a/n: For a while I've struggled writing for this fanfiction. I felt it was too mundane and boring to incorporate the episodes religiously. From now on, I think I'll focus more on what goes on between episodes and still talk about certain scenes of the show and how I'd think they would compliment Echo's story. I hope you guys like this new perspective :)
Chapter 13: Remember Me
Unfortunately, Echo's plan hadn't gone all too well. Knockout and Breakdown managed to distract Team Prime long enough to allow Soundwave to steal the relic. With the energon harvester in the hands of Starscream, the Autobots had limited time to find him before he could strip the planet's resources or turn the weapon against any of them. Optimus made the suggestion to send every bot to a different set of coordinates to cover ground faster. It didn't sit too well with Echo, who didn't want to leave anyone without backup, but she also agreed that it was the most efficient way to get this done.
It was Bumblebee's turn to go through the bridge and patrol. He stepped up next to the lieutenant, waiting for Ratchet to input the next location. Echo gestured towards the groundbridge when she and 'Bee locked gazes. His blue optics rotated as they regarded her.
The mech had so many questions to ask her. That night at the museum, he had seen a side of her that stunned him. The way she fought off Breakdown with her fluid moves mirrored his own techniques too well. If they had fought side by side before, he would have chalked it up to her emulating him; however, before that night, they had never really seen the other bot scrap beyond a firefight.
He had to ask her who taught her how to fight. 'Bee had some fleeting suspicions that at some point they trained together-or at least had the same mentor-for their fighting styles to be so similar, but soon shook that thought from his processor due to how absurd it sounded. Unbeknownst to him, that was the truth.
With a hesitant nod that expressed his unwillingness to leave her behind, the scout slowly started walking towards the blue and green swirls, breaking eye contact. The look he gave her sent a coldness through Echo's frame. It reminded her all too well of how Bumblebee gazed at her before running off to fight Megatron during Tyger Pax.
Despite her personal goal to not get attached to the mech too easily, Echo found herself catching up to him. Bumblebee froze in place at the sound of her peddes on the steel plated floor and looked back over his shoulder. Seeing the concerned expression on her faceplates, he spun so that he was fully facing her.
"Do not engage the enemy," the femme said, gently poking a digit at the mech's chassis. He knew she wasn't being commanding. Echo was genuinely worried for him on this mission. Though she was very confident of his abilities as a scout and warrior, he stood no chance against Starscream and a device that drains energon from anything it touches. Bumblebee felt more reassured than ever that the femme might harbor feelings for him by the way her optics bore into his own. They practically said "you come back to me", if the scout was interpreting them properly. His engine purred as he looked down at her digit.
"I won't," 'Bee placated with a soft chirp, grabbing her servo comfortingly and tilting his helm. She vented and closed her optics, hating whenever he looked so sweet and innocent like that. It always broke through her walls and debilitated her. Looking back up at the scout, Echo rested her digits on his chest plates, gently pushing him towards the groundbridge. "Good luck," she whispered, feeling Optimus and Ratchet watching them.
Bumblebee nodded firmly and let go of her, despite not wanting to, and converted to his vehicle mode. The sound of the Camaro's exhaust roaring through the bridge was cut off as the medic pulled down the control lever.
As the portal disappeared, Echo clenched her fists and thrashed her tail in frustration. "Not a single word," the femme warned the older bots, knowing they both witnessed the entire encounter. She sent them an unamused look, optics a piercing blue. Uncharacteristically, Prime was smirking at her, but respected her wishes and remained silent. Ratchet, however, did not.
"You are so in love, it's almost adorable," he teased. Echo glowered at him, lip quivering in a snarl. Ratchet smiled, "Oh, I'm sorry that was eight words."
"Ugh," Echo rolled her optics and accepted defeat, strolling over to the groundbridge controls. "Your turn, sire," she said, punching in the coordinates of an energon mining op that was abandoned almost three years ago. The sound of her father's heavy peddes trekking caught her audio receptors. He was walking towards her rather than the bridge tunnel.
When the femme didn't acknowledge him, Prime rested a servo on Echo's shoulder as the groundbridge opened. "I'm proud of you," was all he said before taking off. His daughter sighed deeply and waited for the portal to disappear before turning to Ratchet.
The medic was working on a replica of the energon harvester so that the team could bust Miko out of the museum security office. Agent Fowler had already been notified of the situation and was on his way to be their liaison. As Ratchet welded together the fake device, his optics peered at Echo.
"Are you going to sit there and pout until Bumblebee comes back or come help me?" his infamously grumpy tone came out. The lieutenant huffed and shuffled over to the medic's desk. Whenever Ratchet was finished welding together one piece, she handed him another.
Quite some time passed before the first member came back from patrolling their quadrant. Echo perked up immediately when the alert-which the human children fondly called the "doorbell"-went off. She threw herself off the chair she was sitting on and raced towards the controls to bring the bot back. Ratchet laughed to himself as the femme's faceplates fell when Arcee came through.
"Didn't find it," Echo said rhetorically. She spun on her peddes to input another set of coordinates. "No," Arcee said, "But I did find out that Germany is really cold this time of year."
"Sorry," the lieutenant whispered over her shoulder. Scrolling through a series of places-mostly possible energon deposits or stripped mines-she made sure to pick one with a warmer climate. "How about Florida?"
"Better," the motorcycle vented. She glanced Echo up and down, noting her slack and mopey demeanor. Even her tail was dragging around. Correctly predicting that the younger femme was worried for her former partner, Arcee went off to her next destination without further conversation.
Both the medic and Echo continued to put together the replica as they waited for the members to come and go. Optimus came up empty handed, having already scouted the mine. He, too, recognized his daughters sulking, though kept his attention on the task at hand as he usually did. Bulkhead returned from Alaska and insisted on returning to Greece where the picture of the harvester was found; Echo wasn't sure the Cons would go back to the same place but both trusted the Wrecker's judgment and had little fight left in her today.
Each time someone other than the scout came through, the tapping of Echo's digits on Ratchet's desk grew louder and louder. "Can you please dispense with the noise?" Ratchet said in exasperation. Echo, unaware of her habit, flinched and stopped halfway of passing on the next piece of the relic. "Sorry, uncle," she said. Her tail drooped down to the floor, curling depressingly.
With a guilt-stricken vent, Ratchet rolled his optics and looked down at the femme. Her servos were crossed over her chest in a guarding posture and her optics dulled. "You don't seem as worried about Optimus," he said. Echo nodded slowly, finally handing over the piece she was hoarding. "He's not reckless like the scout," she replied.
"No argument there," Ratchet said. He tried to lace his tone with humor, but it did nothing to lift the fembot's spirits. Nudging her, the medic put down his tools and turned to face her frame. "You're used to having each other's backs in battle," he said, "Is that why you worry about him so much lately?"
Echo parted her mouth plates to respond, yet shut them. Scanning the room for the answer, the femme cleared her voice box and collected her thoughts. "I know Bumblebee is a capable scout," she started, "The best of the best. But...there is still part of me that fears what Megatron did to him will happen again or worse." Ratchet said nothing in response, having a hunch that the young bot still had more to get off her chassis.
She gripped the edge of the table hard to center herself. Shutting her optics, Echo mustered up all the bottled pain and prayed Primus would help her set it free at this moment. Centuries of anguish pent up to one conversation.
"I held out hope that Bumblebee would remember me for so long. That maybe one day I would get a transmission from you or Optimus telling me the scout asked about me or he would reach out himself. I dreamt of it. Then the years went by and I got so caught up in the war I started to think it was never going to happen. It hurt knowing that someone you cared about so much forgot everything and didn't even recognize you-their sparkmate."
Ratchet was still quiet, all grumpiness or impatience fallen away to absolute attunement to the femme's words.
"At some point I accepted the fact that what we had was gone and 'Bee was no longer the mech I grew up and fell in love with. My pain, anger, and hurt motivated me in battle and I held onto it like my life depended on it. That hurt at least let me feel something-to...to still have something left of him. Even though it was only pain." The medic placed a servo on Echo's back in comfort, silently telling her to go on.
"Because I only allowed myself to hold onto all those negative emotions, finally seeing him again only brought me further pain. Pain caused by the constant reminder that he still didn't remember me. And so I continued to harness all of that anger to keep what little memories I had left alive. At least until he proved me wrong."
When Echo didn't elaborate, Ratchet tilted his helm to the side. "Wrong about what?" he asked.
"He's still the same mech," Echo said, making eye contact with her old friend. She saw how his optics lit up in relief and joy, something she rarely saw the medic express. "I thought our bond was cut off and dead," Echo continued, "But lately he and I have had these weird connections that make me believe the old 'Bee is still in there somewhere fighting to come out and say I'm here."
Glancing back down at the desk, Echo ran her glossa over her bottom lip in contemplation before looking up again. With frightened optics, the femme said, "I'm scared Ratchet."
"Echo," the mech placated, but received a crisp shake of the helm. Echo took a small step back, her voice trembling. "I'm scared now more than ever to lose him again. Part of me thinks that if I tell him the whole truth and rebuild that bond, I would never recover if something were to happen to him."
"Wouldn't it be far worse to never even try to get back what you lost?" Ratchet asked sincerely, holding up a digit before she could answer him. "Take comfort in the fact that something you thought would be impossible is right there in front of you. Instead of holding onto all that fear and pain, grab onto that bond and don't let it go, even if something happens."
Echo blinked her optic shudders a few times. Her processor fought hard to absorb the medic's advice and apply it. It wouldn't be easy to override countless years of self-inflicted prison, but the femme understood her mentor's words and realized how right they were. A smile appeared on her face and the femme looked up to Ratchet. He returned the expression, retrieving his servo.
"No wonder you and Optimus are friends," Echo snorted. Ratchet huffed and turned back to his desk, somewhat resuming his usual gruffness. "I could sound like your father if I wasn't so tired of all you young ones yapping all day long," he said.
"Thank you, Ratchet," Echo said. She began handing over pieces of the harvester again, welcoming the uplifting energy between them.
"I'll accept your gratitude after you heed my words," the mech said. Echo rolled her optics at this, swaying her tail. "Don't stop your engines, Ratch," she said with a chuckle, "Things aren't going to change overnight."
"Hence why I am such an impatient bot," Ratchet replied dryly. Echo was about to retort before the groundbridge controls beeped. Venting, the femme slipped off her chair and casually walked over to the panel. Activating the bridge, she calmly waited for whichever bot to come through.
Her spark beated faster when the yellow and black paint job became visible. Greeting Bumblebee with a smile, Echo postponed setting up the next coordinates like she did with the other bots. The scout transformed in front of her, immediately trying to brush off the mud caked onto his frame.
Looking him up and down as she leaned on the bridge controls, Echo smirked. "Nice camouflage," she said. Bumblebee stopped his pruning and looked down at her. "Just in case I needed to sneak past Starscream," he beeped sarcastically. This made the femme laugh and the scout visibly blush. His doorwings clamped up bashfully as he scanned her over. Reading her body language, she looked...happy to see him.
"I thought I said only to report the enemy, not engage," Echo said with a look that dared him to provoke her playfully. Bumblebee looked between his gunked up frame, to the mud on his digits, then traced his optics back to her, a devilish look on his faceplates. Immediately, the femme knew what he was thinking and took a step back.
"Don't you dare!" she shouted, optics wide. The mech lunged at her, a glob of mud balled in his right servo ready to attack her. Echo tried to run away, exclaiming when the dirt hit her back. Turning around to get some sort of revenge, the femme found herself lodged between the concrete wall of the silo and the mech's broad chest. Even as they were pressed against each other, Bumblebee still had a mischievous look about him, conjuring up another attack. Echo gripped one of his servos and his chest, about to warn him he was asking for a death wish.
The sound of a transmission alert stopped the young bots in their play fighting.
"Bulkhead to base," the Wrecker's urgent voice came. Ratchet left his desk to respond, seemingly unaware of Echo and Bumblebee's intimacy. "I hear you, Bulkhead. What's wrong?" he said.
"Uh, I'm in a bit of a situation," Bulkhead replied, the sound of a firefight in the background of his call. This made the scout and femme pull away from each other completely and redivert their focus on rescuing their comrade. "Hold out until I can get the team to you," Echo called out, retrieving her rifle from the adjacent wall.
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Team Prime stared down at the dreary green mech. He greeted them lazily, barely able to move due to the massive loss of energon from the harvester. Echo looked up into the sky where the remnants of the orb were still floating down to the surface in a billow of ash. "I guess I should have told everyone not to engage the enemy," she said sarcastically.
Optimus began one of his lectures as he and Ratchet dragged Bulkhead through the groundbridge, the Wrecker tuning him out. "Good thing it was him and not me or Arcee," Bumblebee chirped. Echo turned to him with a raised brow in amusement. "Why's that?" she asked as they began walking back to base. Arcee waltzed ahead of them, intentionally leaving the two lovebirds alone to bond.
"The big lug has a lot more energon to lose," 'Bee said while smirking. Echo shook her head in disbelief, smiling. "Shut up," she said. The femme pushed the scout a few feet away from her, but he closed the gap. They were the last to get back to base, allowing them to be alone in the bridge tunnel as everyone else rushed to help Ratchet tend to Bulkhead. Even the children seemed more occupied with what was going on in the medical bay and didn't notice the younger Autobots.
Bumblebee gently pulled on Echo, stopping her from joining the others. Guiding her to face him, the mech had to get his suspicions off his chest. "Who was your teacher at the academy?" he buzzed. Echo's smile faded and she looked almost scared. "Er, a lot of different bots, why?" she sent back, suddenly feeling uncomfortable.
"It's just," the scout paused, looking elsewhere, "I saw how you fought today and well…" Echo froze. She never thought that Bumblebee might see her moves and think anything odd of it. "You were using a lot of the moves I did during the war," Bumblebee said. "I was just wondering if maybe we had the same instructor since I don't remember much of the academy after my memory drives were damaged."
Echo wanted to run away from this conversation so badly. She feared that she had been caught in this huge lie and didn't want to face the consequences of it. Looking for a way to balm this until she had the courage to speak the whole truth, the femme managed a shrug. "You were probably trained by Goldgear," she said, "He was my main combat teacher." It was a borderline white lie. Goldgear was the mech in charge of combat, but in truth Echo and Bumblebee created those moves together.
"Ah," Bumblebee chirped, letting go of her. Echo bit her lip and watched how his faceplates contorted in what looked to be disappointment. The femme was confused by this. Was he hoping for a different answer? "That makes sense."
Feeling guilty for her dishonesty, Echo cleared her voice box and gestured away from the tunnel. "Wanna go finish working on your mask?" she offered. Bumblebee brightened immediately and nodded his helm. "Definitely," he said. Echo smiled his way and led him out of the silo, both of them avoiding the others noticing.
"How'd you get all that mud on you?" she asked when they were out of the receptor range of the others. Bumblebee cringed and lowered his doorwings. "I, uh," he chirped, "Slipped." Echo raised an optic ridge at that and snorted. The sound made the scout narrow his optics at her. "Careful," he whirred, "I'm still covered in dirt and am not afraid to use it." Echo's face went blank as she contemplated her options.
Something fired up in her processor when she remembered that Bumblebee had already thrown some mud at her so she would have to clean it off anyways. It wouldn't make much of a difference if he did it again.
Turning to Bumblebee, Echo found that he was still training his optics on her. In those blue, rotating orbs was not only playfulness, but affection. This was the Bumblebee she remembered and wanted back. Deciding to take Ratchet's advice to spark, the femme grinned at him. "Don't slip trying to catch me," she warned before taking off in a full sprint towards the barracks. Bumblebee shook his helm happily and followed suit, also feeling protective of this new development between them.