Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers

Time remaining: 12 months

Alarms began to blare almost the instant Bumblebee stepped into the base, detecting a Decepticon energy signature. Ignoring the humans pointing their tiny guns at him, he made a quick beeline for the Medbay.

"Primus, Bumblebee, what is going on out there?" Ratchet yelled over the alarms as soon as he saw Bee. The medic's papers and charts were scattered on the floor, dropped in surprise.

Bee's radio fizzed, "Comm…Optimus. Tell him…false alarm…deactivate."

Ratchet complied, and that accomplished, turned to Bee, noticing for the first time what he held in his arms, "Bumblebee, is that a…Decepticon?"

The alarms had stopped blaring, signifying that Optimus was probably on his way, as Bee tried to explain to the red and white bot, "I was just thinking…she might…know some…valuable information."

The angry medic towered over him, "You brought a fraggin' 'Con to our secret military base, into MY Medbay, and jeopardized our location, because you thought she might have some information?!"

As Ratchet's servo curled around one of his favorite throwing wrenches, Bee decided nervously that he had been wrong; Optimus wasn't the one he should have been worried about. It was Ratchet.

By the time Optimus arrived at the Medbay, Bumblebee had taken cover behind a stack of cots, rubbing his sore helm and dodging hails of well-thrown wrenches from Ratchet.

"Ratchet! Hold your fire!" Optimus commanded and the medic grudgingly obeyed, shooting a fierce glare at Bee before shuffling off.

"Thanks…boss bot," Bee cringed as Optimus folded his arms and gave him a stern look.

"Would you mind explaining to me why there is an unconscious Decepticon in the Medbay?"

"He thought she might have some valuable information," Ratchet's voice echoed sarcastically from the next room.

"Bumblebee," Optimus said quietly, "you have endangered the lives of every human and Autobot on this base just to gain information?"

Bee beeped sorrowfully, "Didn't want to…just leave her there…to offline. Sorry…Optimus." He lowered his helm shamefully.

Optimus studied the young bot and the femme he cradled in his arms, "Bumblebee…is this the same femme I caught you playing with all those solar cycles ago?"

Silently, Bee nodded his helm, avoiding Optimus' gaze.

Optimus sighed and closed his optics, reigning in his patience, "For your sake and hers, you better hope she knows something of use to us."

Bumblebee could feel Optimus' disappointment in him as he went to inform the grouchy medic to begin treating the femme. Still, he felt a wave of relief wash over his processor knowing she would be treated and not left to offline.

Looking down at the form he held, he frowned, wondering why he felt so protective of her, a random Decepticon femme. Reluctantly, he laid her on the medical berth, and left her to the medic, trusting he would take care of her.

Magnia groaned, her optics onlining against the harsh lights. Her systems were reporting multiple failures, and her left shoulder plate was severely damaged, so she assumed she must be in a Medbay. But she didn't remember the lights in Knockout's Medbay being so fraggin' bright.

As her optics adjusted to the searing brightness, she realized she was definitely not anywhere in the Decepticon base. Everything here was clean and orderly, from the neatly stacked medical files to the pristine white med berths. There wasn't a Decepticon alive who would take the time and effort to clean a room so thoroughly.

A flutter of movement to her right startled her and she whipped around, cannons aimed. A red and white mech froze, servos raised in mock surrender. "Calm down," He scolded in a gruff voice. "You're going to short circuit your wires if you get too excited."

"Where am I?" Magnia asked, keeping her cannons pointed steadily at the mech.

Completely ignoring the cannons, the mech walked past her and began sorting files on a desk, "You are in the Medbay of the Autobot base. My name is Ratchet, and I am the medical officer for the Autobots." Magnia noticed the blood red Autobot symbol engraved on his shoulder plate as he reached for an energon cube on a shelf and handed it to her, "Here. Drink this."

Magnia eyed it suspiciously, "Did you poison it?"

"Do you really think I would offline you now?" Ratchet raised an optic ridge. "After all that effort of keeping you online?"

"Why are the Autobots so concerned with my well being?" Magnia asked, warily downing the energon cube. "What do you want with me? I won't be useful as a hostage, and I will definitely not reveal any Decepticon information."

Ratchet growled, "That stupid mech, Bumblebee, brought you here after he found you crashed near our base. Optimus made me treat you, to see if you could offer any information."

"Bumblebee?" Magnia froze.

"Yes. I've commed him that you're online; he should be here soon." Bumblebee burst excitedly into the Medbay just then, eager to greet his old friend.

Magnia studied the new arrival, cannons raised, before asking hesitantly, "Bumblebee?" The mech before her, tall and muscular, sharply contrasted her memories of a skinny little sparkling mech, but the yellow armor with black stripes was the same, along with Bee's bright eager blue optics.

"Hello…Magnia," Bee's radio sputtered, and he waved happily. He was glad to see she was alright.

Magnia stared at him for a second before finally lowering her cannons, "You look…different than when I last saw you."

Bee made a noise that sounded like laughter, "I could say…the same…about you…It's been…a while."

Her violet optics studied him, "Bee, what happened to your voice?"

Bumblebee flipped through radio stations for a while before an announcer's voice finally said, "Megatron..."

"Wait, wait, hold on," Ratchet interjected. "You two know each other?" He smacked Bee on the helm with a wrench suddenly, and Bee stumbled back, surprised.

"You risked the lives of everyone on this fraggin' base for some old girlfriend of yours who's a Decepticon?" He yelled ready to charge. "You just wait until Optimus hears about this!"

"Optimus…already knows!" Bee yelled, ducking another wrench.

Ratchet froze, mid swing and stared at Bee curiously, "He does?"

"Yes…" Bee gestured to Magnia, who had observed all of the commotion with an amused half-grin on her faceplates. "He said…for her sake…she better…know something."

"Well," Ratchet subsided a little but still waved the wrench threateningly. "How about we find out?"

Turning to Magnia, he gestured with the wrench, "You are nearly back to your full health, although your shoulder plate could use a bit more healing. However, if Bumblebee hadn't brought you to me to patch you up, you'd probably be offline right now."

"So," Ratchet paused, "I suppose you owe us a favor."

Magnia's optics narrowed, "What kind of favor?"

"Well, first I would kindly ask you to swear never to reveal the location of this base to any Decepticon," Ratchet's optics narrowed. "Of course, if you refuse we will be less polite about it."

Magnia locked optics with Bumblebee and sighed, "Done. You have my word." Ratchet opened his mouth, but she silenced him with a glare and continued, "However, I will not divulge any information concerning the Decepticons. You won't be getting any intel out of me."

Ratchet sighed, frustrated, "Well, you have to give us something; otherwise we won't let you leave."

"What are you going to do, keep me prisoner forever?"

"Frag it, I don't know," Ratchet grumbled. "Bumblebee, you got us into this mess, you think of something."

Bumblebee was silent for a moment, "Ratchet…did you use up…a lot of the….energon…treating her?"

"Yeah. Why?"

Bee glanced at Magnia, "Would you be…willing to…tell us an…energon…location?"

Ratchet's optics widened, "Good idea, Bee."

"Wait, what's he talking about?" Magnia questioned.

"If you were to tell us where the Decepticons are keeping some energon, that wouldn't really be betraying them, because light energon is useless to them," Ratchet said. "Also, saving you rather depleted our energon supply, so you kind of owe us anyways."

Magnia scowled, "You fragging Autobots; you're all such extortionists." She glanced at Bumblebee, "No offense, Bee." Bee shrugged and beeped noncommittally.

"Fine," Magnia sighed. "There may or may not be a storage of energon at coordinates 43°10'16.5"W. It'll be heavily guarded and you most certainly did not hear this from me." She gestured to the exit, "Can I leave now?"

"Fine. Be careful with that shoulder plate," Ratchet said dismissively walking off into his office.

Magnia stood from the berth and began striding towards the exit, but Bumblebee grabbed her wrist.

"Wait…Magnia," he buzzed. "You could…stay awhile…if you wanted…hangout?"

A small bitter smile flickered across Magnia's faceplates, "Bumblebee, you are a good mech, and I am grateful to you for saving my life. But," she locked optics with him and said softly, "I hope we never meet again. Because if we do, it will be on a battlefield, and I will be ordered to offline you. I am sorry."

She broke her gaze, turned away, and left Bumblebee standing there, confusion in his sad blue optics. Her spark ached to have to do that to a once good friend, but they could be friends no longer. Her loyalty was to the Decepticons, and it always would be.