bot! Now get out of that garage right now and live! That is what Spitfire would want you to do. And you know it. Now what is it going to be, Bumblebee?"
For a very long time, there was a long silence. Bumblebee did not move or do anything but just sat there in that garage.
"Bumblebee," Optimus Prime spoke up from behind Reno. "As your Prime and your friend, I ask you to come out of Sam's garage. You are scaring Sam by staying in there. And you are scaring myself and all of the Autobots. No one wants to see you acting this way. Now, come out of there, Bumblebee."
Another long silence before Bumblebee's engine rumbled to life. He slowly rolled out of the garage until he was sitting right in front of Sam, Mikaela, Trent and Elena. "I'm sorry, Two words I always think. Oh after you've gone. When I realize I was acting all wrong." Feist's So Sorry came drifting out of Bumblebee's radio before lightly rolling forward and nudging Sam's leg.
Sam smiled faintly before placing his hand on Bumblebee's hood and gently rub it. "It's okay, Bumblebee. I understand why you were acting that way. I don't blame you. I'd probably be the same if it had been Mikaela. Just, please, Bee. Don't scare us like that again. Promise?" He asked gently.
"I….promise you…" came some random words shove together as Bumblebee rolled back a little.
And everyone smiled, feeling somewhat happy that he was finally out of the garage.
