Reboot and Reconnect, a transformers/beast wars fanfic

Okay, so this is an AU for the 2015 Robots in Disguise TV series, combined with an idea that I had. It was originally supposed to be a story where Sideswipe switched places with another character, they would take his place on Earth, while Sideswipe ended up having his own adventures on Cybertron, but while it was being written, it ended up going off of the rails. So now, the episodes themselves are being used as a guideline while we throw plot points at it, and we see what sticks... Maybe one day, I'll write the original story and upload up it so that you can see what the original idea was... Characters that appeared in the TV series might not appear here, and characters that didn't show up in the TV series might appear here.

Anyways, I had help from AirstrikeTF and Gentle-Dreamer123 on Discord, but you can find them on Fanfiction and A03 too. They jumped in, played characters, canon and fancharacters, and generally helped me research the flow of the storyline.

Anyway, none of us own Transformers. They belong to Hasbro. AirstrikeTF owns Stormfront, Nighthunter, Huntress, Sunfire, Goldstream, and Hermes. Gentle-Dreamer123 owns Venus and Dreamcatcher. I own Pixie, Mizar and Tamashi.

A leaf green and silver femme, with some pink stripes, sighed as she walked through the streets of Kaon. Today had not been her day.

The day had started with her and her friend being evicted from the apartment that they had rented, for no apparent reason. They had paid their rent on time, they had kept the place clean, they didn't cause any trouble, but in the end, they had been evicted by their landlord.

'I hate this... I hate living in one place for a few Orbital Cycles, which ends with us being evicted, and having to find a new home, only for the same thing to happen to us again!' She silently growled. 'I really hope that we don't have to move to another city, just to find a home that's large enough for both of us.' She sighed. She wasn't in the mood to look for another home, unlike her best friend, who had thrown himself into looking for another home for them to share.

She hoped that Sideswipe could find them another home…

She sighed as she reached her usual cool down place, the garden place with all of the statues of the Prime, including the one known as Optimus... She sat down, and she put her pedes in the oil pond...

Cybertron had changed…

She remembered the Prime being Sentinel, not Optimus... She remembered a planet that wasn't covered in scars from a series of Meteor Strikes…

Nothing was the same…

But no matter how hard they tried... No bot would answer their requests for more details about what had happened, not even the Enforcers would answer their questions when she had to bail Sideswipe out of jail…

Pixie just sighed again, and she stared at her reflection in the oil. She hated this… She just wanted to live her life without things like this happening to her… She was smart enough to realise that something was off about their current situation… Something wasn't right, but she didn't know what it was..

Bumblebee was on his way to deal with a 2-1-1 that was in progress. Things had changed after the war ended…

He had joined the Enforcers, just like his adoptive Sire had been before the war. His Carrier still lived on Cybertron, but still didn't seem to like talking about the war, though he would teach him about the True Primes. It was something that kept Bee interested, however, and was what kept him from getting a bit depressed with how repetitive things had gotten.

He had been on patrol, with a Cadet named Strongarm, who seemed to be a fan of him, and Optimus, and basically anybot that had been on Team Prime.

He could hear her talking his audios off as they made their way towards the statues of the Primes. Bumblebee was expecting to see Sideswipe. It sounded like he was causing trouble again by making a mess of the garden around the statues, but when he got there…

He couldn't see him.

"I thought that a 2-1-1 was in progress." The Cadet asked him. "Are we too late to stop it?"

"... I wasn't expecting this one…"

"Expecting what Lieutenant?" Strongarm asked him, as she quickly looked around the garden of the Primes. She had thought that they would catch the punk behind the 2-1-1, but instead of that, it was quiet… And peaceful.. As if the 2-1-1 didn't happen. "And where is the punk? I thought that they were here, causing trouble?"

The only Cybertronian that was here, apart from them, was the femme with her pedes in the oil that filled up the pond that was in the center of the garden.

"Lieutenant, is it legal for her to be doing what she is doing?" Strongarm asked Bumblebee, pointing the femme out to him. "And should we question her to see if she knows anything about the reported 2-1-1?"

Bumblebee didn't answer the Cadet. He was too busy looking at the statue of Optimus Prime.

He missed Optimus. The Prime had been so nice to his Carrier.

He looked down from the Optimus statue and he sighed. Something wasn't right about this 2-1-1. He just couldn't figure out what it was… Well, at least Sideswipe wasn't causing trouble again. Whoever had called the 2-1-1 in might have thought that he was causing trouble again because of Pixie being here. Bumblebee just wished that whoever had called the 2-1-1 had thought it through… Pixie was practically harmless… Apart from the times that she had joined Sideswipe in causing trouble, but that was when the trouble was just harmless fun. She often tried to help them corral Sideswipe the moment that the harmless fun stopped, and other bots could be put into danger, or even hurt, because of Sideswipe's antics.

He looked down, at the oil pond, and he almost jumped… Because, staring right back at him, was Optimus…

How was this possible? Optimus was in the well, he was offline… Why could Bumblebee see him, and why him? Wasn't his Carrier a better choice for this? What was going on here?! His Carrier was the Prime Guardian, not him…

He looked back up at the Optimus statue, before he looked at the reflection that he could see in the oil pond under him. He was just seeing things, right?

"Optimus?" He whispered, before the reflection pointed at a building that was close to the gardens… The museum? Bumblebee looked at it. The museum had an engraving of the Milky Way Galaxy on the arc before it's main doors, and the orb that represented Earth, it was glowing.

Was Optimus trying to tell him something important?

If so… was he choosing him to go? Was he choosing him because his Carrier might be needed here?

If that was the case, then, this had to be important…

"Lieutenant?" He didn't hear Strongarm trying to get his attention while he was looking at the oil pond, and it didn't hear what she said next. "Okay, while you meditate, I'm going to ask the civilian a few questions."

Strongarm walked off of the bridge that had been built over the oil pond and she headed towards the other femme. "Excuse me, civilian?"

The massive wings on the other femme went up as she turned around to look at her, Strongarm couldn't see the upper half of her face due to the pink class that covered it, and it wasn't the slightly clear glass of a temporary visor, or a light duty visor. This was a heavy duty visor, one that had been built to last. The civilian tilted her helm at Strongarm.

"Me and Officer Bumblebee received reports of a possible disturbance in the area, have you seen anything that seemed to be suspicious to you?"

The civilian shook her helm, and her wings twitched a few times, before she turned her helm away from Strongarm, and she looked at the oil pond.

Strongarm frowned when the femme didn't give her a verbal response. "Miss, I need you to answer my questions, have you seen anything suspicious recently?"

The femme didn't answer her, but her wings twitched in that exact same pattern, again.

"Miss, if you don't answer me, then I will be forced to take you down to the station for questioning." Strongarm told the civilian, who seemed to be ignoring her.

The other femme didn't say anything, again, and her wings just continued to twitch in that exact same pattern for the third time, again.

Strongarm growled, before she slammed one end of a pair of handcuffs on the civilian femme, attaching that end to one of her wrists, before she attached the other end to one of her own wrists. "I am taking you into custody." She told the civilian, ignoring the rapid twitching of the civilain's wings. "But since I am a Cadet, I will be taking you to the Lieutenant for processing."

Bumblebee then noticed them coming, and facepalmed after seeing the alarmed and rapid twitching of the civilian's doorwings signalling that she was unable to talk and she was now panicking. "Cadet, uncuff her… she's currently trying to communicate that she's nonverbal. Did you not pay attention in the lessons on how to understand mute 'bots with wings?"

Strongarm blinked. "I'm actually due to take those lessons in a few cycles Sir, are you telling me that her wings twitching was her talking to me?"

"... Yes, yes it was." Bumblebee told her, and then, he turned to the civilian and he used his own wings to speak with her. "So sorry about this, ma'am. Could you tell me your name?"

The femme that he was talking to, rolled her optics behind her visor. "Is this just for the record Bee, because you have questioned me in the past." Her wings twitched as she spoke back to him.

"Yeah, pretty much it's just a formality at this point." He said with his wings, chuckling softly. And outside of the wing twitching, he told Strongarm. "I've run into her and her mechfriend before. Sideswipe is usually the one causing trouble, but always backtracks once someone lets him know that the harmless stuff isn't so harmless anymore. This is Pixie."

"Sides is just my friend, he's not my mechfriend Bee." Pixie told him, as Strongarm undid the handcuffs, letting the civilian go, and Pixie rubbed the wrist that had been in the cuffs, rotating it to make sure that nothing had been damaged by the cuffs.

"You've run into her before Lieutenant?" Strongarm asked him.

"Yep. Again, she helps to manage Sideswipe's antics. She's also a friend of mine that I hang out with sometimes, and I know she's not the kind of 'bot to cause trouble…" He said, and then to Pixie, his wings twitched to ask. "Did Sideswipe do something earlier?"

"Nope, he's actually being responsible and he's finding us a new home, after we got evicted, again."

"Understood… thank you for answering questions, Pixie." Bumblebee told her, and he turned to Strongarm. "Alright, so it wasn't Sideswipe this time, so we don't know who was causing trouble right now. Could have been one of the others… or it could have been Smokey Jr again… Honestly, even though he's in Carrier's Elite Guard, it doesn't mean that he shouldn't be more mature…"

"So, this could count as a False Report Lieutenant?" Strongarm asked him.

"Yes, especially since I don't see anything damaged around here," Bumblebee told her with a nod. "There aren't even any tire marks or anything. So, it's probably a false report." Then, he turned back to Pixie, and asked her with his wings, "Hey, remember when I told you about my Carrier sometimes being spoken to by past Primes…?"

"Yeah, you did… Did something happen?" Pixie asked him. She knew that when Bumblebee spoke about something like this, then, you better listen to him. She didn't know why she listened to him, but she knew that she could trust him. She knew that he had a kind spark, she could sense it from the song that she could hear from his spark.

And while she didn't know the other femme that was with him, she could sense from the song that she could hear from her spark that she wasn't that bad, but Pixie was still a bit upset about being cuffed for not using her voice to answer the other femme's questions.

"Well… I saw Optimus in that oil pool… and he pointed towards the spacebridge that leads to Earth…" Bumblebee told her, looking slightly confused and concerned. "The only thing that comes to mind why he would direct me is that Carrier is needed here… which is concerning since he's retired…"

"You're talking about the Spacebridge in the museum, right?" Pixie frowned. "That is weird, but it must be important if a Prime is pointing you towards it…" She looked at the oil pond. That was weird, why would a dead Prime talk to Bumblebee… And why did he want him to go to Earth? She had only heard about Earth from stories, how it had been a shelter for those without a home… She didn't even know Optimus, she had only heard about him from stories that had been told to her, and some of them weren't good.. But for a few moments, she had heard a song unlike anything that she had ever heard before, and she could sense just how kind the owner of that song had been. She sighed, and she looked at Bumblebee. "Go and see what it is Bee, I'll try and keep Sides out of trouble for you, while you're gone."

"Thank you…" Bee said, nodding, and then he went to that Spacebridge while nobody was around. "Optimus… I know this has to be important…" He said quietly to himself as he walked up to it, knowing exactly how to power it up and set the coordinates. He started turning it on, and it drew power from other parts of the city as it did so. "I just hope that I don't fail you… You sacrificed everything for us, and Cybertron is trying to forget you…"

While Bumblebee was heading to the museum, Pixie was about to turn her comm link on, and inform Sideswipe about the current situation when Strongarm started to walk towards the museum. Pixie frowned, and she tugged on one of Strongarm's arms, with a clear expression on her face that said. "What the frag do you think that you're doing!? Bumblebee knows what he's doing! Why are you following him?"

"I'm following Regulation 201, section 4: a ride-along shall accompany a senior officer for an entire shift, no exceptions." Strongarm snapped at the non-verbal femme. "The Lieutenant is still on the clock, and so am I, therefore, the Regulation is in full effect!" Strongarm then started to run towards the museum, and Pixie just sighed.

'I can't believe that I'm doing this…' She called Sideswipe. .:Sides…:.

:Pix… What's wrong?:

.:I'm going to be a bit late… Something came up… I have to go and stop Bee's Cadet from getting herself, and Bee, in trouble.:.

:Yeah, Pixie?:

.:What is it? Is something wrong?:.

:I just… I'm just worried, Pix. Be safe?:

.:I will… I will try to keep myself safe, okay.:. Pixie started to run in the direction that Strongarm had gone. .:I'll… I'll see you when I get back, okay?:.

:Okay, Pix… and by then, I'll have a home for us.:

.:Yeah.. I can't wait to come home.:.

Bumblebee was pulling the lever, activating the portal, and his optics stared into the all-too-familiar vortex as he heard that whoosh that he'd heard back in the War. Then, he started to walk through. However, he paused when he heard someone coming up behind him as he was halfway through.

"Huh… Strongarm?! What are you doing?!"

"I am following Regulation 201, section 4: a ride-along shall accompany a senior officer for an entire shift, no exceptions!" Strongarm told Bumblebee.

The yellow mech paused, but then ran the rest of the way through the portal, not wanting to disappoint Optimus, and hoping that it would close before the others came through… not realising that both femmes had followed him through the Spacebridge.

One of them didn't have a choice, mainly because the guards had started to shoot at her, and the Spacebridge was her only way out of it… Pixie growled. She was supposed to be going home after she had gotten the other femme to stop following Bumblebee, she did not sign up to be shot at, and chased, by Security into a Spacebridge!

However… the three of them ended up on Earth, and Bee sighed softly, smiling a bit at the sky that he remembered from not too many years ago. "Been a long time…"

"Oh wow, it's Earth!"

Wait… Wasn't that…

"STRONGARM!?"

It was Strongarm that had spoken, and she wasn't the only bot that had followed him through the Spacebridge, Pixie was there too, and she was making hand movements that looked like she was strangling somebot's throat… and from the way that she was glaring at Strongarm, the soot marks on her frame, and the way that her wings were twitching… Strongarm was her target. "I did not get out of my berth today with the goal of being shot at because of some stuipd regulations that are a waste of time and Energon, that some idiot had to follow!"

"… BOTH OF YOU, GO-" he started to order, but then, the Spacebridge closed behind them. "… FRAAAAAAAG."

Pixie's entire frame started to twitch when she saw that there was no way for them to go back to Cybertron. This meant that she wasn't going straight to her home.. That there would be no hugs, or cuddles, from her favourite mech, until she got back to Cybertron, and by that time, there would be no trail for her to follow, if their luck of being kicked out of the places that they had rented continued to follow Sideswipe…

Sideswipe was just moving his first box into the new apartment, when he noticed somebot waiting for him. "Huh? Who are you?"

The mech said nothing, slowly walking towards him… and then, Sideswipe saw the weapon in his hand. Panicking, he threw the box at the mech and ran off, hearing the object make contact with the would-be attacker. Then, he transformed and drove off, not knowing what to do or where to go, and he tried to message Pixie, but nothing went through.

"Frag frag fraaag!" Sideswipe said to himself, and thus, started his time on the run.

"Strongarm…" Somebot growled.

Strongarm almost jumped when she heard the unfamiliar voice, but Bumblebee, he just froze… He had heard that voice once, but it had been enough to scare him…

Bumblebee just scooted away slowly, not wanting to look at the angry femme, and slowly backed into a scrapyard.

"This is all your fault!" Pixie screamed at the other femme, who had a surprised look on her face when she heard the civilian's voice. "I'm supposed to be home, having a cuddle from my best friend, and Energon, before I have to settle down in a new room, but because of some idiot, I'm stranded on another planet, several star systems away from Cybertron, with you! And you think that this is a reason to be happy?! You just made my already bad day worse." Pixie's hands were clenched into fists, and from how rapid, and how fast, her wings were twitching, she was using them to swear, viciously, at Strongarm.

If Bumblebee was closer to them, he would have seen that Pixie was using Gladiator Swear Words…

Strongarm winced. "But Ride Along Regulations state…"

"Frag the Regulations!" Pixie swore. "You're just using those stupid things to justify being here! You disobeyed a command from your commanding officer! You broke them!"

Strongarm couldn't say anything after that… Pixie was right… She had broken them.

Pixie stormed away from Strongarm, in a different direction from Bumblebee, she needed time to cool down. A LOT of time…

Bumblebee then sighed, he was just looking through the junkyard.

"Umm… Lieutenant… What just happened?" Strongarm asked him.

"You were just on the bad end of her temper." Bumblebee told her, shaking his helm slowly. "She doesn't get mad often, but when she does… it's not pretty."

"It's not pretty, Lieutenant?"

"Nope. Not pretty at all."

"Why do I have a feeling that this won't be the only time that we see it?"

"Because it probably won't be, especially if she's cuddle deprived."

"... Cuddle deprived? What does that mean Sir?"

"It means that she hasn't had cuddles from her best friend for several months and she's very much cranky and trigger-happy with anyone who annoys her. What you just saw was the tip of the iceberg."

"Oh… So, the longer that we are on Earth…"

"Yep. Now come on… if you're gonna be on Earth, you need to have an Earth vehicle mode."

"An Earth vehicle mode?"

"Yep. Most humans don't even know we exist, so we have to hide."

"Most humans, sir?"

"There were a few… a handful of them…" Bumblebee said, looking a little sad as he pulled up an image of himself hanging out with some human kids.

"Who are they, sir?"

"This older boy is Jack… this girl is Miko… and this little guy…" Bumblebee got a bit choked up here. "This is Raf…"

"Raf?"

"Yeah… he was the kid I was to take care of…" Bumblebee said, with a small, fond smile on his face.. "So young, but such a smart little guy… helped us out a lot."

"Where is he now?"

"Don't know… probably all grown up somewhere…"

"Humans don't age like us?"

"Nope… their lives are shorter, but full of excitement…"

"... They live in the moment?"

"Yeah, pretty much… And Raf… he understood me while I didn't have my voice…"

"He could understand Cybertronian?!"

"Yeah… and instinctively too." Bumblebee told her, smiling fondly.

"And they were there when the war ended?"

"Yeah… in fact, they helped us win…"

"They did?"

"Yeah… and they were really sad to see us go… they cried, actually…"

"You must have made a big impact on their lives…"

"They're all just kids… younglings…"

"But it sounds like they were stronger than the adults."

"Not stronger… just more adventurous and resourceful."

"They wanted to make a difference?"

"Yeah, they did…"

Pixie sighed when she stopped walking, and she sat down, dangling her legs over what had to be a cliff. She hated it when she lost her usually tight control over her temper… "I did it again… I just hate it when that happens…" She sniffed, and she did her best not to cry, but she really wanted to cry… She was stranded, on another planet, without her best friend, or her security net that stopped her from having regular vent hiatus attacks when her stress became too much for her frame to handle.

There were some heavy thuds off to the side, before a much larger frame sat down at another area of the edge, sighing heavily as well. "Where am I…?"

Pixie blinked and she looked at the Cybertronian that had just sat down. "Are you having a bad day too?"

"Huh?" He looked over and then, he just shrugged. "Guess so… got knocked out for no reason… woke up in a pod… Now I'm here…"

"I know the feeling… My best friend and I were trapped in a pod for Primus knows how long, and when we were freed from the pod, nothing was the same… And now, some time after that, I'm stranded, here, without him.." She sighed. "I don't do well when I'm separated from him. He's kinda my security blanket when it comes to experiencing new things."

The mech nodded, sighing a little. "I don't even know why I was knocked out… Guess maybe it's 'cause I'm different…"

"I know the feeling, other younglings were mean to me because I was too different from them when I was a youngling."

"I'm Grimlock. Don't know where this is, but guess I'm here now."

"I'm Pixie, and this is Earth."

"I don't know what to do now…"

"Me too… I'm just sulking here because I lost my temper earlier, and I don't like that when it happens, even if it was justified, and I had a right to be mad."

"I get mad sometimes too… and when that happens, I just want to punch something!"

"I yell when I lose my temper, and I swear… I've picked up more swear words than my best friend thinks that I know… He doesn't know that I have picked up a lot of Gladiator swear words…"

Grimlock looked over at her curiously, and then looked up at the sky. "Huh… well, guess I gotta figure out where to go… I dunno where, but I gotta find somewhere…"

"Yeah, me too… How did your pod get here?"

"Well, it was on some kind of ship…"

"A ship?!" Pixie perked up. "If your pod was on a ship, then, where's the ship?"

"... wrecked? My pod was just one with a bunch of others…"

Wait… that meant…

Was he on a prison ship?!

'He was on a prison ship? But his song doesn't say that he's a bad mech… I'm getting a lot of good feelings from his song… I guess that some things on Cybertron haven't changed… Like those that look different being blamed for all sorts of crimes…' Pixie sighed. "Do you think that you can take me to where your pod was… If the ship was wrecked, then it can't be flown, but some of it's communication equipment might be online. I could, at least, use it to boost my comms to tell my best friend that I'm okay…"

Grim nodded, getting up and showing her the way through the forest.

Pixie followed him. 'If I can find communication equipment, Bee can call one of his friends to pick us up, and we should be back on Cybertron in time for the last refuel of the day.'

Then, Grimlock found his pod, which wasn't too far from the wreck of the prison ship. "Here it is…"

Pixie bent down to look at the pod, and then, she froze… It was cold… She knew what this cold was.. This… This was a stasis pod..

"No…" She whispered. "No…. Nonononononono…"

She remembered something that she didn't want to remember…

Shatterpoint was gripping both her and Sideswipe tightly, cruelly grinning as he used his foot to open the pod. Sunstreaker was being restrained nearby, shouting for him to release them as he tried to fight against the guards, but then cried out in pain as the implant in his neck was activated.

"SUNNY!" Sideswipe screamed in terror, trying to get to his twin, but then he and Pixie were shut into the pod… and it got so cold… so dark…

Pixie started to scream… It was so cold… So dark… Where was Sunny?! Where was Sides?! She couldn't see anything… She had been kicking and struggling as she had been dragged to the pod, and now, all of the pain from those dents and bruises were catching up to her. "Sides! Sunny! Where are you?" She reached out and she started banging on what felt like a wall of the pod. "Let us out! Let us out! LET US OUT! PLEASE!"

"Pixie!"

"Pixie!"

"Hey, Pixie! You there?" A voice said, as a large green and black hand waved in front of her face.

Pixie gasped as she came back to the present, she wasn't in that pod… But she was looking at one just like it. She almost screamed as she quickly backed away from it.

And then Grimlock yeeted the broken pod away. "Guess that was a bad idea?"

"Yeah, I was remembering when I was being locked into a pod just like that…"

"Wanna try the ship next?"

Pixie nodded her helm.

Grimlock led the way over to the ship… but then paused when he saw others over there. "Huh?"

"Strongarm, stop bothering Fixit, he's doing his best!"

"But Lieutenant!"

"Bee?"

"Huh? Pixie! Are you- WAIT WHO THE FRAG IS THAT?!"

Pixie just smiled. "This is Grimlock, we ended up in the same spot when I was trying to calm down. We're not the only Bots having a bad day. Grim's having one too."

Grimlock gave a nervous little wave to them. And that was when they saw the Decepticon symbols.

"Pixie, step away from the criminal." Strongarm growled.

Pixie blinked, and she looked like she was thinking about it, before she shook her helm. "Nah, Grim isn't a criminal. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time… And some Enforcers tend to think that just because you look different, you can be blamed for all of their unsolved cases."

"Pixie…" Strongarm growled. "He has Decepticon symbols on him!"

"Strongarm, you have to realise that after the war ended, the Decepticon symbol was used as a brand for those arrested, whether they're guilty or not." Bumblebee sighed, shaking his head. "Honestly, Carrier despises the practice."

"It sounds like your Carrier is a smart 'bot Bee, but what's a Decepticon?" Pixie asked, and everybot there could literally feel their logic circuits frying from that question.

"... Decepticons were bad 'bots in the War, but now it's just a term used for bad 'bots in general, to discriminate against them and give 'bots they don't like less rights." Bumblebee explained, and the way he worded it was actually different from what was taught.

"Lieutenant… Are you saying that my teachers in the Academy were wrong?" Strongarm asked him, while Pixie tilted her helm to the side. "There was a war?" She silently said. "But I was told that the damage done to Cybertron was from a series of dangerous Meteor Strikes."

"Yeah, those teachers were wrong… and I should know, as a member of Team Prime under Optimus Prime himself." Bumblebee told her calmly. "My Sire is Prowl, Head of Tactical and SIC to the Prime, and my Carrier is Sunstreaker, the Prime Guardian, Founder of the Elite Guard, and the one who found me as a sparkling after my entire birth family was killed in an attack."

"SUNNY'S YOUR CARRIER?!" Pixie screamed.

Bumblebee looked over at her with wide optics, not having expected that. "Um… yeah?"

"Oh Primus… You're technically Sides's nephew…" Pixie whispered.

Strongarm frowned when she learned that her teachers were wrong… She had been taught from a young age that Cons were the bad guys, and Bots were the good guys… Was everything that she knew was wrong? But she blinked when she heard Pixie screaming. "Lieutenant…" She didn't know what to say, or what to do…

Bumblebee then looked over at Strongarm again. "Not all Decepticons were bad… some were just tricked into joining, and once they were in… they couldn't escape. Even their TIC, Soundwave, was unable to leave… he owed Megatron a life debt, and had to leave the side of his bondmate to join him."

"They didn't have a choice?" Strongarm whispered… She believed in a just and free Cybertron, where everybot had a right to choose what they wanted to do, even if they used that choice to do bad things… She would rather have that over a Cybertron where nobot could choose what they wanted to do…

"Nope… and many still don't." Bumblebee sighed, shaking his head. "Autobots on Cybertron think that everything is good… but haven't you wondered why nobody has heard from veterans in a while? We're being silenced. Threatened so that we don't reveal that things are going back to the way it was before the war broke out… in the worst way. That first Golden Age was only Golden for those in the upper classes… the entire system was corrupt. The only thing that we have this time is that my Carrier can take over whenever he wants… but he's also currently raising my younger siblings… and Sire is in and out of the hospital a lot…"

"Sides has more nephews and he has nieces too?" Pixie asked Bumblebee. "And what happened to Prowl?"

"History's repeating itself?" Strongarm muttered.

"Sire, while he was fighting out in space… got hit in the face by a Tox-En grenade." Bumblebee said, his doorwings lowering sadly. "He needs a visor to see now… his optics were damaged beyond repair, and he still gets sick from it pretty often… and there's literally treatments to cure it, but the corrupt system refuses to do it!"

Pixie growled. "So, the corrupt system is still destroying the lives of good 'bots?" She hissed.

"Yeah! And to make things worse, they exiled Ratchet from Cybertron, and I haven't been able to get any news from Magnus or the others!" Bee ranted, throwing his hands up in the air. "They keep Jazz busy, taking advantage of his loneliness to make him work and never see anyone, they continually talk down to all of us like we didn't fragging RISK OUR LIVES while they SAT IN THEIR SAFE LITTLE SHIPS IN SPACE, and on top of all that, THEY'RE EVEN TRYING TO BRING THE PITS BACK!"

"THEY'RE TRYING TO BRING THAT HELL BACK TO CYBERTRON?!" Pixie screamed. "OH FRAG NO! ONE OF THOSE RINGLEADERS USED THE CORRUPT SYSTEM TO EXILE AND DISCREDIT MY SIRE AFTER HE WON ALL OF HIS CREDITS FROM HIM IN A POKER GAME! THEY KIDNAPPED SUNNY AND SIDES, FORCEFULLY INSTALLED THE GLADIATOR PROGRAMMING IN THEM, MAKE YOUNGLINGS FIGHT TO THE DEATH, AND HE FRAGGING THREW ME AND SIDES INTO A STASIS POD, IN FRONT OF SUNNY!"

Strongarm was shaking… Everything that she knew… Was it all just lies? A pack of lies that had been fed to her, ever since she was a sparkling? If that was true, then… Who was she? Who was Strongarm?

Bumblebee seemed just so upset… and he continued ranting. "Carrier spent his first TWO THOUSAND YEARS OF LIFE IN THAT PLACE! He nearly KILLED HIMSELF before he escaped! AND HE'S GOT A GLITCH BECAUSE OF IT! And to make things worse, they're removing healthcare for the poor again, and they're trying to get rid of all the safety nets that Optimus put into place! They're trying to paint him as a war criminal when he was literally a TRUE PRIME!"

"Yeah, there's no more healthcare for those with Vent Hiatus… I can barely get the Energon that I need to live." Pixie sniffed.

Then, the stress all got to Bumblebee, and he just curled up on the ground while sobbing, just wanting Optimus back. Wanting his Carrier to be there. Wanting his Sire to be okay. Just… wanting Cybertron to be free.

Pixie's spark broke when she saw this, and she walked over to Bumblebee and she hugged him. "Shh… Everything's going to be okay Bee." She gently rubbed his back. "Shhh… Everything's going to be okay."

"This isn't the Cybertron I fought for…" Bumblebee sobbed, tears streaming down his face while Grimlock sat next to them with a worried look on his face. "This isn't the Cybertron that I got my voicebox crushed for… this isn't the Cybertron I was willing to get tortured for…"

"Lieutenant…" Strongarm whispered… She didn't know what to say, but she knew that he was right… Now that she could see what had been hidden from her… This wasn't the Cybertron that she had dreamed of protecting when she decided to become an Enforcer… This wasn't right… What had gone wrong?

Pixie softly hummed to Bumblebee. She was humming a song that he knew very well. He was slowly calming down at this, recognizing it as the lullabye that his Carrier hummed to him when he was a sparkling and a small youngling… it always made the sounds of the explosions and blaster fire seem to melt away, and he kept his optics closed as he imagined Sunstreaker's warmth surrounding him and making him feel safe with his Carrier.

Pixie continued to hum the song, before she softly began to sing the lyrics of the song as she rubbed Bumblebee's back. As this happened, he found himself falling asleep, dreaming of when he would just spend time with his adoptive family and hang out with Optimus.

Pixie smiled at the sleeping Bumblebee. "Sides is not going to believe me when I tell him that you're his nephew Bee. It should be a nice surprise when we get home… And hopefully, we can see Sunny again…" She wanted to cry, if Sunny had a grown up adoptive sparkling now, then… 'How long were we asleep in that pod? How much did we miss?!'

Grimlock was very worried, and looked around at them all, before he asked them, "Um… what did I start by just showing up?"

"I don't know…" Strongarm said. "I really don't know, but I didn't know that the Lieutenant carried around so much grief and anger at the current state of Cybertron…"

"I don't even know why I was knocked out…"

Strongarm didn't say anything, but she just looked at Pixie… If she had been right about what she had said earlier, about the Pits, and that Pod… Then, that meant… Just… How old was Pixie?

If she could remember what the Pits were really like, instead of what was known about them in the history texts…

"Pixie… Just how old are you?" Strongarm asked her, and Pixie just had a sad look on her face as she looked at Strongarm. "I don't even know how old I am now…" Pixie told her.

This was so horrible… all these things that were happening behind the scenes, while everything in the schools was set in such a certain way that everything just seemed okay… How much more was being hidden? How many more voices were being silenced?

… How many more 'bots were being labelled as the very thing that they fought so hard to stop?

Pixie yawned. "Wake me up when Bee wakes up." She softly said, before she closed her optics and she seemed to have gone to sleep.

Strongarm awkwardly looked at Grimlock. "So, what should we do?"

"Let them wake up first?" Grimlock asked Strongarm, shrugging. "Don't blame 'em for being upset."

"Yeah, me too…"

On Cybertron, things were very different… Especially for Sideswipe, with his new occupation of being on the run! What the frag did he do to deserve this? The Pits were gone, so why had another bot been waiting in the apartment that he had been trying to rent for him and Pixie, for him? And why did that bot attack him?!

Suddenly, a much larger mech appeared out of nowhere and grabbed him by his scruffbar, yanking him into an alleyway near a ship. "Alright, settle down, young mech…"

"Let me go!" Sideswipe started to kick, in an effort to free himself from the mech that was holding his scruffbar.

The mech took a good look at him, however… and remembered him from images shared years ago in his Bounty Hunter Group Chat. 'I know that I was hired to capture this young mech, but… no, it just doesn't feel right…' He thought to himself, and then, he shook his head a little. "C'mon, I'm gonna get you somewhere they can't find you. I'm not letting them take you in."

"Them… Who's them?!" Sideswipe almost yelled. "And what do they want from me?!"

"The Council wants to manipulate you into being the new corrupt Leader. A Puppet Leader."

"What?! Why do they want me to be a corrupt Leader?! What's so important about that?!"

"... Because you're the twin brother to the Founder of the Elite Guard, as well as the Prime Guardian."

"Wait.. The Founder… The Prime Guardian… It's Sunny?! But the last place that I remember him being is in the Pits!"

"He got out… and he went on to help throughout the entire War." The mech said, and once inside his ship, let him watch all of the history vids about the war that were uncensored.

Sideswipe gasped as everything clicked in place… He had been in stasis since the end of the Last Golden Age… He, and Pixie, had slept through a whole war… The damage done to Cybertron, it wasn't from a series of dangerous Meteor Strikes, it was from the War… He paused one of the videos to get a good look at his Split Spark Twin. The freezing effect of Stasis was still wearing off on his bond with Sunny, so he couldn't feel his Twin. "Sunny…" He whispered, as he looked at the frozen image of his older brother…

Sunstreaker looked so strong and confident… giving orders to his Elite Guard to defend the Prime in the heat of battle, and he had that look in his optics that said that he was fighting for something that he truly cared about. Prowl was next to him, and behind them, was a red and blue mech that was Optimus Prime.

Sideswipe whimpered and he touched the frozen image of his twin, wishing that he could feel him through their bond, and that he could tell Sunny just how proud he was of him, for what he had done, and who he had become… "Oh, Sunny, I love you so much Big Brother…"

"I know where he is…" The mech told him quietly.

"You do… But wouldn't they be expecting to find me with Sunny?"

"Nope. Because they never told him that you were here…"

"They never told him?"

To not tell a split-spark twin that his brother was back… that was criminal!

Sideswipe whimpered. "Even if they won't expect to find me with Sunny… If what you say is true, then… They could already have leverage over me…"

"That's why I'm going there first… and then I'm going to help you hide."

"It may already be too late… My best friend's missing… I tried to call her, but it didn't go through…"

"Well… there was an incident at the museum where three 'bots went through a Spacebridge." The mech told him, patting his back. "The coordinates of where they ended up were scrambled, though… and it used such an old Autobot scramble code that the others are having trouble figuring it out."

"Wait… Do you have the descriptions of who went through the Spacebridge?"

"Better. I have pictures." He said, pulling up the images.

Sideswipe looked at the images. "Wait.. The yellow and black mech, I know him. That's Bumblebee. He's an Enforcer. He tends to be the one that arrests me when I try to have a bit of fun, but he's a good bot…"

"... He's your twin's adopted son…"

"What?!" Sideswipe almost yelled. "He's my nephew?!"

"Yep. He adopted him early in the war."

"Well, the last thing that my friend said to me was that she was going to try and stop Bee's Cadet from doing something that would have gotten Bee, and the Cadet, in trouble… That most be who the other femme is, because I know the colours of my best friend anywhere, and the second femme is her… This means that she's with Bee, and this means that she's safe. Bee will look after her… I can't believe that he's my nephew."

"He's a good mech…"

"I know." Sideswipe told the much larger mech. "Who… Who are you? What are you? Why are you helping me?"

"My name is Stormfront… and I'm helping because it's the right thing to do."

"The right thing to do?"

"Yep… You see, I may be a bounty hunter, but I still have morals. Besides… One of my friends showed me a picture of you after you went missing."

"One of your friends knows me?"

"Yeah… Nighthunter."

"Nighthunter?" Sideswipe frowned… Where had he heard that name before?

"Yep. He's another bounty hunter, and he used to operate in Kaon… now come on, we gotta go before the others catch up…" Stormfront said, activating the button after bringing Sideswipe into his ship, and the loading ramp closed up as the engines fired up.

"I think that I have heard his name before, but I can't remember where…" Sideswipe said, as he sat down in a seat.

"It's alright… now, I've got an idea…" Stormfront said, setting the autopilot before going into another part of his ship, and he came back with a kit. "I can get your frame to catch up with your twin's age if you want… that way, you're harder to find. They're looking for a teenager, not an adult."

"I can catch up to Sunny's age?" Sideswipe asked him. "If I do that, will it help to reopen the bond between me and him?"

"Yep." Stormfront said, sitting down with him and getting some things out. "However, the forced ageing will hurt…"

Sideswipe gulped, as he made his decision. "Do it… I've been in a teenager's frame for far too long… Longer than I should have been… Please… I want to feel my brother again."

The large mech nodded, filling a syringe with a drug, and gently tilting Sideswipe's head to the side before injecting it into his neck cables. "I'd recommend you buckle into your seat in case you start jerking around… again, it's going to be painful."

It was already making his frame burn…

Sideswipe buckled into his seat, he could feel the burn spreading across his frame, it hurt, but it was nothing compared to the pain that came with having a blocked bond with his twin. He wanted to feel Sunny again, to send him comforting thoughts and emotions, he wanted to hear his twin's voice again. His legs were already jerking around.

The pain went from a mere burn to what felt like his frame being engulfed in flames.

He bit his lip, and he refused to scream. He just focused on his bond with his twin. [I'm here Sunny, I'm back. I'm home.]

[S… swi…]

[SUNNY'!] He could hear him, he could hear what sounded like fragments of his twin's voice, it was working! He could feel his bond with Sunstreaker warming up…

[Si…s… nee… ou…]

[I know…] He sent as many warm feelings as he could to his twin. He could feel his frame growing, even as he jerked around, with the seatbelts being the only thing that kept him in one place.

[Si…s… Sid…s… Sides… Sides!]

[Hi Sunny.] Sideswipe grinned. Sunstreaker's spark emotions were washing over him, enveloping him in so much pent-up grief, pain, love, and desperation.

Sideswipe sobbed and he shared with his twin his own pent up grief, pain, love, fear, desperation, and his desire for a hug.

[Sides… Sides, it was so hard… it hurt so much…]

[I know. I'm so sorry that it took me this long to come home to you…]

[Cybertron is falling apart again socially… I might have to take control of the planet again… but I have triplet sparklings and a small youngling!]

Sideswipe squealed. [I have nieces and nephews?!]

[Yeah! Bee is currently an adult, but then there's little Huntress, and the triplets are Sunfire, Goldstream, and Hermes!]

[I've met Bee!]

[I want to see you again… I miss you…]

[Well, hopefully, I'll be seeing you soon!]

Stormfront then started landing in a part of Praxus, and they could see a gold mech waiting for them.

Sideswipe grinned, and he carefully unbuckled himself from his seat. "How do I look?" He asked Stormfront. "Do I look different?"

"You look pretty different." Stormfront chuckled, steadying him. "And be careful, you got a bit taller too."

"Yes!" Sideswipe grinned. This was going to make it so much easier for him to carry Pixie around, he liked doing that, and it was fun. "I can't wait to surprise Sunny with my new look."

"Well… he's waiting outside."

Sideswipe perked up. He was so excited, he was going to get that long overdue hug from Sunny that he wanted. "Let's go and meet him."

The loading ramp opened, even as a gold and black mech was standing and fidgeting on the ground.

Sideswipe grinned as he carefully made his way down the loading ramp. "Hi Sunny!"

"SIDES!" Sunstreaker sobbed, tackling him and holding him tight… Sunstreaker had definitely gotten stronger!

Sideswipe sobbed as he returned the hug. "I… I missed you… So much… It was so cold… I couldn't see anything… I couldn't move…"

"I've got you now… I've got you…" Sunstreaker said, his armour flaring and flattening as he held his brother. He didn't want to let go ever again… but knew that he would need to be protected… "Prowl just got back from the hospital today…"

"I heard about the Tox-En damage." Sideswipe whispered, he felt so safe, now that his brother was holding him.

"Cybertron has the knowledge and technology to cure him… but they fragging refuse to do it…"

"I know… Healthcare for the poor bots has gone downhill recently."

"I'm going to fix everything, Sides… the corrupt might just go underground again, but I have severe suspicions that at least one of the Council was from the old one… And they're trying to reactivate the Pits…"

"WHAT?!" Sideswipe yelled. "That could explain why they sent Bounty Hunters after me…"

Sunstreaker's optics then hardened as he made up his mind. "Sideswipe… if you have to, then hide with Stormfront. Take Prowl with you just in case. I'll handle Cybertron…" He growled, as he brought Sideswipe and Stormfront inside.

"Sunny, it's worse than that… Stormfront says that they want to make me the new corrupt Leader, or something like that." Sideswipe whispered, as he stayed close to his twin, soaking up the warmth that he could feel from Sunstreaker's frame.

"I know… Stormfront sent me a message before he arrived." Sunstreaker said, nodding. "The thing is… As Prime Guardian, I outrank EVERYONE, especially since I control the Elite Guard as its founder. I'm not going to stay retired now… I'm standing up for what's right."

"Okay… But I wasn't the only bot in that pod… Sunny…"

"I know…" Sunstreaker said, a tear in his optics. "I remember… how could I forget? Prowl got the report from the security in a museum in Iacon, however… Pixie ended up going through a Spacebridge with Bee and a Cadet. Right now, I need to protect both of them, as well as protect Cybertron."

"I know." Sideswipe suddenly grinned. "But do you remember Shatterpoint's face when she kicked him in the groin? It was priceless!"

"Oh, not only that… I remember his face when he realised that the Gladiators had finally gotten out and we killed him." Sunstreaker said with a grin. "He's gone for good."

"The fragger is dead and I missed it?!" Sideswipe cried.

"Yep, sadly. But hey, at least he's gone." Sunstreaker chuckled, and then opened a door. "Prowl… Sides is back!"

Prowl opened his optics from where he laid on his berth, the metal mesh around them having black-green markings like they were corrupted by something, and the optics themselves were dark and lifeless as his head turned towards where he could hear them. A gold visor was on the nightstand next to him.

"Oh… Prowl…" Sideswipe whispered. This wasn't right… Prowl shouldn't be like this… He was a hero! Why didn't they care…?

"Sideswipe…" Prowl said softly, sitting up a little shakily. He reached off to the side, picking up the visor, and then put it on, covering up his compromised optics, as well as the toxic burn markings. It powered on, and he smiled at him. "Ah, there you are… are you alright?"

"As well as I can be for living as a nameless bot ever since we were released from that pod." Sideswipe softly smiled at Prowl. "And bouncing from one rented place to another, and getting arrested by my own nephew… As well as watching my best friend slowly decay because the Council stopped the support for those with Vent Hiatus…"

"Hmmm… do you have the number for your fake files?" Prowl asked with a smirk, taking out his Master Enforcer Pad.

Sideswipe tilted his helm to the side as he rattled off the numbers for his, and Pixie's, fake files. "Pix should have a record too, under her fake file, she did get arrested a few times when I convinced her to join me in my usual antics."

"Are you doing what I think you're doing, Prowl?" Sunstreaker asked with a smirk, as Prowl was typing away on his Master Pad.

"Yep. With my Top Security Clearance, I can go through these criminal records into their actual government social files, and so I can edit these to fit their needs right now. They are registered as nameless… So, the first thing I'm going to do is give them fake names. Sunny, the name you and Sideswipe agreed upon for going underground was Spin-Out, correct?"

"Yep. It was for if one of us had to go into hiding." Sunstreaker chuckled, looking over his shoulder.

"Then I'll use that for Sideswipe. For Pixie… I'll put down Luminia. With these fake names, it'll be even easier to hide them from the Council, even as you're working on getting Cybertron back under your control, Sunny." Prowl told him, even as he was editing the profiles so that they wouldn't be recognizable to the Council. He gave them their accurate birth dates, and even went so far as to register Spin-Out as a Bounty Hunter Apprentice, and Luminia was registered as an Adventurer.

Sideswipe grinned. "That should make it harder for them to find us."

"I'm pretty sure that Bee is still around Pixie… so if I concentrate really hard, I can make a faint projection of my spark talk to them… but it'll take a lot out of me. However, they need to know the plan…"

"Yeah, they do, and Bee needs to find a way to disguise Pix…"

"I can use my spark energy to force her growth if I have to, like how Stormfront used that drug for you… but I'll need to nap for about a week."

"They'll be looking for teenagers if they go after Pix to lure me out of hiding… They wouldn't be looking for a long lost Aunt bonding with her oldest nephew."

Sunstreaker nodded, sitting down and focusing…

Bumblebee slowly woke up… and then, he let out a yelp when he saw a projection of his Carrier. "C-Carrier!"

Pixie yelped when Bumblebee's yelp woke her up. "What's going on?"

"Bee… I don't have much time to do all of this, but we've found Sides, and we've got a plan." Sunstreaker said urgently, kneeling down to look at both of them. "We've given both Sideswipe and Pixie false names… Sideswipe is Spin-Out, and Pixie is Luminia."

Pixie froze when she saw the projection. "S… Sunny?"

"Again, I don't have much time. And Pix… if you want, so we can keep you safe, I can force your frame to its actual age."

"You can do that, Sunny?" Pixie asked him. "But, won't it hurt you? I don't wanna hurt you."

"Yes, but this is for your safety, okay?"

"Okay.. Is Sides okay? I… I didn't keep my promise to go home…"

"Yes, he's okay…" Sunstreaker said, putting a hand on her head.

"Am I going to see him again?"

"Yes, you will."

"Promise?"

"I promise. Now… will you let me?"

Pixie nodded her helm. "Okay, I will."

Sunstreaker smiled, and started channelling a huge amount of spark energy into her frame, forcing it to start ageing rapidly.

Pixie closed her optics. This hurt a lot, and she whimpered. Her frame was being forced to mature rapidly, and she even got a little taller. She could feel something snapping into place around her ankles, and it stung, a lot.

Finally… it was done, and Sunstreaker's projection was fading away, obviously tired.

Pixie opened her optics, and she looked at Bumblebee. Everything looked different…

She looked down at her ankles, and she tilted her helm when she saw that they looked different. "What are these?" She whispered.

"... Skates…?"

Pixie blinked at Bumblebee. "I have skates?" She yelped when they were triggered, and she blinked when she realised just how much movement she had with them. "This is kinda cool…" She muttered, as she slowly started to skate around. "Hey Bee, should I play up to the theme of my false name?"

"Sure, probably a good idea." He chuckled.

Pixie grinned as she took her visor off, and with some adjustments to the nanobots in her paint, her usual leaf green and pink paint had been exchanged for a glossy pearl white paint job. "What do you think? Does this work for me?"

"It does!"

"Good, let's find Strongarm and Grimlock and inform them of my temporary new name." Pixie grinned. She had another reason for finding them, she had noticed that a different song played when Bumblebee and Grimlock were together. 'It's time for me to channel my inner Venus! She's going to be so proud of me!'

Bumblebee smiled, going to find the two with her, and then found them being climbed on by two humans. "... Oh scrap…"

"... This isn't going to end well…"

"Lieutenant!" Strongarm cried when she saw them. "I'm sorry about this, but they saw us first…"

"Oh great… Um…" Bumblebee came over and when he saw the young boy, he paused. He reminded him so much of that other little boy…

"Bee?" Pixie tilted her helm, before she smiled. She had a feeling that knowing the young organic would be good for Bumblebee.

Bumblebee was just in his memories at the moment… Remembering little Raf when the two of them would just hang out and play with his toy car… when they would do homework together.

Pixie knelt down to talk to the young boy. "Hi there!"

"Hi!" He said, grinning up at her.

"What's your name?"

"I'm Russel! And that's my dad, Denny!"

"It's nice to meet you Russel! You can call me Luminia, I would use my real name, but we just got news from our home that puts me in a 'Witness Protection' Program for my own safety."

"Cool! And who are these?"

"I'm Bumblebee…"

"My name is Strongarm." Strongarm introduced herself, before her optics slightly widened when she saw Pixie, who grinned at her, and she made the 'shushhh!' gesture at her. A non verbal way of saying that she would answer her questions later.

"And I'm Grimlock!" the Dinobot said happily.

Then, he noticed Bumblebee's expression.

"Hey, Bee… you okay…?"

"Huh?" Bumblebee looked over at him, shocked out of his memories, and then, he looked away. "It… it's nothing…"

Pixie nodded her helm, as she stood up, and she grinned at Strongarm when she realised that she was taller than her.

The other femme was confused. What had happened while she and Grimlock were gone? Why was Pixie taller than her now? And why was she using a different name, with a different paint job, and where had her visor gone?

Bumblebee then chuckled a little when the boy stood on his foot. Russel's name even started with the same letter as Raf's name…

Pixie just tilted her helm, and she smiled. "Well, it looks like you made a friend Bee."

Bumblebee smiled a little, saying, "Well, he's not my first human friend…"

"Wait, you've met other humans before?" Russel asked in shock.

"Yeah… a long time ago…"

"Lieutenant, what shall we do?" Strongarm asked him. "They know about us now…"

"Well… we'll need to protect them." Bumblebee said, falling back into the old 'protect the humans' routine. Russel seemed excited by this, and started running around.

"Alright, staying with dad is now WAY cooler than before!"

"Yeah! Let's do it, sport!"

"Lieutenant, it may give us an advantage if we set up our base close to where these humans live." Strongarm told him.

"Exactly." Bumblebee said with a smile. Secretly, he hoped he would be able to take Russel to school.

Pixie smiled. "And they may be able to help us by running inference with the locals around here… Bee has been here before, but I think that he has no idea where his old allies are."

"Who were your allies?" Denny asked, tilting his head at Bumblebee.

"Well… there were five humans… June and Jack Darby, Miko, Agent Fowler… and Rafael…"

"Rafael- WAIT YOU MEAN MY GRANDPA?!" Russel asked in shock.

Pixie blinked. "You actually know one of Bee's old allies?!"

"Yeah, Grandpa Raf!"

"Is… is he…?" Bumblebee asked a little nervously.

"He actually lives in the nearby city."

"Do you want to visit your old ally Lieutenant?" Strongarm asked him.

"Not just an ally, Strongarm… he was my friend. And yes, I want to see him…" Bumblebee said, smiling, and transformed into his old Camaro alt form. He activated his scanners… and was happy to sense that his old friend was in the city.

And so he drove off, wanting to see Raf again.

Bumblebee drove up to a building that he could sense Raf coming out of, and when he saw a man with silver streaks in his wild brown hair, he did that double beep again and opened one of his doors… like he used to.

The man froze when he heard that double beep. It couldn't be… He looked at where it was coming from… And he saw a familiar car. He had to be seeing things.

"Hey Raf."

"Bee?" He whispered, before he walked over to the car. "Is that you?"

"Yep. Get in, pal."

Raf smiled as he got into the car. "I missed you.""

"I missed you too, little buddy." Bumblebee said, chuckling as he closed his window and drove off with Raf. "I met your son and grandson, though…"

"You've met Denny and Russel?"

"Yep. Kinda ended up near the scrapyard."

"You did, are you the only Bot here? Miko and Jack would really like to see Arcee, Ratchet, Bulkhead, and Wheeljack again."

"Well… they're currently back on Cybertron, except for Ratchet… scrap went down, and well… Ratchet got exiled because he was trying to tell the truth." Bumblebee said, sighing a little. "But there are others with me… an aunt of mine, a Cadet, and a mech named Grimlock, as well as another smaller mech named Fixit. But there's more… there's 'Cons back on the loose."

"Fowler retired a long time ago, but Miko still works in Unit E. Jack works for them on a case by case basis now, he semi-retired a few years back when he badly broke his left leg during a mission, he's now the head doctor for Unit E. I still help out where I can, but when Jack semi-retired, I did as well. I can contact Miko and get her to pass on sightings of 'Cons to me, but I can't believe that one of your Aunts is on Earth with you! You must be so happy Bee…"

"Yeah, except for the part where everything's going to scrap and Optimus spoke to me from beyond the grave to send me here… And apparently my Uncle is on the run from the Council, my Carrier is having to come out of retirement… There's a lot going on… Oh, and not to mention that my Sire is constantly in and out of the hospital."

"Bee.." Raf gently patted his dashboard. "Everything is going to be okay. I'll do whatever I can to help you."

"Thanks, Raf… I really missed you, buddy…" Bumblebee said, pulling up to the scrapyard, where the others had moved the remains of the ship to act as the base for them.

"I missed you too Bee." Raf smiled.

Bumblebee opened up his door, chuckling when Russel ran up and hugged his grandfather.

"Hello Russel." Raf smiled as he returned the hug, as he got out of the car.

Russel laughed happily, and asked. "So you really know Bumblebee?"

"Of course I do. I met him when I was twelve, back when I lived in Jasper."

"That's so cool…"

"Miko and Jack met him too."

"That's amazing! And there were others?"

"Yeah, there was. There were five of them, but we ended up meeting more of them later."

"Wow…"

Bumblebee smiled a little, transforming into his 'bot form and chuckling a little.

Raf smiled when he saw Bumblebee transform. "I missed seeing that."

Bumblebee knelt down, holding out a hand for him.

Raf smiled and he carefully climbed into Bumblebee's hand. Smiling, Bee brought him up to his shoulder, letting him sit there like they used to. Raf had a huge smile on his face as he watched the other bots work from where he was sitting. It was nice to be around 'Bots again… he had missed Bumblebee.

Then, Bumblebee brought Raf over to where he was working on the base. "We need help with getting the computers working…"

"Just like old times…" Raf smiled, as he remembered helping Ratchet with the computers at the Omega base.

After a while, they were taking a break, and Bumblebee just laid on the ground with Raf on his chest. "I missed you so much… my little buddy…"

"I missed you too Bee." Raf smiled. "Can you tell me more about your current team?"

"Well, Luminia is my aunt, and she's really nice… Grimlock is sweet, though he's also pretty misunderstood. He's the big guy. Strongarm is my Enforcer Cadet, she's really strict about the rules and regulations, kinda like Magnus was. And Fixit has a bit of a vocal glitch, but he's really nice and helpful."

"I see." Raf smiled. "You have your own Team Prime now." He remembered Ratchet teaching him Cybertronian relationships and he thought about what his friend had said about Grimlock… He smiled. He had a good feeling about Grimlock and his friend spending more time together. "So, how is Luminia related to your family Bee? I thought that your Sire was the only one with a sister."

Bumblebee chuckled softly. "She's considered family…"

"She is?" Raf tilted his head to the side.

"Yep. Carrier knew her since they were little."

"Ohhh… So, she's a close family friend then?"

"Yes, she is." Bumblebee said, smiling at this. "And my Carrier is a great judge of character."

"He sure is." Pixie smiled as she skated past Bumblebee and Raf. "With his ability to read sparks…" She smiled. "I actually have a similar ability… It's how I knew that Grim wasn't a bad guy."

Everything was going to be okay…

The next day, Bumblebee got up and got some Energon, he was glad that there was some on the ship.

Pixie twitched as she rolled over in her sleep.

Strongarm yawned as she joined Bumblebee with her own cube of Energon. "Good Morning Lieutenant."

"Morning…" Bumblebee said, setting out a cube for Pixie.

Pixie seemed to twitch when the cube of Energon was placed near her.

The yellow and black mech chuckled, smiling a little as he watched to see how fast she would get the cube this time.

He had seen videos from Sideswipe of Pixie acting like this, but it was so funny to see it for himself.

Pixie started to reach out for the cube, and to Strongarm's surprise, her optics weren't open. Pixie's servo eventually grabbed the cube, and she sat up, slowly sipping on the cube. Bumblebee chuckled at this, just smiling as he gave Grimlock a cube as well. The Dinobot happily accepted, drinking it so that he could keep his energy up.

"Everyone sleep well last night?" Bumblebee asked, and the others all nodded, save for the still-sleepy one. Then, the humans started coming out of the trailer nearby, and the yellow and black mech smiled. "Hey, everyone."

Pixie yawned as she woke up, stretching her arms over her helm.

"Good morning Bee." Raf smiled. "I managed to call Miko and Jack earlier."

"Really?" Bumblebee asked, passing Pixie another cube of energon while making a mental note to figure out how to build his Carrier's energon generator. They would need a reliable source of energon for everyone.

Pixie made a happy non-verbal noise when she was given the second cube of energon. She wasn't expecting this. It would be nice to have a full fuel tank for a chance.

Raf nodded his head. "Miko says that if you can pass on a list of the Cons that were on the prison ship, she can get Unit E to keep an eye out for them, and she'll alert me if they find one of them."

Bumblebee nodded, getting the list from Fixit, and uploaded it into Raf's still ever-present laptop like they used to, and he asked him. "Think you could help me with something too?"

"Of course I can Bee." Raf smiled as he sent the list to Miko.

"Well… we need a reliable source of energon, and my Carrier had an invention that would produce energon whenever we needed… but I'm not really smart enough to build it on my own."

"If you can give me a copy of the blueprints, I can look at them and see what I can do for you." Raf smiled.

Bumblebee nodded, and gave him a copy of the blueprints on his laptop.

Raf hummed as he looked at the blueprints. "I think that I can help you build one, but I would suggest making several of them, just in case we make mistakes during the building process, most of these materials can be found in the scrapyard, and for what we can't find, I think that I can make, or find, a suitable replacement."

The yellow and black mech grinned at this, rubbing the top of Raf's head with a finger. "Thanks, Raf! You're the best, as always!"

Raf grinned, while Strongarm gasped when she saw the blueprints for the legendary energon generator. "I remember just how outraged everybot was when the Council announced that they would have to shut down the farms and the generators after a possible sabotage attack. It was something that I didn't accept, or agree with, and a lot of bots almost rioted until the Council promised to eventually reopen them after numerous safety checks had been carried out…"

"Well, what they don't realise is that Carrier made the generators as safe as they could." Bumblebee said, his optics narrowing. "He literally made it so that even sparklings would be safe around them."

Pixie smiled when she saw the blueprints. "I remember my friend being so excited when he got a job looking after one of the generators. He always said that nothing went wrong with them, and that they never caused him any trouble. Poor Spin-Out was sparkbroken when they were shut down, he lost his job because of that."

"That's really bad…" Grimlock said, a worried look on his face. "I remember the shutdown too… I went hungry for a while…"

"I remember most of the Medics in my area having to enforce strict Energon rations when it came to surgery." Strongarm frowned. "There wasn't enough Energon to keep up with their demands for it."

"There was barely enough energon to allocate more to nursing 'bots," Bumblebee sighed, shaking his head. "Carrier hasn't really been at his best because of it… he's literally nursing triplets right now."

"You have siblings, Lieutenant?" Strongarm almost squeaked. Okay, so she was a bit more focused on her career, and her job, but she loved Littles.

"Yep… Here, let me show you." Bumblebee said, taking out a holo-projector and turning on an image of him with his Creators, and they could see a little toddler femme smiling while being hugged by Prowl, who wasn't wearing his visor, and Sunstreaker and Bumblebee were holding three little sparklings.

"Awww…" Strongarm and Pixie cooed at the little sparklings. They were so cute!

Raf smiled when he saw his friend's family. "Your Sire seems to be getting better Bee."

"Yeah… though he's always in and out of the hospital. Remember when Bulkhead almost died from that chunk of Tox-En?"

Raf nodded his head. That event had really shaken Miko, and she did grow up, a little, because of it.

"Well… Sire's optics were pretty much destroyed by a Tox-En grenade…"

Raf winced. "That had to hurt…"

"And Cybertron has the ability to cure it, but they refuse to do it, even though he's an honoured war hero…"

"You know, now that I think about it…" Pixie spoke up. "And I'm not distracted by my day to day life… It's weird how fast this new Council came into power."

"Yeah, it is." Bumblebee said, crossing his arms. "Carrier had left the Elite Guard in charge, but then suddenly, this Council came out of nowhere."

"Maybe that's why Optimus wanted you to come to Earth." Pixie thought. "I mean, without the usual duties of your job, you have more time to think… You said that they kept Jazz busy, were they doing the same thing to you, but in a different way?"

"I think so… also, Raf, something I found out after the war was over… Jazz, who is the Head of Spec Ops, is actually Soundwave's bondmate…" Bumblebee said, rubbing the back of his head. "Question… did anyone ever get Soundwave out of the Shadowzone?"

Raf froze. "No, I don't think that anyone did… Ratchet said that due to how tricky it is to get to the Shadowzone, he would let me know if they ever needed to open a Spacebridge to the Shadowzone… And technically, didn't Soundwave get a trial on Cybertron, or did they decide to leave him in the Shadowzone as his punishment?"

"Well, my Carrier, Sunstreaker, actually pardoned him on the technicality that all of his actions were due to a Life Debt…" Bumblebee said. "But they couldn't make the trip over to Earth to get him for some reason, no matter how many 'bots pushed for his retrieval… And not to mention, five of their young ones are still missing. Yeah, Soundwave had more minicons than you thought…"

"Well, if I wanted to control a planet, I would know that a revolution would come eventually, and I would want spies in that revolution…" Raf frowned. "Do you think that this could be a set up for another Life Debt?"

"Most likely, yeah." Bumblebee said, thinking hard, and then got an idea. "Somehow, we need to get Soundwave out ourselves… is the Unit E hangar still working?"

"Well, we had to move to another base when Fowler retired… But…" Raf grinned. "When we moved, Ratchet and Wheeljack were in the area, so they moved the Spacebridge with us. It's restricted to Cybertronians, and it will take some time to arrange for the base to be cleared.. Just in case things go wrong, but it should be possible for it to be online within a few months. Unit E tends to send several months in one base, before it moves to another part of the world, for a few months. We can get Soundwave out when they move, or sooner if it's possible, but in the meantime, I have been working on a Shadowzone communicator in my free time."

"That's great!" Bumblebee said with a matching grin to his best friend. "Which means that we can contact Soundwave to tell him what the situation is beforehand!"

"Exactly, and I think that we might be able to convince him to play Double Agent… If our theories about the set up for a Life Debt are true."

"Either that, or he'll be able to help us figure out if Decepticons are the ones trying to control the Council…" Bumblebee said, smirking. "If he wants out earlier… the poor mech's probably starving, now that I think about it…"

"Well, we do need to warm the Spacebridge up, Miko's made a habit of warming it up, once every five years. I think that I can talk her into warming up the connection with the Shadowzone at the same time. We could send Energon to him."

"He definitely needs it, judging by how long he's been without it…" Bumblebee said in worry. "And technically, he's one of my Uncles too… he was in the Pits with my Carrier and his twin, and they considered him a brother…"

Raf nodded his head, and he typed up their plans, sending it to Miko through a heavily encrypted Email. "Miko should be able to rearrange her plans to warm up the Spacebridge."

Bumblebee nodded, and as they waited, he was looking through the list of Decepticons to see which ones he should prioritise first.

"Are you making a plan of attack, Lieutenant?" Strongarm asked him.

"Yes, I am." Bumblebee told her, scrolling through the criminal profiles of the different Decepticons. "The more dangerous ones should be focused on first…"

Pixie frowned. "Which ones are the most dangerous to us, physically? We don't have the resources to go after the planners, right now.. And they would be in the same boat as us, since they have no idea of the environment of Earth, and the resources that they can find here. That will keep them busy for a bit…"

"Right now, here's the top few that I put in the most dangerous area." Bumblebee said, pulling up a few profiles. "Some of them are destructive, and others are more sinister and focus on torture."

"I can see why you would be worried about them… It's best for us to get to them first, before the planners do."

Bumblebee nodded at this, and put them on his 'Most Wanted' list. After this, he looked over to see that Raf had gotten a reply. "What's the news, buddy?"

"Miko's already rearranging things so that they can warm up the Spacebridge, and she has a sighting of one of your Cons." Raf told him.

"Which one?"

"Underbite. She focused on him when she learned that he could eat metal to power himself up."

"Let's go get him, team!" Bumblebee said, getting his blaster ready as he stood up.

"She's also working on getting Denny and Russel temporary clearance to act as Unit E agents when it comes to evacuation and diverting attention." Raf told him. "I'll be acting as their supervisor."

Strongarm smiled as she got her capture device ready, and Pixie just grinned at Grimlock. "Are you ready for your first mission as a parolee?" She asked him.

"Yeah!" He said, with a big grin.

Pixie grinned at Bee. "We're ready."

Bumblebee nodded, and led the team out to intercept the Decepticon.

As the 'bots were heading out, the humans were having to go do evacuation procedures. Russel was dressed up in a suit with sunglasses, which was highly amusing, and even got his father to do the same thing.

Raf chuckled when he saw this, but this was a good way for them to get into the mindset of a Unit E agent. His chuckles got even louder when Miko met up with them.

"Hey, Raf, what's going on? Any progress?" Miko asked, walking over to him, wearing her Unit E uniform.

"Bee and his team have already set out to intercept the Con." Raf told her. "And Denny and Russel are getting into the mindset of a Unit E agent."

"That's good." Miko said, with a nod. She had really matured since the Autobots had left for Cybertron, but she still had a lot of that spunky attitude when it came to things like this. It was very hard for her to hide her grin at the thought of this kind of action again.

The group was soon getting the city evacuated, with the excuse that there was a government emergency that was highly classified. And Russel was given the excuse of being an intern, which made the adults all highly respect him since he was so young.

After the city was evacuated, Miko then turned to Raf. "Also… a bit of an update on the other situation. We've found where in the Shadowzone Soundwave is… but he hasn't moved in several hours. Either he's sleeping, or he physically can't move."

"He must be low on Energon." Raf muttered.

"I'm pretty worried about it," Miko told him. "And we could barely pick up Laserbeak's signal."

"Laserbeak is smaller than Soundwave, and while it means that she needs less Energon than Soundwave does, he's going to prioritise her first."

"Right…"

On Cybertron, even though he was exhausted, Sunstreaker called a handful of bots together for a meeting. Arcee and Bulkhead met Jazz at Sunstreaker's place, and the three of them waited in his private meeting room. Then, Sunstreaker and Prowl came in, and Sunstreaker had that grin that said he was up to something…

"Alright. First off: Jazz, I need you to give me updates on the Council." Sunstreaker told him, and the black and white mech nodded. "Arcee, Bulkhead, you're going back to Earth."

"What?" Bulkhead blinked, did he just hear what he thought that he did? "You want us to go to Earth?"

"Yep. Bee needs help with escaped convicts there, and I thought you two would be best. Take this with you, and make sure to see your friends." Sunstreaker told them, setting his original generator on the table.

A huge smile appeared on Bulkhead's face, he was going to see Miko again!

Arcee was smiling too, grinning, and Sunstreaker chuckled. "You two have clearance to use the Spacebridge in my basement. Here are the coordinates." He said, handing them a datapad.

"Thanks Sunstreaker, I can't wait to see the Little Wrecker again." Bulkhead grinned.

"Yeah, thanks." Arcee got her weapons ready, knowing that they were going to be in a fight again. Then, Sunstreaker showed them where his Spacebridge was, even as Prowl was letting Jazz know that his bondmate was alive…

Miko turned when she heard a horn blaring, and then, she gasped with glee when she saw the green vehicle. "BULKHEAD!"

"MIKO!" Bulkhead opened one of his doors. Miko hopped in with the other three humans, a huge grin on her face as she took out her own blaster.

"We've got the city evacuated, and now, we gotta go meet up with Bee and his team!" She told him, uploading directions to his GPS, and even giving him access to their Decepticon tracking network. "We're going after Underbite."

Bulkhead chuckled. "You haven't changed Miko. Where's Jack? Arcee's here too."

"Jack is on his way, but he's not as fast as he used to be. Mission accident."

"Ouch." Bulkhead winced as he started to drive towards where Bumblebee and his team were. "What happened?"

"Well, there was an incident where we were having to catch this Cybertronian black cat." Miko said, frowning a little. "While we were trying to catch it, Jack got slashed in the leg pretty bad, right before he was able to put it into stasis. After that, he's had a limp, and he had to retire early."

"A black cat, it couldn't be… Ravage?"

"Well, we've been keeping it in stasis in the base we're currently in." Miko told him. "We don't really know what to do with it, but we don't want to kill it."

"You did the right thing Miko… Ravage, if it is Ravage, is a Minicon. One of Soundwave's…"

"Huh… well, here's a picture." She said, uploading an image to his HUD. The black cat minicon was curled up in a stasis pod that they'd salvaged from the Insecticon hive that they'd attacked a long while back during the War. "We've been keeping those stasis pods for emergencies like this."

"That's definitely Ravage, he will have to be on probation for what he did to Jack, but after that, we'll have to give him back to Soundwave… He's one of Soundwave's kids."

"Well, he seemed more scared than anything." Miko told him with a shrug. "Honestly, Jack doesn't blame him. And speaking of Jack… Bulk! Stop here, that's him!"

Bulkhead stopped and he opened one of his doors. "Jack?"

A man with a grey streak through his black hair smiled, leaning on a cane as he got in, though he was still tall and strong. "Hey, Bulk! Been a long time!" He said, buckling up, and it was plain to see his Doctor coat. "Where's Arcee?"

"She's gone on ahead!" Miko told him.

Bulkhead closed his door and he started to drive off again. "You're a Doctor now Jack?"

"Head Doctor, actually." Jack said, chuckling.

"Oh man, Ratchet is going to be so surprised when he learns about this!"

"Yeah… Mom was pretty proud of me too." Jack chuckled, a bit sadly.

"June's in the Allspark, isn't she?" Bulkhead asked him.

"Yeah… She passed two years ago…" Jack then smiled a little. "Wanna know the last thing she said?"

"I would like to know that…"

"She said that she was going to go find Optimus and give him a lecture about dying on everyone."

Bulkhead started to laugh. "That is definitely something that she would do."

"And I have a feeling that she succeeded." Jack laughed. "Sometimes, I still see Optimus, and he will seem to be trying to avoid someone."

"You still see Optimus Jack?"

"Yeah… I think it's because of when I brought the Matrix back to him that one time…" Jack said, smiling sadly. "It's like we still have a sort of connection… he was the father I never knew."

Bulkhead smiled. "Well, get ready everyone, we're getting close to the fight scene.. Let's hope that nothing will go wrong… Apart from Bee, the whole team is full of newbies."

Miko tossed Jack one of her blasters, and he caught it easily with a smirk like he used to do. Then, they saw the fight going on.

Grimlock was going toe-to-toe with Underbite, trying to keep him from eating more metal.

Strongarm was shooting at Underbite with her newly acquired capture device. Then, however, there was the sound of a motorcycle, and then Arcee jumped up and transformed, shooting at Underbite to keep him at bay as she landed next to the larger femme.

"No way!" Strongarm squealed. "You're Arcee, from Team Prime!"

"ARCEE!" Jack called out, once Bulkhead let him out, and he limped over to stand next to her, holding up his own mini-blaster and joining her in pinning down the Decepticon.

"Good to see you, Partner." Arcee said, looking down with a smile.

"Likewise." Jack replied with a smirk.

Strongarm almost squealed again, when she saw Jack, this was another one of Team Prime's human allies! She was witnessing history being written, and she was a part of it! This was a dream come true!

Then, Miko went charging in like always, running around the side and pinning him from that side! "I've got his six!"

"We need to get him away from the city." Raf muttered. "According to the files that I received from Bee about Underbite, just one bite of metal could turn the tides in his favour."

"Right," the team said, nodding, and then Bumblebee got an idea.

"Bulkhead! Go to the scrapyard, okay?! Russel, it's time for Operation Squirrel Quarry!"

"I get to help?!" Russel said, grinning as he hopped over to Bulkhead.

"You sure do Kid." Bulkhead smiled. "Bee, you already have somebot preparing the bait, right?"

"Yep! Luminia is there, I commed her about it."

"Got it! Get in Kid!" Bulkhead opened a door for Russel, knowing that the other Bots would keep Underbite busy.. Russel nodded, hopping inside as he then got buckled in.

Bulkhead closed his door, and he took off, driving at his top speed, towards the scrapyard. "Who am I looking for Kid?"

"Tall white femme." Russel said, grinning. "She's setting up a small trailer full of metal squirrel statues."

"Got it!" Bulkhead flew through the open scrapyard gates.

When they got there, Denny was finishing helping Luminia to set up the trailer. Russel then jumped out of Bulkhead's car form, and helped hook the trailer up to him.

"You're ready to go." Pixie told the green Cybertronian, before she transformed, having taken on a form that resembled a Lamborghini Diablo for her Earth based alt form. "Are you ready to be bait?"

"Let's get this show on the road." Bulkhead said, as he revved his engines. "Russel, can you show us the way to the Quarry?"

"Yeah! I go to play there a lot even though Dad tells me not to," Russel said, hopping back in and closing the door before his Dad could say anything.

Pixie grinned, before she sped out of the scrapyard, closely followed by Bulkhead, as they sped back towards the scene of the battle. She honked her horn as they got closer to the fight. "Special Delivery!" She cried, as she drifted past Underbite, followed by Bulkhead and his trailer full of bait, before they started to head towards the Quarry.

"It's this way!" Russel said, pointing them in the right direction.

Pixie tilted her mirrors, so that she could see if Underbite had taken the bait… If he got more powerful by eating metal, then they had to remove the possibility of him getting close enough to eat it.

And then, Russel popped out of the window a bit, and helped keep Underbite at a healthy distance by throwing rocks at him.

The Con seemed to be getting frustrated, and was that drool that she could see dripping from his mouth?! "Umm… Bulkhead, is it me, or am I seeing things?"

"It's not just you.." Bulkhead shivered as they went off road, to reach a cliff that overlooked the Quarry.

"Ewww…" Russel said quietly.

Suddenly, the trailer started breaking.

"Aw… Scrap… Please don't tell me that my friend's bad luck followed me here…" Pixie cursed.

Then, just as he was about to get the metal… Underbite was launched into the Quarry by a red and blue figure. The others had caught up at this point, and Bumblebee transformed in shock at seeing who it was.

"OPTIMUS?!" Bulkhead yelled, as he transformed.

"Optimus… but… but how?" Bumblebee asked, walking up in shock at seeing him. "You were…"

"I don't have long to stay here, Bee…" Optimus said, placing a hand on the younger mech's shoulder. "I have to undergo more training… there is something approaching, but with you as their leader… this team will do great things."

"Something that isn't the mess that's brewing on Cybertron?" Pixie asked, as she transformed. This song that she was hearing… It was the same one that she had heard in the gardens, back on Cybertron.

"Yes… something different… Though things happening here will also affect Cybertron itself." Optimus told her, nodding. Then… they saw that his frame was starting to fade…

"Wait! Optimus!" Bumblebee reached out for him… but the larger mech had vanished into glowing dots that then faded as well. Pixie walked over to Bumblebee, and she placed her hand on his shoulder. "Hey, at least you know that he's okay." She told him.

"Yeah." Bulkhead smiled. "He's probably running away from June and her lectures right now."

"OPTIMUS! YOU GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW, MISTER!"

Optimus was sweating as he ran away from June Darby, he had no idea how she had convinced his trainers to let her help with his training.

"OPTIMUS ORION PAX PRIME! YOU GET YOUR METAL BUTT BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!"

He just knew that if any of his Autobots knew about this, they would laugh at the image of him running away from a human femme… Especially those that knew June personally. He hoped that June was never reincarnated as a Cybertronian… No bot would ever be able to escape her lectures…

"You're just giving us ideas." Micronus chuckled.

Optimus almost whimpered.

After Underbite was put into a stasis pod and he was secured in the scrapyard, the Autobots all settled down with their human allies, once Raf had sent the okay for people to return to the city. "That was pretty exciting, huh?" Miko asked Bulkhead, with a grin on her face.

"It sure was! It reminded me of old times." Bulkhead grinned. "By the way, what happened to Agent Fowler after he retired?"

"Oh, he's currently in a nursing home…" Miko said sadly. "He's in his 90's now."

"That's a really long time for a human to live, isn't it?" Strongarm softly asked them.

"Yeah… most don't even get to that age." Bumblebee said, smiling sadly. "Is he able to come out to visit people at all?"

"Oh yeah, he visits us all the time! He's just in a nursing home because he doesn't have any family to take care of him…"

"We even offered to take him in." Raf said. "But you know Fowler.."

"... Wanna go get an old man, Rusty?" Denny asked his son, who grinned.

"Yeah! C'mon, let's go get him, Bee!" Russel said, and Bumblebee grinned with a nod.

"Let's go then!"

Bumblebee pulled up in front of the nursing home, a little nervous to see Fowler again. It had been so long…

Raf smiled at him. "I'll go and sign him out Bee."

"Alright." Bumblebee said, waiting out front.

Raf smiled as he walked into the nursing home, heading to where Fowler lived. He knocked on the door. "Fowler?"

"Come on in." An elderly voice said from inside.

Raf smiled as he opened the door. "Hello Fowler."

"Oh, hey there, Raf…" Fowler said, sitting up a little more. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine." Raf smiled. "Anyway, some old friends are staying at my son's scrapyard, and one of them even came to pick you up. Do you want to see them again?"

"I'd love to." He told him, getting up a little shakily but being pretty steady on his feet.

Raf smiled as he walked with Fowler out of the nursing home, after he had signed him out. He couldn't wait to see the look on Fowler's face when he saw Bumblebee.

Then, upon seeing the Camaro, Fowler's eyes widened in his aged face. "What in the Sam Hill…?"

"He's back. Arcee and Bulkhead are back too."

"Been a long time…" Fowler said, while Bumblebee chuckled.

"I've kicked Russel and Denny to the trailer I'm pulling." The yellow and black mech said in amusement, opening his doors for the two of them.

Raf smiled as he climbed into Bumblebee. "Bee has a few rookies with him, one of them reminds me of Ultra Magnus, and she's a fan of Team Prime, and the other one is his Aunt. He's also got a bot on probation."

"Probation? What did he do?"

"Nothing, actually." Bumblebee sighed, his dashboard blinking as he drove with the two in his alt form. "Grimlock was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he was different enough that he got discriminated against."

"Well, that just ain't right…"

"His Aunt suggested giving Grimlock 'Parole' status. It protects him from being arrested, and technically, in the eyes of their law, Grimlock is still carrying out his sentence."

"That makes sense." Fowler nodded, as the two of them were talking, and he looked out of the window to watch the scenery go by. Then, they pulled into the scrapyard, and his eyes widened when he saw Bulkhead and the others there. Once Bumblebee stopped and opened up his doors, the old man got out, took his old stance, and shouted up at him. "BIGFOOT! WHAT IN THE SAM HILL ARE YOU DOING?!"

Bulkhead jumped when he heard that. "Err… Nothing Agent Fowler, I haven't destroyed anything ever since I got back to Cybertron… Wait… Fowler?!" He bent down to get a better look at Fowler. "You're…"

"Old. Yeah, I know." Fowler chuckled, smiling up at him.

"It's been a while… I heard about June…"

"Yeah… it was hard, you know?" He said, leaning against Bulkhead's arm a bit. It was easy to see how frail the man had gotten with age.

"I know, but I think that she's now lecturing the frag out of Optimus. Jack said that he sees him sometimes, and he looks like he's running from something… Or someone."

Fowler just started laughing at this, leaning against him more.

Bulkhead smiled. "Do you want to meet the new Earth based Autobots, you may not be the Liaison anymore, but you're still a part of the old Team Prime, and I think that the new Team Prime needs to meet as many of the old crew as they can."

"Yeah, I wanna meet them." Fowler stood up a bit straighter, chuckling.

Bulkhead smiled. "Alright, let's start with the Cadet, Bee eventually became an Enforcer, back on Cybertron, and she was assigned to him."

Fowler looked Strongarm up and down with a calculating expression, as if evaluating her.

Strongarm almost squeaked, and she saluted Fowler. "It's an honour to meet you, sir!"

"At ease."

Strongarm dropped the salute. "My name is Strongarm, Agent Fowler, I was assigned to Lieutenant Bumblebee as his Cadet for a Shift."

"Well, that shift is gonna be a lot longer now." Arcee said, coming up. "Bulk and I were assigned to help all of you with this Break-Out Crisis."

Bulkhead nodded his head. "Yeah, Sunstreaker personally gave us this mission."

"Sunstreaker?" Fowler asked.

"He's one of Bumblebee's Adoptive Creators."

"Ah, got it."

"He's also taking back the leadership post of Cybertron." Arcee said with a smirk. "The Council can't even say no because of the laws."

"Yeah." Bulkhead smirked. "And the Council is in hot water right now."

Sunstreaker smirked as he walked into the Council Chambers, a glint in his optics that said that he was not to be messed with. The guards wouldn't even attempt to stop him either, as he went up and threw open the doors to march into the Council Chambers.

"ALRIGHT, FRAGGERS! YOUR HAPPY LITTLE POWER TRIP IS DONE FOR!" Sunstreaker called out with a grin, laughing. Pointing at each one, he said. "FRAG YOU, FRAG YOU, FRAG YOU, FRAG YOU! GET OUT!"

The Council members froze when they saw the look on Sunstreaker's face. That look wasn't good for their plans. "Lord Sunstreaker… What have we done to deserve this?"

"Oh? You want all the reasons?" Sunstreaker asked, a glint in his optics.

"Yes. Should we talk about it over some Energon?"

"Oh no, I'm not falling into any of your traps." Sunstreaker laughed. "First off… You all have taken power when you specifically were banned, and then you decided to shut off power to get the upper hand. You took away rights of those who were not as you all are, and then you decided to deny healthcare to all you deem lower. You undid a lot of progress in all fields that we advanced, and then you decided to not listen when they rant. You drag the names of True Primes through the rust and dust, and now just look what you're doing to all of us?! You dishonour the veterans that literally kept you alive, and then, when it inconveniences you it takes away our right to thrive! And not to mention all the times you wrongly accused innocents, and then threw them in prison. And then all the way back in the last Golden Age… you vanished many, including my brother."

"Your brother? The records say that your brother died in the Pits."

"Oh no, he didn't die… He was shoved into a stasis pod while I watched. And I can show you the proof. Oh… you all are done for. GUARDS!" Sunstreaker called out, and the guards stormed in and started arresting the Council.

"You cannot do this to us!" A member of the Council cried.

"Oh yes I can, according to the Core Laws. 'In the absence of a Prime, if there is one existing, the Prime Guardian takes command whenever needed.'"

"Where is the proof that your Brother was shoved into a Stasis Pod? Those were heavily regulated before the war, it is impossible for one of them to disappear!"

Sunstreaker just pulled up his memory files using his spark. Showing how he'd watched his twin and Pixie be shoved into a stasis pod when they were all teenagers in the Pits. How he'd snarled and shouted for them to be let go even as the implant was activated. "And you know… sparks don't lie."

One of the Council members started to sweat, if the Prime Guardian ever found out that Shatterpoint had asked him to arrange for the kidnapping of the teenage femme that he had requested to be brought to the Pits.. 'To teach the King a lesson'... He was so dead…

Sunstreaker then locked optics with him. "... He told you to do it, didn't he?"

"N…No!"

"Liar."

"I swear that he didn't… It wasn't to teach anybot a lesson!"

"... Then why would you say something so specific?"

The Council member froze.. He shouldn't have said that…

"And you forget… I'm also a Spark Reader."

Scrap… He was so dead.

"I can sense your deception. Your lies. Your sinister thoughts."

Sunstreaker could sense that this member of the Council had been the reason that he and Sideswipe got an unexpected guest, back in the Pits. It was clear now that the original plan had been to put Sideswipe, alone, in that Stasis Pod.

The gold mech then had the entire Council taken away, and he had to clear out their stuff before getting it set back up for the Elite Guard.

But then, he heard whining over his bond with his twin. [Sunny, I can sense that Pix's channelling me and I'm missing it!]

[Really? That's hilarious!] Sunstreaker replied, laughing.

[No, it's not! It's not fair! I don't even know what a grown up Pix looks like!]

[Well, you gotta be patient.]

[But Sunny! I gotta be there to stop mechs and femmes hitting on her! You don't know how many of them I had to deal with when she said no to them!]

Sunstreaker just laughed, going to do some paperwork.

[Oh Primus… Sunny…]

[What is it?]

[Sunny… I think that I'm in love with my best friend.]

[Called it.]

[YOU KNEW?!]

[... Spark Reader.]

[YOU KNEW BEFORE I FIGURED IT OUT?!]

[Yes, now please stop shouting. I was just letting you find out on your own because I was bored.]

[Ummm… Should I start saving up for a Frame Ornament Sunny?]

[Yeah, probably…]

[Okay… What does she like again…]

[Well…] Sunstreaker started to say, but then paused when he heard distant shouting.

"FINALLY!" was the distant shout. "I WAS STARTING TO THINK HE'D NEVER GET IT!" If only Venus knew that Pixie was channelling her a bit as well. Right now though, she went to tell her sister that meant that their old friends must be free.

Bumblebee leaned over Raf as the man was working, a worried look on his face. They were at the Spacebridge. "Raf… how is it coming?"

"It's okay right now Bee, it's just taking a long time to warm up…"

"Is your Shadowzone Communicator working?"

"Yeah, it is."

"Maybe bring it online to try and contact him?"

Raf nodded his head, and he booted up his Shadowzone Communicator.

In the Shadowzone… a dark blue mech was lying on the ground, holding his little one, and both of them were barely online. Then… he felt a ping from a communication, and his visor flickered on. "... Who…"

"Soundwave?" Raf asked him.

"... Hu… man…"

"Yes, it's me."

"... Ti…red…"

"I'm sorry that I didn't realise that you weren't let out of the Shadowzone… You were pardoned… We know that your actions were due to a life debt… We're trying to warm up the Spacebridge so that we can get you out of the Shadowzone…"

"... Hard… to… stay… on…line…"

"We're going to try and send you Energon, but now that we have a lock on your signal, we might be able to pull you out now… What do you want us to do?"

"... Need… med… attention…" Soundwave's weak voice told him. "... Laser… beak… not… moving…"

Raf gulped and he looked at Bumblebee. "Bee…"

"We've got to get them out…" Bumblebee said, extremely worried, and then spoke up a bit louder. "Soundwave, this is Bumblebee. Just hang in there, okay? We're getting you out."

Then, Miko poked her head up. "We're ready to go!"

Raf nodded his head, and he booted up the Spacebridge. "Here we go…"

The vortex activated, swirling to life with a roar, and Bumblebee waited until it was stabilised before running through.

In the Shadowzone, Bumblebee found that they were in that old canyon in Nevada again, and he ran over and knelt next to Soundwave's frame. Luckily, there were still two spark signatures there, which meant that they were both still alive, so he gathered Laserbeak into his arms and put Soundwave on his back before hurrying the both of them through again. "I got them!"

Raf quickly shut the Spacebridge down. He did not want any zombies in the base.

Bumblebee then laid Soundwave down, and called for Arcee to hurry over. When she got over there, the two-wheeler femme got both of them hooked up to energon drips.

Raf then arranged for Ravage to be brought out of his Stasis Pod, and for the cat to be placed close to Soundwave. Ravage was groggy when the Unit E soldiers pulled him out, and was making odd growling noises when he was laid down next to his Carrier.

"It's gonna be okay…" Bumblebee said softly, petting his head.

"Yeah, you're free to go Ravage." Raf told him.

Ravage then noticed Soundwave and softly purred in worry, crawling over and curling up between his arm and his side, licking his screen.

Raf smiled. This was the real Ravage… the cat that loved his Carrier.

Then… Soundwave started to wake up. His screen came online, and he turned his head to look at Ravage… and then, a heart emoji appeared on his screen.

Raf chuckled.

Hopefully, they would be okay…

Sunstreaker blinked as he got an update call from Bulkhead, and he turned it into a vid call in his office. "Bulk? What's up?"

"Soundwave is out of the Shadowzone."

"How is he?"

"He's weak, he and Laserbeak are on Energon Drips now, and the Kids ran into Ravage while we were on Cybertron."

"Any info on that situation?"

"Miko told me that they ran into Ravage on a mission, and they ended up trapping him in a Stasis Pod. Jack took a nasty hit that made him retire from physical duty, and he became the head doctor for Unit E." Bulkhead then smirked. "And while his Carrier is in the Allspark, she has made it her personal mission to lecture Optimus for dying on us. Ravage has been released from the Pod and he has been reunited with Soundwave and Laserbeak.""

"... Optimus is being chased by a dead human femme?"

"Yep… Believe me, you don't want to get a lecture from June. Jack has even said that he still sees Optimus, as a side effect of returning the Matrix to him, and every time he does see him… He seems to be running away from something, or someone."

Sunstreaker just burst out laughing at this, leaning over his desk and lightly hitting it. "THAT'S HILARIOUS!"

"I know! It's great, isn't it?"

"Do you all need any supplies?" Sunstreaker asked him, getting a datapad out.

"Nah, we're good for now, but we would appreciate some berths. Most of us are sleeping on the berths that could be salvaged from the prison ship, they're good, but most of them are Minicon sized, and the only Medical Berths are in Unit E. Ratchet did leave a stockpile of supplies there for Cybertronians."

"I'll get those berths to you." Sunstreaker chuckled. "As well as possible backup. I've gotten in contact with some Bounty Hunters… One of them is named Drift, and he's been willing to help out. I used to know him in the Pits, so he owes me some favours."

"That's good, we're good when it comes to fighting, for now, but we should be starting to branch off into scouts, medics, runners, and frontliners soon. The extra help will be appreciated."

"Well, I've got some ideas. I've been talking with an Ex-Decepticon medic… you might remember him."

"Are you talking about Knockout? He is quite a good medic once you look past his obsession with his finish."

"Yeah. I'm sending him with Drift, because I checked your list of 'bots and saw that there are no actual medics, and I'm also sending some extra weapons."

"Thanks Sunstreaker, the Adventurer that we have does seem to know a fair bit about basic medical aid. She said that her friend taught her how to do basic repairs."

Sunstreaker nodded at this, a small smile on his face. "Good. Keep me updated, got it? Oh, and by the way, someone wanted me to pass on a message. He says, 'Leave some fun for me, or so help me, I'll Wreck you, Bulk.'"

"Tell Jackie that I will leave a piece of the fun for him.. How are he and his Intended doing?"

"Oh, they're doing really well." Sunstreaker chuckled. "They have littles now."

"Jackie's a Sire?"

"Yep. Just yesterday, they welcomed a gestalt of Minicons into the galaxy."

"A Minicon Gestalt? Only Jackie could do something like that."

"Tell me about it." Sunstreaker laughed, and then added. "By the way, I'm sending you Ratchet's comm number. Try and get in contact with him."

"I will. Thanks Sunstreaker, is there anything else that I should know?"

"Yeah. I've done some scans, and there's definitely something troubling going on on Earth… like something is trying to escape. Keep an optic on that. Sunstreaker out. Oh, and by the way, Luminia's Intended is Spin-Out." The gold mech then closed the connection with a smirk, and he made the arrangements for their supplies.

Bulkhead blinked. "The Adventurer has an Intended? Huh, I guess that you learn something new every day."

Sunstreaker chuckled, and then, he went to check on the Bounty Hunters that were all meeting up in the Tower. "How's everyone doing in here?"

"Doing well, Sunstreaker." Stormfront said, smiling at him as he came in. "Everyone's meeting my Apprentice."

Sideswipe, or rather, Spin-Out, followed him into the room. His appearance hadn't just changed with his frame being an Adult's now. Sideswipe had taken this seriously, and he had even changed the colour of his paint, and he had gotten lenses that changed the colour of his optics. He was also making sure that Spin-Out's personality was different from Sideswipe's personality, and he was going to change the way that he fought too.

Drift raised an optic ridge when he saw him, looking him up and down while his own apprentices smiled and waved at Spin-Out.

Spin-Out almost jumped, and he slowly waved at Drift's apprentices. Nearby, Springer was smiling as he saw the newbie, and several other Bounty Hunters were nodding, before they looked towards where their technical leader was coming in. A tall and imposing black Kaonian mech with red markings, and sapphire blue optics.

Spin-Out almost jumped, and he skated to hide behind Stormfront.

"Hello, everyone." The mech said in a surprisingly gentle voice, smiling at them all. Noticing the new mech, he asked. "And who is this?"

"This is Spin-Out, my Apprentice." Stormfront said, smiling a little as well. "Off the clock, he's a bit jumpy… he only really opens up around his Intended, Luminia. But on the clock, he's quite the Hunter. Spin-Out, this is the Head Hunter, Nighthunter."

"Hi.. It's nice to meet you Nighthunter… I am Spin-Out. Thank you for letting me join your group."

"It's no problem, kid." Nighthunter chuckled with a smile. "If you need anything, just let us know. You now have access to our Group Chat."

"I do?"

"Yep. Warning, it's actually a lot of sending pictures of cute things more than anything else."

Spin-Out smiled. "I like cute things… My Intended's really cute. I'm trying to save up to get the best Frame Ornament that I can for her. I owe her a lot… She helped me to heal…"

"Well, we will help out as much as we can." Nighthunter said, smiling a little bit.

"Thank you."

There was a sudden ding from a monitor, and Spin-Out almost jumped. "What was that?"

"Oh, that was just Tamashi joining remotely." Nighthunter then turned on the monitor, smiling. "Hey, Tama."

Tamashi smiled as he waved to Nighthunter. "Hi Night!" He had violet optics, and pale blue armour… And he was surrounded by Littles. He was a Polyhexian/Carrier mix.

Cue collective "Awwwwws" from the group.

Even Spin-Out joined them, with a soft "Awww" of his own.

"Well, my Apprentices and I need to go pick up a medic and a few things before going to Earth." Drift said, bowing to the others before his Minicon apprentices transformed and attached to his arms.

"Aww.. You get to see Lumie." Spin-Out pouted. "Please don't tell her about the Frame Ornament, I want to surprise her with it… We haven't made it official, yet, so…"

"We will not tell her." Drift promised him, nodding, before heading out to go get the supplies and pick up Knockout.

"Who's the new mech?" Tamashi tilted his helm as he gently stroked the sleeping helm of his oldest Minicon.

"This is Spin-Out, my apprentice." Stormfront told him with a smile.

"It's nice to meet you Spin-Out, I am Tamashi, please let me know if you need anything." Tamashi told him. "I was the newbie before you, so if you are having trouble adjusting to being a Hunter, you can ask me for help."

"Thank you." Spin-Out muttered. "I will." He nervously rocked on his wheeled feet, and his optics twitched as he scanned the room, mentally making notes on all of the possible exits.

"Also, everyone…" Nighthunter smiled at them all, looking excited. "I have an announcement to make about the relationship between myself and Mizar… We're expecting a sparkling!"

Spin-Out almost jumped. That's where he had heard the name 'Nighthunter' before! From Mizar! They were going to have a sparkling?! Pixie was going to be a big sister! "Congratulations." He muttered. "This must mean a lot to you and your bondmate."

"It'll really help him to heal…" Nighthunter said, a little more sadly. "Before the war… he was planning to introduce me to his adopted daughter… but then, she was stolen from him. It hit him really hard…"

Sideswipe wanted to cry… Pixie had been so close to getting another Creator. "I'm sorry for your Mate's loss…" He whispered. "I really am…"

If only Pixie could hear about this news…

After several more hours, Soundwave was much more aware, and he was looking around at everyone. Just silently watching, like the three humans remembered him doing.

Pixie grinned and she waved at Soundwave. This was one of her best friend's Blade Brothers. She wasn't going to be scared of him. "Hi!"

Soundwave just stared at her, tilting his head to the side slightly, but then his head turned the other way when he heard a weak twitter. "Laserbeak…"

"She's finally waking up!" Jack said in relief, then called out to Raf. "Laserbeak's coming online!"

Raf ran over to Laserbeak and he checked on her. "She's going to make a full recovery."

Soundwave seemed relieved at this, and then turned his head to look at Bumblebee, waving him over weakly. When the yellow and black mech came over, an image came up on the screen that showed a pair of hands removing the screen. Getting the hint, Bumblebee carefully found the manual release latches, and then the screen shut off as it clicked loose. As he pulled it away… it revealed an almost elven-looking dark face that had rather beautiful electric purple optics with a crimson ring around the centre of each one.

"We can be unusual optic buddies!" Pixie chriped. Soundwave looked over at her, a tiny smile on his lips.

"... Yes…" He said, a soft chuckle in his voice.

Pixie grinned. "I'm Luminina! And you are?"

"... Soundwave." Pointing at the cat Minicon, he added. "Ravage." Pointing at the bird Minicon, he finished. "Laserbeak."

"It's nice to meet all of you!" Pixie smiled, while Raf tilted his head in confusion. "Soundwave has a face?" He whispered.

Miko was just unashamedly staring with wide eyes and her mouth dropped open.

Soundwave then turned onto his side, curling up and holding his two little ones close, some tears falling from his optics. "... Had seven…"

Pixie whimpered. She didn't have Littles, but she knew that it must be so hard for Soundwave to not know where the rest of his Littles were.

Raf frowned. "If I know what the rest of his Minicons look like, I can check the pods to see if any of them are in one of them…" He whispered to Bumblebee. Suddenly, however… Raf got an image of so many others in his head seemingly from out of nowhere. Images of Soundwave in a dark place with some other mechs and holding a lot of little ones. Protecting them. Feeding them. And being protected by those other mechs. And there was a mech that Raf had seen in Autobot files… Jazz. Jazz was there and taking care of him. And then… the images faded.

Raf looked at Soundwave, before he quickly checked the list of those that they had in the Stasis Pods. "Soundwave…" He whispered. "We have all of the missing Minicons, they must have been looking for you."

Soundwave looked hopefully at him at this, tearing up. "Sparklings…"

"Soundwave's Minicons are his sparklings?" Bulkhead whispered, even as Raf gave orders for the Minicons to be released. Soon, the four were brought out, and Soundwave made little clicks and coos to them as he gathered them in his arms. He was so overjoyed that he was crying, gently touching his forehead against each of their helms in turn.

"Aww…" Pixie cooed. "So cute."

The first one to fully wake up was Ratbat, who started snuggling into her Carrier with happy little squeaks, and Soundwave trilled and nuzzled the top of her little helm, petting her ears.

Bulkhead's spark almost broke… He had seen the effects of War on a lot of Bots, and Cons, and he knew that the War had tried to break a lot of them… Was this the Soundwave that was hidden behind the persona of the Decepticons's TIC?

"And the thing is…" Bumblebee said to Bulkhead, seeing that look in his optics. "His Mate and eldest Creation were Autobots…"

"They're Autobots?" Bulkhead whispered.

"Yep… Jazz and Yin-Yang."

"Well, Jazz is due to visit Earth soon. He just has some loose ends to tie up first."

"I would say to surprise Soundwave, but… it looks like he's already read our minds." Bumblebee chuckled a little, even as Soundwave had perked up and was smiling brightly.

"He can do that?" Raf asked Bumblebee.

"Yep. He's what's called a Full Telepath." Bumblebee chuckled a little. "Carrier told me about it. You see… they grew up in the same room in the Pits."

"I remember that place…" Jack said, frowning a little. "I saw it when Arcee and I went to Vector Sigma… it felt horrible there…"

"That explains the images that I saw." Raf whispered. "I think that he showed me part of what his life in the Pits had been like…"

That life had looked horrible… they had been so damaged… But who were those other mechs that he'd seen? One of them had disappeared early… had he died?

"And I didn't just see who had to be his Bondmate, he showed me two other bots, and one of them disappeared…"

"Uncle Sides was taken away from Carrier when they were teens…" Bumblebee said quietly. "It was pretty traumatic for him… he couldn't even stop it, no matter how hard he tried…"

"You have an Uncle on your Carrier's side of the family?"

"Yeah… Remember how Skyquake and Dreadwing were two halves of the same spark?"

"Your Carrier and Sideswipe were just like them?"

"Yep… split-spark twins."

"Did you ever find out what happened to him?"

"All Carrier said was that he watched him and a friend of theirs get shoved into a stasis pod by their owner…"

Raf shivered. "Your Carrier, his twin, and Soundwave were property?! And those two were shoved into a Stasis Pod like the ones on the Prison Ship, and in the Hive?"

"Yeah… Gladiators were all slaves, and that includes Megatron." Bumblebee said, looking sad. "The thing is… Megatron was the one who took care of the three of them when they were growing up. I'm pretty sure the only reason it was so hard to beat the 'Cons here on Earth was because we didn't have Carrier."

"I see, and who took care of them before that?"

"Well, from what Carrier explained, they had a sort of family hierarchy. The one who takes care of everyone is the Big Brother… but before the twins were put there, they were taken care of by a mech named Mizar. They were taken off the streets by their owner when they were six, though…"

"Who's Mizar?"

"He's a Praxian mech who is actually best friends with Sire's Sire." Bumblebee chuckled, smiling. "When you think of Praxian, think of Smokescreen. He's actually my cousin, and is technically named Smokescreen Jr."

Raf smiled. "It must have made your day when you saw him again… Does your Carrier still keep in contact with Mizar?"

"Yeah, he does." Bumblebee said with a grin. "Sometimes, he even sneaks over to his house and plays pranks on him. Grandsire Mizar still doesn't know how he turned his entire berthroom literally upside-down. Even the light fixture was on the floor and it was turned on."

Pixie muffled her giggles when she heard that, and she quickly spoke to Bumblebee, in Wing Speech. "Mizar's my Adoptive Sire."

"Really? Oh, imagine when we tell him when all this is over!" Bumblebee replied in Wing Speak, chuckling as he then asked Raf. "Hey, want to hear some stories about how I grew up?"

"I'm going to be grounded." Pixie spoke through Wing Speech, even as everyone else, bot and human, looked at Bumblebee when he said that it was Storytime.

"Here's a really good story… One day, when I was only five years old, I was running around the base, and Sunny couldn't find me…" Bumblebee said, grinning as he sat down with everyone. "And eventually, he had to resort to getting Optimus to help him… So, there were these two really big mechs, and they were crawling around on the floor trying to find a tiny five-year-old yellow youngling!"

"What happened next Lieutenant?" Strongarm asked him as everyone else sat down, and they got comfortable.

"Well… I only found out about this later, but apparently Youngling Bumblebee was a Bringer of Chaos." Bumblebee said this with a chuckle, a sparkle in his optics. "When I toddled through a crowd of hardened soldiers, one of them felt my tiny doorwing brush against his leg, and he screamed like a youngling femme and jumped to the side, crashing into five others, and it started a whole brawl while I just innocently ran out of the room!"

Pixie started to laugh. "It seems that mechs screaming like femmes is something that never gets old." She giggled.

"And what gets even funnier… Optimus caught sight of me running into one of the washracks and had to crawl to chase me… but without me knowing, he'd had to crawl under one of the stalls to try and get to me, AND CHROMIA WAS IN THERE!" He laughed at this, showing an image of what Chromia looked like. She was a blue femme who apparently liked guns. "As I toddled out, I just heard loud apologies while it sounded like OP was getting kicked in the head!"

Pixie was rolling around the floor, laughing, while Bulkhead was chuckling, loudly. Raf had a huge smile on his face, and even Strongarm was giggling at the mental images from the story that Bumblebee was telling them. Arcee was laughing, remembering hearing Chromia ranting about this when she herself was a teenager, and the other humans were just rolling around in laughter. Grimlock was laughing too, on his back while holding his abdominal plating.

"Finally, when they caught me… it was only after they bonked heads five times, three tables were turned over, two alarms were set off, and one mech ended up headfirst in the trash!"

"You caused even more chaos than I did when I was little." Pixie giggled. "I tricked a mech into breaking the border wall for the femme outdoor oil bath houses in Kaon… And there was this time that I kicked a mech in the groin."

Then, they all got a mental image of a youngling Soundwave tricking multiple 'bots into thinking that someone was poking them when nobody was there and scaring them a little.

Pixie giggled. "That makes me wish that I had mental abilities, so that I could share the memories of me kicking Shatterpoint in the groin to all of the mechs and femmes that he hurt."

Bumblebee laughed at the thought of Pixie kicking that terrifying mech in the groin.

Pixie had a smug look on her face. "He hurt my best friend. Poor Spin-Out wasn't the same after he got out of the Pits."

Soundwave smirked a little… and then there was the feeling of something crawling up Bulkhead's spinal struts.

Bulkhead shivered, and he tried to see if there was anything on his back. There was nothing there, but then the crawling changed to scratching. He started to scream like a little girl.

The others were laughing, seeing all of this, and laughing more at Bulkhead's screaming.

"GET IT OFF OF ME! GET IT OFF OF ME! GET IT OFF OF ME!" Bulkhead screamed. He hoped that it wasn't an invisible scraplet!

And then, the feeling stopped, and he just heard Soundwave laughing. Bumblebee was laughing too, patting Bulkhead on the back. "You just got pranked, Bulk."

"Wha?" Bulkhead was confused.

"Soundwave pranked you."

"How…."

"... Telepathy. He literally just showed you images of him fake poking 'bots."

"Oh…"

After a while, they'd finally made plans where they could make a full-on base near the scrapyard, since that was where all of their supplies was, and thankfully, the Minicons agreed to help them with digging out an underground area so that they could expand under there continuously while still having access to the scrapyard.

And then, they could start assigning actual roles to each of them, instead of being all hands on deck in a fight. They could also give everyone their own space, and for those that needed it, a place to work, like a lab, or a place where one would pin up notes and organise their thoughts.

They had also made prison rooms, to keep things more secure, and emergency escape routes, if their base was attacked… Bumblebee remembered the destruction of the Omega Base vividly… they would also move the Spacebridge there permanently, so that the 'bots had better travel. They would also have interplanetary communications, and they would hopefully set up a connection to Cybertron.

And on Cybertron…

"I'm home!" Nighthunter called out.

"Night!" He was welcomed home with a hug from a midnight blue, black, and white Praxian mech with grey optics.

Nighthunter smiled, nuzzling his mate, and he said. "I met the new apprentice…"

"A new apprentice?" Mizar smiled as he returned the nuzzle.

"Yes… his name is Spin-Out, and I feel like I've met him before, but I can't place it…"

"You have? What is he like?"

"Well, he was in the Pits… so he's pretty scarred and scared, but he's sweet, and loves to talk about his Intended."

"He has an Intended?" Mizar tilted his helm..

"Yes, and her name is Luminia."

"And he loves to talk about her?"

"Yeah… he's really in love."

"Aww…" Mizar cooed. "Are they together, or are they not officially together yet?"

"Not officially yet… he's planning on surprising her when they see each other again."

"He's a romantic mech then.." Mizar chuckled. "But why do you feel like you've met him before?"

"I don't know… he just seems familiar…" Nighthunter said, pulling up an image of the mech.

He was hiding behind Stormfront, but Mizar frowned when he saw Spin-Out's face, and his helm. "I can see what you mean Night… He kinda reminds me of Sideswipe…"

"That's what I thought…"

Mizar hummed. "He could be related to them. I wouldn't be surprised if any of the Ringleaders went after Sunny's original family after they saw just how good he was at being a Gladiator."

Nighthunter nodded, and then just snuggled with him. "Mmmm… I'm tired…"

Mizar smiled as he returned the nuzzle. "Let's get you somewhere comfortable then…" But Mizar had his own theories on who Spin-Out was. He did remember the Twins talking about what they would do if they had to go underground.

After a few days, they had made good progress on the Earth base, and they were able to move the Spacebridge in there so that it was safe and easy to access. And at the same time, Arcee was showing Raf how the original prototype of the Energon Generator worked.

"Sunstreaker explained it to me… he built this out of scrap metal, so as long as you have metal and magnets, you should be able to build it." She said, showing him the different pieces of metal.

Raf nodded his head, and he made notes of what the metal was, what the magnets were made out of, and their properties. This would help him if he had to find a substitute for the pieces that he couldn't find on Earth.

"You remember those stories about the Pits?" Arcee asked him quietly. "Those memories you were shown?"

"I do." Raf whispered. "Is this how Soundwave got the extra energon to help him nurse his young ones?"

"Yeah… it's actually why he built it…"

"It is?"

"Yeah… he built it because Soundwave wasn't getting enough for him and his little ones…"

"You know… I can see where Bee got his kindness from now."

Arcee smiled a little, nodding. Then, she showed him how it turned on and off. "The way this works is that when it's on," She flipped a switch after putting a cube under the spigot. "It unhooks the inner ring of magnets and allows them to turn rapidly to create the energy. When it's off," She flipped the switch again, and the energon stopped pouring into the cube, "The ring is locked in place and cannot move, and so it can't produce energon."

Raf nodded his head as he took notes on this. "I see, so the magnets turning generates the energy, and the converter turns it into energon."

"Yeah. It's how he creates energy without having an outside source." She said with a chuckle. "He's a really smart mech."

"He is." Raf smiled.

"You think we'd be able to make one maybe twice this size?" She asked him.

"I think that we can do that."

"That's good… because it might be too much to produce so much energon for this old little device." Arcee said, a sad smile on her face. It was obvious she was trying to avoid saying something about it.

Raf didn't say anything, if this device was that old, then it could go at any moment, and repairs couldn't fix everything.

Finally, she sighed. "The reason it's so important is… well… you may have noticed that the alloys are strange, right?"

"Yeah, I have… This isn't normal scrap metal… It's armour, isn't it?"

"Yeah… scraps of armour that fell off of damaged Gladiators…"

"So, to Sunstreaker, it's a way of keeping those that he lost with him?"

"Sort of… It's also a way for them to be able to help others…"

"Even after they die?"

"Yep…" Arcee placed a hand on the generator, knowing that there were so many 'bots that didn't make it… "From what I've heard… It was a terrible place. Dozens died every day."

"And many looked the other way…"

"Yep… It was awful."

"How could they do that? What was so important to them that they let this happen…" Raf frowned. "And how did they hide all that death from the rest of Cybertron?"

"It was really corrupt." Arcee sighed, shaking her head. "Everything was being paid off by the owners…"

"And even your own version of babies, children and teenagers had to experience the pain of being Gladiators?"

"The twins were six… Soundwave was five…"

"They were that young?"

"Yep… Younglings as small as four years old were forced to fight."

"As a father, Arcee, that makes me so angry." Raf growled. "How many fathers and mothers lost their children to that nightmare?!"

"Countless…"

Raf took a deep breath.

"Yeah, it was horrible…" Arcee said, shaking her head slowly. "And what's even worse about it was that sparklings were born in that place…"

"Babies were born in that place?"

"Yes… born there and died there…"

Raf sadly sighed. "And Bee's Carrier survived that?"

"Yes… and all seven of Soundwave's little ones were born there…"

"It puts Megatron's actions at the beginning of the war into a different light…" Raf muttered. "If he was fighting to prevent things like this back then…"

"From what we know… something caused Megatron to stray from his original plans… Something changed justice to conquest."

"And he lost his way, turning into what he was trying to destroy."

"Pretty much… and now, Cybertron is doing the same thing…"

And here, is the end of the pilot episode everyone! This was 59 pages long in the Google Doc that I used to make it. Part of the reason why it was so long is that this is both episodes of the pilot, and us setting the scene for the rest of the story!

Join us next time for Steeljaw making his first appearance, Strongarm and Pixie going through trust exercises, Grim carrying Bee like a bride, (I adored the little dance that those two had with the oil), and Pixie gets to pretend to be an actual Con while Sides senses that she has another admirer, fun times!