Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. Just the plot and OCs.

Enjoy. :)

Chapter 15

Spark cold, shrinking in his chest, Bumblebee backed up until he was pressed hard into Dustoff's leg. Somehow managing to find a place where his armor let him hide a little more than might have been possible otherwise. If he'd have been paying more attention he'd have noticed the towering helicopter mech shifted his plating a bit to let the mechling press back until his doorwings were pressed against some protoform behind him.

His mind wasn't in that moment though.

For his mind wasn't doing much more then rolling through everything he'd ever known while his spark cracked in half wondering if all of it had been a lie.

Because they'd known.

They'd known.

They'd known and they hadn't told him?

How had they known?

Why hadn't they told him?

What . . . what else hadn't they told him.

What . . . what was even happening here?

"Bee," Ironhide's deep voice was pitched into a tone the young yellow mech had never heard before. Something desperate and pleading and brittle, but it broke off when the young mech let out a low whine, backing further into Dustoff even when he didn't have any further he could go.

He ended up pressed as far into Dustoff's armor as he could go, seeking something steady in a topsy-turvy sea that had in a sparkbeat became his world. Because a mech he had only really just met an orn or so ago suddenly felt safer than the mechs that had raised him.

If that didn't explain just how bad this hit him, he didn't know what else would, but frankly at the moment he didn't care. His spark was too busy twisting into a tight cold ball in his chest leaving him panting. Big baby blue optics blown wide with the conflicting notions flaring through him as he stared back at the collection of them.

"You . . . ." Damn, he didn't recognize his own voice. Shivering, cold, and afraid. "You knew her?"

"No." Optimus pushed past the rather weak kneed looking weapons specialist to walked toward the tiny yellow thing he'd been looking after all these vorns. The one he'd been trying to protect. The one that now as he stood there paused when he watched the youngling flinch back from him leaving his spark cold. The one he knew he'd been lying too, but had been doing it because he was trying to keep him safe. He stood there now with his vents short wondering if he'd done it all wrong. "No, Bumblebee, we didn't know her."

"You knew about her!" The shout came out with a hard shove through the bonds he'd snapped closed just moments before. A harsh flash of sizzling pain that left them all stumbling back a few steps if not in pain then in shock. "You did! I can feel it! You knew about her and you never fraggin' told me!? You knew about them!?"

One hand shoving up he shoved a thumb back at Dustoff. Shaking so hard in his armor he was rattling.

"W-wh-w-h-what else didn't you slaggin' tell me!? Why didn't you tell me!? How could you not tell me you knew about her!? About them!?"

His was crying and he hadn't realized it.

Thick streaks of coolant stroking his cheeks in pale blue. Dripping down to splatter to the cold stone floor below him. Each hit somehow as loud as shattering glass to his audios as well as others.

And then, before the hitching fit inside him could work itself any higher the massive shape of very old flier shifted around him. The movement behind him of the safe hold he had tried to tuck into seeming to leave him had him whipping about. A scared whine building through the sobs in his chest but before the panic could break he was tucked into a large grip. Careful clawed hands that could wrap him up and hold him like a normal sized bot held a sparkling cocooned him.

Dustoff crouched low with his knees bent on each side of the quivering youngling. It did not make the huge flier seem any smaller. Not to Bee, not right now, but it was a bit easier to meet his optics like this. His head was still thrown back, but the huge mech could pull himself closer this way and because of it Bee's whole world was swallowed up by a deep rumbling of flight engines and a claw tip that was longer than his forearm tilting his chin up to make him stare through rolling coolant into pale red optics.

"Hey now," Dustoff murmured down at him. Old faceplate wrinkled in a way that it hadn't been before. The tightness in his lips, the pinch in optics, it made the mech seem far older then he had a little while ago. The truth behind the whispers of vorns Bee could feel in the old mech's chest suddenly written all over that kind faceplate. It was shocking enough to make the hitching breaths slow down a bit. Enough to make him listen. "You need to calm down for a moment there, young one. Before you do something you're going to regret. I already have to deal with one mech that acts before he thinks, I was under the slight impression that you were going to be cleverer then that."

A few hitched breaths had him sniffling but he found he couldn't say anything as those pale red optics blinked down at him filled with something that looked far too much like pain.

"That's it. Just breathe for a klick or two, little one. You should have all the facts before you start slamming doors."

"But you said—"

"I've told you very little in the grand scheme of things, but I'll tell you a little more if it will make you knock off that foolish crying. Enough tears have been shed for things War and I have done over the vorns, mechling. Do not add to them when they are not needed."

Doorwings plastered against his back twitched slightly in confusion as his optics darted over Dustoff's faceplate, searching for an answer to the question he didn't even understand.

Dust huffed a long, tired breath as he rocked back on his heels. "Your family never spoke of the two of us because War threatened them not to just a handful of vorns ago. The last time you and I met. Before that, they hadn't the slightest idea that we even existed let alone who your carrier was. So do not fault them for what they are not at fault for. We never so much as did more than mention her to them. For she is gone, young one, and no amount of hashing out is going to bring her back. Do you understand?"

Still staring up into those big red optics Bee shook his head.

Because no, no he didn't understand.

He didn't understand any of it.

His spark hurt, and his head hurt, and he was crying, and he was confused, and he wanted Hide to hold him, but he also wanted to run away and hide, and he didn't know what to do!

And maybe it was the link Dustoff had let open when he'd told Bumblebee what he had before, or maybe it was just because he was a mech that had been learning how other bots worked for longer than this planet had been a thing.

Whatever the reason, the old 'copter knew that look in those big blue optics. It was why he took another long breath, shaking his head. Settling heavily with a frame strong enough to snap pretty much all of them he let his arms hang loosely over his knees with his rotor blades tightly bunched against his back. Sweeping downward as they brushed against the hard ground behind him. Tuning out their readings was easy with how much other input he was syphoning through both his spark and processor.

Wardrums' emotions were not helping matters either. His skills leaking through the sparkbond that tied the two mechs together making Dust feel and sense more than he wanted too. More than he had any right too.

If he had any sense he'd step back.

He'd let the mechling settle what never should have happened in the first place. For some of it he had all the rights in the world to be pissed about, but he was going about it the wrong way.

And wasn't that just a sad truth Dustoff wanted to punch somebot for.

The mechling couldn't even rightfully get angry, for he didn't know how to be.

He didn't know how to take the emotions rattling inside him and press them outward.

He didn't know how to hate.

A part of Dustoff wanted to rejoice that truth. For here, standing before him, might be the only Cybertronian left in the whole fragged up universe that didn't know how to hate. A universe at war had suffocated every chance he might have ever wanted to make for himself and yet he didn't hate.

He was born for a purpose he might not ever fully understand, he'd never have a damn say in any of it, and he would pay the price for the crimes others commented long before him. He'd never even have the option of doing anything else, and yet he didn't hate.

He had watched his life crumble around him from the orn that he was born yet here still was what might be the brightest spark Dustoff had ever seen.

And the huge medic wanted to kill quite a few powerful things because of it. Because the part of him that had been what kept him alive all these vorns knew the truth of it all. That cold, tired, cynical piece of wire that wrapped tight around his spark knew that one light was not enough to chase away the dark.

Not this much dark.

The dark would snuff it long before it ever got a chance.

Because Trickster could claim there was a plan to all of this all that he wanted, but Dustoff knew the truth. That plan had never really been told to them, and what they thought was going to happen went up in flames when Mercy ran all those vorns ago.

Dustoff no longer believed the reason behind all of this.

He knew how—he knew who—it would end, but he no longer thought it would do what it was meant to do in the process of that.

Because he knew the truth of it that had already been shredded into lies.

And Primus damn it he wanted his mate to stop fraggin' broadcasting!

Tightening his own grip around his spark he lifted a finger again to cuff the little mech on the chin. Part of his attention on the cluster of mechs reeling over there while they stared.

Damn it.

He had to do everything around this slaggin' planet, didn't he?

He was going to punch Wardrums very hard in the nose for this later.

"They didn't know the truth." Dust finally told him softly, making sure those large baby blue pools were watching him closely. There was more. So much more than that, but none of it Dust could tell him and the truth was he wasn't sure if it would matter if he did. "That doesn't dissolve the rest of it, but they really didn't. War made sure of that."

His head lowered.

Those big baby blue optics finding the ground. Field alive with thought and feeling that he probably didn't realize he was sharing, or at least didn't think Dust could read it. Likely it was the later, so Dustoff did his best to tune it out.

Lifting his optics from the small youngling in favor of taking a long, measured look at the current Prime. He didn't bother with more than the adopted sire and the not rightful prince. The rest of them—unfortunately—were a little like collateral damage.

To the mechling, they were not, but to Dust all that really mattered was the one that owned a creation bond with the young one and the one that held more sway in this universe then he had the slightest notion.

They were going to be the two that would hold the defining line for all of this. Because no matter if Dust liked it or not it was them that the mechling would turn too.

He was mad right now. Hurt, and confused, but it would fade.

Dust could already sense it in him. The instinct that wanted to flee to the safety of the bot he called creator, no matter if it was from him that the pain was coming, was pulsing in his spark even now.

He didn't understand, but safety was still what Ironhide and Prime were to him.

He was still young enough that that dictated more of him then he even knew.

"But I don't understand." Those quiet words were met with more tears slowly streaking down his cheeks. However, Dust saw the chance for what it was.

"Then maybe you should go let them explain it to you, huh?"

It was a blur of yellow and the slight crash of metal armor as a much bigger frame caught a smaller and pulled it close, but it was enough to make Dustoff turn away. He could go about getting them something resembling a fire going while the Autobots worked to fix their latest mistake. Because if War didn't come back with something slaggin' to eat Dust really was going to punch him.

Curled in Ironhide's lap looking a whole lot smaller then he had in a very long time Bumblebee clutched to the safety of powerful cannon wielding arms and he listened.

Well, he mostly listened.

There was some shouting that was involved along the way as they all sat around the fire Dustoff steadily built up from bits of shattered crystal and things he had pulled from his subspace. Most of his actions went unnoticed by the little yellow youngling. He was a bit too busy staring between Hide and Optimus as his family worked through trying to make him understand they hadn't lied to him.

That is, until he started pressing questions that it turned out they had.

And it hadn't even started out that he knew to ask them. It was actually Sideswipe that brought it up.

After Optimus had worked through with Bee what had happened when the Last Ring came down. About learning who Wardrums was through Smokescreen and Outrider. About how Wardrums left them with the Bee after the dust had cleared and they had parted ways. With the huge shuttle warning them to keep the young mech the pit away from him.

Bumblebee didn't know even this version of the story was heavily edited.

He didn't know things like Deathtoll and Trickster along with the other Guild had been edited out. He didn't know that Dustoff had cast his optics across a fire and shook his head once at the ruling Prime when his tongue had tripped for a few moments over that bit of truth.

Well, the Autobots had breathed a sigh of relief, and Dustoff had looked away.

Telling the truth did not mean all the pieces had to be laid out just yet.

Besides, they so much as mentioned Trickster's name they were going to find themselves sucked into another time loop and likely this time, they wouldn't be getting the mechling back from it.

No.

That truth could be left out for now.

So the talking went on.

Bee ask questions he was brave enough too; why couldn't they have at least said they'd known about her, why couldn't they have at least told him he had coded family out there somewhere, why did it all have to be kept secret.

Some of that Optimus had answers that satisfied him too, most of them being that they'd only been trying to keep him safe, but other things weren't good enough. Bee just didn't know how to press them anymore.

Near the end of it—or at least what the adults had been hoping was going to be the end of it—Bee had sat back and nodded. Still confused and kind of upset, but understanding a good deal more than he had when they started out.

Then Sideswipe had cleared his throat, glanced at his brother, and locked his optics on Optimus.

"Tell him." The crimson warrior had demanded. The harsh tone in his voice enough to make Ratchet stare at him, Optimus lift an optic ridge, and Dustoff watch from across the growing flames.

Bee perked up in Ironhide's grip while the mech's arms tightened ever so slightly.

"Tell me what?"

Sideswipe ignored him as Sunstreaker lifted his narrowed gaze to the Prime.

"No more lying." The golden mech bit. "He's smart enough to get himself here, he's smart enough to find us again, no more lying."

"Well," Bee lowered his optics slightly. "That last bit was kinda all Dust. I was pretty much lost until he found me."

At that Dustoff snorted. "Do not sell yourself short, young one. You were on the right track. It might have took you another orn or two but you'd have fond a shallow entrance sooner or later, and you'd have gotten hungry enough to dare some of those crystals eventually."

"I probably would have starved." Bee huffed right back. "I was scared."

"And do you think any bot that stands in darkness alone, isn't?" Dustoff straightened on the other side of the fire, rising to a height that even as he sat down on the stone like all the rest of them left him towering. Those pale red optics of this simmering in the fire light holding Bee in a trance he didn't so much as register until it made him duck his head and shrug. "Being scared isn't a fault, it is what defines just how brave you are."

"That . . . ." Bee tilted his head to the side. "Doesn't make any sense."

Dust just chuckled, pale red optic returning his attention to the fire. "It will one orn. Now didn't you have a question you were asking?"

"Oh." Bee perked back up. "Yeah. Tell me what?"

Ironhide's arms around him were still tense, but when Optimus turned his gaze to the powerful black mech Hide shrugged, resting his chin atop his mechling's head.

"They're right."

"Right about what?" Bee asked.

Optimus let one a long breath as he turned his focus fully to the young yellow mech again and sighed. "Your field test, Bee."

The little mech sat up a little straighter in Hide's arms, ignoring the careful pulse through the bond his sire had opened up with his again when he'd got him back in his grip. "What about them?"

"Prowl's been failing you on purpose and we all knew about it." Sideswipe cut in those he didn't lift his optics away from the fire. His shoulders curled inward in something that looked a little bit too much like shame while Bee went very still.

The doorwings that had been hanging a bit more loosely behind his back hiked up again. His antennas falling down as slowly his head twisted to look back at Hide.

"What?"

The big black mech looked away from those bright optics. Guilt and pain shimmering in his darker ones as he took a deep breath in an effort to collect himself. Turning back to the young mechling when he got his thoughts together he opened up the bond between them as wide as he could. Letting the truth of his words flow freely hoping it would be enough to make Bumblebee understand.

"I can't lose you, you know that?"

Sinking a little deeper into the dark, strong armor of the chest behind him Bee nodded slowly.

"I'm not gonna go anywhere, Hide."

The big mech huffed. "I've buried one son, Bumblebee. I can't do that again."

Bee just swallowed, waiting, knowing he wasn't going to like where this went but already having a pretty good idea why it had been done.

"You're a little too clever for your own good, Half Pint." Sideswipe spoke up again, drawing the mechling's optics to him. Maybe because he was trying to save Hide the pain of this one, or maybe because he and Sunstreaker had been the ones twisting the truth the most around him lately and they had never felt good about any of it. "Guess we're partially to blame for that, but you were passing stuff faster than you were old enough to be. Whether you want to admit to it or not, Bee you're just a youngling. You're armor's not even hardened all the way yet. You're too little to be a solider just yet. But that doesn't mean you don't have the skill set of one. So Prowl pinned you up on the test with us. We were failing you on purpose because if you pasted you'd technically be classified as field worthy. You weren't ready for that, Bee, and neither were we. That doesn't mean you couldn't pass the tests though. You were, we were just cheating to keep you from it. And . . . I'm sorry, Bee, it just . . . we were trying to protect you."

The little yellow mech was quiet for a long time after that.

He didn't run, he didn't hide, and he didn't yell.

He just sort of . . . sat there.

Wrapped up in the warmth and safety of his adopted sire, he just . . . sat.

Bright blue optics turning away from the mechs around him in favor of staring into the flickering fire light. He stayed like that for a long time too. Spark unsure and processor working. Thinking over all that he knew and all that he didn't know. Wondering, remembering, and cataloging of a sort.

He dredged up memories he hadn't thought much of at the time. Shifting through and digging up details that now made a whole lot more since. The ending conclusion being a sour taste on the back on his tongue but a reluctant understanding for it all as well.

For he had two options; one, he could throw a hissy fit worthy of the youngling they all seemed incapable of thinking of him as anything else as. He could run, he could scream, he could blame, and he could hurt them all much more then he already had by accident. Or, two, he could take the fact of it all for what it was. Accept it, and make what he wanted and what was for the best out of it. He could prove that he wasn't some silly little sparkling that couldn't handle the truth.

For it seemed that it had never been a case of he wasn't good enough.

It had only ever been his family wasn't ready.

And a part, deep down inside of him, was very angry about that. For they had lied to him, and as much as it hurt it pissed him off as well.

He knew why they did it though.

He could see the reason shining of so very clearly in all their optics, just as he could feel it pulsing down the bonds they opened up to him again after he had slammed them shut.

He didn't have to like the reason—he didn't to be honest—but he did have to admit to the understanding of it.

Settling back into Ironhide's hold he cast his optics back around the lot of them before settling on Optimus and quietly saying. "Don't lie to me anymore."

It wasn't a request.

It didn't come with a plea.

It was a demand and one he would fight for if he had too.

"I get why you did it. I understand and . . . yeah, okay, you're right I'm little and I'm still very young and I don't think I really grasp just what this war actually is. But you mechs have to start realizing you are the ones that taught me to do what I can do. You have to start accepting that I can do it. You made me that way. You have to start giving me a chance. I'll be careful, but it's not fair that you all get to decide that I don't get to take the same risks you do. You all go out there every orn. You fight, and you leak, and damn it all to pit Megatron blew our ship out the sky! Half the crew is dead! Okay!? I know what death is. I know what the risk is. I'm scared of it, but I'm not . . . afraid of it so to speak. Not any different then you all are. Its my family, it's all I have. I wanna fight for it too. You have to stop trying to make me not. Because like it or not our whole world is at war and I can either fight it all on my terms—on your terms—or on theirs. That's just the way it is going to have to be."

He was met with an accepted silence for a long while after that until finally Optimus nodded and said.

"If I think it is safe, I will tell it too you, Bumblebee. I promise."

"Life isn't safe, Opt." Bee's use of the old sparkling nickname for the towering commander wasn't a mistake and it made the big red and blue mech smile at him tiredly, but it didn't change the answer. Bee hadn't thought it would.

"That's all I can give you, little one. This is still war and I cannot give you all the answers all the time."

"I understand." Bee nodded slowly, not completely happy, but happier all the same. "But . . . does this mean I can go on with the field test?"

Ironhide huffed behind him, his arms tightening ever so much again as the big mech sighed and said. "Yes."

And for the first time in what felt like a while, the little mech grinned.

The night stretched on, klicks ticking on into breams and breams into joor. Eventually the small yellow mech giving into the stress of the orn and the warmth of Ironhide's hold. Soaking up the safety he hadn't had in orns so that he could curl in a ball, snuggle in, and fall into a deep recharge with a familiar engine and a warm spark under his audios.

Around the fire the mechs stayed relatively quiet for a while after that. Ratchet on one side of Hide with Jazz on the other. The medic sat up watching the flames while Jazz leaned back on his arms. The twins were sat on the medic's other side, right across the fire from Dust while Optimus sat across the flames from Hide.

Dustoff was leant back against a cluster of stones his pale red optics staring out into the darkness around them. Most of his focus was inward at this point. Listening to where his spark was telling him War was at the moment.

The massive aft was getting closer again.

Still worked up, angry, and hurting but at least he was coming back.

And he better slaggin' have something to eat with him.

He was still a little ways out though which was why Dustoff figured the silence the Autobots were allowing until the mechling fell into a deep enough recharge wouldn't last now that he was snoring ever so softly against Ironhide's chest.

When the Prime's throat cleared Dustoff was not surprised. He was also not annoyed enough yet to try and ignore him. There wasn't much point. So those pale red optics turned to find the rich blue of the Prime, lifted an optic ridge in permission for him to go on.

"What did you tell him?" Optimus asked quietly.

"The truth." Dustoff shrugged. "A portion of it at least. I had to give him something to trust me enough to let me close to him, you know? Little thing was leaking alone in the dark when something like War and I show up. Any smart mechling would have run and he very much thought about it. So I started talking to keep him still. Sure, we could have tracked him easily enough. It was tracking him that let us find him to begin with, but I really didn't want to chase him down. It wouldn't have helped us any. I was trying to make it easier for all of us. War didn't do much to help with that, but then, when does he ever?"

"War can shove his damn attitude up his exhaust." Sunstreaker growled lowly, the sound pitched quiet as to not wake the mechling.

Dust huffed a tired laugh. "You two should know better than to snark when you can't back it up."

The split spark brothers just growled.

Ratchet shifted uneasily beside them, optics on the medic that spent their younglinghood putting them back together for the mech he was mated too that did most of the breaking of them.

"You can't take him you two fools." Those pale red optics cut hard to the brothers making the low growl cut short. "And you should get the slaggin' nonsense out of your heads before he comes back. He's not in the mood to deal with the two of you and every lesson you ever failed at."

Sideswipe bit at him through clenched teeth. "We did everything that bastard told us to do and you know it!"

"Except not get close to something you cannot replace."

The two of them paused for the slightest breath and Dust had a victory in it he no way enjoyed as he sighed.

"He did what he could to help the two of you, and you know it. Stop pretending that it isn't the only reason you're alive. Telling that to a pair of twins was never supposed to work, you fools. It was supposed to make you think. To realize the rest of the world was never going to look at the two of you right. It was a lesson to stop trying to make them. But Primus forbid you actually get the lesson for what it was. You were both too busy being pissed at him for tough lessons to listen to him let alone me."

And with that Dust looked away again. Settling his optics on the Prime as he clenched his teeth.

"I've watched too many sparklings die in mindless slaughter to think that lies work, Prime. More than one planet has crumbled under our feet and while everybot around me died I've been left standing waiting to make right things I've said. I'll never get too now. You're in the middle of a war that is destroying everything around you with your older brother because of things you sire did. You should know what I'm talking about. You should understand it."

Optimus looked away, jaw tense.

"Lying to him won't earn you anything but a mechling far too desperate to prove himself. For that is what you have now. And that will get him killed, mechs."

"And I suppose ya want us to talk about Trickster then?" Jazz huffed from where he was leaned lazily back.

Dustoff laughed quietly at that. "Sure, bring him up, he'll poof you across the universe and dump you in a swamp. That or he'll save himself some trouble and just take the mechling now. By all means, bring the three of them up. Or, better yet, let's just go ahead and tell him about Deathtoll, yes? That should be fun to explain."

"Shut up." Ironhide rumbled out, his optics fixed on the little mech laying curled in his lap. Watching him and making sure those young systems were actually in recharge.

"Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it isn't all true, tribe mech."

"You talk about any of that I'll figure out a way to kill your aft."

"Much more impressive then you have tried. You'd find yourself disappointed." Dust just shrugged at him. "You are misunderstanding me though. I don't want to tell him anything about Trickster, let alone Deathtoll. It's just that I'm not deluding myself into thinking this is anything other then what it is."

"And just what is it, Dust?" Sunstreaker huffed at him. "What do you want?"

"For him not to die."

And that said just about all of it didn't it?

It was enough to silence the 'Bots for a while at least. Leaving Dustoff to poke at his crackling fire and search through the bond for his mate. There was little more to be done this night then letting a tired youngling get some much needed real rest. What would come next, well, Dustoff knew but he didn't want to analyze it.

No amount of ignoring it was going to keep it from happening, but that did not mean Dustoff had to wait happily for all the pit that was going to come next. So it was with that in mind that he was no surprised when Optimus finally spoke up again.

"What were you two doing out here anyway?"

"This desert belongs to War, though the legal slag of all that truth died long ago. We have no side in your petty squabbling match, we can go where and when we please."

"Yeah," Sideswipe drawled up at him. "That's great, but what is really going on, Dust?"

The old 'copter snorted. "Megatron has found his old master, that is what is going on."

The collection of mechs straightened up at that. Even Jazz pushing himself upright from his lazy slouch.

"Old Master?"

"Wardrums already told you, Prime, just what is wrong with your brother. You can't tell me you haven't put the rest together. We already told you, the Fallen is no myth. No more so then the Guild is, or I am."

Optimus' jaw tightened and Dustoff took that as permission to go on.

"When Vos fell the Fallen was there. It was were Megatron was hiding him, or at least where he was told to hide him. The old bastard nearly got killed in the attack. If only he had, none of the last six hundred vorns would have happened. However, he was just badly injured, knocked into stasis. That doesn't mean the hold on your brother's mind loosened though. Oh no, if anything, it tightened because it is not really the Fallen pulling all those strings. It is Deathtoll. So there you have your reason for why the 'Cons did what happened next to Praxus. Your brother's Master was nearly killed and the repercussion was the near extermination of an innocent breed."

Jazz's visor dimmed.

Dust shrugged.

"I know you didn't know that, but there is your reason. Megatron hasn't been sane let alone his actual self since Fallen got his claws on him, and that was way back when he started pit fighting. And you may blame your blasted sire for all that, the point is though, that it seems Shockwave has finally pieced the old glitch together well enough that he can start giving orders again. Those orders are to find the All Spark. Because we hid it from not only him but his siblings as well when Deathtoll started the first war. When he killed his own balance partner."

Letting that sink in Dustoff watched the emotions flicker around these very different faces. Mechs of different builds, different breeds, and different sparks. Mechs that in a different world would have likely never even have ever given each other a glance on the street, but in this world were wrapped up so tightly among one another they now no longer knew how to live without the others.

A princeling that should have never been Prime, a tribal rat who should have never left the warrior fronts of his people, a pair of quick tempered twins that had the sparks of artists that never should have been dripping in energon, a brilliant doctor that should have never turned field medic, and a runt of a tribal prince that should have never made it out of the sands.

And this was just a fraction of oxymoron's that made up a whole fraction.

At least the ranks of the 'Cons made a little bit more sense to Dustoff.

Maybe that was what made this rag tag group of civilians that should have never lasted an orn against Fallen and his puppet were still holding their ground this late into an Apocalypse.

"I always knew Praxus was because of Vos." Jazz's smooth voice was lowered as he pulled himself forward to wrap his arms loosely around his knees. "Slag there was, we never boomed Vos."

"No," Dustoff sighed. "But Sentinel and your High Council did."

Optimus shuttered. "I didn't know half the slag he was doing until it was already too late to stop any of it."

"Already too late is why you are sitting here now." Dust told him will a little less bite in his words, but they hurt all the same. "There is nothing that will change what has been done, Prime. Your brother is lost to you now. He's been swallowed up by something not even War ever bested."

"I've known Megatronus was gone for a very long time, Dustoff." Optimus whispered with his optics set on the flames. "I do not need you to explain that fact to me."

"Apparently, you do because you are still underestimating him."

"I thought the All Spark was a myth." Optimus bit back at him. "Sen—"

"Sentinel said it was?" Dust cut him off with narrowed pin of his optics. "Yes I know. There are many lies your sire told you that you still have not put truth too. You are blind because you do not wish to see. He is the perfect example of that!"

Throwing a large clawed hand out over the crackling flames Dust pointed hard at the softly snoring bundle of yellow held close and safe in Ironhide's arms. Those pale red optics never left Optimus though as he pinned that royal blue gaze in a shimmering pool of anger.

"It's time you fraggin' realized the forces with which you are playing with, because the longer you spend trying to deny the truth the more you are going to hurt him in the end. He is not ever going to be what you want him to be. No light born in darkness is ever going to measure up to what you think it should be. He's not here to please any of you though. He's here to pay for you and nothing you do will ever change that."

"Trying to fill fools up with fact again, are we, Dust?"

Pale red optics along with many different shades of blue snapped to the mouth of the little alcove they had found themselves in. the big 'copter leaning back at the sight of the towering shuttle ducking his way into the round room of stone.

It was impressive, that something as big as Wardrums could sneak when he wanted too, but it was doable. If he put enough effort in it.

The fact that he was bothering to do it made Dustoff wonder just how long he'd been standing there listening.

"Well it would be a lot easier if you'd stop snarling at them and actually bother with saying something." The tan helicopter mech shot back while he watched that massive shadow colored form stalk into the alcove. He noted the way all the Autobots tensed at the sight of him, or maybe it was less him and more the energon dripping down his long arms from where he was dragging a fairly sized lump of death grey frame behind him.

Dangling hooved legs and the snapped neck of a full sized Circuit Deer did not even touch the ground from the distance of Wardrums' height. It did however make a rather awful sounding squishy thud that snapped a little yellow mechling back awake when it was thrown to fall to the ground before Dustoff's feet.

Bee shot up with a startled sucked in breath, only Hide's tight grip around him and a low soothing sound from the adopted sire keeping the mechling from likely scrambling away in shock before he pieced together what was going on around him.

Still, a shark spike of fear pulsed through his field and down through his bonds before he could stop it letting every bot around him feel it before he could suck it back in.

It got him a demeaning snort and the annoyed roll of fire colored optics from the towering shuttle standing over to the side of him now.

Bumblebee shrank back down into the safety of Ironhide's grip at the sound and the sight of it. Antennas folding and doorwings lowering.

Wardrums sneered at the display.

"Skittish little runt." War growled down at him earning an answering snarl from several engines around but he just shook his head to all of it. Turning his attention back to Dust who was slowly picking up the limp and still warm frame of what seemed to be their breakfast. "Fry that up if you would, I've got some more looking to do. I'll be back soon."

And just like that the towering mech was gone again. Vanishing back into shadows leaving a collection of mechs and one small mechling staring after him.

Dust clicked his tongue against his teeth, shook his head, and bent to task. Not because his dear mate told him too, but because he was slaggin' hungry for something besides crystals.

When he took one limp leg of the deer in one hand, one in the other, and yanked the frame in two with just a jerk of movement he paused for a moment to consider very wide baby blue optics staring at the limp, now severed frame, leaking in his grasp.

Poor little thing looked like he was going to be sick.

Dust huffed an amused snort. A smirk curling up his lips.

"Come now," He chuckled. "You can't tell me you've never eaten animal energon before."

When the mechling audibly gagged it wasn't just Dustoff that started laughing. But at least Jazz, the twins, and Hide had the manners to be quiet about it.

Bee sank down into his guardian's arms and pouted. Trying very hard not to look at the dripping blue fuel running down Dustoff's hands as he went about cooking a deer.

He was not looking forward to this.

I love Dustoff more then I should. ^-^

I hope you guys liked it! I'm looking forward to seeing what you thought. Thanks for reading!

-Jaycee