Ratchet was still waiting for a reply when Arcee and Bulkhead returned from the escort, noting Bumblebee's absence with heavy suspicion.
"He returned before you two... mentioned wanting to take a drive outside, keep his engine running. Knowing mechs his age, he'll be out until dawn," Ratchet put together on the spot. Instinct was nagging him in his own way to tell them just how annoyed he was at the scout being ten klicks late and not even answering comm hails, but he knew the truth would just keep them up worrying.
Bulkhead just laughed at the lie. "You were young once as well, Ratch'."
"If I was, I can't remember it," Ratchet said back, mouth wavering in a shadow of a smile. He'd gone so long without showing one that maybe his faceplate was desperate for something other than a scowl for once.
"Well, guess we'll be going to our quarters..." Arcee stretched her servos up as she yawned- Ratchet had never understood the purpose for almost unhinging your jawplate, but it seemed to be something caught on from the humans.
"Before you recharge..." Ratchet tapped at his databank monitor, bringing up the data packet he'd been scanning through during his wait. "I have your missions for tomorrow."
Both bots squinted at the rows of numbers filling up the screen. "What's that?" Arcee asked.
"Those are the co-ordinates for the Iacon relics on Earth," Ratchet said, almost tempting another smile. Bulkhead gave a wide one of his own to make up for it.
"You serious?" he asked, both him and Arcee moving closer and squinting harder to distinguish between line after line of sacred numbers.
"While Optimus was in his Orion Pax state of mind, it seemed he retained some more distant memories of his past," Ratchet found himself crafting again. "The Decepticons have to decode their data from the database... we now have it straight from the source."
"Well then, frag recharge!" Bulkhead laughed, slamming his fists together. "We can get a head start on the 'Cons while they're still tryin' to translate this slag."
Ratchet rolled his optics. Couldn't he have one day without somebot trying to get themselves lost and killed? "Bulkhead, I'm not letting you go treasure hunting at this hour," he said after a sigh.
"Come on, Ratch', I didn't get to pound any metal on Silas' toy," he begged. "Wreckers never end a day without an aft kicking. You up for it, 'Cee?"
Arcee smiled at the invitation but shook her helm. "There's only so much action I can take for one day, Bulk. But have fun out there- if the Hatchet will let you, that is."
She'd sloped off to her berth before Ratchet could ask her what "Hatchet" was supposed to mean. Bulkhead was still waiting for permission like a sparkling about to open a present, and Ratchet was already feeling like he was in a feedback loop from Bumblebee's request just less than a breem ago.
Optimus would've had him demoted for sending out so many Autobots at once, but he wasn't quite sure what to make of the Prime's judgement recently. And he was in command of the base in his absence and, in this case, lack of orders...
Ratchet looked over the list of numbers and plucked out a set of them before he could regret his decision. "The co-ordinates are near the Earth's equator, so for the love of Primus don't wander off."
Bulkhead raised an eyeridge, actually surprised for a nanoklick that his pleading had worked before excitement took over. "Any idea what'll be waiting there?"
"No, but... whatever it is, it should help us." Ratchet started to type the location into the Ground Bridge's settings, before his digits froze as his optics skidded over one of the input boxes.
Only one of them was for where Bumblebee had wanted to go. At last he knew where the scout was, and he really wished he didn't.
His spark and vents felt tight as Bulkhead awaited the portal's appearance. Ratchet forced himself to finish the configuration before the Wrecker started asking questions.
"I'll keep in constant contact with you," he told Bulkhead, masking any distraught cracks in his voice with a thick coating of optimism. From the look the Wrecker gave him, it must have sounded more disturbing than if he'd just let himself break down in front of him. Even so, Bulkhead just nodded and walked through the Bridge before he could look back.
Alone again in the base, Ratchet let all the air in his systems hiss out in a long sigh. Primus really didn't want him to sleep tonight.
xx
Optimus already knew who Airachnid was aiming at, but he deployed his blaster anyway. If he had to use it, it wouldn't be on his lurking teammate. At least Grimlock was still sleeping.
He tried to keep his aim discrete as Airachnid moved closer to the undergrowth. "I'm going to count to three," she called out. "And if whoever's out there hasn't come out by then-"
Optimus wasn't sure what to expect from Bumblebee, but he was at least smart enough to emerge with his own weaponry trained on her. In fact, he was so focused on her he only noticed his leader by her side at that moment. His optics widened in shock, narrowed in confusion and then finally settled on a hard look at Airachnid.
Bumblebee's frame was shaking in front of the spider, but his vocaliser endured. "Optimus, stand back, I've got-!"
The Prime had been preparing himself for taking aim at one of his own, but his servo still felt heavy as lead as he aimed it at the scout. "Stand down, Bumblebee!" he ordered, forcing hesitation out of his voice like it was a pest.
As he expected, Bumblebee's weapon fell just slightly. Even Airachnid's defensive stance seemed to falter. "But... but she's-" Bee started to protest, cut off by another firm command from Optimus.
"Stand. Down."
Bumblebee glanced between the two bots, blaster barrel burning as bright as his furrowed optics. "Her first." Somehow the chirp managed to sound threatening to both of them.
Still keeping his aim on the scout, Optimus turned to the spider. The look she was giving him could have melted Unicron himself. "Airachnid... please."
Whatever it was that eventually convinced her to lower her servos, Optimus was certain it wasn't a sudden love for Autobots in her territory. This was different from the confrontation between her and Ratchet- Bumblebee didn't have the medic's objective experience, or understanding of the Prime's motives. He'd been fighting Decepticons all his life- all he truly knew how to do was kill one when it was in front of him. Airachnid at least had her child to stop her entering a battle. The only thing stopping Bumblebee was Optimus' word. And his word wouldn't mean anything if he didn't manage to explain himself.
Bumblebee kept his weapon out, but at least it was aiming at the ground. He looked to Prime, and furious chirps and whirrs came so fast that Optimus didn't have time to translate them into Neocybex.
"Please calm yourself, Bumblebee," Optimus pleaded, changing his blaster to hands reaching out to the scout. "I understand you are confused. But Airachnid is not a threat."
Bumblebee's eyeridges dug deep into his whirring optics. "And my aft is made of gold!" he snorted through snippets of blips.
Airachnid kept Scorpia shielded on her back with her back legs. "I'm not going to hurt you, scout," she said wearily. "I have better things to waste my time on."
Bumblebee voiced his skepticism in a burbled scoff. Optimus placed himself between the two before the standoff could start all over again.
"Please listen, Bumblebee-"
"I'm listenin' real hard, cause this better be good," the scout said, folding his servos over like a sulking teenspark. Only when the most surly Autobots caught him in his worst mood did Bumblebee use such a tone- especially never with Optimus before now. He really was mad.
Optimus decided not to waste any time. "Airachnid... found herself carrying a sparkling while with the Decepticons." Bumblebeee's anger dissolved in another burst of shock. "She has since defected from them, for the safety of herself and her child. As of now she poses no threat to humans, or the Autobots." Airachnid glared at him for the assumption, but she didn't bother to deny it.
Bumblebee looked away, processing the new information, and compiling his reaction into a repeat of anger. "So she gets knocked up and all of a sudden all the 'Bots she's murdered just don't matter anymore?"
Despite the blue of his optics, the scout could only see black and white. "Bumblebee, it's not that-"
"How long has this been going on, Optimus?" he interrupted again. "How long have you been stealing our resources and lying to us for a fragging monster?!" He gestured a servo at Airachnid, who only acknowledged the insult with a roll of her optics. She'd surely been exposed to worse.
"I do not blame you for being upset at this, Bumblebee," was all Optimus could say. He hadn't been trained in negotiating with emotional youngsters and had been hoping to put it off until Scorpia's own adolescence. Right now Bumblebee was like a bright yellow timebomb- he'd blow the whole island up if he wasn't defused.
"How are we supposed to trust you when you're off keeping Decepticons-" For once Bumblebee actually cut himself off, optics suddenly settling on a point in the ground. The point turned out to be a curious sparkling crawling towards him, and around then was when Airachnid noticed she had a sparkling missing from her back.
"Is... is that the..." Bumblebee kept pointing at Scorpia, as if she was a baby Scraplet wanting to finish off his vocaliser. Airachnid nodded, seeming to enjoy the scout being frozen by something barely a third of his size. Optimus wanted to scoop Scorpia back to safety, but she was the only one standing in the way of his ranting.
Cautiously shifting his plating, Bumblebee knelt to the ground when Scorpia reached his ped. She sat, staring up at the larger bot with slow blinks. Her optics were more violet like her mother's now, with a small scattering of pattern starting to emerge on their surface. When Bee offered a digit to her, she tentatively took hold of it with all of her own.
"I... I didn't think she'd be this cute. What's her name?" Bee asked quietly.
"Scorpia," Airachnid answered, watching as the scout let her daughter crawl into his palm. She was cradled just a few inches off the ground, nuzzling into his leg armour.
"Uh... hi, Scorpia," Bee nervously beeped, tensing slightly as she clambered onto his knee and reached up to his faceplate. He leaned in closer, trying to lower his vocaliser into a mumble of chirps. Optimus still heard a faint apology of, "I'm sorry I called your Mommy a monster."
Whether or not she could understand him, Scorpia pressed her tiny mouth to his cheek in a kiss anyway. Bumblebee flinched away, but only for a nanoklick before his helm was drawn back in again.
The only bot who could calm him down was the only other one who couldn't speak yet- how fitting.
"Did anyone else follow you here, Bumblebee?" Optimus asked gently, wary of breaking whatever spell Scorpia had put over him. The scout kept his helm down but glanced up guiltily.
"Um, actually..." His top half pivoted towards the undergrowth behind him, and he nodded towards it. There was a rustle and crack of twigs in the twilight, and a shape only slightly bigger than Scorpia herself emerged.
"H-Hi, Optimus." Rafael smiled weakly with a wave.
xx
Some people were expecting a Decepticon to be waiting in the wings for Airachnid- nice guess, but I figured an Autobot would be a lot less devastating. That's not to say there won't be any potential Con runs-ins in the future...