Mixed-Up

Chapter 7: "I Knew You Would Come Back."

"Bumblebee?" Optimus called hesitantly. "Bumblebee?" receiving no answer the red-and-blue bot peeked into the room closest to him; Ratchet's old room. Seeing no one he looked in Prowl's old room and saw only a dead tree then hesitated at the final one. It was Bumblebee's room; no one, except for Bulkhead of course, had ever entered without an invitation.

While Optimus debated the pros and cons of going in Bumblebee's voice called out, sounding rather amused. "Are you just going to stand there all day or come in?" Sheepishly Optimus opened the door and entered the room, closing the door behind him. Bumblebee stood in front of the window, servos clasped behind his back. "I always knew you would come back," the minibot said suddenly. "Everyone else thought I was nuts but I guess I showed them because here you are."

"How did you know we were going to come back?" Optimus asked; his voice soft.

"At first I thought you were going to come back in a few days and when you didn't…" Bumblebee's voice trailed off then briskly he said, "After a while I gave up on you then one day I happened to run into Black Arachnia…"

Detroit at night was beautiful, Bumblebee had to admit. Normally he would have stopped to admire the scenery but not tonight. Tonight he had something much more important to do, such as look for his missing friends. They had been gone for over a year now and slowly, but surely, Bumblebee was beginning to lose hope that they would ever return but every night, while on patrol, he would look for them. He had made a promise to himself the day they had vanished that exactly one year to the day, if they hadn't come back by then he would stop. After tonight he would look no more but instead he would return to Cybertron and try one last time to join the Elite Guard.

Reaching the outskirts of Motor City he stopped and transformed. He stood there for a while, just looking at the line of trees that separated Motor City from the rest of the world like a moat that surrounded a castle. The sound of a tree limb cracking caught his attention as did the cursing that followed it. He brought his weapons online and headed towards the noises, a rush of hope and excitement running through his energon lines. He came to a stop when he realized that it was merely Black Arachnia, her helm stuck in some tree branches.

"Stupid organic life," she grumbled, trying unsuccessfully to pull herself free.

"Need some help?" Bumblebee offered.

"Yes," she reluctantly growled.

Bumblebee walked over to her then raised his energon blade, using it to cut the branch. Black Arachnia wriggled free then looked at him gratefully. "Thank you," she said. Bumblebee nodded and turned to go. Before he could get very far however she called out, "Where are the other Autobots? I thought there were five of you on Earth but you're the only one I've seen recently."

"The others disappeared over a year ago," he said, refusing to turn around and look at her.

"I'm sorry," the sincerity in her tone could not be doubted. "Did they just vanish one day or…?"

"They were pulled into a portal of some kind," he informed her, seeing no harm in doing so.

"A portal?" there was no mistaking the excitement that now filled her voice. "Maybe I could be of some help to you," she suggested, coming up to Bumblebee and wrapped one of her arms around his shoulder struts in a friendly gesture. "Now tell me everything you know about the portal," she ordered. "Did it have different colors in it or just one? How long was it there?"

Bumblebee stopped; a soft smile on his faceplate then he continued. "The two of us went through old datapads, analyzed samples of concrete and tested the air… It took us over five years but we finally figured it out. Apparently the portal opens once every twelve million years at the same place at the exact same time and stays open for approximately one minute and thirty seconds. The first time it opened it sucked in a three-month-old human baby and twelve million years later it spit her back out. So we figured that you would come back eventually."

"If that's the case then why did you think we were hallucinations?" Optimus asked.

"Every year on the day that you disappeared, I have hallucinations of you. I got so used to it that when you really did come back it didn't occur to me that you might be real," he confessed.

"Even though you knew we would come back?"

"Yeah," Bumblebee grinned then sobered. "I'm happy to see you, really I am, but I'm not glad you're here. Does that make any sense?"

Optimus thought about it then nodded. "A little," he said. "Are there anymore Neutrals?"

"Waspinator joined up with us for a while but Sentinel killed him as well, along with the Dinobots, the Jet twins, and Jazz."

"Sentinel said that Jazz died in an insane asylum after witnessing you kill Ironhide."

"I did kill Ironhide," Bumblebee said, "but only after he shot Jazz in the processor. Jazz probably would have survived but Sentinel ordered him off-lined because he had been caught patching up the Decepticons by Ironhide."

After several minutes of oppressive silence Optimus said, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry that we disappeared and left you all alone."

Bumblebee turned to look at him and smiled softly. "You know, I think I remember why I waited so long for you to return." Then he walked out of the room, leaving Optimus staring out the window.

Sentinel Magnus was furious; his entire frame literally shook as he tried not to explode. It was very difficult however as all he wanted to do, all he could think about was unleash his feral rage on a certain multi-colored minibot and watch as the color slowly drained from the violet optics. Then, once Bumblebee was off-line, he would take care of the others, starting with his self-righteous enemy, Optimus Prime. "Cliffjumper," he said.

"Coming, sir," Cliffjumper called as he attempted to navigate his way through the rubble that covered the floor, compliments of Bumblebee's bomb. "Yes, sir?" the red minibot's vents were working overtime when he finally made his way across the room.

"Tell the soldiers to prepare for battle," he ordered.

"Sir?" Cliffjumper looked confused.

"We're going to fight the Neutrals," he said through gritted denta, "but this time we're going to destroy them all."

"Yes, sir," Cliffjumper nodded and left the room.

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