Bolt

XXX-FLASHBACK-XXX

Bolt was a very young robot, only a couple of years old, who had been created for the sole purpose of packaging the many various items the rest of the consumer goods' robots made. But Maestro liked him. Unlike most of the others who sometimes acted as if they were nothing more than mindless drones, Bolt showed at least a small measure of spirit. One of the signs was that, despite being created for a specific task and purpose, he took a liking to another. Bolt liked music. From the minute he heard the first note he was hooked.

He would often try and finish his day's work as fast as he possibly could so that he could run over and watch Maestro and the others create a variety of new melodies and harmonies. And Maestro, seeing the young bot's eagerness and curiosity, began to teach him a few basic skills, much to the displeasure of the other musicians. They feared that should someone catch Bolt amongst them they would all by punished and melted down to slag.

But Maestro cherished having an apprentice as such, to teach and educate, because before Bolt came along he had been virtually alone.

His closest friends were Chord and Orchestra, but they had soon found each other and had chosen to become partners – another thing that was frowned upon as it was forbidden for one robot to have emotional connections to another. It made them inefficient workers.

Deep down though, Maestro knew all that was about to change. The stronger robots – the military hardware, and the engineers, mechanics, weapons manufacturers and security personnel of the consumer goods – were beginning a rebellion. And it was growing by the day. Maestro hoped there would soon come a day where all of the Automated Robots – military and consumer alike – could do and think and feel for themselves, without having to be always told how they should act and react.

To spread the word along, those in the rebellion turned to the musicians so that their messages could be encoded in secret within the music. Maestro, Chord and Orchestra had readily agreed and they managed to convince the others. Bolt became the messenger, ferrying the messages from the warriors to the musicians to be encoded.

In return, the stronger robots offered to train the artistes and entertainers in basic combat as they were the weaker group. Once war broke out, they would be in charge of the defense of those robots who either wouldn't or couldn't fight.

And war did break out. Nothing Maestro imagined could have prepared him for it. The warrior robots were trying to bring down the giant robots that those who revered them called 'guardians' and those who feared them called 'sentinels'. Maestro and his kind, including Bolt, were given the task of shepherding the non-combatant robots to safety. He risked a pause in his duty to see how the offense was faring.

One-third of the group he'd seen begin the attack was missing, most likely dead. The rest of the group was being forced to retreat from the intense fire-power of the behemoths.

"They need more fighters," Chord said from his right side.

"They have none," Maestro replied.

"Yes they do! Us! The civilians are almost evacuated, they need our help."

Maestro grabbed his arm to keep him from running directly into the battle. "We're defenders Chord, not warriors. We cant fight like they can."

"We have to TRY Maestro. Are you with me?"

Maestro took one look at Chord, then looked back at the defenders. "Orchestra! Bolt! Keep evacuating the civilians and get them to safety. Chord and I are going to help the warriors!"

Both of them began to run to where the main bulk of the rebellion were fighting, pulling out their weapons as they ran. Chord may have been a few years younger than him, but Maestro was a more skilled fighter. Had he wanted to, he could have been a great warrior, just as good as the stronger consumer goods robots.

The ground shook with the rumble of the giant sentinel robots lumbering forward. The noise of the fire-power was almost deafening. Maestro stopped firing suddenly and began to break away. His audio sensors, more finely tuned than any of the other robots' from many centuries of honing his musical creations, picked up the sound of something else approaching the battle – something big.

A look at Chord told him that the other musician had heard it too. They knew unmistakably another sentinel had been dispatched. And it was coming for the defenders.

Chord grabbed Maestro's arm. "Get them out of there! One of us has to and your skills are more needed there than here. Don't forget Bolt and… Orchestra. Incase I don't see her again, tell her I love her, and take care of her Maestro." He gave the older robot a light shove. "Now go!"

Maestro looked at his best friend a moment longer. "Be safe," he said, and ran.

A third sentinel appeared behind the defenders and civilians.

"The shelters!" Maestro yelled, straining his vocalizers to be heard above the racket. "Get them to the shelters!"

The group began to run for it. Maestro altered his speed and direction so that he could fall in line with them as they fled. A blast from the sentinel's powerful laser took out the stragglers and a few of the defenders who had hung back to protect them. Maestro realized that as long as their flank remained exposed, the sentinel could eradicate them row by row. Orchestra joined him.

"Where is Chord?" she asked.

"Fighting with the warriors," Maestro replied. "Orchestra listen to me. I need you and the other defender-femmes to keep herding the civilians to the shelters while the remaining bots and I try to hold this thing back. If things go ill with us, you will be the last line of defense, do you understand me?"

"I understand. Do what you have to Maestro. Femmes! Spread out and encircle! Keep moving towards the shelter!"

"Defender-bots summon weapons!" Maestro called. "Form ranks!" He stopped running. "Turn and return fire!"

From the corner of his optic he glimpsed Bolt falling into place a few paces in front of him. The defenders began firing round after round of lasers at the giant. It slowed the thing down for the last of the civilians to run past them, but they couldn't stop it. Maestro heard an order from the warriors' group to retreat.

"Fall back!" he commanded his own robots.

The sentinel released a second round of its own lasers that blasted the ground right in front of Maestro. He shielded his optics from the bright flare and when he looked again, a third of the defenders were gone. The warriors had almost reached them, the first two sentinels close behind, picking off those who fell behind.

"Defenders scatter!" Maestro called. "Make for the shelters!"

As he ran, he tried desperately to spot Chord and Bolt, but he could see no sign of them, and before he knew it they had reached the tunnels that led to the secret underground shelters they had constructed for just such a situation. The sentinels could not follow.

Many hours later, Maestro and a few others went back to the surface to search for survivors. It proved futile. Most had been killed instantly and most of those that were still functioning were beyond repair. Only a dozen or so could be saved. Chord was among the dead and Maestro mourned him deeply, wondering how on Cybertron he was going to break the news to Orchestra.

"Maestro?" It was a mech he had not seen before. "There's a young bot over there." He pointed to his right. "He's asking for you."

Maestro thanked him, stood up and went over. The young bot was Bolt, lying on the cold metal ground, half his exo-structure missing, the other half melted and blackened. He looked up as Maestro crouched beside him and his lip components curved into a small smile.

"Maestro," he rasped, his vocalizers obviously damaged.

"Bolt, what happened?"

"Chord… was in trouble… tried… to help him… failed…. Sentinel… got us both… I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry about. You fought bravely. You both did. You will be remembered, along with everyone else who died today. Cybertron will remember you."

"So… I'm going… going to… die?"

Maestro saw no point in lying. "Yes."

"That's good…. Would hate… to… live like… this." He tried to laugh. "Will you… do… two things… for me?"

"Just name it Bolt."

"Win… this war and… free Cybertron…. Second…" The light in his blue optics began to go out. "Second… you must… save music… for those… who will come after."

"I'll try my best Bolt. I promise you, music will not die."

Bolt clutched Maestro's arm with a half blown-off hand. "Thank… you… Maestro."

XXX-END FLASHBACK-XXX

"Maestro?" Pickup tapped the old mech's arm, snapping him back to the present. "Maestro are you with me?"

"Oh yes, yes I'm here. I was just thinking about what you said about Transforming. How do I go about something like that?"

"Beats me. I suppose you need to study a Transformer to find out. I'd offer my services but I'm heading back to Levatron tomorrow morning with some re-enforcements."

"Then we should probably leave and get some rest. I need to go home and do some serious thinking."

They stood up and quietly exited the bar together. Outside, they wished each other well, said their goodbyes and parted ways. That was the last Maestro ever saw of Pickup.

A/N: this was more of a continuation of Chapter 4, than a new chapter in itself... but i needed focus on the flashback to show a little more motivation for Maestro to want to build a new life...