Not gonna lie, had a bit of burnout from some assignments when I was working on 54, so it took a lot longer to finish up than I would of liked.

But 54 is done now, so here's 49! Hope you all enjoy!

Chapter 49

Lena's residence was a welcome change from the Manor, one that he wished he'd thought to visit earlier.

Lena had given him a big bright smile when she found his holoform on the other side of her front door, and had beckoned him inside with an enquiry into if he wanted anything to drink.

In a slight change from his previous visits, he accepted the offer, letting her decide on what she provided him, as so far he'd not really tried anything past a few bottles he'd sampled from that bar he'd frequented a number of times now down by the docks.

Would it be too forward to enquire if his holoform could become overcharged? If the right settings and sensors were changed, a false overcharge could potentially be achieved, but they had no high grade... it would likely be an appreciated escape, false or not.

A mug with a soft brown liquid appeared in front of him, held from the top by Lena's fingers as the ceramic handle was offered to him, an identical mug held as it should be in her other hand.

He accepted it with a quick thanks and Lena sat herself down on the other end of the sofa, feet and knees up while she nursed her own cup.

A few minutes later, Lena broke the silence. "So, hectic time up at the manor?"

He glanced to her for a moment, wondering if she was implying specifically just one of the things that had occurred at the manor recently. "Well… yes, there has been quite a bit of drama so to speak."

She smiled and raised her mug a bit. "Which is why you're here, taking a nice break from the madness."

He nodded, taking a tentative sip of the drink, Ira had confirmed a while ago that the holoforms were now able to experience taste, though adverse affects such as intoxication were not an issue to be concerned about.

And apparently the same could be said for experiencing pain as he registered the temperature of the drink.

It was nice though, Lena seemed to like her coffee very light, unlike that black brew he sometimes saw Wren drinking in the morning, despite it doing nothing to help her actually wake up, she explained she was more relying on a 'placebo effect'.

Whatever that was.

"So... heard the bosses almost croaked a week or so ago, and that they've now got a big brother in the form of a repentant warmonger… you wanna talk about it?"

He glanced at her again. "I was under the impression you've only had limited contact with the manor since arriving here?"

She shrugged. "Made some friends during my training sessions, oh and Winston stress talks, he messaged me saying Kia was contemplating homicide and well, went around that circle a good couple times in the wee hours of the night." She chuckled a bit awkwardly. "It was pretty scary, like, a lot of people look up to the Orichiono's you know, we get they're really private, but they still care for all of us." She clutched her mug a bit closer to her, watching the contents lazily spin around inside.

He transferred the mug to a one hand hold, and shuffled over enough to put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "If I have learned anything from my time in their company, I believe they are simply too stubborn to die. That or they're so offended by the notion that they refute it. Either or."

Lena snorted at that, some of her mug nearly spilling at the action. "Pft! You're not wrong! But yeah, all of us, we still worried…" She looked away then, over to a desk set against the wall closest to him in the living room.

He followed her gaze, and found his holoforms optics widening slightly as he realised what was on the table.

A bow, a compound bow, with a quiver filled with well groomed arrows. "I was under the assumption you were training in more modern artillery." Was the first thing he could think of, glancing at the pistol holsters that hung from her hips.

She chuckled. "Oh I am, that's just… a gift, from this guy I met recently… heh, was in Germany for a field training session, one of the newest recruits, he's this giant blonde, Willhelm is his name, I cracked a joke about him being able to crack skulls between his flexing muscles, and he just, hefted me up onto his bicep and carried me around for like twenty minutes… jesus christ his hands are bigger than my face!"

He listened to her ramble for a few moments before laughing. "And he presented you with that as a gift?"

"Yup! He'd apparently made it and had planned to stress test it while at the training session. He's got a friend who's this apprentice blacksmith." She got up, setting the mug down, and walked over to pick up the metal bow, bringing it over and setting it in her lap as she sat back down. "See? The blacksmith engraved it with Willhelm's name." She pointed to the cursive.

He nodded. "It looks very well crafted, are you tempted to accept this courting?"

She glanced to him, a bit of surprise in her features. "Wait, you call dating... courting?"

He shrugged and nodded. "It is the closest fitting translation, yes."

"Oooh!" Lena exclaimed. "Right, your native language must be really different from ours huh?"

He nodded with a chuckle and took another sip from his mug. "Indeed, I doubt this holoform has the capacity to mimic it, a number of our phrases and words require parts of our anatomy, such as our engines to make sounds all their own… And I do not believe 'stomach growls' are something your kind have figured out how to control yet."

Lena snorted into her mug before bursting out laughing. "Oh my god! What?!" She exclaimed, before going right back to laughing.

He chuckled at her reaction. "Try not to scald yourself Lena." He chastised, though there was only humour in his tone as he regarded the sloshing contents of her mug wearily.

Eventually she calmed down and set the mug aside on the small table on her side of the sofa. "So… now that we've had a bit of a laugh, what's eating at you?"

He was caught off guard somewhat by the sudden shift in topic. "What do you mean?"

She shrugged. "Walls talked, word got around that you just, left, the evening of Megatronus arriving."

He flinched. "Ah… certain… unnerving truths came to light that day… I realised I needed time away to process everything."

He tried not to think about how Lena knew about this.

She reached over with her free hand and patted him on the shoulder, much like he had done earlier. "What happened next?" She asked.

So she didn't know that he'd passed out on the side of a valley.

He sighed. "I ended up fighting with myself… I over taxed my systems and got put into emergency recharge… I… I went to see a very old friend…"

Her eyebrows raised but her expression softened after a moment. "A fallen comrade?"

He bowed his helm, he might as well keep going with this admittance. "Solarstorm… a dear old friend who was stolen from me… along with her twin Nebularburst… one of the major revelations that came that day… was the nature of their end… for so long… I had believed that it was a tragic accident… Megatronus revealed the truth…" He trailed off.

Lena's expression morphed into dawning horror. "Oh god… no… Optimus…" She reached out and when he didn't flinch at his touch, she pulled him over to lean against her shoulder.

"Something murdered them… premeditated… and they knew it was coming… and they walked right into their demise anyway…" He clenched his fists. "I know I was a coward… I know I never told them the truth of my affection for them… my love… but to know that they… they walked away… with smiles on their faces and a promise of celebration when they returned…"

He could see that damned cycle replaying in his helm.

Lena was probably trying to console him, but the world was already falling away once more.

Damn his memory banks.

Damn them to the pits.

Central Autobot HQ, Tyga Pax

"You worry too much Hunter." Sol's soft voice chastised over the speakers connected to the wide screen monitor he was standing in front of.

He huffed a small humoured vent. "I worry so much to make up for how little either of you do. I swear with every passing cycle you find a new way to give me a spark attack."

Sol rolled her optics at him, those incredible ancient optics that sparkled in the lights that surrounded her at the outpost in Tarn. "Anyway, Elita darling, look after him while we're off coms with our unit okay? Try and keep him from wearing another trench in the floor, we all know how he gets, hmm?" She had turned her attention to Elita-1, who flanked him on his left.

Elita-1 barked out a laugh. "I'll try my best, but you do realise I can't physically stop him if he starts, I'd have to recruit half the base!"

He mock balked at them both. "I am standing right here you know."

Sol really laughed that time, the gouges in her faceplates highlighted as they were stretched out, despite how much those still hurt them, they had insisted on keeping them, a 'reminder' they'd cryptically explained.

Pilot frames apparently had a habit of being cryptic. But that was in their nature, to tell all of their secrets would be to lose some of their enigmatic charm.

But that didn't matter to him right now.

He leaned onto the console to put himself closer to the faceplates of Sol. "Is Neb able to give me a few words of reassurance?"

Sol glanced behind her, then shook her helm. "Hmm… No, she's doing a warm up spar with Kup, and I doubt you want to interrupt that."

He nodded in understanding. "Of course, I'd rather not get in between those two."

Sol chuckled and focused back on them. "We'll be moving out to secure the refinery soon…" She trailed off to pull at the gun mounted on her right hip, giving it a quick check over, expression furrowed as she scraped off what seemed to be a bit of grime accumulated on the barrel. Then she put her focus back on them. "Say, when we get back from this, how about a round of high grade? I know I'm going to need it."

He chuckled. "We'll have a cube of high grade ready for everyone, now please, be safe…"

She gave him a mock salute. "We will, see you soon Hunter. Till all are one."

The call ended from Sol's side.

Elita-1 patted his shoulder span. "Hey, they'll be back before you know it."

He took in a vent, held it, and let it out. "You're right… they'll be back soon…"

A touch to his holoforms shoulder jolted him back, his head shaking for a moment as he came to terms with the fact he was in Lena's home, and she was sitting next to him with a worried expression.

This was becoming an unnervingly specific trend… "Forgive me… I became lost…"

Her expression was harrowed. "In the past?"

"The cycle I lost them… Sol had suggested a round of high grade when they came back…"

Lena looked out at nothing for a few moments before speaking. "When I was little… my granddad was diagnosed with stage four liver cancer… he had at most three months to live… He didn't tell anyone… not even grandma…"

He turned to face her in surprise.

She kept going. "He knew he was going to die… he accepted that, it was too late for treatment… and he was too old for a liver donar to match… so, he kept the doctors visits quiet, saying he was off to the local pub, one of his favourite places in his retirement years apparently… I was too young, I was only seven… so it was my first experience with death when he passed away at home… surrounded by loved ones… he'd made every day of those three months count as much as he could… he'd visited his own parents graves, made sure that all his documents and will was in order and funeral was planned so grandma didn't have to worry… he made sure we all knew he loved us… insisted on…" She paused to wipe the tears forming in her eyes. "He insisted on going to see me play my part in the school play… no one knew about the cancer until it was explicitly read out in the will…"

He carefully pulled her into a hug.

"But he was happy… he died surrounded by his loved ones… and that's what mattered…"

He bowed his head against the top of hers as he headed her words.

His processor was already whirring, putting the pieces together.

Had they truly hidden their fate… to keep the ending as happy as possible for them? Despite the war they'd known was coming to take them?

A new thought passed through him then, Dust and Shrike… they had been the Mute twins closest confidants, long before he'd met them… had they known?

Had they known and actively put themselves in a position to be with Sol and Neb in their final moments?

He could imagine it vividly.

Neb would have reached out for someone to hold first, Shrike would have answered, pulling both in before Dust encompassed them all…

Words would have been said… final goodbyes… final regrets…

Then… nothing…

Wheeljack had tried to reassure him once, that they would have felt nothing at ground zero…

There one moment, gone the next.

The sparks atomised to the point they would never return to the well…

Permanently removing them from the field so to speak…

His spark sunk.

Had perhaps… Dust and Shrike been in the same position? Aware of their impending demise had they been equally puppetted?

He would never know the truth…

Lena shifted in his hold, picking back up the coffee and taking another sip before speaking. "How about we go use that firing range up at the manor?" She was looking at the bow in her lap.

He nodded. "A wise suggestion Lena, but finish the coffee first, I remember you complaining about forgetting it and it going cold before."

She gave him a little chuckle and nodded, going back to sipping her coffee, a contemplative expression on her features.

He let his holoform flicker out and reform back in his drivers seat, ready to escort Lena up to the manor.

Now that she'd brought it up, he hadn't actually done any target training since…

He was drawing a complete blank.

More than enough of a sign to tell him he was at risk of developing a lousy shot.

Ironhide would have his skidplates if he found out.

Lucky him Aria had been… keeping him busy with sparring matches…

Curse his memory banks, curse them to the infernal pits, the Orichiono's were not the Mutes!

He allowed his emotions to get the better of himself for a moment, and punched the passenger seat cushion.

Estrada Villa, Barcelona

Something was up.

Mikaela glanced to Bumblebee's holoform as he tapped the nib of his pen into his latest notebook, the page blank except for the little dot that was forming under each tap of the nib.

She was pressed against his shoulder as they sat on one of the plush but elegant couches in the main living room of the two story vila.

Ratchet had his holoform sitting opposite to them, a white knuckle grip on both sides of the medical textbook he was trying to read.

Footsteps were coming from upstairs, two sets.

Their originators soon came into view, Kia's holoform, dressed to the nines as usual, and followed by the ever familiar towering man that was Winston, the white of his suit as crisp and immaculate as ever.

Bumblebee had stopped tapping the pen into the notepad, eyes trained on the two as they came down the wrought iron staircase.

Winston stopped on the last step, Kia walked forwards to stand just past the end of where the two couches ended. "Thank you for coming at my herald." She spoke, breaking the tense silence that had formed.

Ratchet finally looked up from the textbook, to Kia, and then back to Bumblebee, there was a look on his features that Mikaela had no hope of understanding, it was too complex, too much was going off in the veteran medic's helm.

Bumblebee started scribbling down a question, and when he was finished, turned it to show Kia. 'What do you need to tell us?'

Kia took in an breath. "As you all know, I was recently successful in re-animating Megatronus' severed helm using the Allspark… in the process creating necessary anatomy to function that did not previously exist within his helm… including a functioning voice box… I believe with Ratchet's help, I will be able to do similar for you Bumblebee… Give you back your voice so to speak."

Mikaela felt Bumblebee stiffen next to her, and a glance up revealed that his bright blue eyes had gone wide with surprise.

Kia gave a half humoured chuckle. "Were you of the opinion I would forget about your situation Bumblebee? No… I'll admit jumping straight to re-animation from minor line repair did somewhat skip over helping you, but I wish to amend that now, if you would let me?"

He was nodding, slowly, but he was nodding, glancing down at her before starting to write again.

'I want to speak for myself. There's things I want to say that a pen and paper just doesn't feel right saying.'

Kia nodded. "Alright, lucky for us, the construction crew recently got the vehicle elevator working, so if you could drive into the marked spot on the garage floor, we'll be able to get you down there for the procedure." She looked to Ratchet. "You'll be helping me through this, correct?"

Ratchet finally closed the medical textbook and sighed. "Yes. I will be. Bumblebee, you and Mikaela go down first, I want to quickly ask Kia about something in this textbook."

Taking that as their allowance to go, Bumblebee stood up first, offering a hand to help her up before walking her out of the Vila and to his vehicle mode, an arm around her waist.

Once they were outside, he spun her around to press a quick kiss to her cheek, a look of excitement on his face as he turned the kiss into a nuzzle attack before she had a chance to put up her defences.

Back in the living room, Ratchet scowled. "You have an ulterior motive."

Kia raised an eyebrow at him behind her wide brimmed sunglasses. "Ratchet, I'm trying to help him."

He shook his helm. "You hid Barricade from us. You're about to break the isolation you've been keeping him in, and you're not telling Bumblebee."

Kia paused, pouting for a moment before speaking. "Last I checked, you're the one who raised him, I was under the impression you'd have informed him by now. Did you ever even tell him who his original adoptive parents were?"

He flinched. "We didn't want him hesitating on the battlefield…"

Kia's shoulders sagged a small amount. "There aren't any battles to fight here… and Barricade has revoked himself from the Decepticon cause, it is safe for Bumblebee to know now."

Ratchet looked away. "It is not so easy… things have been the same for so long… ever since we came to Earth it feels like everything is moving too fast."

Kia nodded. "That's time for you, you're living by human time constraints, and Earth has always been a rather fast paced place, never a dull moment and all that." She glanced over her shoulder to Winston before speaking again. "C'mon, the longer we delay this the longer Bumblebee and Mikaela are going to be sitting down there waiting for us. Winston, hold down the fort for me up here."

Winston nodded to her, thumping his chest twice as a small salute before turning and leaving to check over the villa on the hourly check, one could never be too sure there wasn't someone with a knife lurking behind the fondue pot.

The Bunker

Of course, Bumblebee and Mikaela had been informed that Barricade was here, Ratchet had told them soon after he'd learned that little fact from Ironhide.

But the whole conversation and excitement he had around finally getting his voice box fixed, temporarily left him with his guard down.

Which was quickly righted when he rolled into the Estrada bunker for the first time to find the former Decepticon scout just sitting against one of the walls of the bunker, a despondent look in his optics while Frenzy scampered around here and there across his plating.

The mechs four optics had flickered to him, but besides that, not a piece of plating moved, staying perfectly still.

Bumblebee had transformed around Mikaela, they'd done it a few times by now so she was somewhat used to going from the passenger seat to suddenly in the leather padded palm of his servo, but she always needed a few moments to get her bearings back in order.

Barricade held deathly still.

Frenzy paused too, looking over and canting his helm to the side, optics narrowed in distrust as his claws flexed and tightened just that bit tighter around the armour he was currently on.

Mikaela took in the current situation, sighing, she spoke up. "Bee, he's not gonna hurt us, relax yeah? Kia would probably kick his ass if he tried something."

Barricade huffed out a half laugh there. "You're right about that, rather not be on the receiving end of those scythes of hers you know?"

Bumblebee did let some of the tension in his frame ease then, glancing down to Mikaela who was giving his servo a reassuring pat.

Only a few moments later, Kia's form, which had been in that slumped position on the floor which entailed the use of her holoform, started to move, a groan coming out of her open mouth as she stretched out, the distinct sound of limbs sluggishly trying to move telling of how long she'd been using her holoform.

Ratchet had arrived in the bunker by the time she was mostly upright, posture still as hunched over as ever as she gave her wings a test flex.

After a quick yawn and shake of her helm, she turned her attention to the amassed group. "Sorry I took a while, so… how are we going to do this?"

Barricade looked over to Kia, confused. "Do what?"

Ratchet answered for Kia. "Bumblebee's voicebox, Kia has offered to help repair it using the Allspark, considering she made a complete frame for Megatron using just his helm, it stands that a voice module wouldn't be outside her capabilities."

Barricade definitely perked up a bit at that, and moved to set Frenzy down. "I can help." He offered, moving to stand, he was closer to Kia, so he accepted the wing she offered out to him so he could pull himself up faster.

Ratchet scowled. "I will be the one helping her through this operation. Considering I am Bumblebee's CMO."

Barricade scowled for a moment before sighing, muttering under his vents. "Just because I don't have a badge doesn't mean I don't know how to help…"

Kia gave his shoulder a light knock with her wing, being careful not to put too much force behind it.

Then she shot Ratchet a look.

At least, the sudden shift in her demeanor suggested she was shooting Ratchet a look, that visor of hers kept the truth rather ambiguous. "Don't you have something to discuss with Bumblebee first?" She pressed with heavy emphasis.

Ratchet scowl went deeper, Ironhide was equally getting irked at Kia's insistence.

"If Barricade or I ever manage to switch sides, please, don't hide the truth from our son…"

"I promise, he deserves to know who raised him first."

Primus his memory banks just had to pull up that promise to Dust right now didn't it?

Ironhide sent a pulse of what he assumed was an attempt to comfort him, but his mate was equally having trouble with this, and like Ratchet, wasn't quite sure why.

Bumblebee was a fully grown mech now, he deserved to know where he came from.

Bumblebee was looking at him, optics soft but there was a sliver of tenuous fear there.

Ratchet sighed and bowed his helm for a moment, then looked to his son, then to Barricade. "Bumblebee… You're aware that, you were entrusted to myself and Ironhide when you were barely into your younglinghood?"

Bumblebee nodded, the digits on his servo that held Mikaela flexing to cup her, likely wanting the touch to ground him.

Ratchet continued. "It was your carrier who brought you to me… she had been my mentor, and I her student… she feared she could not protect you, and continue her duty as a medic… as the CMO of the Decepticons."

Bumblebee's optics went wide, his other servo twitched for a pen and paper he didn't have, his radio fritzed into life instead. "... What…?"

Bumblebee didn't see Barricade flinch, but Kia did, and she reached over a wing to give him as close to a comforting pat as she could, he sent her as much of an appreciative look as he could back.

Ratchet kept going. "You're carrier, Dust, she found you abandoned on her clinic's doorstep in Kaon, she and her mate took you on as their own… Dust was… unable to carry a sparkling herself… When they realised that they couldn't safely raise you among the Decepticon forces, she managed to locate me and entrust you to me… she perished saving bots on both sides… but your original sire is still online… and standing behind you."

You could have heard a pin drop in that singular moment before Mikaela clapped a hand to her dropped jaw, and Bumblebee's plating started to rattle and shake, his optics wide as his helm slowly shook from side to side.

Then he started to turn, and took in Barricade in an all new light.

Kia stepped forwards and with a great deal of care, offered her wing to Mikaela, who quickly took hold of the offered limb and let Kia take her a few steps back out of the way.

Just in time for Bumblebee to take one tentative step towards Barricade.

Barricade took that as the moment to start talking. "I'm sorry… I'm… I… We… We wanted you to be safe… and it wasn't with us… once the war kicked off we couldn't be seen contacting Ratchet… we'd have had the DJD after us for being traitors… we always talked about how you would be doing without us… if you missed us… and-"

He was cut off by Bumblebee, who was just a helm or so smaller than him pulled as much of Barricade into a hug as he could.

Barricade took a few moments to process that, before he let out a half happy half sad laugh, and returned the hug with even more force, his doorwings bouncing right alongside Bumblebee's.

Kia looked to Ratchet, who was keeping close watch on everything.

Barricade pulled away from the hug first, lubricant was pooling at the edges of his four optics as he cupped Bumblebee's helm in his servos. "Dust… she'd be proud of you… Optimus' personal scout… She'd have that stupid smile on her faceplates and she'd say something like 'Knew you had it in you kiddo!'... heh… Primus be damned she'd be so slagging proud she'd be carrying you around showing you off to everyone!"

That was when he couldn't hold it back anymore and pulled Bumblebee back into a crushing hug, buried as much of his faceplates into Bumblebee's shoulder, and wept.

Kia's optics widened a bit behind her visor, and she shuffled over to Ratchet, leaning over to whisper. "How about we give them some time first?" She suggested, gesturing to one of the bunkers already built rooms, nothing furnished yet.

He nodded and followed after her, not flinching too much as the heavy door rolled shut behind him.

Kia glanced to Mikaela, and hefted her wing up a bit. "Could you move to my shoulder please? I don't want to emote and accidentally send you flying."

Mikaela nodded and quickly hopped over to the area of protoform between her neck and the start of her impressive shoulder span. "So… Barricade was Bee's original dad?" She asked Ratchet once she was situated.

Ratchet nodded. "Yes… his adoptive carrier, Dust, was my mentor. Before the war she was… employed by the Senate as their personal medic, she was the best of the best… I spent my early adult cycles under her tutelage, her meddling was what got myself and Ironhide… involved with each other… She had a secret clinic in Kaon that she would escape to to treat bots who actually needed her life saving skills, that was where she met Barricade, and vorns later, found Bumblebee left at the entranceway to the clinic… when Megatron became… possessed… she was able to smuggle herself and Bumblebee to me in Iacon… but she made the decision to return… Barricade hadn't been able to escape with her, nor had the medics she had been training at the time… it pained her, but she returned to the Decepticons to continue as their CMO, while I used what I had learned from her to become the CMO of the Autobots… understandably, communication was cut… I and Ironhide raised Bumblebee together alongside our own creation, Red Alert, who was two vorns older than Bumblebee."

Kia and Mikaela had been nodding along until the ending, where Kia knocked her helm to the side and asked. "Wait, you and Ironhide had a kid?"

Mikaela seemed to have that fact click a moment later as well. "So Bee wasn't your first adoption?"

Ratchet took a moment to process the question, and then reminded himself that humans had to have two of opposite genders to reproduce, hence the sudden confusion from the two. "Ah… Cybertronians are not limited by their chosen gender when it comes to reproduction… all Cybertronians come with the parts needed to be both sire or carrier."

Kia nodded. "Ah, we'd guessed as much… we did some exploration in the early days when we were re-learning our bodies, the twins had a nasty shock when they found out about that first."

He tried to imagine that for a moment, then realised that was rather private information and opted to change the subject somewhat. "If you have any questions about that, don't hesitate to ask me, there will be no judgement."

Kia nodded, Mikaela seemed to have accepted the fact that Cybertronians were different in that way from Humans, it was hardly surprising really once she put it into context with everything else.

Then Kia spoke up. "Somewhat relevant… you mentioned that Dust couldn't reproduce? Well that reminded me that there was something I wanted to ask you about… Could you…" She paused, thinking it over. "I was born… without a cervix or ovaries… the female reproductive organs... Could you check if that's changed? I know that Ira's physical mutation didn't change when she became a Harpy, and the same with the twins whole full body mutation, but I just want to be sure…"

His optic ridges jumped a bit, but then reminded himself that the world the Harpies came from, the newest generation had a roughly 50% chance of being born with a physical abnormality, a mutation.

He hadn't thought much about why Kia seemed to have nothing explicit, he'd honestly assumed it was the golden colour of her optics, similar to Ira's colour fluctuating ones.

But he nodded and pulled out the scanner, and paused. "Are you hoping you do have one?"

She shook her helm, then paused, and shrugged. "It's more for my own assurances... There was a lot of stigma and disappointment when I was growing up that I'd never create a child to continue the family bloodline…" She paused again. "That's why we were all made to promise not to kill Fernando… the bloodline being continued was seen as far too important… along with mama not wanting one of her children to die before her... "

Mikaela clutched at her throat, at the scar there instinctively, Kia may of flinched a bit then, but it was barely noticeable past a normal twitch.

Ratchet frowned. "I'm fairly certain that… brother of yours, should not be allowed to reproduce considering his mental state…"

Kia shook her helm. "That's not something I want to discuss right now… please… just… check?"

He nodded, activated his medical scanner, and aimed it at Kia's abdominal plating. "Understand your physiology is drastically different from anything I've worked on before, so I will not be able to say with absolute certainty on this… matter… I'm sorry Kia, but you do not have a gestation chamber… It's solid cabling where it should be."

Her protrusions dropped against her helm and her features twisted into something of a grimace. "Alright, thank you for the confirmation Ratchet…"

He nodded, reached over and carefully patted the shoulder span Mikaela wasn't sitting next to. "Not being able to reproduce makes you no less of an individual Kia, remember that… trust me." He gave her as much of a fond smile as his weary old self could.

Ironhide took that moment to remind him he was the younger of the two, and so the weapons specialist was a bit affronted to being referred to as being too old.

Ratchet sent back a snarky promise of kissing his bruised ego better next they met up physically.

That got Ironhide to be quiet for a bit as he floundered.

Kia was oblivious to the bit of banter and just nodded at his reassurances. "Thank you Ratchet… and as we're discussing anatomy and such, how are your studies of human anatomy going?"

"The Appendix should be removed as soon as surgery is viable in all humans."

Kia let out a chuckle. "They do back home, but then again, not so many kids being born so there's enough doctors to meet the demand… for now… there will probably be a population crash once the witness generation passes."

Ratchet raised an optic ridge.

"The ones alive to see the bombs dropped. Besides radiation sickness and a couple years of eternal winter, they didn't have to worry as much about being put down by firing squads like their yet to be born kids."

Mikaela and Ratchet balked. "What?!" Mikaela exclaimed.

Kia's visible features belated her sudden stun. "Oh right, we never mentioned those… yeah… if you aren't born with a physical abnormality… the 'Rot' focuses on the brain, basically gradually turns the individual into this… thing… it's not human at that point, and it's seen as a mercy killing to put them out of their misery… Fernado was able to kill the hunting squad sent after him…"

Ratchet shook his helm. "I wonder why you even want to go back.." He raised a servo before Kia could retort. "I think it's time to focus on getting Bumblebee's voice box back."

She nodded and gestured with her wing for him to lead the way out first, the door already rolling back open.

They found Barricade and Bumblebee sitting on the ground facing each other, Barricade was in the middle of asking Bumblebee a yes or no question but paused when he noticed their return, Bumblebee turning to look over his shoulder span at their return, a low buzz coming from his radio in greeting.

Ratchet stepped over and placed a servo on Bumblebee's shoulder span. "Do you feel ready for this?"

His radio came online. "...More than ever..."

Kia raised her wing and helped Mikaela down to the ground.

"Alright then. Let's do this."

They had Bumblebee lay down with his doorwings flattened against his back, Mikaela kneeling down by the side of his turned helm to keep him occupied before Ratchet put him under.

From there, the whole procedure took at most thirty minutes.

Kia discovered that focusing on a singular component required a lot more focus, then when it was materialising along with the rest of a frame.

That being said, the procedure was finished when the orange tendrils of the Allspark retreated back behind the seams of her chassis, and she slumped back into Barricade's support a few moments after with a sigh.

She rose with his support while Ratchet started to work on bringing Bumblebee back around.

The Allspark was still active inside her spark chamber, she could practically feel how it seemed to flux and ripple around.

It made her feel antsy, like she had energy to burn.

She glanced around and nodded to Barricade in thanks for the support he provided, checking the time, it was dark out, she could fly.

"I'm going for a flight." She announced, turning to leave.

Ratchet's gaze jumped up to her. "You're not staying to hear him speak?"

Kia paused for a moment, then shook her helm. "No. This… this I feel is something best shared with those who are more important to him, I was a useful tool in this procedure… I will return in a few hours, if he desires to thank me, he can do it then."

She'd barely taken a step when Barricade caught her wing. "Stay." There was a pleading tone in his voice. "If not for Bumblebee, then…"

Her helm turned slowly to face him. "This is… a family matter…"

Mikaela spoke up then, rising from her kneeling position. "You are family, maybe not direct, but I think I speak for everyone here when I say, we would like you to stay."

Kia's golden optics flitted across each of the faces present from behind her visor, even Frenzy's, who just gave a small curt nod, but otherwise kept quiet and out of the way.

She shifted, turning back to face them all, Barricade's servo falling from her wing as it was pulled away. "Alright, I'll stay for him to wake up." She remained standing, not wanting to have to repeat the process of getting down and back up.

Everyone nodded at that, and attention returned back to Bumblebee as his systems began to come fully back online.

She tried not to shift too much as the Allspark continued to roil and fluctuate, this was about Bumblebee, not her.

Bumblebee's optics flickered back online a few moments later, the big blue orbs flitting between everyone before settling on Ratchet, his expression imploring his adoptive creator to give him the news.

Ratchet smiled down at Bumblebee and helped him sit up. "It's okay kid, the procedure worked, but go slow first."

Bumblebee nodded, looking around at everyone, his attention shifting to Kia then. "-ff… tth… thaan… ou…" He croaked out.

Kia wanted to nod, to reassure, but she was frozen, optics cycling wide as the world fell away.

She was standing in… a room… there were berths on either side…

There was a femme, a really big femme sitting on one of the berths, cradling a tiny grey bundle with eerily familiar blue optics.

The femme took a moment away from staring down lovingly at the bundle to look at her.

She spoke, but no words came.

Somehow she knew the femme was thanking her…

A moment later, that room was gone, and she was back in the bunker, staring down at Bumblebee as he tried again to say "Thank you." All while getting Ratchet's help in standing upright.

She tried to shake her helm a bit, clear some of the lingering haze.

Bumblebee knocked it clean out of her when he half tackled her into a hug, arms flung around her shoulders, his doorwings practically vibrating at an inaudible to humans frequency.

There was a distinct sting from her optics going as wide as they did.

"Hank you… thank you… thank you! Thank you!" Bumblebee exclaimed, his vocaliser finally not catching on one of the syllables as he clung to her tightly.

She was frozen for a few more moments, before she realised she might as well do the right thing and return the hug, carefully wrapping one wing around him just under the doorwings, followed by the other, they didn't really fit, but from how much excited energy was overflowing off him, she doubted he minded much at all.

He broke the hug first, and she quickly pulled her wings out of the way so that she wasn't in the way as he crouched enough to scoop Mikaela up and nuzzle her, still vibrating like an actual Bumblebee.

She couldn't help but let out an airy chuckle. "Perhaps you need to go get some of that pent up energy out? Before you rattle straight out of your armour?"

Bumblebee perked up a bit, glanced around again, before his attention fell onto Barricade.

The mech jerked back a small bit, four optics going wide for a moment. "Huh?"

Bumblebee tried to say something, but he tried to rush whatever it was out all at once, and ended up tripping rather spectacularly over himself.

Mikaela chuckled. "I think he wants to race you."

Barricade would deny it, but there was honest to goodness joy on his faceplates when that processed in his helm. "You… want to race me?"

Bumblebee's helm was at risk of flying off if he nodded any faster, or with any more force.

Barricade actually laughed a bit then. "Slag yeah!" He exclaimed, before looking to Kia. "Um… permission to go racing?"

Kia let herself answer first with a low, amused chuckle. "Permission granted, but follow local speed limits, I'll call up Wren, see if she can get a race track open for you two."

She sent just such a message.

Wren replied soon after, with co-ordinates to the race track she managed to get open, apparently there weren't any races scheduled so the place was pretty much completely empty, so long as the didn't transform and spook the 'dickens' out of the security staff, they'd have the track for the rest of the night.

Kia told them both as much, transferring the information via com-link to them both.

Bumblebee, Mikaela and Barricade were all on the lift back out less than a minute later, engines already revving at each other.

Kia glanced to Ratchet then. "So… that went… surprisingly well?" She tested.

Ratchet nodded. "Better than I expected… still need to go for a flight?" He enquired.

Kia paused, realising that the Allspark had settled at some point without her noticing, the antsy feeling gone with it. "Hmm, no… I think I'm going to take a nap instead."

With that, she less than ceremoniously eased herself down to the ground, tucking her helm under a wing before promptly falling into recharge.

Ratchet huffed an amused little vent, glancing over to where Frenzy stood. "Life these cycles are certainly interesting, no?"

Frenzy just shrugged and settled into a ball to recharge himself.

Now without anyone to really talk to, Ratchet opted to transform into his alt mode, activate his holoform, and get back to reading his latest human anatomy text book.

Humans were such fascinating little things, such complexity in such small packages.

That went for any living thing really on Earth.

His holoform gave another small chuckle, and he relayed the reason for his humour to Ironhide, as well as the confirmation that their chatterbox of a son was going to want to talk their audios off later.

Ironhide replied with similar humour, transmitting an interest in thanking Kia himself for her help.

They settled into that, Ratchet focused on his text books, and Ironhide with Freedom, who was apparently being insistent over Ironhide petting him.

Abandoned Air base, Germany

The air was filled with anguished gasps, strained and desperate as the sources struggled to make a sound.

As far as Starscream was concerned, it was a near blissful silence to the constant begging, pleading and screaming before.

The final flesh bag was rousing now, it's throat stitched back up by Scalpel, who'd arrived at just the right time to save his sanity from the fleshlings annoying noises.

Just like all the others, hands flew to where the incision had been made, as the fleshlings eyes belayed their horror and despair.

Scalpel was about to comment, when Fernando, the damnable freak himself spoke up. "So, you can start the testing now?" The bald eagle harpy enquired, wings in a facsimile of the folded arm expression as his visor moved over all the crude cages hanging from the ceiling, each one with five of his little captives, all silenced now, he scowled, he didn't want them muted, he wanted them begging him for their lives… it stroked his ego, and other parts of himself.

Starscream scowled at the mech. "Yes… finally we have enough test subjects that I can proceed… without the ever present temptation, of just squeezing them until their disgusting fleshy optics pop out." He reached over, grabbing up the final fleshbag from the flat surface Scalpel had been using, pulled down the not quite full cage closest, and shoved the fleshing in.

The fleshling tried to cry out in pain as the jagged metal tore open it's arm, but Starscream had no care for that, it would heal, and shut the top of the cage once more, letting it swing back to its previous position, far enough up that a drop from that height would leave the fleshlings, an unpleasant mess on the floor for Fernando to enjoy.

He loathed the fact that he'd already had to grow used to handling the disgusting, filthy creatures.

He turned his attention back to Fernando, who was for some reason still just standing there, loitering and being unproductive. "Go and scout." He snapped.

Fernando scowled. "No. I scouted yesterday, and the day before, and for the last week, every night, I'm taking a break."

Starscream scowl became harsher. "Then surely you can find something better to do with your time instead of loitering around in my lab." He snapped.

Fernando huffed. "Was curious, do you think this will work?"

Starscream regarded him with an incredulous look. "If you're revolting anatomy can do it, I absolutely can." He turned his attention to Scalpel. "Pick out the first test subject, I'm done handling this filth for the cycle." With that, he stormed out, shoulder checking Fernado on the way out.

Fernando snorted as the seeker walked out of view. "What crawled up his ass and died?"

Scalpel paid the abomination no heed, already scuttling along the wall to reach the chains that the cages hung from, he was going to follow Starscreams order, and not humour the freaks attempt at slander of the temporary leader.

That way, when the time came, Starscream would let him crack open that abomination to humour his macabre curiosity about this absurdly constructed mech.

And that's it for this chapter! Until next time!

Moon.