Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you guys had a fun night.

I know I said I would try to finish this story by tonight, well I didn't. My writing schedule got messy when I got talked into a writing competition between me and my cousin. Sorry about the delay.

Anyway at least I can give you guys a Halloween treat tonight!

As always please let me know if anything is miss spelled, grammar issues, and if there seems to be something off with the continuity.

This was by far the strangest day Bumblebee had ever experienced and that included all of the time he spent working for Jazz. His comms weren't working, zombies were apparently real, and he was now getting directions from a ghost. Well, Thundercracker was following the ghost, Bumblebee was following Thundercracker.

Thundercracker had had a reputation for being one of the saner Decepticon seekers. From what Bumblebee remembered, the seeker hadn't been one to torture anyone and he had a soft side for lost sparklings. He didn't seem like the same seeker now. Thundercracker's wings continued to twitch and his movements were jerky like the zombie bots he and Prowl had come accross. Bumblebee was worried the much larger mech would fall and be unable to get back up.

Bang!

"He says we need to go this way," said Thundercracker heading down a new passage way.

Bumblebee slapped the side of the wall. The tunnel went down a long way with several smaller tunnels breaking off from it. Thundercracker had already starting down the dark passageway. He seemed unafraid of any dangers that might lurk ahead.

"Hey, Thundercracker," said Bumblebee. "You're sure this is a ghost? It's not one of those creepy grey mechs right?" He hadn't sensed any mechs (living or dead) in the tunnel.

"I'm sure," said Thundercracker in a rough voice.

Bumblebee was starting to feel a bit frustrated. It was like listening to a bad Earth movie when the characters would play the pronoun game. Who was he? Why was he important? Does this he have a name?

"Look, Thundercracker, I don't think you realize how serious this situation is," said Bumblebee in a forced calm voice.

Thundercracker didn't respond, but continued to walk as though in a daze down the dark corridor. Bumblebee was starting to lose what little patients he had left. "How do you even know it's a ghost we're following?"

"I'm not crazy," said Thundercracker.

"I didn't say you were," said Bumblebee quickly. "It's just, Prowl was dragged off by our version of zombies back there and we still don't have any idea where Bluestreak is." Bumblebee paused for a few kliks. "I haven't been able to get a signal with my comms either. I don't know if backup is on their way or if we're going to be the first victims of the Cybertronian zombie apocalypse."

Thundercracker stopped walking. "I'm sorry," he said. "It's been a strange few days for me too."

Bumblebee vented a deep sigh. "You don't think the ghost will harm us?"

Thundercracker turned to face the much smaller minibot. "I don't think he could even if he wanted to, not physically at least."

"Has it hurt you?"

Bang!

Thundercracker grimaced. "Not intentionally."

"But it has hurt you?"

Thundercracker curled into himself. It was odd seeing someone so large look so small. "He's my brother."

That wasn't what Bumblebee had been expecting. It took Bumblebee a few minutes to let that information sink in. The air was starting to feel thick, almost suffocating. "You had a brother?"

Thundercracker nodded, too emotional to speak.

"Was he in Praxus when the city fell?" asked Bumblebee.

Thundercracker chewed on his lips. "We all were. I was ordered to cut ties with my Praxian heritage. My commander thought it was the Decepticon way. He wanted the weakness cut out of me."

"Starscream ordered you to-"

"No," said Thundercracker sharply. He took a deep vent. "No, it was my commander before I joined up with Skywarp and Starscream. Starscream was against the idea of going after Praxus. I remember Megatron beating him after that nasty argument."

Bumblebee reached out a servo to comfort Thundercracker, but he couldn't quite bring himself to touch the seeker. "I'm sorry," said Bumblebee.

"I was raised here," said Thundercracker. "Praxus was my home. I only went to Vos because my creators wanted me to socialize with other seekers. They joined the matrix right after I graduated. My brother looked Praxian. He settled down here with a mate."

Bumblebee finally closed the distance between them and gripped Thundercracker's upper arm. It wasn't much, but it was comforting to the seeker.

"They had a son too," said Thundercracker. His vents hitched. Thundercracker didn't want to completely break down in this bleak place. "I only ever saw pictures of him."

"Is that why you were so kind to me and Bluestreak?" asked Bumblebee. It had been a very long time since that incident had occurred, near the start of the war. The transport he and Bluestreak had been on had been attacked. When they woke up, Thundercracker had been there to look after them along with Soundwave. Somehow they got back to the Autobots, but Bumblebee hardly remembered the details.

"I would never have allowed Megatron near a sparkling," said Thundercracker.

Bumblebee bit his lip. "No, I meant, why you acted so weird around Bluestreak. Was it because he reminded you of what you lost?"

"More than you can ever know," Thundercracker finally admitted. "He looks just like my brother."

Vorns of repressed emotion seemed to spill from Thundercracker. He was shaking hard now. Bumblebee helped to guide him to a sitting position against the wall.

"I should have done more to stop it!" screamed Thundercracker smashing his servo against the ground. "I should have realized sooner what was going on."

"But you were able to save Bluestreak," Bumblebee gently reminded him.

"Barely," said Thundercracker. "He shouldn't have been forced to grow up without his creators. He shouldn't have been a child of war."

Bumblebee watched Thundercracker closely. He wasn't shaking as hard anymore. He hoped that the seeker would calm down soon. Who knew when a zombie bot would show up?

"Our childhood wasn't ideal," said Bumblebee slowly. "But it was happy and we were loved."

Thundercracker let out a shaky laugh. "At least you lived."

"At least you lived"

Thundercracker and Bumblebee whipped their helms around at the new voice. Bumblebee checked his scanners. How had someone snuck up on them?

The faint outline of a small creature slowly stepped out of the darkness. They were smaller than Bumblebee and had tiny doorwings. The closer the being got, the more defined they became, like when a picture starts to come into focus.

"You!" said Thundercracker.

The mysterious being was close enough now for Bumblebee to see that it was a young mech, barely a youngling. He was ash grey and Bumblebee thought he looked a lot like Bluestreak when he was very young.

"We need your help," said the youngling again. It had an echo like ring to it, as though the youngling were speaking through liquid.

The shock of seeing a youngling in the dark underbelly of Praxus was finally starting to wear off of Bumblebee. "Who are you?" asked Bumblebee. He was happy his voice didn't shake.

"I used to be called Barricade," said the youngling.

"Barricade?" gasped Thundercracker. "I know of a Praxian called Barricade."

"He took my life from me," said the tinier version on Barricade. "I've been trapped down here since the ritual first happened."

"What?" Bumblebee asked dumbly. His mouth had fallen open and he had to mentally tell himself to close his jaw.

"The curse of Praxus," breathed Thundercracker. It was hardly a whisper, but clearly audible.

"Yes," said the youngling. "I was trapped down here with an enforcer. I think his name was Prowl. Then the evil ghost did something to me. There was this smoke everywhere and then I wasn't me anymore. Someone else was me and I was trapped down here."

"By Primus," said Thundercracker.

"You have to stop them from completing the ritual," begging the real Barricade, the one who was also a ghost.

"How?" asked Thundercracker. Bumblebee was too stunned to speak. This couldn't be real.

"You need something blessed by Primus," said a new voice. Thundercracker's vents started working a little too hard again. Bumblebee watched in fascination as a new mech materialized from the darkness. He was a dark grey with a few splashes of red here and there. There was a faint glow around him too. The youngling Barricade turned and clung to the new mech's leg.

"Bluestreak?" Bumblebee asked. "Are you alright?"

He reached forward and his servo passed right through the new mech's arm. It took more effort than Bumblebee would ever admit to not scream. He stumbled back a few steps. His servos felt icy cold.

"I told you Grayscale and Bluestreak looked very similar," said Thundercracker quietly. He refused to look at the new ghost that had joined them.

Bumblebee took a few deep vents to calm down. "What the frag. You guys really are ghosts."

Thundercracker let out another shaky laugh. "I told you."

"I'm so sorry brother," Grayscale said addressing Thundercracker. "I wish it didn't have to be this way."

"Stop," said Thundercracker. He still refused to face the two ghosts. "Just, stop, I'm here to make things right."

"You can help us right?" asked the young Barricade. "You can stop the Unmaker from returning?"

"I don't have anything blessed by Primus," said Thundercracker. "My life is pretty cursed."

"Whoa, whoa whoa," said Bumblebee holding up his servos. "What do you mean save us? Do you mean from the zombies? I just want to get Prowl and Bluestreak out of here."

"You save your friends, you save all of us," said Grayscale. "You see everyone who died when Praxus fell is still here, trapped."

There was an electric buzz that shot through the air. The tunnel was suddenly lit with dozen, no hundreds, maybe thousands of bright lights. The tiny balls of light floated in the air. Faint outlines of mechs and femmes were just barely visible.

"We can't go to the Matrix," said the young Barricade. "We need you to stop the ritual from being finished."

"It's the ritual to summon Unicron isn't it?" Thundercracker asked. "Like the stories we heard as younglings. The curse of the Northern Temple."

"Unicron," said Bumblebee. "But he's a myth."

The young Barricade shook his head. "He's real," he whispered. "He's been waiting for a long time to make his return."

"Primus is weak," said Grayscale. "That's why the other rituals failed. Primus was always able to intervene before they were completed. We need an objected blessed by the Creator to stop it."

A light bulb in the back of Bumblebee's helm went off. Brawn, Gears, and Beachcomber had given him a warning about Praxus. Then there were the paintings in the first temple he and Prowl had been to. They had shown a mech fighting with a crystal like object.

Without thinking, Bumblebee reached into his subspace and pulled out the beautiful crystal Beachcomber had given him. It glowed and seemed to pulse in time to his spark beat.

"What is that?" asked Thundercracker totally entranced by the crystal.

"It was a gift to protect me," said Bumblebee. "From my minibot friends."

"It's a gift from Primus," said Grayscale. "Minibots were said to keep special charms blessed by Primus to protect their sparklings?"

"What do I do with it?" asked Bumblebee holding it out to the ghosts. He made a note to ask Brawn about the charms when he got back to Iacon. If he ever got back to Iacon.

The ghosts stared blankly back at him. Maybe they weren't as all knowing as they appeared to be. "Let Primus be your guide," said Grayscale. The glow around him was starting to fade slightly, like a TV that was losing its reception. The other glowing balls of light were starting to dim as well.

Bumblebee didn't feel that was much of an answer. "Is it a weapon?" he asked.

"You must hurry," said the younger Barricade. "The ritual is starting." Their voices were also getting harder to hear.

"But, what are we supposed to do? Where are we supposed to go?" asked Bumblebee.

"Follow the pulses," said Grayscale. "You must hurry."

Thundercracker and Bumblebee were once again thrown into darkness except for the faint light coming from their headlights and the glowing crystal. They stayed like that for a solid breem. The only sound breaking the stillness was their vents.

"Do you believe me now?" asked Thundercracker.

Pleasant dreams and Happy Halloween!