"What do you mean he's here? Since when?"

Agent Fowler's voice projected off of the hanger's walls—a feat that Ratchet still found impressive given how such a loud noise came from such a small being—the tempestuous mix of excitement and enthusiasm in Fowler's tone clearly warring with the demanding bite in his question.

Haunting his familiar post by the monitors, Ratchet glanced toward Bumblebee—Bulkhead being out on patrol and Arcee…well, Ratchet knew when Arcee was ready to return to base she would—sharing a knowing look with him before regarding Fowler once again. Beside the agent that was rapidly turning surly, June lingered with Jack and Raf. The nurse, having risen early that morning and seeing her son already missing, had instinctively known the one place that Jack would have gone to so early; so it was that she quickly followed suit, making a bee-line for the Autobot base.

A bemused smile had turned up the corners of June's lips as she had driven over to the base; most parents would be terrified finding their teenage son or daughter missing—not to say that June wasn't altogether unconcerned—but when it came to her son, more often than not she could be confident in finding him with the robotic race. It was both a boon and hazard June realized as she had entered the silo proper. On one hand she was unbelievably thankful that her son could boast of such a powerful guardian as Arcee, but even associating with the Autobots brought greater risks. Suppressing a shiver as she recalled memories of when she had been captured by Airachnid, June forced her attention back into the present as Ratchet spoke up at last.

"Since a few days ago…"

June's gaze flew to Ratchet—who suddenly found the monitors before him riveting—at the careful neutrality in his voice. Over the last few months June had come to know Ratchet surprisingly well, as they each had developed an easy understanding of the other. And of one thing June was sure: Ratchet, just like all of the other Autobots, couldn't lie or even manage to be successfully evasive if his spark depended upon it.

Such was yet another nuance to these titanic beings that amazed June, here they were, each mountains of living metal, strong and ancient, yet they couldn't be anything but honest, as if lying simply was not compatible with their programming, or such a capability had been left out.

Therein lay their innocence, untarnished for eons.

Yet seeing Ratchet, so suddenly unable to look at any of the humans directly, looking for all the world like a young human child who had just taken a cookie out of the cookie jar before dinner, made June's heart sink.

"Ratchet…"she spoke up, gentle and compassionate, "What's wrong with him? What happened to Optimus?"

"We were forced to put him into stasis shortly after we managed to bring him back to base…"There it was again, that vague emptiness behind his words.

"Why, Ratchet?" Fear clutched at June's heart.

"Don't tell me he thinks he's some sort of 'Con!" Fowler burst out.

The only sound to break the silence was that of the delicate click of gears as Bumblebee fidgeted and emitted a low, mournful whine.

Feeling numb and lightheaded all at once, June stepped closer to the railing—noting Jack and Raf's conspicuous silence—"Oh no…oh Ratchet…what happened? What did he do?"

Honesty.

As an Autobot that's all that Ratchet could give her, "Mrs. Darby…I'm sorry…but he…threatened your son…"

"What?"

Memories of Optimus, stately and noble, sagacious and comforting, the soothing power of that velvet voice, flooded June as she was unable to reconcile such images with the knowledge that he had threatened Jack. Optimus had threatened her son…No it wasn't true, she couldn't believe it.

"That's not what happened!" Jack suddenly cried out, rushing to his mother's side he gripped her arm, "Optimus isn't himself, he thinks he is someone called Orion Pax, its who he was before he was made a Prime." Jack's words came out in a rush, almost tripping over each other in their urgency to make his mother understand. "And he didn't threaten me—" Jack shot a glare over at Ratchet, "—its just that Optimus—Orion—still thinks that the war hasn't happened, that he and Megatron are still friends—"

"Hang on just a minute here!" Fowler stepped up, "Optimus and Megatron used to be friends?"

There was an impatient huff from Ratchet, "Did you hear nothing when I told you of our history? Of the time before Cybertron had been plunged into war!"

"Of course I did, but there is a difference between being allies and friends." Fowler snapped back, his words biting and Ratchet bristled at the implication.

"I do not make such distinctions between allies and friends, but I would be willing to make a exception, Agent Fowler."

"Yeah, well you go right ahead and do that, Ratchet, while I go back to the Pentagon and tell them to now list Optimus or whatever he is calling himself now, as a threat."

"Optimus is not a threat!" Jack cried out.

"He would never harm humans!" Raf echoed.

"The only reason he got upset was because he wanted the Key back, "Jack tried to explain, wanted to make them see that Orion was not dangerous.

"So give it back to him."

June hated how cold and removed her tone sounded and she felt Jack flinch at how judgmental her words were, "Jack, I know you don't want to admit it, but he's dangerous, he's…not Optimus anymore… and I don't want you to give him reason to come after you. Give him the key back."

"Mom, he would never 'come after' me!"

"Give it back to him Jackson. If he already threatened you—"

"—he didn't threaten me!—"

"—There is no way you would be able to protect yourself from him!"

"I can believe you're saying this…"

"Jack…" timidly, it was Raf who spoke up, "Your mom is right…you saw how Bulkhead barely managed to take Optimus down…If the next time he wakes up and is gearing for a real fight there wouldn't be much that the Autobots could do to stop him…"

Even Bumblebee agreed with Raf, emitting another lonely whine, his over sized blue optics gazing back apologetically at all of the humans. The defeated way his shoulders slumped forward only made Raf wonder, if it came down to it, would Bumblebee fight back? Would Bumblebee have it in him to attack his leader, his Prime, his mentor and his friend? Or would Bumblebee instead choose to be offlined by—Raf pushed the thought out of his head, unable to finish it, unable to bear it.

"Bulkhead did what!" Fowler roared, turning on Ratchet again, "You better explain everything. Now!"

Absolute chaos reigned for the following moments as Fowler and Ratchet alternated between scathing retorts and thinly veiled insults, while June and Jack struggled to make themselves heard. Their clamorous voices all became embroiled in fierce competition.

And then, suddenly, the sound of a piercing high-pitched whistle, shrill and resounding cut through the commotion, succeeding in sobering the group almost instantly. All eyes and optics turned toward the source: Bumblebee.

Amidst it all, Bumblebee had moved forward, scooping Raf off of the platform as if to shield him from all of the bitterness and frustration that clouded the air. Sitting within Bumblebee's palm, Raf immediately felt calmer, his tiny heart no longer beat against his ribs frantically. Warmth from being cradled in that living metal grasp soothed Raf, reassuring him that everything would be ok. If only Raf could have known that Bumblebee was taking just as much comfort in Raf's presence then perhaps he could have realized just how unsettled the Autobot really was.

But Bumblebee was Raf's guardian, a task to which the scout was singularly devoted to, and as such Bumblebee knew that right now the last thing Raf needed to see was fear from his Autobot companion. So it was that Bumblebee drew himself up, glaring reproachfully at the group, clicking a torrent of rebukes.

Now, he chided them, now was not the time to turn against one another. If anything, Optimus would have never wanted to see us so divided.

After a considering pause, Ratchet was the first to consign himself to Bumblebee's wisdom, "Bumblebee is right…"

While there was no immediate outpouring of apologies, the tension between the gathered group did abate a degree. And as it waned, Raf spoke up, startling everyone with the suddenness of his question.

"Hey guys…has anyone seen Miko?"

#

A/N: Sorry for the short chapter, but I promise you won't have to wait in suspense for too long, dear reader as Ch. 16 will be up tomorrow! (Its in the final editing stages right now) Anywho, hope you're enjoying De Cinere so far! As always thank you for reading!

Please R &R (Optimus would want you to ;) )

~~~Epsilon Pax & Bumbee