A Ghost Town From The Past Ch. 7
Listen to Akame ga kill OST- I've got to go home (Bols Death Theme) or Pete Yorn - Lose You as you read this. It'll make it so much better, I promise.
Bumblebee's view
Bee drove off, not caring that he left his teammates in the dust. He had just spilled all of his emotions, fears (and his tank of energon) to them and didn't want to see their reactions, for he knew they would be ones of sorrow, pity and maybe even disgust. He had enough of those reactions from everyone else, from everyone that wasn't fight in the War because they felt bad that he had to watch his friends die and drown in the energon of the ones he killed. He couldn't do it anymore, he didn't want to see anymore optics filled with the pity and sadness that he saw in everyone, he didn't want to; he couldn't.
So he fled, like a little sparkling but he needed this. He needed to face his fear with the little town Jasper. He could let this little town haunt him forever, like Cybertron did when everyone was forced to leave. He couldn't do that, it hurt to much to do that again. He needed to mech up and deal with this. Slag, he was a grown bot now but he acted like a complete sparkling in front of everyone. Now he was running away with his tailpipe between his legs. 'What's wrong with me?' He asked himself once more. He had asked himself this question since he was a youngling but even when the Vorns went past and the War ended he still didn't have an answer.
As he entered Jasper he slowed and made his engines go silent, either out of respect for everyone who died or maybe he was scared to make a noise in this silent ghost town; he didn't know. He slowly moved down the main street, he couldn't bring himself to go to where Raf's old home was supposed to be, he felt like he had no place there anymore. After all it was his old team's fault that this happened. If they didn't have a base so close to this town his human friend's families wouldn't have died. So in the end, he was partly to blame in the deaths of so many, but what was a few hundred compared to the hundreds he had killed on Cybertron? 'Nothing much,' he thought bitterly, 'The number is just going to keep rising until I offline.'
What a sad but true thought that was. The pile of offline frames and human corpses will just keep getting higher and the pool of mixed blue energon and red blood would just get deeper and deeper. It made him want to purge again, but with nothing in his tanks and himself in vehicle mode he just shuttered.
With himself in deep sorrowful thoughts he didn't notice that he was slowly driving towards the school. The same school that the children had gone to all those years ago. Bee had stopped where he would always wait for Raf and when the boy would walk out of the school he would smile with happiness. But where the once nice looking building stood was now a large pile of rubble, every few meters you would be able to see where a wall was supposed to go. The classrooms were now just holes with rubble in them. The entrance was partially standing, with the doors off their hinges and the brick around them roughly holding them up, it was like they refused to come down.
In a memory glitch he saw Raf, Jack and Miko walk out of the damaged doors and wave to him, as if they wanted him to come closer but he knew it wasn't real; no matter how realistic it was. He knew this because after he lost his voice he would see Megatron around every corner; he knew this because he was use to it. He was used to see what wasn't there, was used to seeing the past, because that's how messed up he was. His processor would play tricks on him after a tragic event, as if his own processor was mocking him on how weak he was.
He nearly jumped to his bot form when something moved within the destroyed school. It had looked like a pale outline of a human teenager. He scanned the school, his scout skills coming out in full force and was disturbed that his scanners were picking up weird signals within the school, not life forms but not nothing either. When he raised his audio receptors to pick up the faintest of sounds he couldn't help but shutter. Screaming. He heard children screaming in pain softly. It was so quiet he didn't know if he was actually hearing this but it disturbed him all the same.
He backed up and left the haunted school, he couldn't stand to be there anymore. He couldn't stand to be in this haunted town any longer so he drove out of the town, towards the old Autobot base, or what was left of it. He silently drove towards the place he had called home for so many years. And it hurt; for some unknown reason it hurt to come back here, to the place of one of his biggest failures in his short life.
'Tink'
He noticed something small land on his hood; water. He moved his side mirrors to look at the now grey sky. With small rain drops slowly falling out of the sky it seemed to match what he was feeling inside. With each drop that landed on him he slowly sped up. It wasn't to get away from the rain, it was so he could feel the rain splash against him. He had missed that, even though he had driven in the rain last week, this was different. Before he as always on a mission, always making sure his teammates would do anything stupid but now he could relax, he could feel every drop that landed him. The rain not only cooled his now warm engines but the rain helped calm his spark. The rain was soothing his trouble and hurt spark just by landing on his armor. That was another reason why he loved this planet so much. It was so different then Cybertron in so many ways, his team just couldn't see that yet, but they will, eventually.
Bee slowed as he neared the destroyed base. His spark lurching in it's casing. When he stopped completely he transformed and rubbed his armor above his spark, trying to soothe the pulsing orb. He didn't like it here, to many memories, good and bad ones but he had to do this. He walked forward, ever so slowly, as if afraid of what he would find. He climbed over the rubble that used to be the outer wall. When he was on top of the pile of rubble he looked below. His optics dimmed in sadness, this is what is left of the old base, his home. Piles of rubble, steel beams poking out of the rubble every now and then. Some of the walls were still partially standing. Just like the destroyed school he could see where some of the hallways used to be.
He carefully jumped down, avoiding the steel beams and random bits of pipes. He landed with a soft thud. As he stood up his pedes slightly dug into the rubble. He didn't pay any attention to it. As he walked flashes of different memories surged forward in his mind.
Good ones.
Him and the children playing videogames. Bulkhead and Wheeljack playing lobbing. Ratchet yelling he 'needed that.' Arcee and him training in one of the large storage rooms. Smokescreen and him playing the human game basketball in another storage room. Optimus smiling down at him.
Bad ones.
Cliffjumper's death. The scraplets attacking and trying to eat them alive. Megatron taking over his mind, making him attack Ratchet. Bulkhead's close call. The attack of the Decepticons.
He shook his helm, trying to shoo away the memories that were slowly consuming him. He stepped forward, toward the center of the base or at least he thought it was the center. To physically see his old home destroyed, it hurt more then he thought it would. He rubbed his armor above his spark casing. It felt like someone was crushing his spark slowly. As he walked across the rubble he felt the cold rain on his armor and door wings. The rain was slowly turning into a downpour, and each drop was hitting his armor with a small tink.
With each step more unwanted memories surged forward, but they were going to fast to clearly see what they were. The memories were going so fast he fell to his knees as his mind was overwhelmed. He grabbed his helm with both of his servos as the memories flew faster then before. It psychically hurt. His helm pounded as he tried to claw the memories away from his mind. The rain felt like bullets against his armor. The scenes, the voices and the screams of the dying were ringing in his audios. He threw his helm towards the grey sky and screamed out his frustration. He screamed out his pain and sorrow. He screamed out his agony over everyone he had lost throughout the Vorns.
Then they were silent.
He stayed there on his knees for a few Klicks. His servos were still on his helm and he could feel small dents and cuts from the pressure he was applying. He slowly released his helm and put his servos in his lap. He opened his optics; he didn't even know he closed them. He blinked, it was quiet. The only sound was the soft tink of the rain as it landed on him and the rubble all around. He looked around himself and blinked again. There was a pile of melted metal that resembled an old platform and connected to the melted metal was an old stairwell that was warped. There was shattered glass all over the floor as well. What was left of the tunnel of the ground bridge was to the right. He moved his optics to the floor and noticed that the ground was made of smooth metal. He stood up and saw that he was standing on the large Autobot symbol.
He was in the main room.
As he looked around the destroyed base, it was slowly replaced by the old, more familiar home that he knew. He stopped feeling the soothing rain against his armor, stopped hearing the gentle tink as the rain hit the ground. He blinked, the base was restored, the children were on the couch playing a videogame, Bulkhead and Arcee were behind them cheering them on. Optimus was at the monitor trying to decode the location of a new relic. Ratchet was in the Medbay, yelling at Smokescreen for breaking something important. And he just stood there, staring and smiling at everyone.
Deep inside he knew this wasn't real, he knew what he seeing was a lie but he wanted to believe it. With all of his spark he wanted this to be real, he wanted to talk to Raf and the other humans. He wanted Ratchet to yell at him for something. He wanted Optimus to smile down at him and put his large servo on his shoulder as encouragement. He just wanted things to back to the way they were, to when he knew what he was meant for. Back when he didn't have to deal with being a leader. Back when he was happy.
And just like that, the bots and humans fell away. Then ever so slowly the walls turned to ash and the platforms and stairs melted down into a pile of scrap. The monitors shattered, sending green glass everywhere. And just like that, he was back in the present time.
So he just stood there, among the ruins of his old home thinking of thoughts that belonged to the past, ever wishing to go back into time and be with his only family once again. But as he stood there he knew that would never happen, because they all went their separate ways and because Optimus was dead.
He looked towards the sky one last time before he walked away from this haunted place, away from his home. As he walked and climbed over piles of rubble in the cold rain he felt lighter on the inside. He smiled weakly, he knew that these past ghosts would no longer bother him. Bumblebee stopped on the last pile of rubble and looked out in desert, at last he was free.
A/N... Since almost everyone wanted a happy ending I mixed them. It was a happy and sad ending. If you thought that was sad I was planning on making it ten times sadder. Believe me, you would have cried your eyes out but since the votes were mixed I compromised. I have to say it's been a fun ride with this story. It was one of my favorites and apparently you guys liked it too because of all the reviews, follows and favorites. Thank you so much for the encouragement you guys gave me. It helped me soooo much. And as a bonus read below...
The man, now in his late thirties shifted his old glasses as he walked down the stairs to the parking lot. He tried to prevent a huge yawn but utterly failed. He ruffled his short brown hair. Damn, he needed to bring more coffee. Sure working for the government was great and all but they really needed to send more money on the coffee. The stuff they had now tasted like dirt, it didn't even have a side flavor like vanilla or something. It seriously tasted like pure dirt. As he walked to his car he noticed another car was going very slowly behind him. Not thinking anything of it he continued on his way, the driver probably didn't want to accidentally hit him, that must be it.
The man was starting to get irrigated when the car got closer to where he could basically feel the heat from the engine. The man cursed and turned around, planning on giving the driver a good talking to but his words fell silent as he looked over the car. He tried to say something but nothing came out as he looked over the familiar yellow sports car. He looked at the drivers seat and saw that it was empty.
"Bee?"