Bumblebee was roused from a stasis nap by the sound of stealthy steps passing nearby. It took him less than the beat of a spark to focus his eyes, and simultaneously realize several things.
One thing was that the rain had stopped sometime earlier in the night. Another was that Jax was leaving the cave where they had all been cooped up for days, even though it was night and that went against Axle's instructions. A third thing Bumblebee noticed was that time and distance from the war or else the false sense of protection the rain offered had either made Axle too careless to set a watch, or else the Warrior put on guard had abandoned his post through irresponsibility or carelessness, because no one was noticing Jax departing. Clearly Jax had seen his opportunity to slip out unnoticed, and he was taking it. But he hadn't taken into account the fact that Bumblebee was resting near the cave's main entrance, and the only one who could slip past a Scout unnoticed was another Scout.
It was no mystery to Bumblebee where Jax was going. An ancient veteran with brain rust and one foot in the scrapheap could have guessed where Jax was going. He had a passing interest in everything to do with Earth, but he was truly passionate about only one subject: Humans.
Bumblebee had felt a growing concern about Jax's near-obsession, ever since he had first referred to the one band of humans as "ours," and a week as a captive audience to Jax's mania for humanity had done nothing to allay his fears. Though he had not realized it consciously, Bumblebee's instincts were warning him that Jax's fascination with humans was actually more dangerous than the indifference of the Autobot Warriors. Passion for a subject is not the same as understanding of it, and knowledge can be far from wisdom. More and more, Jax had been voicing an unrealized desire to directly aid the subjects of his study, even though interference in humankind's development was strictly forbidden.
Now, as he watched Jax slip away through the water-logged night, Bumblebee had the horrible feeling the historian hobbyist and egotistical researcher was going to do something he ought not. It did not occur to him, even for a tick, to wake the other Autobots. Bumblebee had worked as a loner for too long. Besides which, if he was wrong about what Jax was doing, he would not only never live down the shame, but he would find himself on the wrong side of the irascible scientist, somewhere he had so far taken grave effort to avoid being.
Silent as a shadow, Bumblebee followed Jax away from base camp.
He did not bother to follow too closely, allowing Jax to get out of sight at times. After all, he knew where Jax was going, and instinct told him he didn't want Jax to be aware of his presence. Subconsciously, he was testing Jax, to find out if Jax could be trusted without supervision. If Jax knew he was there, that might alter his behavior. It would perhaps have amused him to realize that he was conducting research on Jax the same way the researcher had heretofore been studying the humans, but he did not realize it, and sensed that this was no time for amusement.
Jax was remarkably incautious once he was beyond the base, making little attempt to be stealthy in his movements, and never once pausing to check if he was being followed, nor even jinking from his ultimate goal or doubling back to try and hide where he was going. These things were so deeply ingrained in Bumblebee's habits that he'd done them on Earth when he was alone. In Bumblebee's experience, if survival tactics weren't that deeply embedded, you didn't survive.
However, just now Jax's survival was not the highest of Bumblebee's priorities. In fact, he suspected quite strongly that he might have to make a decision concerning that. Bumblebee knew he could take Jax down, of that there could be no doubt. Jax was larger than Bumblebee, but he was weaker and Bumblebee knew his combat skills left something to be desired. But if things went badly -and they might go very badly- Bumblebee might have to make a choice.
Except the choice had already been made.
From the moment he had chosen to place his complete faith in the Prime, he had also chosen to obey that Prime's orders above all else. And those orders stipulated that Cybertronians must not be allowed to interfere in the affairs of humanity. The instructions had specifically included the phrase 'by any means necessary.' It was the last thing Bumblebee wanted, and he would do whatever he could to avoid the possibility, but the same sixth sense that used to tell him that Decepticons were just over the hill now warned him that Jax was an unacceptable danger to humanity.
Someday in the future, Bumblebee would understand Optimus' reasons for safeguarding humanity in the way he chose to. Someday he would even harbor no small amount of affection for the race and for their planet. But today he was moved exclusively by loyalty, and a profound sense of duty.
Long before he reached the settlement observation site, Bumblebee became aware of smoke in the air, and the flickering of flames through the trees. He remembered what Jax had said about the raiders, and he suspected that was the cause of the fire. He knew it couldn't be Jax, firstly because he was certain the other Autobot hadn't gotten that far yet, and secondly because there had been no report of blaster fire, and it was thoroughly unlikely that Jax would use anything else which would cause flames or smoke.
Shortly thereafter, he was at an angle to see that Jax was not climbing to the mesa they generally watched from. Instead, the trail Jax had left led into the forest, towards the settlement.
Normally humans didn't like to go out at night. Bumblebee had observed them to be typically diurnal, and he had speculated (and Jax supported it) that they might not be able to see well in darkness. But if there was a battle or raid going on, all bets were off as to where the humans might go and what they might do. Demands of survival in such a situation outweighed mood or preference.
Bumblebee increased his pace, realizing that even if Jax made the seemingly unlikely decision not to interfere, he might not be wise enough to remain unnoticed without help.
He hoped nothing would happen. It would make him feel a lot better, to see that Jax had a measure of self control. He wanted fewer things to worry about, he wanted to be less suspicious. He wanted to be more trusting. And he wanted to relearn how to get along with his own kind. Jax wasn't a bad sort, a bit obnoxious maybe, but really-
-Bumblebee never finished that thought.
Catching up to Jax, it was obvious that his worst fears concerning Jax were about to come to fruition. The other Autobot had drawn his weapon, and was heading for the edge of the treeline, his every intention clearly being to attack the raiders of the settlement.
Bumblebee had to stop him. There was no other option.
Reaction happened before consideration, and Bumblebee slammed sideways into Jax, knocking him down and pushing him back into cover at the same time. He didn't even think, his blaster seemed to deploy of its own accord and the end came to land against Jax's head.
Jax cried out as he fell, and then spat an epithet when he realized who had attacked him. It was sheer luck that they were far enough away and the humans too preoccupied with their own activities to notice the commotion coming from a certain section of the forest. At the moment he launched his assault on Jax, Bumblebee had actually forgotten the humans entirely, his whole being becoming centered upon the task of taking down what had -to him- just become the enemy.
"What's the matter with you!?" Jax snarled, fear turning to rage, failing to recognize that Bumblebee had halted just a single beat before killing him.
Swift, silent executions were a Scout's main defense when he tackled adversaries behind enemy lines. Anything else would attract notice, and a Scout discovered was a Scout outnumbered and surrounded. Such a Scout was as good as dead, killed on sight if he was lucky. For an awful second, Bumblebee had been prepared to shoot, to kill; no hesitation and no question. Who he had been forced to become in order to survive the hostile territories on Cybertron was just beneath the surface, and this would not have been the first time he'd killed another who bore the signet of the Autobots, for Bumblebee had in his time been sent to ferret out traitors among the Autobot ranks.
Such assignments had eroded his trust in his own kind, and those who knew what he did bore a natural resentment of his presence, because it suggested they themselves were not trusted, or that they could not trust one or more whom they fought alongside daily. When it came to situations like that, you had to wait until you were dead sure, until there could be no doubt, and then you had to be quick to take them down, or else they'd take you down. It was reflex, and controlling it took enormous willpower.
It took several seconds for Bumblebee's head to clear, for the blackness of his eyes to fade out.
{Me?} He snarled finally, struggling more than usual to get the words through his mangled voice-box, {What's the matter with you? What part of 'no interference' do you not understand?!}
"Those raiders are monsters! They're destroying that settlement!" Jax spat back, entirely unaware of being little more than a breath away from death, "I can't just do nothing!"
{That's exactly what you can do. This planet is not ours. These are not our people, they are not our pets, it is not for us to say which of them live and which die. They do not belong to us.}
"But it's not right, the strong destroying the weak," Jax protested, and he sounded so reasonable, so close to the Autobot edict that it was difficult to resist accepting it, "I can protect them. We can protect them. We can stop them from making the mistakes we made!"
{Who are we to decide what is right for them?} Bumblebee asked levelly.
"We are wiser, more advanced-" Jax began, but Bumblebee cut him off ferociously, almost more to prevent himself from straying off the straight and narrow path than anything.
{Our world is dead! Don't you get that? We destroyed it. Who are we to decide what is and what is not best for another world when we've killed the only one we had!?}
Jax stared at him, and it was clear to Bumblebee for the first time that Jax truly had not realized how dire conditions back home had become. It took him a bit to regain enough composure to speak.
"We... we know better now," Jax said shakily, "We've learned from our mistakes. We can-"
The desire to believe Jax was so strong Bumblebee was almost shaking with it. Cybertronians had the power to keep humanity in check, to stop them from waging wars, to keep them from hurting one another. They had that power. And they were much longer lived than humans. Most of them would probably outlive the Earth itself, assuming no calamity befell them. They could develop and guide a culture of peace. It sounded good, noble even.
In a moment of insight beyond his years, there flashed in his mind the dark image of Megatron, who craved power and control above all else. Who sought to remake Cybertron in his own image, to be the undisputed and absolute ruler of all, not merely a leader in war, but a dictator of his own brand of peace, which was actually oppression of the weak, and destruction of any who dared disagree with him.
Absolute power.
It would be easy, so terribly easy, for Bumblebee to tell himself that none of the Autobots would be like that. They would use their power only for good. But he was too well acquainted with history, and he knew that Megatron had once shared the ideals of the Primes. He had not strayed all at once, but it had begun with the arrogant assumption that he knew better than all others how things should be done, that he alone understood what was truly right and just, that if he were in power then everything would be better. It was the beginning of a dark road straight into the Pit, and Bumblebee saw its hungry, gaping maw lying at the end of that path. Death, not just of self and Cybertron, but spark as well. That was the end reward for any who went down such a path.
Fear, revulsion and horror at how seductively evil had whispered to him, how blackly it gazed from behind the still-earnest blue eyes of Jax caused Bumblebee to instinctively recoil, as if it were a living thing that might crawl up onto him. Wordless burring shuddered out of him.
"We don't have to be powerless," Jax persisted, mistaking Bumblebee's sounds as those of cracking certainty rather than stark abhorrence and sheer terror, "We can make them be good. That's what Autobots do. What we do, we do for the good of all."
A whirl of emotions tore through Bumblebee, and he struggled to maintain his self-control, to keep a handle on the situation. Floundering, drowning, he found a life raft in that emotionally draining sea, and clung to it.
{The Prime's orders are to leave them be.}
He didn't have to say that Jax had no alternative. It was in his voice. If Jax pushed him, Bumblebee would shoot. He felt he had no choice. He had to keep Jax away from the humans. For now and forever.
"Optimus is not God!" Jax snapped.
{Neither,} Bumblebee growled in a low voice, {Are you.}