Author's Note: I did say that this fic would be updated faster now that I have some free time on my hands, and I meant it. So I decided to get another chapter out now. Hopefully I'll be able to update quickly for a while, but there are no guarantees.

Disclaimer: I think you get the idea.

Metal and Neon

Chapter 16: Cleaning Up

Word had gotten out that the Decepticons had fled and the battle was finally over. Most of the humans were still afraid of Decepticon attacks and stalled their return to the city. For the Autobots, the extra time was welcome.

Finally, Grissom and his team of CSIs had agreed to go back and see if the rumors were true. They could no longer see the flashes of laser fire or hear the sounds of battle on the wind. Cautiously, they piled into their Tahoes and headed back toward Las Vegas. When they were close to the city, they headed for a small ridge of mountains that offered a clear view of Vegas. They stopped there for a look before entering Vegas.

One large piece of the city was smouldering. Another had been almost completely leveled. A massive ditch had been gouged in the earth, running from the city's edge almost to the downtown area. Smoke curled lazily from its edges. The ground itself had been torn and gouged and burned. Huge craters dotted the landscape and pockmarked the mountains. The air reeked of burned metal and the gasoline-like stink of Transformer blood.

"I thought there'd be more damage," Catherine commented.

"There was," Nick told her. "Look."

The destroyed area of the city was a buzz of activity. Autobots were everywhere, most in vehicle mode. Huge bulldozers and the occasional backhoe were clearing the rubble. Others in robot mode shifted smaller piles or cleared sites. A few were even pouring foundations. In the middle of the organized chaos were Quickmix and Takedown, both of them having cement mixers as their alternate modes, barrels spinning ceaselessly. Both were surrounded by small swarms of Autobots, breaking large chunks of concrete into smaller pieces and tossing them into those churning barrels to be remixed. At least, one of the two was remixing cement. The other truck's barrel was smoking, but not in a bad way. The smoke was actually coming from the material he was producing, which looked a lot like lava. Then the humans realized that it was actually something else.

"He's mixing metal?" Warrick asked incredulously.

"I guess that those two are at least half chemist," Grissom noted. "And half blast furnace."

"Actually, their barrels are something like chem labs on wheels," a voice commented, and they turned to see another Autobot nearby. The Autobot grinned at them. "The chemicals in their barrels can break down and recombine just about anything. Even metals. Takedown is breaking down all of the metal from the collapsed buildings and mixing it into a stronger alloy so it can be used again. There isn't enough available from the wreckage alone, so a few others are raiding scrapyards for raw materials."

Catherine looked at Nick. "I see what you mean. There was more damage, but they cleaned it up."

Grissom tilted his head at the Autobot, a green and tan bot with what looked like tank treads on his shoulders. His body was covered with fresh weld marks. "I don't recall having met you."

"And I haven't met you yet." The Autobot, smaller than most other Autobots but not as small as Bumblebee, offered a hand. "My name's Flak."

"Gil Grissom." Grissom carefully shook Flak's hand.

"What's that?" Sara pointed at gleaming metal towers rising into the air some distance away from Vegas. Lights blinked on those towers, like the warning lights on radio towers.

"That one's Metroplex," Flak answered. "And just past him, a little further away, is Fortress Maximus. They arrived not long after the battle started to handle Trypticon. It was Trypticon who made that." He pointed at the deep cut in the ground. "Particle beam cannon. Fortunately, we were able to keep him from doing much more than that, and one those two arrived he was too busy fighting them to do anything else."

"How is Ultra Rodimus?" Grissom asked.

"Resting. He was running on fumes by the time the battle ended, and he collapsed once the Decepticons started running. He's awake, but he's not answering to anyone at the moment. Magnus was very seriously injured by Galvatron and his pain backlashed onto Prime. First Aid confined Prime to Repair Bay until Magnus is repaired."

"Ultra Rodimus can feel Magnus's pain?" Sara repeated.

Flak looked at her. "He can feel everyone's pain. He's a minor empath, able to read emotions but only the very strong ones unless he's in close proximity to the person he's reading. His range isn't very far, but it comes in handy. But he doesn't need empathy to read Magnus. Didn't he tell you? He and Magnus are lifebonded."

"Lifebonded?"

The small Autobot sighed and shifted position. "I'm not sure how to explain it. The best I can say is that they share a mental link that connects them to each other, a very powerful link. So powerful that their minds are merged into one. They think and feel as one. It can be creepy when they start finishing each other's sentences or answering to each other's names, though. Anyway, the link also affects them physically. When one is hurt, the other feels it. Experiences are shared between them. And the death of one will have a catastrophic effect on the other."

"How so?"

"Lifebonded pairs become one being, one mind with two personalitites. They complete each other. If one is killed, the other will go completely berserk, destroying everything between them and their mate's killers before destroying themselves. One cannot survive without the other." Flak sighed. "At least, that's my understanding of it. Lifebonds are rare. When Magnus was shot Ultra Rodimus went berserk. First Aid is keeping him under observation until Magnus is repaired to make certain he won't lose it again."

Grissom considered that, then decided that the conversation was getting too far into strange territory, even for someone who'd been introduced to the reality of alien life the hard way, and decided to change the subject. "Who is coordinating the cleanup?"

"At the moment, I'm not really sure. I think it might be Grapple. Most of the command staff are in for repairs or somewhere in the middle of all that down there."

"How do they know what to build?" a confused Sara asked.

Flak grinned. "We've been working alongside humans for years. We've built joint projects for both our races. So we know our way around human construction. But feel free to call in your construction crews and give us a hand. The work will get done that much faster."

Nick trotted a few feet away to make some calls. Soon Vegas construction crews were filtering in to help the Autobots clear debris and rebuild the buildings, taking advantage of Quickmix and Takedown's ability to mix just about anything for construction material.

As the rubble was cleared away, the laser scoring and blast craters it concealed were uncovered. Sara snarled something under her breath about Ultra Rodimus being careless with his weapons. Unfortunately, she was overheard by several Autobots and subjected to a mass dressing-down. She seemed to shrink in on herself as their anger at her remarks beat at her. By the time they finished with her and stalked away to cool their tempers, she'd been cut down a few pegs, her face flaming red with embarrassment and some shame. After that she made sure to keep her comments and opinions to herself.

Catherine looked around at the cityscape, noting the craters left by missile impacts, the burned and seared ground left by laser fire, and shuddered. "The damage that would have been caused if they'd been in the city center instead of on the outskirts is scary to contemplate," she commented to Spike, standing beside her.

Spike snorted. "You want scary? You should've been around the time that one of the kids in Metroplex decided to introduce the big guy to chocolate. And gave him too much. Ultra Rodimus on a sugar high."

She shot him a curious look. "He was in his human form?"

"At first. Then he somehow managed to get back into his robot form. Can you imagine a robot his size under the influence of way too much sugar?" Spike shuddered at the memory. "It took tranquilizer darts, Sureshot, and a sniper's rifle to hold him still long enough for the others to catch him. First Aid had to keep him sedated until the sugar was out of his system."

"That bad?"

"You've seen toddlers and little kids on sugar highs?" She nodded. "He's about a hundred times worse. A helluva lot bigger, very fast, incredibly strong, and, unfortunately, a lot more hyper."

Catherine stared at him, then burst out laughing. "Did he ever hear the end of it?" she managed.

"Astonishingly enough, nobody ever started anything about it. He's young, still only a teenager by Transformer standards, and the fact that he never acts his real age had been unnerving more than a few Autobots. That episode proved that he isn't perfect, that he does have his faults and that he slips sometimes, and they were able to relax around him. It only increased their respect for him."

"Usually seeing someone under the influence of sugar has the opposite effect."

"As I said, Ultra Rodimus is young. A certain amount of irresponsible behavior is expected, especially from a young Cybertronian. But Ultra Rodimus never did anything, and that made everyone a bit uneasy around him. It created the image of a perfect being, a creature with no flaws. Finally seeing him acting like the young idiot he should be shattered that image nicely, letting the rest of the Autobots see that their leader really is just a normal bot. He just learned to keep his feelings to himself."

The CSI chuckled. "Well, I hope I never see him acting that way."

"You won't. He swore never to repeat that incident, and he always keeps his word."

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Magnus groaned softly as he sat up on the medtable, feeling newly-repaired systems complain about being forced to work so soon. His mate was hovering in the background, keeping out of the way but never keeping still. Ultra Rodimus stood near the wall, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, kneading the wolf pelt draped over his shoulder without even noticing he was doing so. His emerald eyes, looking quite a bit larger than normal, were fixed on his mate like iron filings to a magnet.

First Aid passed a scanner over Magnus and looked at the readings. "You're fully repaired and your energy levels are back to normal. You can return to your own quarters, but I want you to take it easy for a few days. Get some rest." The medic turned toward the pacifist standing as still as a statue nearby. "You make sure he does rest."

Sandstorm nodded. First Aid shot Magnus a look, then shooed him off the table. Ultra Rodimus materialized at his side, and the two left the room. The medic and the pacifist exchanged a few private words, then Sandstorm followed the other two toward their quarters.

As they walked through Metroplex's corridors toward their shared quarters, Magnus noticed the thick white fluff draped over his mate's shoulder and mentally asked about it. Ultra Rodimus's response came as an image of Carnivac and the memory of carefully confiscating it from the semi-conscious Decepticon. The fur had been removed so carefully not a single circuit had been damaged. Carnivac would be on the battlefield again, but perhaps losing his hide would warn him against trying to pounce on the Autobot leader. Magnus snickered.

In their quarters, Sandstorm took charge of the wolf hide while Ultra Rodimus led his mate into the inner chamber. Magnus let out a soft groan as he lowered his bulk onto their bed, noting distantly that the metal surface had been covered by a sort of "mattress" made of a specially-treated fabric as strong as steel and stuffed with either silicon pellets or silicon fiber "wool". It would comfortably absorb weight and support anything placed on it, and he sprawled out on it gratefully, closing his eyes and feeling as if he could sleep for a month.

The pad shifted slightly and a slender form curled into his side. Magnus opened his eyes and looked at his mate, who was tucked neatly into his side and using his shoulder as a pillow, as close as he could get without slipping inside Magnus's armor. The older bot regarded him with some amusement.

Sensing his gaze, Ultra Rodimus opened his eyes. "What?"

"First Aid told me to rest," Magnus reminded him.

Ultra Rodimus lifted his head, eyes turning a shade darker. "I'm not doing anything."

Since his mate had his inner thoughts shielded, not wanting his own worries to spill over, Magnus couldn't tell what he was thinking, but he'd been mated with the young leader long enough to know how his mind worked. He looked at his mate, letting the silence deepen. It was a tactic Ultra Rodimus had used on many misbehaving Autobots, humans, and aliens, but Magnus was the only one who could use it on him. That trick worked much better than prying, either active or passive.

The younger bot shifted uncomfortably. "I was told in no uncertain terms that I have to rest, too. My energy levels still haven't returned to normal, and I strained most of my circuits almost to the breaking point during the battle. And Kup told me that our lifebond was strained by the backlash from you to me; it'll take some quiet time and contact to let it heal. So I thought..." He glanced away, not meeting Magnus's eyes. "I'll go somewhere else..." He uncurled his long limbs and prepared to scurry away, find a different spot to settle and recover.

Magnus realized that he'd read his mate all wrong. Ultra Rodimus only wanted to be close to him; his nerves had been badly rattled by the near loss of his lifemate. He wasn't in the mood or the condition for anything else.

"No," Magnus said softly, catching his arm. "Don't go. Stay."

Ultra Rodimus eyed him uncertainly. Magnus touched his mind gently, apologizing, reassuring, confessing what his first impressions of his lover's presence had been. The young Prime blinked several times, then allowed himself to be tugged back down onto the bed. Magnus wrapped an arm around his companion's slender body, holding him close.

The younger of the two was the first to drift off into sleep. Magnus chuckled quietly, then kissed his lover's forehead, settled himself, and followed.

To be continued...

There's another chapter down. Thanks for the compliment, Gromia, and yes, I emailed you right after you sent me your first review, and yes, I sent it to the address I got from your profile page. But I never got an answer. Writer's block is a real pain in the diodes, ain't it?

Next chapter: how to deal with a hyper CSI, Ecklie's prankster-in-the-forensics-lab woes, and the return of Magnus's mischievious streak. Now that I've dropped some tidbits to make you even more curious, send me some reviews and I'll get the next chapter out as soon as I can.