Disclaimer: *tumbleweeds blow by* Hehe ... long time, no see folks.
I, Shadow Katakura, have returned to FanFiction to bring you the latest installment of Revelations of A Different Future. I am so, so sorry for the four-year wait (totally on me). Between COVID-19 and college and the passing of family members, my life has been a rollercoaster. I won't promise I'm going to be on a consistent schedule, but I will say I think I'm ready to get back to writing :)
But enough about me! This chapter is LONG overdue. Let's get on with it, shall we?
Dragon and I: *throws confetti*
I was completely and utterly confused.
Arcee, Bumblebee, Jack, Miko, and I had just returned from New York after battling Knockout and his insecticon for the phase shifter. I had prepared myself for the sight of Bulkhead on the verge of death. I had prepared myself to console Miko, and I had prepared myself to hitch a ride on her and Wheeljack's revenge scheme to make sure they came back alive. However, what we returned to was the complete opposite and then some.
First, Bulkhead was completely fine. A bit banged up and slightly weakened from what little exposure to the Tox-En he did get, but otherwise, he wasn't injured at all. Bulk explained how when he got there, he found Pandimala and Hardshell coming for the dangerous energon. I winced at that. Knowing Mala, she would have taken it upon herself to get rid of the Tox-En since Bulkhead would have been at a grave disadvantage if both she and Hardshell had gone after him. It seems that's exactly what happened too, and Hardshell wasn't pleased. Bulkhead also explained how the 'Cons have two new recruits now.
"Thundercracker and Skywarp appeared out of nowhere," Bulkhead shook his helm. It seems he was still in disbelief as well. "They saved Pandimala when Hardshell was choking her. Seems the insecticons aren't ones to follow orders. I'm still finding it hard to believe ole buckethead gave the order to destroy the toxic stuff."
"They were always the more honorable out of the trine," Cliffjumper piped in. The look on his face said it was more to that story, but I would pry answers out of my mech later. "As for Megatron, this time around I say who cares? The Tox-En wouldn't have been good for us or the 'Cons."
"A win-win," Jack agreed.
"Eh, I don't know. Seems fishy to me from what little we know of this traitor."
Then, there's those two. I glanced over at Sunstreaker, the twin who spoke. His twin brother, Sideswipe, stood beside him. The two frontliners saved Wheeljack and Cliff's afts during their fight against Soundwave for the resonance blaster. Thanks to them, that relic would go into our vault in this timeline.
"We lost one relic and gained two. Seems like a fair trade to me," The heavy-duty mech that stood beside Optimus said. Ironhide had joined the Prime in the fight against Dreadwing and Starscream in the artic. Just like in the show, Starscream got away with the armor. However, we gained the Autobot's most renowned weapon specialist in the end.
Don't get me wrong. I'm glad Bulk isn't suffering a life-threatening injury right now, and I'm glad we have new recruits. However, I feel like my processor is about to explode because the events that happened over the course of the day just changed the trajectory of what was supposed to be the episode "Hurt" and the next few after it. Needless to say, I am stressed. As if sensing my stress, Cliff walked over to me with a look of concern.
"Are you okay?" He asked as he laid a hand on my shoulder.
"I'm fine," I smiled up at him. "This is just ... a lot to take in, that's all."
"You're telling me," Cliff snorted. "The extra help is going to be nice though. However, that isn't quite what I meant." He leaned in to speak quietly. "This is way different from the original timeline, huh? You look like you've seen a ghost."
"You don't know the half of it," I shook my helm while silently thanking Primus for my observant mech. "But it's a good different."
I hope.
The Next Day
I paced around in my room. After getting a full night of recharge, the events from yesterday fully registered, and my stress doubled. Without Bulkhead being injured, Wheeljack and Miko would have no reason to go on their revenge scheme. This meant Miko wouldn't kill Hardshell, which was important for her character arc and future events. Alpha Trion was probably having a field day watching me on the verge of panicking.
I stopped my pacing and sighed. I couldn't figure out what to do next stressing in my room. With this thought, I left my room and started to make my way to the main room. I turned a corner and almost bumped right into one of our new recruits.
"Scrap! Sorry Ironhide," I laughed sheepishly. "Wasn't watching where I was going."
"It's alright," The older mech waved it off. "It's actually a good thing I ran into you femme. Optimus mentioned you and the traitor weren't native Cybertronians but said any other details would have to come from you. So, where are you from?"
I winced at 'Mala being called a traitor but had to remind myself I was the only one who knew her "betrayal" was a part of our mission. I made a mental note to thank Optimus for letting me make the decision of how much I wanted to share with our new recruits. However, I saw no harm in telling most of our story, leaving out the secret meetings with Alpha Trion and our supposed destiny. No need to cause any unneeded spark attacks.
"Well, where do I even start?" I chuckled.
We continued to walk to the main room as I recounted the details of how 'Mala and I came to this universe. From us being humans to the accident that caused our transformation to all of our past missions. All the way up to the point where 'Mala left. Although I knew the real reason, I had to continue to sell the act of being hurt behind her actions.
"Pandimala leaving us for the 'Cons solidified my decision of officially joining the Autobots," I explained. This wasn't a complete lie; I hadn't known the real reason behind her leaving yet. "And with this relic hunt underway, having extra help with you and the twins will definitely give us a greater advantage as we continue to keep humankind safe from the Decepticons."
Ironhide was silent as he took in all the new information I'd told him. Then, he said, "It's not easy to lose a comrade in war. Especially a comrade that isn't even dead. This war has taken so much from you younglings, but you continue to wreck with the best of us. You're a true warrior kid, different dimension stuff aside. It's an honor to be here."
A compliment? From a war veteran? The war veteran? IRONHIDE?!
I smiled, doing a decent job of hiding my internal fangirl moment. "Just doing my best here."
We entered the main room, where everyone was crowded around the main monitor. Everyone's faces screamed exasperation, even the kids, and I took notice of the fact that Miko was missing. Which meant ...
"I can't believe she snuck off again," Arcee sighed as she facepalmed.
"If we run into any trouble, you're going back to base Miko. Got that?" Bulkhead's voice came through the comms.
"Relax Bulk. It's just recon," Wheeljack brushed him off.
Oh, Primus. This was just a coincidence, right?
I walked over to stand beside Cliff, ignoring the nagging voice that was screaming this wasn't a coincidence. Surely the timeline would work in our favor this time.
"So, where are they?" I asked.
"Recon of an energon mine in North Carolina," Cliff caught me up on the current mission. "As usual, Miko snuck off as quietly as a mouse. Wheeljack was still around, so he decided to join Bulk."
"We should really put a bell on that girl," I grumbled.
"I heard that Shadow!" Miko rejected this idea.
"Doesn't make it any less true," I sing-songed, causing Cliff and 'Bee to laugh.
The sound of screeching drew everyone's attention to the monitors. I froze. You've got to be kidding me. Cliff looked at me in concern when I went rigid, but I was laser-focused on the monitor.
"Autobots!" Hardshell's voice came through the comms.
I ran to the monitor and opened my mouth to yell for Bulkhead and Wheeljack to get Miko and retreat. To not engage so maybe, just maybe, we could still outsmart the timeline. But the comms suddenly filled with static, indicating their signal had been jammed.
"No!" I slumped against the monitor in defeat as everyone looked at me in shock.
"What's going to happen to them?" Sunstreaker demanded.
"Woah back down mech," Cliff frowned at the twin as he walked up to me.
"Are they going to get hurt?" Raf asked fearfully.
"I don't know," I said quietly. I then elaborated, "Yesterday, one of them was supposed to return pretty banged up. Since they didn't, I think the timeline has made a way for it to happen anyways since this was a big part of the plot in my universe."
"This is why you were so stressed yesterday," Cliff realized. "Wait, you didn't say who."
I shook my helm. "It'd be just my luck if that was changed too."
"Why didn't you tell us about this yesterday, since you knew?!" Sunstreaker started to walk towards me. Sideswipe tried to stop him.
I growled. "What is your problem?!" Cliffjumper gently grabbed my arm before I could walk forward, but I could practically feel him glaring at Sunstreaker too.
Before the arrogant frontliner could reply, Wheeljack's voice came through the comm. "I need a bridge NOW! Bulk's hurt!"
The world seemed to move in slow motion.
A frantic Miko ran through the groundbridge first. Right behind her, Wheeljack was dragging a barely conscious Bulkhead who had a smoking hole in his side and gashes leaking energon on his arms. Ironhide quickly went to assist his fellow Wreckers and alleviated some of Bulkhead's weight from Wheeljack. They brought Bulk to the medbay where Ratchet was already setting up his equipment. Miko looked up at her guardian tearfully while Jack and Raf stood beside her, Jack with his hand on her shoulder and Raf holding her hand.
"What happened out there?" Jazz asked.
"Hardshell," Miko growled angrily.
"The bug had been sent on a redemption mission by King 'Con to make up for losing the Tox-En," Wheeljack explained, his optics betraying how furious and hurt he was. "They ambushed us. Comms were shut down. Hardshell wanted to take out his frustration on Bulkhead for being one of the ones who ruined his mission and made him look bad. You see how that ended." He gestured to Bulkhead laying on the medbay berth.
Ratchet turned to face us and sighed. "He's stable. I induced stasis and reduced the energon flow. I will finish welding his wounds shut, but Bulkhead will be okay. He'll have to sit out for a while, though."
Miko sighed in relief and so did I. Bulkhead was still pretty banged up, but he still wasn't as injured as he was in the show. He would make a full recovery. I slumped against Cliffjumper who wrapped his arm around my shoulder in a side hug. Sunstreaker opened his mouth to speak, but Wheeljack cut him off. Thank Primus. I'd had enough of the rude golden mech and would not take kindly to another slick remark.
"That's all I needed to hear," Wheeljack started to walk towards the roof.
"And just where are you going?" Arcee raised an eyebrow.
"Where else?" The wrecker scoffed. "To give the bug a run for its money."
"Wheeljack," Optimus finally spoke up. He walked up to stand beside Wheeljack. "I believe it is best to focus our intention on Bulkhead's recovery rather than revenge."
Wheeljack paused at the base entrance. He looked back over his shoulder slightly and said, "You do that." He transformed and sped away. I knew he was going to his ship, and I knew I didn't have much time to get Miko on that ship with him.
I looked down at the teen herself, and she was staring after Wheeljack with a look of contemplation on her face. I was probably going to get a long lecture later for this. I gave Cliff a quick kiss on the cheek, who looked slightly confused, before pulling away from him and walking toward the kids. I bent down to one knee.
"Hey, Miko, why don't we go up to the roof and let Ratchet work his magic on Bulkhead? Get your mind off things?" I suggested. I stared her in the eye, hoping that she'd catch on. I also ignored the piercing stare of Sunstreaker out of my peripheral.
She didn't seem to catch on completely, but I could see she was intrigued. She smiled slightly. "That'd be nice."
I smiled back and brought my hand down for her to climb on. I placed her on my shoulder and, after making sure she was steady, walked towards the lift that would lead to the roof. Once we were in the lift, Miko turned to me and raised an eyebrow. "Okay, what are we really about to do?"
"I think Wheeljack could use some company," I remarked as we stepped onto the roof. The sun was setting here in Jasper; it was beautiful. Too bad I didn't have time to admire it.
"Not that I'm complaining, but why do you want to come exactly?" The teen asked. "Or is this one of those super secret timeline situations you can't talk about?"
I raised an optic ridge. "Super secret timeline situation?"
"Don't change the subject," Miko crossed her arms.
I sighed. "It is, and it's better you don't know anything right now. But besides that, I feel guilty that Bulkhead was hurt because of the super secret timeline situation."
Miko was silent at this, probably pondering the fact that Bulkhead getting hurt was a part of the timeline. I looked around for Wheeljack's ship and saw it on the landing dock. The bot himself was tinkering with the outside of the ship, probably finishing the repairs that happened during the mission with Cliffjumper and Ratchet.
I sat Miko on the ground and said quietly, "You've been a stowaway enough times to know what to do, right?"
"Aye, aye Shadow," Miko did a lazy salute and started sneaking towards the JackHammer while I walked up to the wrecker. I was glad that since Bulkhead wasn't as hurt in this timeline as he was in the show, Miko's mood wasn't as darkened, and she retained some of her usual spunk.
"Wheeljack," I called.
He looked back at me and raised an optic ridge. "Didn't peg you for the disobedient type. Optimus isn't too fond of the whole revenge thing, and from what I remember, you're one of his biggest fans."
"And I still am. But Hardshell deserves to pay," I shook my helm.
Wheeljack sighed before letting out a chuckle. "Ah, what the frag? But, you don't need to get hurt either or that mech friend of yours will have my helm on a silver platter."
I smiled at the thought of Cliff's overprotectiveness. "I watch your back, you watch mine."
"Climb aboard the JackHammer," Wheeljack gestured to his ship's entrance. "Excuse any turbulence. Soundwave and Laserbeak dinged us up pretty bad."
"Oh boy," I grumbled as I climbed into the ship and sat in the passenger seat.
Wheeljack climbed in after me and sat in the pilot seat. He pressed a couple of buttons, and soon the JackaHammer was lifting off and flying away from the base. Once we were a good distance away, Wheeljack put the ship on autopilot and sat back. Or he would have if the sound of footsteps hadn't come from behind us.
"Friendly!" I quickly placed a hand on Wheeljack's blaster as Miko walked into view.
"Huh?" Wheeljack looked confused before the dots connected. "You brought the kid?! Great. Cliffjumper AND Bulkhead will have my helm on a silver platter now." The sarcasm was oozing from his voice.
"We're all going to get the 'Con who hurt Bulkhead," Miko stated firmly. "Besides, Shadow says a super secret timeline thing is going on."
"Are you really going to keep calling it that?" I sighed.
Wheeljack looked between the both of us before relenting. "Fine. But if we run into any trouble, this ship is going on autopilot, and you're going back to base kid."
"Deal," Miko nodded. "So, where to?"
"You know how to find Decepticon mines?"
Miko, Wheeljack, and I crouched on the outskirts of a Decepticon mine Wheeljack found during his travels on Earth. Now that we were moving into the events of the episode, I found myself relaxing slightly. This wasn't unfamiliar territory anymore.
"You didn't think I've just been sitting on my can since I've been on this rock?" Wheeljack scoffed.
"But shouldn't we be at an insecticon hive?" Miko asked in confusion.
"It's nearly impossible to draw out a single insecticon. They're bound by a single mind," I explained.
"So, we're gonna make some news," Wheeljack smirked.
"And get the 'Cons to handover Hardshell," Miko realized.
"I'll go inside and scope out the place," I decided. I'd rather go in there myself than let Miko do it.
"Hm," Wheeljack stared at me in thought before reaching into his subspace and pulling out a visor. "Wear this. I'll be able to see what you see from inside the JackHammer."
"Where did you get these?" I asked curiously as I attached the visor over my optics. I jumped slightly as it turned on and multiple symbols appeared on the display.
"Uh, I made them," Wheeljack rubbed the back of his helm sheepishly.
I blinked. I always forget that Wheeljack is a scientist and inventor on top of being a warrior. I smiled at his bashfulness. "They're pretty cool."
He smiled in reply before coughing discreetly and grunting out a thanks. I stood up from my crouch as he and Miko returned to the JackHammer. I took a deep breath. "Okay, Shadow. Let's do this."
I started to walk slowly and stealthily toward the mine. No one was guarding the entrance, thank Primus.
"Live video feed is up and working kid," Wheeljack's voice came through my com-link.
"Aye, aye captain," I replied as I entered what seemed to be the main chamber.
I jumped down from the ledge I was on and crouched behind a wall of stacked energon cubes. I slowly looked around so Wheeljack could view everything. I moved from behind the cubes to behind a large rock. I looked up at the multiple levels of the mine and saw another passageway.
"Looks like another chamber," I whispered.
"Good job Shadowstalker," Wheeljack praised.
"Just Shadow is fine. Hearing the full name sounds so official," I couldn't help but remark. But all I heard was static. "Wheeljack?"
"Autobot!" This shout was followed by the sound of blaster shots.
Oh, right. Forgot about this part.
I jumped from behind the rock with my wrist blades deployed. I ran up to the first vehicon I saw. I dodged a blaster shot before jumping behind him and slicing his helm off. I then traded one of my blades for my ion displacer and started shooting at some of the drones that were trying to attack Wheeljack from behind. Wheeljack opted for his swords and was slicing and dicing 'Cons left and right. I performed a roundhouse kick on a drone before blasting him while Wheeljack cut down the last one.
"You've been training," The wrecker observed.
"Gotta keep my skills sharp in a war," I shrugged as I sheathed my weapons. "What now? And where's Miko?"
"Safe in the JackHammer," Wheeljack answered. "Now? Now, we give ole Megatron a call."
Wheeljack walked up to the nearby console and pressed the emergency button while sending a message as well. I walked up beside him. "What did you say?"
"That I only wanted to speak to King 'Con himself. Now come on. We'll handle the rest from the JackHammer," Wheeljack replied.
We ran out of the mine but not before Wheeljack planted multiple grenades. We reached the JackHammer where Miko was waiting. Before she could speak, the JackHammer's console began beeping. Wheeljack hurried to connect it to the mine's comm system. Not a moment too soon.
"What seems to be the problem?" Megatron's voice came through the console not a second later.
Wheeljack and I shared a look. Wheeljack smirked before replying, "Nice operation you got here Megatron. Although technically, you might say it's under new management."
"Wheeljack," Megatron recognized. "The one who enjoys explosive devices."
"What can I say chief? I'm uncouth. And right now, I'm sitting on top of one of your big juicy mining ops," Wheeljack taunted.
"The loss of one asset is hardly a blow to the Decepticon cause." Megatron brushed us off.
"Maybe," I spoke up. "But we're gonna keep on hitting them one by one until you give us what we want."
It was silent for a moment before Megatron spoke again. "Ah, Shadowstalker is it? I must say I'm surprised to hear from you. Still recovering from the loss of your precious Pandimala to my better cause?"
"Save the slag, Megatron," I scowled. I knew her betrayal wasn't real, but it wasn't lost on me why she had to do what she did in the first place. Megatron's tainted beliefs caused this war.
"Pray tell Autobots, what exactly do you want?" Megatron asked.
"The insecticon scum who tried to frag Bulkhead," Wheeljack growled.
"Tried? The Autobot lives?!" Megatron yelled angrily.
"He's bluffing!" Ah. There's Hardshell.
"Wouldn't bet on it," I taunted the bug.
"Here's the deal," Wheeljack decided to get to the point. "I'm gonna transmit the coordinates of my next target. If Hardshell cares to meet me there, maybe he can save you from another loss. And Megatron? Just in case you ever wondered what three tons of exploding energon sounds like ..."
BOOM!
Wheeljack hit the gas and the JackHammer zoomed away while the mine blew up behind us. I ended the call for him as he steadied the ship in the air. He didn't put it on autopilot this time as he steered the ship toward the next mine location. For a while, we all sat in silence. I glanced over at Miko and was shocked to see she had dozed off. I suppose the fact she wasn't wondering if Bulkhead would make it this time around was a good thing.
"So," I turned to face Wheeljack as he spoke. "You were the responsible one out of you and Pandimala. Which is why I'm confused about why the kid needed to be here. But I'm guessing I can't know, huh?"
I chuckled without humor. "If I told you, you wouldn't believe me. If it were a way around it, I wouldn't have brought her."
Wheeljack stared at me before shaking his helm. "Even though you're a Cybertronian now, you're still just a kid. Handing all this universe timeline scrap alone can't be easy."
I wanted to scream. I wanted to tell everyone that 'Mala wasn't the traitor they thought she was, that she was still my best friend. But instead, I smiled sadly and said, "No. No, it isn't."
We sat in a comfortable, but heavy silence for the rest of the ride. As it turns out, the next mine wasn't far from us. As we landed nearby, I could only hope what happens next goes the way it was supposed to.
Miko jumped as the ship touched solid ground. "I'm up, I'm up!" She stood up and turned to face us. "What's the plan?"
Wheeljack pointed to the autopilot button. "If anything happens to me or Shadow, press this. I preset the autopilot to get you back to Prime's base."
"What? No way!" Miko protested. "I want to help too!"
"And you did Miko," I kept myself from saying "and you will" and instead crouched to her level once again. "But Bulk's gonna recover, and we're as good as dead as you're not there when he does."
The teen girl looked up at me. Whatever she saw on my face must have caused some kind of realization in her mind because she sighed and said, "Fine. But, nothing better happen to you two!"
I smiled at her before walking out of the ship with Wheeljack. The ship door closed behind us as we stood ready to face the music. We transformed into our vehicle forms and drove to the mine entrance.
"You in there bug?" Wheeljack called.
I feel like I'm forgetting something very important about this scene. Of course, it came back to me the moment I heard the familiar shriek of an insecticon.
"Back up! Back up now!" I screamed.
We backed up as fast as we could. Hardshell jumped from the top of the canyon and landed in the spot we were just in. Wheeljack drove towards him while I transformed and provided him with cover from my ion displacer. The shots, however, weren't doing anything to piece Hardshell's thick armor. If anything, they were only irritating him. He growled at me, but Wheeljack launched himself into the air and transformed before kicking him back into the rock wall.
The Wrecker threw a grenade and went to detonate it, but Hardshell quickly grabbed him and slung him into a nearby boulder. I winced.
"Thanks to your crippled friend, I know all about your Wrecker tricks," The insecticon scowled.
I unsheathed my wrist blades and ran to join the fight. I let out a battle cry before jumping in the air and landing on Hardshell's shoulders. I sliced my blades down his back before kicking him away from me. Wheeljack flanked him and sliced his torso with his swords. We started to double-team him and push him back.
"What's the matter, Hardshell? Can't keep up?" I taunted.
"Talking during battle is a sign of weakness," He retorted as he swiped his claws at me and Wheeljack.
"Only when you're too primitive to keep up," Wheeljack quipped.
That seemed to anger Hardshell as he rushed at us again. Wheeljack and I kept our onslaught of attacks going, but it seemed Hardshell was becoming angrier by the second. He let out a shriek before smacking us both away from him. I let out a grunt as I was smacked into a nearby rock.
Hardshell transformed into his bug form before flying at us. He swiped a claw at Wheeljack before focusing on me, the smaller one out of us.
"Oh great," I mumbled.
I dodged his first swipe, but I was caught completely off-guard when he rammed into me. He shrieked and turned in the air slightly before throwing me like a rag doll. I yelled out in pain as I landed on my winglets.
"Shadow!" Wheeljack yelled before he had to go back on the defensive.
I groaned, trying to get rid of the warning signals flashing in my processor. I started to deploy my ion displacer again but had to roll out of the way as Wheeljack was thrown beside me. I yelled out in pain as Hardshell picked me up by my winglets and started to repeatedly punch my torso. I felt energon begin to leak slowly from my wounds. I grunted as Hardshell threw both me and Wheeljack on the ground and stood over us.
I weakly tilted my helm back to look at the ship. Miko was watching the battle with horror.
"Go kid," Wheeljack called weakly.
I hissed in pain as Hardshell pinned us both to the ground and transformed back into his bipedal form. He sneered down at us. "Your sparks will now belong to Megatron."
The sound of the JackHammer starting up caused Hardshell to look up. The ship rose from the ground and stayed perfectly still. Hardshell growled as he stood up fully.
"Your spark belongs to her," I whispered weakly.
Wheeljack looked at me in confusion. It was at that moment that the JackHammer's missiles were fired at Hardshell himself. The insecticon was so shocked that when it finally registered to dodge, it was too late. Miko blew him to bits, and I was a bit too satisfied at the sight.
"Super secret timeline situation," Wheeljack coughed up energon.
"You guys need a new name for this slag," I frowned.
Miko landed the ship again, and both Wheeljack and I stood up. That was when we heard multiple insecticon shrieks. We looked up to see the entire hive growling at us. We looked at each other before starting the trek back to the JackHammer. I placed pressure on my wound as we both limped into the ship. Miko looked at our injuries with horror.
"I thought I told you to press autopilot," Wheeljack couldn't help but remark.
"I wasn't leaving you guys," Miko stated.
"Right now, we need to go," I slumped in the passenger seat.
Wheeljack started the ship, and we took the skies with the insecticons chasing after us. Wheeljack dodged their blaster fire before putting the ship on autopilot. "I need something with a wider blast radius. It's too many of them."
He limped to the back of the ship. He moved some stuff around, including passing me a piece of metal and a welding torch until I could get patched up by Ratchet, before coming across his crate of grenades.
At Miko's confused look, he made a "tsk" noise and explained, "I only carry one at a time."
The Wrecker opened the hatch to the roof and stepped up, bringing the grenades with him. After a moment of thought, he threw the whole crate at the insecticons. Once it reached them, Wheeljack fired one blaster shot, and the grenades exploded, taking the insecticons with them in a cloud of blue smoke and fire. Wheeljack limped back to the pilot seat before sitting down with a sigh. He smiled over at Miko. "Welcome to the Wreckers kid. You did Bulkhead proud."
Miko smiled slightly before sighing. "Maybe Optimus is right about the whole revenge thing. I don't feel any different. But, I snuffed my first 'Con! I have to tell Bulk when he wakes up."
I blinked. That reaction is definitely different from the show. A very important thought then occurred to me.
Cliffjumper is going to kill me.
"Are you trying to give me spark attacks on the daily?!"
I winced. From both Cliff yelling and Ratchet patching me up. Bulkhead was conscious when we arrived but very weak. Miko had fallen asleep on his chest, and they both dozed off together. I convinced Wheeljack to let Ratchet repair him before hitting the road again. Although Bulkhead wasn't nearly as injured as he was supposed to be, Wheeljack still didn't want to see him in this weak state. As expected, Optimus lectured all three of us on how revenge won't solve anything and that we shouldn't put ourselves, namely Miko, in harm's way like that again. Now, Cliff was chewing me out like the overprotective mech friend he is. All while Ratchet was an inch from putting him out of the medbay with one of his infamous wrenches.
"Can't your lovers quarrel wait until after I'm finished patching up her wounds?" Ratchet scowled.
"If it could Doc, I wouldn't be in here," Cliff drawled as he put his hands on his hips.
I sighed but a smile found its way to my lips. "Trust me, I have no intentions of pulling a stunt like that anytime soon."
"You better not," Cliff shook his helm before kissing me on the cheek. "What would I do without you?"
"Get a room!" Sideswipe and Jazz yelled from the corner.
Cliff and I looked at each other before bursting into laughter. Although these last two days haven't gone as planned, I can confidently say I'm ready for whatever this world throws at me next.
That brings us to the end of this long-awaited chapter. I (Shadow) would like to apologize again for the lateness of this chapter. I will be honest; life has not been kind to me these past few years. However, I'm finding my way back to all the things I used to enjoy, which includes writing Fanfiction. I'm glad to return to this story and see it continue. As usual, the next chapter will be written by Dragon. We can't for you guys to see all the plot twists we have in store *smirks*
Dragon and I: Until all are one! *blows confetti and blasts Transformers Prime theme song*