"Hey, I was just asking the others where you've gone off to." He said.
"I just came back from hanging out with Raf and Bee for a while. But Raf didn't finish his homework yet, so..."I explained.
"Uhm...yeah." Jack showed me his phone.
"...he already told ya." ^^; I finished my sentence. "You were looking for me?"
"Actually, it's Arcee who's wanting to see you." The young man clarified.
"Oh! Well..." *looks around* "Where is she?" I asked surprised.
"She's up top." Jack pointed to the roof. "C'mon."
"Outside?" I asked.
"Sure, come on." The teen beckoned me to follow, but I just stood there. "What's wrong?"
"I'm not supposed to go outside..." I answered.
Jack only now understood what I meant "No, it's okay; There's no one else around for miles, and the cons can't see us. The cloaking tech has a very wide reach, so it covers the topside of the base as well. Don't worry about it."
"Okay...I trust you on this..." I decided to follow him.
The dragon followed the teen to find Arcee sitting at the edge of the butte. Behind the femme bot, there was this little tower of rocks stacked on top of one another. She decided to leave them alone; besides, they reminded her of the stacks of rocks tourists would leave at the north coast of where she lived. But this one felt as if it had a deeper meaning than just a fun little sculpture. She didn't know why.
Zucky sat down next to Arcee, but kept her distance, in case the bot still isn't very fond of her presence yet. Jack mistook it as her making space for him to sit between them, but the dragon didn't mind.
"Hey Arcee..." I said cautiously. "Jack told me you wanted to talk?"
The femme was staring at the vast valley below them, but turned her gaze to the small blue creature. "Yeah...I heard you were getting bored of sitting around all day, so I figured why don't we hang out for a bit? I mean, if you're gonna be staying with us, we might as well get to know eachother better."
"Okay...That sounds cool...I guess." I'm really trying to move past her demeanor from earlier, but it keeps coming back to me.
There was this deep silence that was sort of creeping Jack out a bit. Zucky noticed it and tried breaking the ice further: "I've been wondering...I mean; I get it why I stay here, but what about you guys, Jack? You fit perfectly into society...why do you hang out here all day?"
"Because of safety reasons." The young man answered.
"Wait...you were being chased by Decepticons too?" I asked.
"Not exactly, you see; It's Arcee who was being chased by Cons. I just so happened to be in the driver's seat of a self driving-talking motorcycle when she took off." Jack began to explain.
He recounted the events of that day from his point of view, from trying to escape from decepticons, how met Raf, the day after when Arcee and Bumblebee picked them up from school, when Miko saw Arcee in her bot form in the alley and had to tag along for her safety...
Arcee filled in the blanks for her side of the story as well, one bot kept coming up in her tale however...Someone who goes by the designation of: "Cliffjumper" or "Cliff" as Arcee calls him.
"Uhm...Who's Cliffjumper?" I asked, but regretted it immediately when I noticed Arcee's demeanor take a 180 degree turn.
"I'm sorry..." I hurriedly apologized as I shrunk back and scooted a bit away from the two as I braced myself for an emotional explosion. "I didn't know."
"No...no you didn't." Arcee's voice had a barely noticeable crack to it.
"That's why that's there." Arcee showed Zucky where they buried his horn, driving even further home, how these bots and humans are pretty much the same anyway, both being sentient beings.
Arcee told Zucky about her fallen comrade and how much it affected her. She explained how Cliffjumper was killed by Starscream. His body was used as a test subject for Dark Energon and turned into a Terrorcon, only to be killed once again. His death always came back to haunt Arcee as nightmares.
"What was he like?" I carefully asked, being mindful of my words, still.
"Cliff... was a loyal, selfless and determined soldier...problem was though, he was a bit cocky and often lept before he looked. Still, he was a fun loving, jolly, and playful Autobot. He was also very companionable. The kind of bot that everybody likes. Quite the conversationalist too, and at first I thought I'd never get used to Cliff's constant chatter. He would often talk about his experiences on Cybertron... those tales have expanded in numbers, the longer he stayed on earth." Arcee began describing, and chuckled a bit at that last part. "There's this story he would always be telling us, and no kidding; I've heard this one so many times it's been ingrained in my processor:
Cliffjumper: "So there I am on the lookout, when out of nowhere, these high beams light up my rearview mirror; and then it hits me: I'm illegally parked!"
Arcee: "Another Parking ticket?"
Cliffjumper: "Better, The Boot!"
Arcee: "Big metal tire clamp, impossible to remove..."
Cliffjumper: "Bingo! so the local Police do their thing, and I let em get all the way down the block. That's where I kick off my new shiny shoe, and BANG!"
Arcee: "New York's finest soil themselves..."
Cliffjumper: "You know me, Arcee...you mess with Cliffjumper;..."
"And you get the Horns..." I finished it.
"Wait...how did you know that was coming next?" Arcee asked, surprised.
"I...I'm not sure. For some reason it felt familiar somehow." I answered. "Was it really what came after?"
"Yes, it was...It's something he'd always say." The Femme bot explained.
"Well, it does sound similar to a saying you have here on earth: 'You mess with the Bull, you get the Horns.' It means if you do something stupid or dangerous, you can get hurt." Jack added.
"Really?" Arcee asked.
"Yeah, that's a real thing here." The teen confirmed.
"Heh, it's like he's never left." The bot chuckled. "And here I am thinking he was already one with the Allspark."
"Arcee, Cliff's been there for team prime all the way, even after offlining." I explained. "He may not be here physically, but that doesn't mean he's not here in memory. Even so, he was always ready to lend an audial. You know?" I explained.
Zucky shared her own experiences with death, being introduced to the concept at the young age of just 5 years old. How it struck for several consecutive years in a row during the same time of year. It further isolated her from her peers, it was always being brought up and thrown in her face; discovering messed up situations that made her feel betrayed as she realised that all this time she was basically living a lie.
"And all of that was on top of all the stuff I already told you guys about my past..." I said.
Arcee was reminded of what she was meaning to do.
"Which reminds me... I uh, have been meaning to apologise for how I've been behaving towards you, Zucky. It's just that in my mind and spark I believed you were secretly working with the Decepticons. That you were putting up an act, helping them to further their cause... but that's just because of the trace of Knockout's energon in your bloodstream." The femme bot explained. "But I was wrong... I've forgotten how the Cons can be ruthless in that regard, using the innocent for their cause. Just like they used Cliff's lifeless husk to test Dark energon. I feel like a fool, I'm just so angry with myself for being so blindsighted from the truth."
Arcee was beating herself up so much she failed to notice that Jack scooted aside and Zucky stood there beside her and lay a hand on her shoulder pad.
"It's okay Arcee, I forgive you. Question is; do you forgive me?" ^^; I asked sheepishly.
Arcee only now remembered that she indeed tried apologizing earlier. "Sure." The bot smiled and gently placed her other servo on the small three-fingered hand.
"Hey, maybe we should hang out more often, you know; just us girls?" Arcee asked. "Maybe a long ride, so long as Jack doesn't get jealous."
"I'm cool with it." He threw his arms up in mock surrender. "But let's maybe wait until we actually find a way to mask a Dragon on a Motorcycle, okay?"
They shared a chuckle or two and continued chattering whilst they watched the sun set, and Arcee had to drop Jack at his house and double back to base to hunker down for the night.