PLEASE READ!

I have learned over the last week from other authors on that a few stories, including mine, updated yet did not alert everyone properly. So, if you were one of those unfortunate people who didn't get to see that Chapter 8 was updated, you might want to read that before this one or else you're in for a real spoiler. However, if you did get to read it then ignore that and continue on. Alright, I know it says I was going to update Incompatible last week, that unfortunetally didn't work out. Instead it is being updated today so for those that are also reading Incompatible, make sure you make a trip over to see Chapter 4.

Another thing, it seems my genius is at it AGAIN and I have created a third transformers fic, but this time it's a simple one shot unless there is the classic case of supply and demand. It's called Broken Sparks and is a Jazz/Prowl fic. A brief warning, Broken Sparks is not like Incompatible. It is intended to be a darker story so make sure you read the warnings before reading it.

Now that I've covered everything important, enjoy the new chapter and...Review!

BOOM!

Surprised, Ratchet looked up from cleaning the last of the mess in left in his med bay. The explosion sounded incredibly close to be something to do with his partner. Besides, Wheeljack was too busy helping with repairs around the ship to be inventing his usual unstable experiments. Maybe it was another attack, but why hadn't the alarm gone off yet?

Abandoning what he was doing, Ratchet's saw-blade came whirring to life as he crept out from his med bay towards where he thought he heard the sound come from. Instead, he looked over when he heard running and saw it was Blur coming to join his side.

"Was that you or maybe Wheeljack?" Ratchet asked already knowing the truth from the similar surprise on the younger mech's face and knowing fully well Wheeljack's lab was on the opposite side of Artemis even if he was working with dangerous imploding items.

"No. ," he answer and sighed when the medic continued to move quietly down the hall, but Blur loyally stayed by the CMO's side despite the fact that his processor was cursing at him for getting into yet anotherunwanted situation with Decepticons. Primus just wasn't fair to the fast mech lately.

They rounded another corner and froze.

The door covering a hold for emergency equipment was blown wide open and yards away from where it should have been in a twisted ball of smoldering metal. However, what was really the focus for the two Autobots were the unmoving forms spread across the hallway.

Ratchet approached cautiously. He knew well it was a common Decepticon tactic to 'play dead' till their victim was upon them and had nowhere to run. Not informed of the same knowledge, Blur immediately darted to the closest form before Ratchet could warn him and bent over the frame, studying it.

"Mirage!" he yelled in surprise, "It'sher, thankPrimus."

Ratchet's tension eased as he knelt next to the femme and checked her over while Blur went to the other still frame.

"Uh…Ratchet," Blur said, his voice dragging out the name as the usual rapid speed of his speech slowed down at an alarming rate and immediately caught the medic's attention. The situation was serious if it was enough to give the speedster pause.

Quickly going over to see what caught Blur off guard, the CMO gasped when he looked over the smaller mech's shoulder.

"Bee!"

Within the next joor, Artemis was abuzz with the recent discover of the two missing soldiers and it was only klicks after the discovery that Optimus and Ironhide came running up the hallway and crashed through the door to the med bay.

Ratchet did not take kindly to the response and was already waiting with wrenches in hand as he heard them thundering up the hallway, so when the door burst open two of his heaviest projectiles went flying. Naturally, after being around the medic so long, Optimus had a second sense to when he fragged off Ratchet and his gut was telling him to duck as they entered. A heavy clang and cry from Ironhide had told the Autobot leader exactly why that was.

"Stop right there you pit slaggin dumbafts!" Ratchet yelled picking up another two heavy wrenches, "You better not move another inch into my med bay!"

Ironhide, disorientated by the hard blow, was instead focused on the pain and didn't hear the medic as he moved forward to sit in the nearest chair.

"What the slag!" he roared as another dent was painfully added to his head.

"I said freeze!"

Optimus still hadn't moved, his the experience dealing with the medic in many rages before had him remain stuck to his crouching like pose waiting for the CMO to calm so he could uncurl, but Ratchet wasn't done with them yet.

"You fraggers come running in here like a bunch of slaggin sparklings causing mayhem and destruction to my door. I should weld your afts to the ceiling for the next hundred vorns!"

"Slag it Ratchet, we're sorry," Ironhide muttered, unwisely interrupting the medic's tirade of anger towards them. Optimus flinched before he even heard a third successful contact knowing full well what was coming. No one could interrupt Ratchet and expect to walk out unharmed; Ironhide was learning that the hard way as he nursed an exceptionally large dent on the bridge of his nose. Thankfully those blows to the head seemed knocked a logic circuit back in place because, to the surprise of Optimus, Ironhide managed to rein his temper in and gave no angry retort back at the Hatchet.

"Look," he said, calming and not moving to refresh his ammo of wrenches from the sizeable pile by his side, "I know what you heard but you have to remain calm. What if Bee had been recharging and you just came in here and woke him up with all this?"

The two guardians felt guilt now. They had only thought to get to the youngling as soon as possible.

"Slag," Ratchet cursed then grinned making the two mechs frozen in stiff positions think Ratchet was beginning to lose his processor, "what's happened is too great to stay mad at you aftheads."

They nearly crashed to the ground as the tension flooded from their frames and allow a smile to creep back on to their own faces for the first time in orns. From the sides of the med bay, the shocked silent onlookers being taken care of by three other medics began laughing, mostly at Ironhide's expense.

Yes, Ratchet was beaming like a fool but none could blame him. He had been the first to discover Bumblebee was missing when he went back to the med bay after checking over many injured mechs and deciding who would come back with First Aid, Hoist, and Wheeljack while Ratchet prepared. Instead of finding it in the same condition as he left it, the medic found it destroyed. It was no doubt a Decepticon scavenging group had come by and cleaned out the med bay of what they thought were useful items. What really terrified the medic was that Bumblebee was missing and feared it may have instead been a search and destroy group. Such groups had been known to spare none, not even those left unprotected in med bays. It devastated the CMO as he thought of the many brutal ways Bumblebee could have been dragged off and killed or put on display for grotesque pleasure of victory, and although the youngling had been in third stasis lock Ratchet believed none should have to suffer at the hands of Decepticons.

"Just stay quiet and out of the way. We've got too much on our hands to be dealing with sparklings too," Ratchet told them and moved over to Sunstreaker as Sideswipe sat next to the table, waiting for his brother to be repaired.

They had been practicing a new move for seekers, especially one for Starscream when they heard he had attacked Bumblebee the battle before the most recent one, but the said seeker never appeared before them and instead tired it on Skywarp. The effect on the seeker was amazing, the effect on the one attempting the move was not as Sunstreaker found when he landed just the wrong way and pretty much smashed all one side of his body to the point where he couldn't move his left arm or leg. While Ratchet was sure to reprimand them of the reckless move, the twins couldn't help but be impressed and were discussing on ways to improve it. However, they were disappointed to hear that the screamer had been found offline with the slag beaten out of him and was now happily in the brig. The twins had been trying to find the ones responsible to ask exactly how it happened but none had confessed to them. Also, they had found Bruticus a few yards away from the seeker, in a better condition but no doubt offline from the same mech or femme that took care of the seeker. Who ever worked that battle was sure to earn heaps of respect from the twins and most soldiers on board. Seekers were hard fraggers to take out from the ground and Bruticus was sheer force and bulk making him more a match in the league of Ironhide and Optimus. Even Jazz would have his Special Operations aft handed to him on a plate with such a battle.

A few breems later, as Ratchet moved to work on Acree, Sunstreaker would need surgery later on, Optimus and Ironhide were flanking the youngling when he groaned and onlined his optics.

"Wow, Mirage, that was one pit slaggin blast," he said, sitting up slowly, not really seeming aware of his surroundings.

"Take it easy," Optimus said, pushing Bumblebee back down to the bed, "let Ratchet scan you over before you start moving around."

"Optimus? What happened? Where am I?" he asked, not resisting being laid back down as his frame was already complaining for him to do so. Then he didn't care about anything else as it slammed into him exactly what happened, "Mirage! Is she alright?"

"Bee," Ratchet said, rushing over, "calm down and look to your left."

Bumblebee visibly relaxed as he saw her sharing the same space as him. It must have meant the med bay was pretty full.

"She'll be fine, just recovering as you need to be. That was no simple backlash. From what I can tell, you two got knocked around pretty badly by the shock wave of the discharge's repercussion in such a confined space since the energy had no where to dissipate safely," Ratchet told him as he pulled out his scanner, "On top of that you have previous injuries from battle."

Bumblebee shifted uncomfortably. He didn't really feel replaying his fight with Starscream but Ratchet gave him no relief. The medic set his scanner down and looked the youngling in the optics.

"We found Starscream and Bruticus not far from where you two where found a couple orns later. Bruticus had been knocked out simply with the pinches of wires a medic would know while Starscream had suffered significant damage severe enough that required my looking after. At first look to the scene, one would assume two had fought side by side to take these down, possibly First Aid and his companion during the time of the battle, Bluestreak, but when I looked into it further I could tell that Bruticus had been knocked out long before Starscream meaning the one who took out the large Con then fought the seeker."

Bumblebee looked away and twisted his hands in anxiety. He feared what this could do. The others would think him a freak for something so small to take down two ruthless Cons. Also, what about his fellow espionage friends? Wouldn't they hate that he was giving the appearance he was better than them because he could fight? No, Bumblebee didn't want credit.

Curious, Ratchet watched the youngling's expression, confused to how Bumblebee was reacting to his discovery and solidifying the fact it had been the youngling, but he wondered why the mech was refusing to accept the recognition. Still, Ratchet continued, hoping that maybe the youngling would say whatever was bothering him once he was done.

"Bumblebee, I know the nasty work of Starscream's daggers and I know that the injuries on your frame match the work of the seeker's hand. It was you who took down Bruticus and Starscream."

Optimus watched and felt as Bumblebee's anxiety grew to a breaking point when Ratchet finally got to the end of what he was saying. The youngling pulled himself into a protective ball, hiding his face as his spark flared dangerously enough to give a warning to Ratchet's monitors.

"Bumblebee, what's wrong?" Ratchet asked immediately as he pulled out the scanner again but it wasn't getting good readings because of how the youngling was bunched up. Despite all efforts, Bumblebee wouldn't say any thing as Ratchet tried his best to talk to the youngling until Optimus held up his hands to stop the medic and leaned close to Bumblebee, wrapping his arms around his youngling and allowing his spark to reach towards the young mech's. Instead Bumblebee recoiled from the touch and guilt flooded Optimus' frame. With a gasp he pulled back.

"Optimus?" Ratchet asked in concern when the leader pulled back as if electrocuted.

"Ratchet, I don't know. He feels so much guilt. I don't know why. He's withdrawing," Optimus told him and his spark jerked painfully as Bumblebee pulled even further away. Withdrawal was extremely painful for those sharing sparks in anyway, especially bonded.

"Withdrawing?" Ratchet yelped in alarm, knowing this was turning serious, "Bumblebee, listen. Nothing is your fault. There is no reason to feel guilt."

Bumblebee said nothing but his head nodded up and down that he thought differently.

"Then tell us, what is it? We can help."

"You'll hate me," he whispered and all three mechs surrounding him stiffened. Where was this coming from? Their poor youngling was torturing himself to thinking he was responsible for something they didn't even understand. None of the many frantic attempts to pull the youngling out of his depression and withdrawal seemed to work, and they were soon giving up until Mirage woke.

"Ouch," Mirage groaned, putting a hand to her head and letting her optics come on line, unlike Bumblebee, she didn't get the luxury to see the nasty explosion from her cannon before it all went dark.

Frustrated, Ratchet went over to check on the femme.

"What's going on?" she asked, sensing Ratchet's anger and seeing Bumblebee sitting up in the bed, holding himself together as if he was falling apart.

"Bumblebee is wi…" Ratchet began but caught himself, realizing that Optimus had never given him such a privilege to reveal the sensitive information, "Bumblebee is feeling guilt for something we do not know and won't tell us what it is."

Mirage frowned as she thought over it while Ratchet ran a scan over and by the time he was done she knew what to do.

"Ratchet, I need trust right now. Can you leave him and me alone? Just the two of us?" she asked.

"I'll try anything," he told her with a nod.

A few klicks later, Optimus and Ironhide were shooed away by Ratchet and the medic pulled the curtain back, covering them from view. Mirage moved slowly, her frame feeling as if she lost a fight against a garbage crusher, and slipped onto Bumblebee's bed. The youngling felt her presence and Mirage knew he did but chose remained quiet. Bumblebee needed to make the first move no matter how long it took. Thankfully, due to the many vorns of personal training and close interaction during his younglinghood, Bumblebee came to think of Mirage almost like a big sister, and little brothers could tell big sisters anything with the absolute trust she wouldn't go running off to tell wrench-wielding CMOs his problems without his permission.

"Mirage, I'm sorry," he clicked, falling into the basic form of Cybertronian language that was only used by newly created sparklings and a handful of older mechs and femmes. It was because of this, espionage agents kept the language as their own for sensitive information or just code between two fellow agents.

"For what?" she asked back, easily falling on to the clicks and whirrs of a sparkling.

"I can't blame you if you hate me," he clicked quietly.

"Bee, why would I hate you?" she asked softly, using mostly low whistles to show she was calm and not angry with him. Another trait of the basic Cybertronian, emotion was highly entwined into the language; it kept fellow agents from lying to each other.

"Because," he clicked harshly and subconciously added a few loud whirrs from stress, "I've made it seem all espionage agents are below me because I took down Starscream and Bruticus."

Mirage jerked back from the shock. She hadn't expected this at all.

"No," she whistled softly, recovering quickly from the suprise, "we wouldn't think that at all. Instead we would be proud to have such a warrior in our ranks. It shows the others to not underestimate what we can be capable of."

Finally he looked up, searching for the truth in her words. When he found concern and compassion as well as pain for his self-torture visibly displayed on her face, he crumpled forward and Mirage took him in her arms. Such a young mech to deal with the times of war, it didn't seem fair at times but she knew well Bumblebee was strong and just needed a moment to pull himself back together.

"Now, was that what all this silliness was about?" she asked when he pulled back.

"Yes, I just didn't want you guys to hate me. I don't think I could live with it if I had none of the other agents want to train with me again, or you," he said, looking at her with his bright baby-blue optics that never seemed to dim in the worst of times. It would be a sad orn indeed if the bright light in the optics of their hope for the future darkened.

"Do you need a few more moment before I call Ratchet back in here?" Mirage asked and Bumblebee nodded, she knew him so well. Mirage laid a gentle hand on his arm before slipping off the bed and moving slowly out of the area to give him some privacy.

The youngling sighed loudly once Mirage was gone. Some times, it was good to have someone to lean on and understand that there were times when he just needed to drop the adult front and be the overwhelmed youngling he truly was hidden deep in his spark. What was better was that Mirage held no ill will against him and understood perfectly what he was going through. She said it was the burden of an espionage agent since they had to train from a very young age and on top of that, Bumblebee was the last of their race: the youngest Cybertronian throughout the universe. He gave himself a few breems to his thoughts before he let out a few low whirrs and a soft whistle since Bumblebee knew Mirage would be nearby listening for the cue to come back. Unfortunately, Ratchet happened to be sitting next to Mirage and heard the youngling.

"Bumblebee!" he scolded, entering with Mirage behind him throwing him an apologetic shrug to the youngling, "Did you just reform back to sparkling Cybertronian speak?"

"Uh," Bumblebee said, unsure what to do next.

"Interesting, so you're one of the few who have retained the ability naturally," Ratchet said, his attitude quickly changing to joy.

Mirage snickered and gave another shrug as if to say 'play along with the CMO least wrenches start flying again.'

"What's going on?" Optimus asked coming in with Ironhide on his heels.

"It seems Bumblebee is a natural sparkling guardian," Ratchet said and Optimus froze. Such a title was considered a prestige honor and given to the mechs who truly, unlike Bumblebee, Mirage, and other espionage agents, did retain the language throughout life.

"No!" Bumblebee said, "I'm not. I just remember the one word!"

"Nice try. When it is forgotten, it's forgotten completely. The only ones who do have to learn it are medics like myself. I can't believe our little youngling is a destined guardian," Ratchet said.

Bumblebee frowned miserably as Mirage tried her best not to laugh at the lost look on the youngling's face.

"Do you understand what I'm saying?" Ratchet whirled and clicked.

Bumblebee looked back at Mirage for how he should proceed, but she just shrugged again and so the yellow mech gave in with a nod. Ratchet literally jumped up in happiness.

"The last natural guardian we found was Silverbolt, which is why he took in Fireflight," Optimus stated, smirking at the unusual behavior of the medic.

"Then how come I got Hide when he doesn't know the difference between up and down in the language?" Bumblebee asked.

"At the time, the age that you were was too young to be apart of the youth sectors so we believed you still had family out there, little did we know our leader was hiding the truth, but it still worked out since you were Prime's little brother," Ironhide answered and Optimus shifted uncomfortably for a moment but none seemed to notice movement but Bumblebee. There was something the leader was hiding.

"Alright, so what now? Am I suppose to go sparkling hunting even though the only I will find is myself?"

Ratchet immediatly frowned.

"He has a point," Optimus said, "There are no younglings to guard any more."

"I don't know. Maybe it's a sign things will change in the future," Ratchet said hopefully.

"Yeah, or more likely our race keeps developing not realizing its ultimate demise," Ironhide muttered and the mood instantly turned sour as everyone stared at him silently.

"Congratulations, Hide," Bumblebee snapped, "you've effectively taken hope and destroyed it."

Ironhide jerked as if punched as he finally realized what he had done and hung his head in shame.

"Don't beat yourself up," the Autobot leader said, surprised at Bumblebee's sharp retort, "we've been at war for so long it's too hard to keep optimism going."

"Well, if that's all," Bumblebee interrupted, "can I get some rest? I feel like slag and I know Mirage is hurting too."

"Bee's right," Ratchet agreed, believing the surprising dark attitude of the youngling was due to his recent stress and ignored it, "I don't know why I thought it a good idea to let you two in here and drain his energy. You two get out; Mirage, in bed. Now!"

The espionage femme was more than happy to agree as she laid down into the bed instantly falling to recharge while Ironhide and Optimus reluctantly left.

"I'm going to put you in stasis so I can get to work on that arm. That dagger looks like it got in deep and did some nasty damage. Just relax and I'll be here when you wake," Ratchet told Bumblebee, preparing the meds to take him offline.

"Thanks Ratchet," he slurred just before he sank off.

Bumblebee woke the next orn feeling much better and saw that his arm look almost new except for the thin slice along his armor that Ratchet didn't have the parts to replace. It would have to wait till the next shipment and until then, Bumblebee would have to live with a battle scar along with the nasty hole in the back of his shoulder. He looked over and saw that Mirage was gone. She much have woken before him and left silently returning to her duties or another off-ship mission.

"Hello, Bee. How are you feeling?" Ratchet asked. He had luckily been checking over the monitors to catch the youngling coming online.

"Quiet well. All there is, is the uncomfortable feeling of the energon draining from my main line."

"To be expected and be prepared to have to deal with it for a long while. It will steadily lessen over time till it is completely healed. Now, how is your arm and shoulder? I worried you might have some lingering soreness since it wasn't attended to immediately," he asked and ran his hands over Bumblebee's shoulder/neck junction where he ran into the seeker and femme, "I've seen this type of damage before, did you tackle some one?"

"Yeah, twice. First I tackled Starscream to take him down and then Mirage to get her out of the way from the Decepticon shooting at her back."

Ratchet was surprised at the fact the smaller than an average sized mech, Bumblebee, had found a way to take down a much larger Con with a simple hit. He really wanted to go over the videos with Red Alert and see if the fight managed to be recorded. There still hadn't been opportunity to see what the youngling looked like in action.

This chapter is just a good chance to slow down, catch a breather and fill in some emotion needs to continue on.

For Barricade fans, I've gone through the story again and it seems Cade's appearance is soon to come on Nightspark. *shouts for joy* \o/ ~ahem, excuse me~ Anywanys, he should be here around chapter 15 so that's 6 chapters away! Just a little longer folk.

Please review and check out my other two stories.