Everything had gone so wrong.

The autobots all sat silently in the main room of their base as ratchet went from one to another checking their wounds. They had lost four of their comrades in battle; sideswipe, topspin, roadbuster and mirage. And may soon lose another.

"Ratchet, how is leadfoot?" drift asked as he walked by him

Ratchet let out a long sigh

"not good, the battle really messed him up and the transport back to base seemed to worsen his condition. Im…not sure if he's going to make it"

The words hung heavy on everybody.

"hes the toughest of the wreckers, if anybody can make it through this, its him" bumblebee said trying to sound sure, but even he wasn't.

Optimus stood at the main terminal, going through the signals and activity before the battle, clearly trying to keep his mind occupied. He was taking the whole think very hard, obviously, but after the outburst he had after the battle.

After the battle, NEST had shown up to take control of the situation and clean up. Unfortunately other government representitives were not far behind. They immediately began ripping into the autobots and arguing they're presence on earth. But, after their loss, optimus was having none of it. He slammed his foot down with enough force to crack the ground, effectively silencing the humans. He did not understand why every human politician or in power became an asshole and he wasn't in the mood for it. In summery be basically said that their kind would never be grateful for the autobots' sacrifices for them and "basically" told them to fuck off before leaving with the other autobots.

Ratchet made his way over to override, who was sitting against the wall with her knees pulled up to her chest, a look of pure despair on her face.

"this was my fault" she kept repeating over and over in her head.

He crouched down beside her and slowly pulled her legs down so he could inspect the damage to her chest. As he did, her eyes remained glued on the hallway, for just down it, lay their fallen friends.

"damage is minimal…"

He looked up and saw her expression

"at least physically"

He rested his hand on her shoulder and she looked up at him with weary eyes. That look, he knew it. It suddenly dawned on him what was wrong with her.

"this was your first real battle wasn't it?"

She nodded, and all eyes turned to her

"you were never a soldier, never knew the harshness of war. And, probably never lost friends either, especially seen them die before your eyes" optimus suddenly turned to say

"im afraid that is the reality of war" ratchet added

"a pointless war" override spoke up

"it isn't pointless" optimus said back

"it most certainly is! What is it all for now, huh? why did the war start, the autobots start fighting? To save cybertron from tyranny. Now look what it is. Cybertron is gone, our race is most likely nearing the brink of extinction, and you don't care! you would rather play big brother to these little meat bags. You only care about them now, who don't even like us.

"override" bumblebee and ratchet tried to calm her

"no, this needs to be said. I do believe in freedom and peace, I do. But how many of our kind, friends, have you sacrificed as shields for their kind. They chose to fight for their home, not theirs, not them. And now our home is gone, you chose to sacrifice it for them as well. You chose earth over cybertron, over our home!"

Optimus was stunned; he had never had the clearance to see it like that, or more accuratly had blocked it all out convinced himself that it was for the greater good and that he had no choice of action. Is that really what he had done. Was that what the others thought. Hound wanted to object to what she was saying but held his tongue. She was free to express how she felt, plus there was a sting of truth to what she said.

"I…I" was all optimus could get out

"there's nothing you can do or say optimus, it's done. You made the decision already, and THAT is the outcome, the eventuality of that choice" she said as she pointed down the fall to where the dead autobots lay.

"I came here because I wanted more out of life; I didn't want to die fighting for someone else's world, fighting their battles"

Optimus was dumbfounded; he, nor any of the others, could say anything. there was nothing to say. Override then stormed out of the room. The others sat in silence before optimus turned and slowly walked out down another hallway from the room. Bumblebee and ratchet looked at each other and nodded. They both turned and went off, ratchet after optimus and bee after override. The other three were left to stew in the tension that still hung in the air.

Bee sprinted through the corridors of the base, trying to find where override had gone. He suddenly came to a corner when he saw her arm from around it. He slowed down and walked around carefully until he was in front of her. She looked up at him, energon tears welling up in her optics.

"override, I know you're feeling bad, we all are, but you didnt have to…"

He was suddenly cut off by her falling against him. She had no strength anymore, inner or outer. She was a complete wreck. She looked up at him.

"it's not opimus' fault, its mine. it was my fault" she said, shaky and full of despair

"no, no its not"

"yes it is, I just had to race, and bring you all with me. It was my fault. I got them all into it. I got them killed."

He tried to hold her in a standing position, as most of her weight was on him at this point. She suddenly looked up at him, they were staring into each other's eyes, their faces were inches apart.

"bee" she whispered

"yeah?" he whispered back as she closed the distance between them

Suddenly her golden lips were pressed against his vocal speaker, the heat from each warming the other. She finally broke the kiss, with each looking at the other with a mix of content and confusion. She leaned her head forward and rested it on his shoulder.

"override?"

"…"

"it wasn't your fault, it was those two glitch heads that showed up and led them to us"

Overrides eyes suddenly flared. She had completely forgot about ransack and crumplezone until that moment. Them suddenly showing up on earth, looking for her, talking about revenge, and leading the decepticons to them. It was their fault.

"bee, I think…I just need a drive"

"are you sure?"

"yeah, you know me, clears my head, relaxes me"

"override" he almost whispered

She reached out and put her hand on his cheek. He dimmed his optics and leaned into it, savoring the contact.

"it's all right bee, it's all gonna be alright"

He felt her hand leave his cheek and when he finally opened his eyes again, she had already gone.

"you can take the bot out of the race, but you can't take the race out of the bot" he smiled inwardly

He started walking down the hall, thinking about those two bots when he froze in horror. He suddenly realized what he had said, where she was going, what she was doing. He spun around to look, knowing full well that she was long gone.

"we have to find her, have to stop her. what is she gonna do?! I gotta find optimus!"

He started sprinting back towards the control room.

"oh primus, what dark road have I sent her racing down. Please don't let it be too late"

things are getting heated, all soon to come to a head, stay tuned to find out :)