Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers blah, blah, blah. Just the plot and OCs are mine.
To start things off. Those of you who reviewed; you are amazing! Thank you!
Okay so its taken two whole parts, but here is the moment I know at least some of you have been waiting for. The twins' past and a little sneak peak of Bee's!
Enjoy!
Chapter 2
Ironhide stepped out of the glittering green lights to find himself standing in the chaotic mess that was Wheeljack's lab. Rolling his shoulders he shook his locked in place cannons to get the tingle of the energy bridge out of his circuits while his optics found a once again scorched black Wheeljack fiddling at his desk as he absently reached over and flicked off the ground bridge without even glancing up.
Hide snorted. "Hey, Jack."
Wheeljack nodded without looking. He was working on what appeared to be the lights for the party tonight. Ironhide rolled his optics.
"You blew up again didn't you?"
"No bot got hurt!" Wheeljack finally looked up with a tentative smile, more than willing to not tell Ironhide that his youngling had been on his shoulder when the power supply to the lights decided to go up in a rather bright pop and send both him and the youngling crashing to the floor a few breems ago. The youngling was fine. Not even a scorch mark this time. Which was way better than what happened last time. And Jazz took him saying he'd keep quiet so Wheeljack didn't find himself under Ratchet and Ironhide's fury again. So as far as Wheeljack was concerned Ironhide could just never know it happened.
"One orn you're going to kill us all, Jack." Making his way to the door Ironhide hid his smile as Wheeljack called out behind him.
"Or save us all, thank you very much!"
Once the door shut behind him Ironhide let out a quiet laugh. Primus it was good to be home. Now, to find his Bumblebee. Opening a comm link he called Prime.
"Optimus,"
A moment of silence before a tense answer. "Ironhide, you are back?"
The weapons specialist's optics narrowed at the tone as his steps hurried toward the Prime's office. "Hot Rod and Hammerdown can handle the rest. So yeah I came back a little early. What's the matter?"
"Well, nothing really."
"Don't you dare lie to me, Prime! Where is my youngling?"
"With me. I'm in my office. Just come on and we'll fill you in."
Ironhide snarled. "Leave for fraggin' six orns and the whole damn world ends! Who do I have to scrap!?"
"Calm your aft and just get down here!" Ratchet's snarl met Hide's the CMO having apparently been on the link. Ironhide just growled darkly under his breath as he marched the last few halls to his best friend's office. Throwing the swishing door open he found Optimus behind his desk with Ratchet standing to the side and Bumblebee sitting in the middle of the large metal surface playing with a glittering light cube. When the door swung open the little mech spun to see who it was and in an instant his little faceplate lit up like a supernova.
Ironhide's spark melted into a pile of goo.
"HIDE!" The youngling flung himself to his feet and jumped off the desk making Ironhide hiss under his breath and reach out to snatch the little mech before his faceplate became one with the floor. Quickly bringing the little wiggling mess of yellow protoform to his chest he suddenly found himself chuckling as Bee sprang up and latched onto his neck squeezing tightly as he giggled. "Hide! Hide! Hide! Hide! Hide! Hide!"
"Hey, Bee. How you doing? Have you been good?"
"Yep!" Bee pulled back grinning brightly up at his guardian.
"That's my youngling." Ironhide stroked a digit between the little mechs twitching antennas earning him a soft purr before Bee buried his faceplate back in the softer wires of the mech's neck.
"Missed you."
"I missed you too." Hide's spark pulsed happily and possessively as it wrapped itself back around the bubbly warmth that was his young charge.
"Don't go again." Bee said softly as he snuggled against the comforting feeling of the energon pumping through the tubes and wires in Hide's neck proving that the powerful mech was really there.
Ironhide sighed. "Comes with the job, Bee. Sometimes I have too."
"Don't like it!" Bee pouted.
"I know, but I'm back now that's what matters."
"'Kay." Once again Bee was chirping happily all his anger rushing out as quickly as it came. He couldn't be angry. Not when his Hide was back.
Content that the snuggling youngling would be alright for a few klicks Ironhide turned his dark blue optics to his two best friends.
"Ironhide," Optimus greeted him with a smile.
"Have fun trailing after Hammer's nonsense?" Ratchet snorted.
Hide glared at them both with a hint of amusement. "One of these orns I'm going to murder that mech. Do you know how many times I woke up to find my cannons stuffed with kettle-energon? Seven! SEVEN TIMES! I was only there for six orns."
Bee's giggles really did nothing to ease the weapons specialist's mood. Instead Ironhide glanced down with a glare to the top of his youngling's head.
"No mech asked you, youngling."
Bee giggled even louder. "Hammer funny."
"Hammer is a bad influence!"
"Still funny." Bee just kept on giggling until suddenly he pushed back from his guardian remembering something as it flashed brightly in his baby blue optics. "HIDE!"
"What?" Ironhide laughed at the almost giddy bounce that was now happening in his hand as the little yellow youngling clung to his armor.
"It's New Vorns Eve!" Bee cheered.
"Yes, it is."
"What you get me?"
The ebony mech snorted. "You'll find out later."
Bee pouted.
"Sorry that's the way it works, Bee."
With a huff Bee fell to his skidplate in his guardian's large hand, crossed his arms, and proceeded to pout. Ironhide rolled his optics with amusement while Ratchet shook his head and Optimus just smiled at the little mech that owned all their sparks.
"So what's the matter?" Ironhide asked silently over their private comm link after a few moments.
"Where to start . . . ." Ratchet sighed.
"That bad? He doesn't look hurt."
"He's fine after the whole step incident." The medic assured his friend. "This is something else."
"Like what?"
"He wants to know why the twins hate New Vorns Eve." Optimus started hesitantly.
"Oh . . . ." Ironhide fought between the two emotions of whether or not he needed to go twist the twins until they broke or if he should just accept that they hated this holiday. They had their reasons. Now that he knew most of what happened to them he understood. This was affecting his youngling though, and when it affected his youngling the mech drew a line. "Well it was going to happen sooner or later, but can't they at least fake it for the party? They adore him, they'll do that. At least Sides will. Sunstreaker will pout, but he's moody most the time anyway. That's nothing new. Bee won't even notice with all that will be going on. He never has."
"That's not what has us worried, Hide." Optimus said quietly.
"Than what does?"
"He asked me if they hated it because of the scars." Ratchet told him making Ironhide go very still.
"What?"
"That's what I said." Ratchet rubbed a hand down his faceplate. "He then told me that he's seen them before."
"What!?" Ironhide snarled his spark flaring with anger and his engine growling in outrage. Bumblebee looked up startled, slightly confused as to why the spark he loved so much was suddenly angry. He poked at it with his own trying to calm Ironhide down which the mech responded too.
At least on the outside.
He quelled his anger silencing his whirling cannons and snarling engine forcing his battle prodigals to quit flashing before his optics. Grinding his metal teeth until he was sure he was going to break something he stared at the two mechs before him.
Optimus didn't seem to be in much better shape than he was. Now that Hide was looking for it he could see the tension in his bulky shoulders, the frown flickering at his lips, and the hardness of his optics. Ratchet was no better, he had his hands balled into fist and his dark optics narrowed into slits. Ironhide could almost see the wheels turning in his processor trying to figure out how he could fix this.
Ironhide just wanted answers though.
Then he'd blow up whatever was the cause of his adopted son knowing about the brands from the Rings.
Optimus' sigh brought Ironhide out of his mental murder plan.
"You need to hear what he told Ratchet." Suddenly a voice file was pinged over to him and Ironhide opened it.
"Seen 'em before."-Bumblebee
"What do you mean you've seen them before!?"-Ratchet
"Uh . . . think so."-Bumblebee
"Bad place. Remember some things."-Bumblebee
"What?" Ironhide breathed out stumbling slightly as he instinctively curled his fingers into a tight shelter around Bumblebee pulling him to his spark. Bee crouched low as he sat in the sudden fist he found himself in leaning against the strong black armor beside him. Unsure of what was suddenly so wrong with his guardian—what had his spark pulsing in fear and anger—he cuddled up next to the pounding.
Had he done something wrong?
He really wasn't mad at Hide for not telling him what his New Vorns present was. He was just playing.
What did he do?
"Hide?" Bee questioned softly seeming to snap Ironhide out of whatever world he had fallen into. Shaking his head and blinking Ironhide looked down through his thick black fingers to find Bee staring up at him. "Not really mad. Just playin'."
Once again Ironhide melted. "It's okay, Bee."
Shifting so the caged fingers weren't so tight Ironhide tried to calm his spark, but it protested every other logical thought when Ironhide tried to pull his youngling away again. It wanted him near and it was having it no other way—not that Ironhide was all the keen on doing anything different—he just cradled the youngling close to his chest as he stared.
"Bad place he remembers? What in the name of fraggin' Primus-damned Pit is that!?"
"That I can't tell you." Ratchet grumbled. "He won't talk about it anymore. We tried when I got him here."
"He just shrugs and says sometimes he remembers." Optimus' optics narrowed in calculation. "When I ask him what he says 'bad place'. When I ask what that is he just says 'can't remember'. When I asked when he remembers he said 'recharge'."
"He's having nightmares? He doesn't have nightmares! I'd fraggin' know it if he had nightmares!" Ironhide growled.
"They might not necessarily be nightmares." Ratchet told him. "They might not wake him as well."
"A bad place where he knows what the scar brands from the Rings are doesn't really sound like a happy dream to me, Ratchet!"
"If he remembers that means their memories." Optimus put in. "But of what and when even he doesn't seem to know."
"Megatron?" Ironhide's dark optics suddenly flicked with red and pale white at the memory of the monster that took his youngling from him.
"I'm not sure." Optimus admitted. "He didn't have him long enough to take him far, and it seems plausible that he wasn't far from where we found Trickster."
"Don't fraggin' bring that glitch up!" Ironhide hissed audibly making Bee squeak in confusion though when Ironhide started petting his antennas he quickly went to purring and snuggling again. "Bee is not 'theirs'! He's fraggin' mine! Ours! They can't have him, damn it! He's not some prophesied sparkling-tale!"
"If you believed all that your optics wouldn't be flickering." Ratchet told him quietly.
Ironhide shot him a burning glare with pale white and burning red still flickering in his dark blue gaze as anger built up in his frame. If they didn't stop this soon he was going to blow something to the next galaxy.
"We don't like it anymore than you do." Ratchet said.
"Mute it before I tear your damn vocal processor out and make you have to have Jolt fix it!"
"Ironhide," Optimus' tone quelled the WS's murderous glare and suddenly the conversation was taken to a much closer level then a private comm channel. Optimus opened the powerful bonds to his two best friends. "I didn't believe that glitch once, Hide. I didn't listen to him when he told me there was darkness in my Sire's house. I thought he was a fake. I didn't want to believe in sparkling-tales and the Guild. Sentinel told me they were frauds and I believed it. Trickster was right though, Hide. He was right. He gave me a chance to stop it from happening and I didn't listen. I could have saved my Sire, my brother, but I didn't listen. I will not make the same mistake twice."
"Nothing you could have done was going to stop, Megatron." Ironhide pulsed back, his spark forcing the emotions of doubt away from his friend. Optimus' seemed to nod in return, but it didn't feel convinced.
"What they say has truth in it when you think about what he can do." Ratchet admitted tiredly. "His spark is as powerful as yours—might be more some orn—Optimus. I hate believing that he might belong to them as much as you both do, but according to legend the Guild had gifts. Gifts given to them by Primus to help protect the balance of life. It is kind of hard to make myself think that they are lying when they seem so real."
"The legends only ever said two designations. Two mechs. None of those two were named Trickster, Impulse, or Evermore. Especially not Evermore. The legends never spoke of a femme."
"They also never said that they were real." Optimus put in. "But I can feel it, Ironhide. I told you that night and I'll tell you now. They aren't lying. I looked. They were telling the truth."
"Sometimes I really hate that Gift of the Primes you have, Optimus." Ironhide mumbled.
"You and me both, my brother."
For a moment all was quiet.
"So what does this mean? What do we do now?" Ironhide glanced between them.
"I guess we wait." Optimus said. "He doesn't want to talk about it anymore, and as Trickster said they will only be around where we cannot find them. I doubt he or his siblings will be answering any of our questions anytime soon."
"Well . . . ." Ratchet trailed off unsure if it was a good idea or not. Unsure that it could even be done. They weren't likely to talk.
"Ratch?" Hide lifted an optic ridge.
"He might talk to the twins."
"They won't tell him about the Rings. He doesn't need to know a slaggin' thing about them anyway." Ironhide grumbled not liking the idea of his youngling hearing anything about that horrible place for as long as he lived. The notion made his armor crawl. Bee was too young. As far as Hide was concerned he would always be to young for knowledge of those horrors.
"They might danced around the topic like they do with me, and that might be enough to get both he and them talking."
For a moment the commander, the CMO, and the WS looked at each other weighing it over in their processors. None of them liked it, but they hated not knowing if something was haunting Bumblebee far more than the idea of discussing the Rings with him made them cringe. They stared at each other in silent, begrudged, agreement for a few klicks longer before Optimus nodded.
"Comm the twins."
"Sideswipe," The bright red mech squeaked in surprise at the sound of Ratchet's voice suddenly echoing around in his processor making him fall off his latter and crash into one of the rec room tables. Drift glanced down over the beams in the ceiling snickering at him while Sides just glared and picked himself up touching the side of his audio.
"Uh . . . yeah?"
"Report to Prime's office."
"Whatever it was I didn't do it."
"Sideswipe, I don't care. Just get your brother and come down here."
"Why?"
"Just do it!" The comm slammed shut with a bust of static making Sideswipe winch.
"What's up, mech?" Drift called from where he was fiddling with wires as Blaster was chassis deep in one of the vents in the wall.
"Yeah, something wrong?" The orange mech called.
"Ratchet called me to Prime's office." Sides said pushing himself up off the table and landing on his feet.
Both the white warrior and the orange communications expert stilled.
"You didn't see us!" They called in unison.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah I know the drill. See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil. I'm not gonna rat your two out. I'll get out of this quick as I can. Finish up, this is gonna be hilarious."
"Thanks for the help, Sides!" Blaster called.
"Anytime." With that the red warrior let the door close behind him and he headed for his brother.
Sending out a questioning poke between their bond he quickly got a response.
"Don't poke me you fragger!"
"Ha so good to talk to you too, Sunny."
"Don't call me that!"
"I'll call you whatever the frag I want!" Sides challenged as he climbed the stairs and slid around Hoist and Red Alert as they carried party supplies toward the rec room.
Sunstreaker just growled over the bond.
"Look sorry to disrupt your muse or your nap or whatever it is your slaggin' pouting with, but Wrench wants us in Prime's office."
"What in the name of pit did you do!?"
"Nothin'!" Sides growled back. "At least as of lately."
"I swear to Primus, if I get thrown in the brig for one more thing that you did I'm going to rearrange your circuits until you speak like a femme!"
"He didn't sound mad. Just come out and meet me there."
Another growl.
"Look you're going to have to come out sooner or later tonight. You don't show up for the party and Half Pint with hunt you down."
"He already did."
"Huh?"
"Don't ask it was earlier."
"Maybe it's you he's mad at." Sides sent a mental optic ridge wiggle across their twin bond.
He was gifted a smack in return.
However, when he rounded the last hall to Optimus' office he saw Sunny round the other end. His golden twin glared at him with dark optics to which Sides grinned at in return as they came to a halt at the closed office door faceplate to faceplate.
"It's not my fault."
"Of course not." Sides grinned.
"I'll slug you."
"Love you too."
SMACK
"Oww," Rubbing the side of his one of his audio horns he pushed the code into the door and let it swish open. What he and Sunstreaker found was kind of shocking though. Optimus was reclined in his office chair, Ironhide was sitting in one of the chairs before the Prime's desk with Ratchet in the seat beside him both turned slightly to see out the door, then there was Bee who was playing with his guardian's fingers in the massive mech's lap. When the door swished open and the twins walked in the little yellow mech looked up, but he didn't call out like he usually did. His antennas folded down to the sides ever so slightly and his big baby blue optics grew a little hesitant.
Ironhide's gaze narrowed as he reached out to wrap up his spark that was suddenly sulking back into its protector's safety.
The twins on the other hand both deflated a little bit.
"What in Pit did you do?" Sides hissed silently to his twin.
"I don't know." And for once there was no venom in the golden warrior's tone. He sounded like someone just told him the universe had forever run out of his shade of gold paint.
"Sideswipe, Sunstreaker." Optimus greeted as the pair of warriors hovered in his doorway their optics watching Bumblebee. "Come in."
The pair shared a quick glance that none of the officers missed before they stepped forward letting the door close behind them. Not speaking a word they stood close together, bodies tense and faceplates unreadable, as they watched those around them and especially the youngling who blinked at them with apprehension.
"You two are off shift until the orn after tomorrow, correct?"
"Uh now yeah, Boss Bot." Sides answered carefully.
"Then you'll be watching Bumblebee until the countdown party tonight."
The pair blinked in unison before in one fluid movement both heads tilted and they spoke together.
"Huh?"
Bee giggled.
He loved it when they did that.
Sides cut him a half sparked smile before looking back to his commander. "But . . . Hide is back don't you want him?"
Ironhide just glared at them looking very much like he was plotting how to offline them in their recharge and make it look like an accident.
Ratchet lifted an optic ridge.
Optimus simply shook his head. "We need him to spend some time with you two."
"Why?" Sunstreaker finally found his voice though Sides wasn't so sure that was a good thing. His tone was like metal scraping on metal. His normally smooth voice strained from trying to keep all the emotions that were flooding into their bond out of the open. Sides sent a quick comforting pulse trying to keep Sunny's head on straight, but the twitching in his golden fingers were proof enough to Sideswipe that this wasn't going well. He shot Ratchet a look.
Why was he doing this to them?
He knew why they hated New Vorns. They loved Half Pint like he was one of their bond, a brother, but these next two orns they weren't thinking in the present. That was the only reason they had been foolish enough to chase the little mech into a step and break his noseplate in the first place. They just needed to keep their distance for the next few orns.
For his safety and their own.
"We need you to talk to him." Ratchet answered opening up a comm between the former gladiators and the other mechs in the room.
"This orn is not the best time for that." Sideswipe hissed over the waves trying to make the officers understand.
Ironhide's gaze narrowed even further. "I don't give a damn what haunts your processors tonight and the next. Those are your demons to face, seeing as you refuse to talk about them to the mechs willing to listen and help. Right now all I care about is Bumblebee."
"What the pit does that have to do with us?" Sunstreaker growled his scowl dancing to life on his lips. "I'm sorry about yesterday, alright. I didn't mean to get him hurt, but that is all the more reason for him to be some other fraggin' place than with us for New Vorns."
"We don't think straight at the moment. Trying. Not really doing all that hot." Sides was doing better than Sunny was. He always did, but he wasn't about to call his big brother out. They were one and the same and he'd stand beside how much more it haunted Sunstreaker. Because the only reason his memories were worse was because of all the times he stepped in front of Sideswipe and took the demons from him. Because of all those nights he had shoved Sides to the back of their cell and walked out to fight for his life instead of his twin.
Sideswipe owed him for more than any other bot could ever know.
Suddenly a voice file pinged into both twins data bases.
The shared a look then glanced to Ratchet.
"Listen to it."
They did as they were told.
"Seen 'em before."-Bumblebee
"What do you mean you've seen them before!?"-Ratchet
"Uh . . . think so."-Bumblebee
"Bad place. Remember some things."-Bumblebee
Both twins went very still.
"Bad place?" Sides echoed to his twin.
"Seen what?" Sunstreaker returned.
"He asked me why you two didn't like New Vorns." Ratchet spoke up again.
They froze.
"When I wouldn't answer him he asked me if it was because of your scars." The medic's optics flickered to the mirror marks of three gashes on both twins' chest. Their brands from the Rings. The things he should have seen vorns ago. The things he drove his fist into walls for not understanding. All this time it was right before his optics and he hadn't seen it until they snuck off that orn with Bumblebee.
He hated himself for not seeing it, for not being able to try and help before now.
"And then he said that."
Sideswipe and Sunstreaker felt like the world just got torn out from under their feet. They blinked once at the medic, then in unison shook their heads as if coming out of a daze, glanced to Bee who was paying no mind to anything in the room other than Ironhide's fingers as he played with them in his lap, and then back to Ratchet.
Neither said a word.
Not even Sideswipe. The king of smart remarks and snarky comebacks. He just stood there and stared at the medic he trusted his darkest self too.
He'd heard it—he and Sunny both—but neither one of them could believe it.
"What exactly do you think he's talking about?" Sunstreaker asking it was a bit shocking, but the grumbled growl that rolled in Ironhide's chest made it worth the golden warrior being the one to speak up.
"That's what I want to know." The WS told them.
The twins glanced at each other again.
Sides' dark blue optics swam with an emotion that made Sunny's spark hurt. His brother should not look like that anymore. Not here. Not now.
Yet he was sure that he looked the same way.
With a slow nod and a pulse of a sigh Sunstreaker gave in. Not because his commanding officers wanted it but because he desperately needed to know how Bumblebee knew anything about their scars.
"Hey, Half Pint." Sides forced on a grin that could light up a dead planet and drew Bee's attention earning him a small smile. "Wanna come play vid games with us?"
In a nano-klick the little youngling was full on beaming.
They wanted to play with him?
That meant they weren't mad anymore! Bumblebee felt like chirping with glee.
Spinning toward Ironhide he bounced slightly. "Can?"
"Of course." Ironhide almost purred at the glee glittering in those baby blue optics before he scooped up his little yellow youngling letting Sideswipe snatch him up and cradle him to his spark. Two sets of dark blue optics shared a silent confirmation before the twins spun away in unison heading for the hall as Bee giggled asking what they were going to play as the door hissed closed behind them.
The quiet pew, pew, pew of a vid game filled the big double berthroom that belonged to the twins. The massive space being the result of Sideswipe—much to Hot Rod's horror—taking his pile drivers and a box of explosives to the dividing wall that had separated the two rooms the twins had claimed. The now huge space that rivaled Optimus' office was home to the infamous Terror Twins and all of life's little pleasures that they had either bought or stolen over the vorns. Four couches of various shades of blacks and whites were placed neatly around the space, three recliners all of dark tints accept the tiny yellow one that sat in the middle of the room. It was no hard to figure out whom that one belonged too. Also a giant TV screen took up most of the west wall the rest of that wall space being taken up by the sound system that Sides had magically acquired before they left Tyger Pax and Hot Rod's ship what seemed like so long ago. In a quieter corner of the room under the only window was a well lit little space that belonged solely to Sunstreaker, the home of his art studio. Lastly there was the two large berths that were riveted to the east wall one just above the other forming sort of bunk berths the top belonging to Sideswipe who was all for the flare of dramatics in the morning when he would cannon ball from his recharge space while Sunstreaker lay quietly and proudly on the space closer to the ground.
The room itself was a work of art that marveled even the mechs that didn't really like the big golden warrior all that much—Gears—because the murals that made up the free walls and the ceiling were awe inspiring.
The north wall that was home to their window was a scarily realistic image of Iacon in its prime, before the bombs and 'Cons leveled it to a pile of ruble. How the former gladiator knew what Iacon looked like in the optics of the Elite and Nobles that had called the place home even Ratchet had yet to figure out. Because neither twin was all that willing to tell any mech that Iacon had been their home before they were sold into slavery.
The wall behind their berths formed a much darker picture, but it was beautiful all the same. It was Kaon, in all of its brilliant darkness.
A different kind of beauty.
Mysterious and slightly scary yet it held a sort of untouchable power that made an observer marvel at its ability to feel as if one could simply step off into the streets and walk among the shadows and dimly glowing lights. To wonder the cold looking roads in search of a warmth most would never find among its alleyways.
The wall that surrounded the door was much brighter, much more free, much more splattered with little youngling hand prints. Because that's pretty much all it was. The huge expanse of pale white wall was now home to every color in the universe, some many languages had no name for they were so beautiful, and all were the work of little yellow fingers guided by a steady, patient, much larger golden hand as he allowed the youngling to swirl brushes against the wall, splatter his palms against the surface, and just play until his little spark was content over and over and over again. Most of the larger hand prints that made up the space were also the work of little Bumblebee. Because the first night Sunstreaker had set a pan of paints before him and said go for it Bee had splattered his little palms every where he could reach in every color he had, but after a while he had looked back at the twins that sat in the floor behind him watching closely. With a grin that could bring a long dead star back to life he had begged them to play as well. When Sides jumped up without a second thought Sunny had joined as well and before long—how it happened neither twin was really all that sure—their room was filled to the brim with every mech on the ship and suddenly the wall was home to a mural of hand prints and tiny swirls.
And they had loved it.
Even Gear's. Though Sides had hid all but the pink paint for that one.
Somehow the massive space of splatters and smudges told the story of their family. Of how a little yellow youngling brought them all back to life. Not so secretly it was the pride and joy of the crew of Eternity and every mech on board dared one fraggin' bot to say a word of ill against it. Be they visiting solider or not they would be quite thoroughly scrapped.
Sunstreaker and Bumblebee had plans to make another one in the rec room. A bigger one to which Sunstreaker would add some murals of his own that he was going to let Bumblebee help him paint. When the idea had come across Prowl's desk the strict black and white mech had stared at the golden warrior with the little yellow youngling in his arms and opened up a private comm with Ratchet to tell the medic what he had just heard and ask if the warrior was going glitchy.
Up until then Sunstreaker had never shown his paintings to any besides his twin, the youngling, and Ratchet.
The medic's response had made Prowl's audios pop and crackle as he growled out that if the SIC dared to tell the warrior that he couldn't that Ratchet would reformat him into a 'slagging glitch filled pour excuse for a broken and malfunctioning toaster'.
Prowl had agreed to the warrior's and the youngling's request.
Now as Sunstreaker lay back on Sides' berth his strong shoulders tense and aching as he reclined against the wall with a little bundle of yellow in his lap and his ruby red brother at his side both twisting vid game controls back and forth in their hands Sunstreaker stared at the soft blues mix with glittering purples and gold and flowing dots of white that made up the mural of the Cybertronian sky at night he had painted on the ceiling. He needed to get on that new painting. It would make up for earlier. It would also do him good to see the little mech smile so brightly again.
After these fraggin' next two orns it would be needed.
That brilliant smile of his that is.
"Eh," Bee's snap drew Sunny's attention as his player got ate by a giant alien worm. "Eat me 'gain."
Sides chuckled. "You went up a level this time, Half Pint. You're getting' better."
Bee smacked the controller down on the berth beside him with a huff as he crossed his arms. "Always lose."
Sunstreaker rested his palm on top of the little mech's head. "You'll learn."
For a moment they were quiet until Bumblebee turned around scurrying up Sunstreaker's frame until he was snuggled in against his spark. The warrior cupped his hand under him to hold him up as the little mech traced a finger over the scars in his armor.
The twins shared a look.
Now was as good as time as any to start what they were afraid to ask.
"Hey, Half Pint?" Sideswipe scooted closer to his brother until they were sitting shoulder to shoulder and he reached up petting Bee's antennas as he chirped in answer. "So Ratchet told us you thought we were mad."
His antennas folded down to his head.
"Sunny and Sides not happy. Don't understand why." Bee mumbled. "New Vorns is fun."
"It's just . . . not our favorite holiday, Half Pint." Sides tired to explain.
"Why?" Bee tilted his head leaning away from Sunstreaker's chest to watch both warriors' dark optics.
They sighed in unison.
They'd never tell him about the Rings. Ever. They couldn't.
"It 'cuz of scars?"
Their sparks fell.
"Seen 'em before."
"And where did you see them?" Sunstreaker grumbled his spark clenching in his chest.
Bumblebee twisted around in Sunny's grip until he was sitting in his palm his fingers twisting in his lap as he swung his little feet off the side of the warrior's hand.
"That . . . Break. . . ." He tilted his head.
That big blue and grey mech that had been with that Mega-whoever that had taken him away. That mech that had been kind to him. The one with the bright red one. Their names were hard to remember. He hadn't known them long and after he returned home he felt it was better to not talk of them.
Talking about them seemed to upset his family.
So he didn't do it.
Now though he needed to talk about them. Because that blue and grey mech had had the same scars as the twins. The scars he saw in his darkness memories.
"Break . . . Break . . . so had to say!" He kicked his feet in irritation.
"Breakdown?" Sideswipe offered his usual grin forming a scowl. They all knew that Knockout and Breakdown had been there when Megatron took Bumblebee from them. The twins also knew that Breakdown still bore the scars they did. Knockout might have hidden his scar beneath his bright finish, but his were there as well.
They'd never truly be gone.
Bee chirped. "That's it!"
They both glared at nothing when he said that.
"Had same as you." Bee blinked between them. "Knew both you."
"Yes . . . he did." Sunstreaker said.
"But he 'Con, right?"
They nodded.
"We knew him a very long time ago, Half Pint." Sides sighed.
"In dark place?"
They tensed.
"What is this dark place you're talking about, Bumblebee?" Sunstreaker asked.
The youngling suddenly found his fingers very interesting. "Bad place. From before."
"Where Megatron took you?" Sides questioned.
Bee shook his head. "No."
"Then where?"
"Don't know." Bee shrugged. "Remember sometimes. Dark and cold and hard to breath. Badness and red optics." His antennas folded down. "Called me runt. Not a runt! Place Carrier took me 'way from."
"Before Ironhide found you?" Sunstreaker's grip around him tightened just the slight bit his fingers curling in to keep him in a protective wall of golden metal.
He nodded. "Don't 'member much. Just some faces and voices. When recharge sometimes. Not happy dreams. They scary most times. Always sounds, not really see much. But know it's bad. Hear fighting and screams. Sometimes can smell energon. I don't like it there, Sunny. Don't wanna go back. When can't wake up feel like I'm back sometimes. But when wake up I know Hide and Optimus and you two and Jazzy and Ratch . . . you not let bad place come back."
"Never." Sides growled under his breath his fist curled at his sides to keep his shaking hands out of Bumblebee's sight as his brother brought him closer to his half of their split spark.
"Sometimes see scars like yours' though." Bee mumbled. "On armor. Don't know what means but don't think it's good."
After that the little mech fell into silence while Sideswipe and Sunstreaker wrestled with the information they'd been given. It sounded so much the same. So very, very, much the same that it had both of them trying desperately to find a loop hole.
Something.
Anything!
To prove that he wasn't talking about what they thought he was talking about.
"Bumblebee," Sunstreaker whispered. "Did bots fight in this dark place? Were there crowds?"
Bee tilted his head trying to recall. He really didn't know though. "Fight lots, yeah. Always sounds of fights. Sometimes cheers too, but don't know what they say. Don't know about crowds."
A shudder ran through both twins' frames.
That was when Bumblebee realized how panicked the two sparks closest to him where. The normally powerful, mysterious, echoed sparks most of the time beat with strength and warmth that Bumblebee drank up. Now they were slamming so hard against their chambers that the little mech thought they might break free. All of a sudden Bee bit his lip very hard looking between the two bright warriors that were no longer looking like they were even aware he was there anymore. Both sets of dark blue optics were clouded over and far away.
What had he done now?
Maybe he shouldn't have told them. Maybe they were mad at him. But they had asked. He was doing what he was supposed to do. He was telling the truth.
Reaching out slightly with his magnificent little spark he poked at the bonds he shared with the warriors trying to find out what was wrong. Their connections recoiled from his prodding though just like Sunstreaker had done earlier. They didn't want him in their sparks. They were hiding from him.
His little spark fell to the floor.
He didn't understand.
"Sorry," He breathed, trying to figure out what he'd done.
That seemed to snap both Sides and Sunny out of wherever they had gone and Bumblebee suddenly found himself crushed tightly—yet not painfully—between two massive mechs that were hugging both him and each other as they snuggled into the softness of Sideswipe's berth clutching to him and each other tightly as if he or one of them was going to vanish at any moment.
The predicament didn't really bother Bee. He loved hugs, especially hugs from the twins being at they were rare, but he really didn't get what was going on. The sparks that were hammering against his audio receptors sounded like they were about to break down in panic and the shaking breaths the twins were breathing didn't really reassure the little mech all that much.
What was going on?
This wasn't his twins. His twins never acted like they were afraid, but these two . . . they seemed very much afraid. Of what though Bumblebee didn't know.
"No, Half Pint." Sideswipe's voice shook as he held tighter to the little yellow frame between him and his brother as his free hand grasped tight to Sunstreaker truly and honestly terrified that at any moment either or both of them were going to get torn away.
"We're sorry." Sunstreaker finished for him his breath sounding just as broken and afraid as he did the very thing his brother was doing. What they had done so many times locked in the back of a cold, dirty, dark cell. Cling to the only security and warmth they knew. Each other. "We're so, so, sorry."
Bee blinked in confusion before realizeing that the twins really were afraid. Making a quick decision he snuggled down closer making sure he had a hand gripped on both mechs' armor before he turned his little head up to blink he big baby blue optics at the two that stared down at him with broken gazes as they clung to him.
"Sunny and Sides afraid." It wasn't a question and when they drew a shared shaking breath they both knew they couldn't lie to those optics. He'd know if they were. Now there was no point.
"Of losing you, Bumblebee." Sunstreaker mumbled.
"Yeah, Half Pint we are." Sideswipe sighed.
"Me not going nowhere." Bee promised as he snuggled his little faceplate into Sideswipe's chest armor just over his pounding spark before he kissed the warrior lightly on the scars that resided there. The shudder that ran through Sides was repeated by his brother when Bee twisted around and did the same to Sunstreaker. The youngling knew their sparks were hurting and since they wouldn't let him in to try and make it better he figured he'd do it the old fashioned way. When he had a boo-boo Hide always kissed it better, and Quickfire told him that kissing boo-boos would always make them better. So that was just what he did.
A small smile was gifted to him in return as Sides snuggled his noseplate down into the soft metal and wires that made up his tiny frame while Sunstreaker pet him lovingly between the antennas.
"I stay here. With you. Promise. Me make you not 'fraid anymore." Bee said as he wiggled around some more getting comfortable between the two heavily armored mechs that seemed very small and fragile to him right now. He wasn't really sure how all that worked—the twins had always been like Hide and Optimus, unbreakable and unbeatable, though he had seen both Optimus and Ironhide shake and cry for him—he knew they were scared for him because they loved him and he was pit bent to make sure they knew that he loved them too. That he wasn't going to leave them. He was going to stay here with them and his family because this was where he belonged.
He might be young.
He might be tiny.
He might not really understand most of the stuff that happened around him, but he did understand that this was his home and this was his family. He was meant to be right here in the arms of the bots that would move the Well and the Pit for him if it needed to be done.
"We love you, Half Pint." Sunstreaker told him quietly in nothing more than a whisper. "Don't ever forget that."
"You're our Half Pint. Our little brother." Sideswipe finished just as softly.
"I know." Bee chirped as he hugged them in return. They stayed like that for a while longer until both twins managed to get a grip on all they were trying to process though even after they had calmed their raging in panic sparks they didn't let the little yellow youngling move. They hugged him tightly between them as they kept each other grounded. It had been many may vorns since they had needed to do this—simply curl up into each other and be reminded that they weren't alone, that they and the other were still alive—but sometimes it just needed to be done. Though they hated the weakness it expressed in them especially that it was happening in front of Bumblebee, but there was nothing they could do about it.
He had been there too.
Bumblebee!
Sweet, silly, incredible, innocent, bright, bubbly, warm, and wonderful little Bumblebee! He had been in the Rings!
"Sunny and Sides know bad place." That too wasn't a question. Bee watched both mechs open their optics again to stare down at him sadly.
"Yeah, Bee." Sides answered.
"Sometimes I 'member," Bee started. "What Carrier looked like. Not most times. But sometimes. And when I do I 'member scars. Scar like these." Running his tiny little digits over the gash scars in Sunstreaker's armor he continued. "She said when we left that we was free now. Don't really know what that meant, but think it means free of that dark, bad place."
"That's right, Half Pint." Sunstreaker nuzzled the little mech. "We're free."
Bee didn't miss the fact that the warrior said 'we're' but he didn't comment about it. He simply snuggled against his twins and let his bright little spark pulsed back at the two that were guarded from him in a wall of dark memories.
"Bad place why not like New Vorns?" That time it actually was a question.
They hummed a correct not willing to tell him about why the memories of the Rings made New Vorns so bad. He didn't need to know about the death matches. Not yet.
For a moment Bee pondered this before he sat up right between them on the berth with a devious little grin. "Imma change that."
Both twins sat up slowly as they watched Bee scramble over Sunstreaker's frame, somehow managed to find his way to the floor without killing himself, and scurry across the hard metal floor before coming to a stop at the twins door. Looking back over his shoulder he smiled.
"Can go to Jazzy?"
Sides and Sunny shared a look.
"We need to go tell them this." Sunstreaker nodded.
"To Jazzy it is then." The pair hopped off the top bunk both making sure to quell their fears before Sides scooped Bee from the ground and headed in search of Jazz before they went to find Optimus, Ironhide, and Ratchet.
It was time to tell them the truth.
The whole truth.
"I need to dismantle something." Ironhide paced the medical bay growling not so silently his cannons hissing and whirling as he stalked.
"Join the club." Ratchet grumbled as he leaned against one of his medical berths.
Optimus was silent though.
He stood near the pair of them his arms crossed and his processor whirling. Both his friends could see the wheels spinning in his head as he along with them tried to convince themselves that this wasn't true, but when the door to the medical bay swished open the three of them paused in their inner anger and thoughts to find that Sideswipe and Sunstreaker stood before the now closed again door and their hope vanished.
The WS, the CMO, and the commander stood still then watching the twins whose dark gazes were cold and lonely, angry and lost, so very much not like the two proud warriors they knew.
"We took Bee to Jazz and Prowl." Sideswipe said.
"He wanted to go." Sunstreaker added.
"And?" Ironhide stepped forward a little unnerved by the look in the twins' optics.
Sunstreaker looked away while Sideswipe looked down. A long voice file suddenly pinged into the officers' processors.
The twins waited.
It took longer than they thought it would. Both sorta figured that Ironhide would just full on snap and blow the whole ship up, that Optimus might actually lose his temper, and that Ratchet might actually glitch. What they did not expect was the thud of Ironhide's bulk sitting heavily down on a chair at the end of Ratchet's desk, or Optimus stumbling slightly until his weight was caught by the edge of that very desk, not even Ratchet's feet sliding out from under him making him catch himself of the berth he had been standing beside which now his slightly shaking arms were using to keep all of his weight up.
Both twins just stood there and stared.
There was nothing else they could do.
After another long moment Ironhide gasped out. "What?"
"It's the Rings." Sideswipe murmured. "He's talking about the Rings."
"No . . . ." Optimus' hand reached up to rub his faceplate. "No."
"He was a sparkling!" Ironhide hissed, jumping from his chair his cannons snarling. "What in the damn pit did the Rings have use of a sparkling for!?"
The matching dark blue optics narrowed at the mech.
"We were not an orn older than sparklings when we ended up there, Ironhide." They said together.
"What better gladiators can you get than the ones you train from youth?" Sunstreaker growled looking away. "They didn't care. Life was nothing but credit signs to them."
"But . . . ." Ratchet was desperately trying rationalize this in his mind. "He said he was from there."
"Ratchet," Sides' voice drew the medic's gaze up in shock.
That tone.
Not that tone.
"I think it's time we told you mechs the truth."
"All of it." Sunstreaker refused to lift his gaze from the floor.
The three older mechs stared at them.
"You sure?" Ratchet was suddenly not so positive he wanted to know it all. Not after what he'd just heard, but somehow the look in those two mechs' optics told him that the only way any of the three of them were going to be able to figure out what Bumblebee meant was if the twins told them. They all know of the Rings. The horrors and the cruelty that had happened there. Jazz had seen it.
He had spied in it.
It was him that found out that Megatron was down there, though he found it out to late.
They knew of the slave market, the death matches, the horrible wrongs that were committed in that place, but they hadn't known that the Rings kept femmes let alone sparklings and younglings. What good were they to the business of fights to the death?
Well they knew. They just didn't want to admit it.
"We don't know our creators names." Sideswipe let out a heavy sigh as he began a story that sounded like it was going to tear Ratchet apart from the inside out. He along with Hide and Optimus because whether the twins knew it or not the two other mechs cared about them as much as Ratchet did. They were family, because Ratchet looked after them like they were his own. That meant that his best friends did so as well.
"They didn't really like us all that much anyway." Sunstreaker growled.
"We do remember that." Sides added.
"You know the whole 'twins are abnormal' and all that slag." Sunstreaker glared at the floor. "Split Spark Twins. Abominations if you asked most bots. We defied the will of Primus by being one spark that lives in two mechs. Not that it was our fraggin' choice or anything like that, but you know that didn't matter. Sparklings or not we were punished for what we were."
Ratchet tensed in anger. Punished?
What in pit did they mean by punished?!
"It was never really all that much our Carrier." Sides offered. "She didn't like what we were, but she never lifted a hand against us . . . at least from what we remember. It was our Sire. He was an Elite of some kind. High up in the ranks of Iacon. Which is how Sunny can paint the city by the way since we know you mechs wondered. We were sparked there. Yeah, hard to believe isn't it? The Terror Twins are actually well bred high class. Can't tell by looking at us can you? Well anyway, he took us as embarrassments. Few knew we were even sparked let alone did they know where we were. He kept us locked up out of sight with a nurse that looked after us. That femme was more Carrier to us than our own, but then again it wasn't really her fault. Our Sire wouldn't let her near us."
"From what I remember," Sunstreaker picked right up with his twins words. "He threatened to leave her if she tried to do anything about how he treated us. The . . . beatings and stuff."
Ratchet's spark flared with fury and his fist clenched as Ironhide's gaze darkened along with the Prime's.
"And since she really didn't like us that much to being with she did nothing." Sunstreaker shrugged. "Just let him beat us, tell us we were worthless, abnormal, that we were getting what we deserved for—as they saw it—defining Primus. My answer to that is if I'm defining Primus by being this idiot's twin why did he make me this way in the first place?"
"Back then though we were sparklings." Sides took up the words as Sunstreaker jammed a thumb at him. "We didn't know anything other than what we were told . . . what was beat into us. The only real kindness we ever knew back then was Fairlane, our nurse. She always fixed what our pour excuse for a Sire broke and held us when we cried. She always said that there was nothing wrong with the way we were. That we weren't abominations. Took a while to believe that though. When you get told your nothing by the blunt end of a sword hilt over and over again you tend to believe it."
"If it wasn't for her he would have killed us long before we ever got out of our first vorn." Sunstreaker picked up the tale. "And to tell you the truth we really don't even know why she was there. Maybe it was our Carrier who brought her or maybe she was there when we were sparked I don't know. Never got to ask. I was a sparkling. We didn't worry about such things. We just knew that Fairlane was safe and Sire was not. So we didn't really have much more to think about than that. We stayed in our little dark hole of a home with her and dreaded the orns he was going to come by and remind us that we were worthless. I hated the bastard back then too."
"Three vorns old is far too young to know hate." Sides sighed. "Too young to know pain and agony. We were sparklings that didn't get to be sparklings because we had to come to understand that we weren't wanted. Not fair, but true. To this orn I don't know why he even bothered to keep us alive. He should have just killed us. Would have been easier that way. Maybe a few in Iacon actually knew that we were alive and that was why he couldn't just end us. We can't answer you that one, but then again he found a way to fix that problem of his."
"We told you once that we were sparkling-knapped, right?" Sunstreaker lifted his gaze to the tense form of Ratchet. The medic looked like he was torn between yelling and glitching. Under different circumstances that might have made the golden mech chuckle, but he really didn't want to see it now. He hated seeing the pity and the pain floating in those dark blue optics."Well that's only half the truth. We were taken from our creators that never gave a damn about us, but I'll bet you every can of paint I own that he sold us. Don't know for sure because we were far too young to understand, but considering no bot was suppose to even know about us and then one night our home gets broken into, Fairlane gets her spark torn out trying to protect us, and we get swished off into the night without a single siren wailing in protest I find it hard to believe that it wasn't supposed to happen that way."
"The next thing either of us remembers after that night is waking up in a cold, dirty, dark cell to the sounds of torture and death." Sides grumbled. "I'm not going to descried the Rings too you from the optics of a sparkling. I know Jazz was in there on his spy mission all those vorns ago long enough to have told you what it was like, but there was a side of the Rings that I bet even he didn't find out about. And that was where they bred knew fighters for the Emperor. Can't tell you who that was either, it was just the mech all the Ring Masters answered too. Never saw him, no matter how many times we fought, killed, and survived for his entrainment. No matter that we bare his brands." His hand thumbed the three gashes in the armor over his spark.
"The brand was given to any that were brought into the Rings, be them slave, gladiator, femme, or youngling. If you were there you were his property and that was all you would ever be." Sunstreaker's hands balled into fist. "The side that not even most of the crowds or even the gladiators knew about was the depths of the pits of those places. The places that younglings stolen in the night along with femmes swiped from dark alleys were brought. The place where he kept his trophy mechs when they weren't serving in his rings. There were a lot of them there. Some were gladiators that he trusted enough to allow in, but most were underlings to the Ring Masters. All of them though were cruel and evil . . . well all but one I guess."
"The femmes that were brought there . . . you can guess what they were used for." Sides let out a tired breath. "When they weren't being used as playthings they looked after the captured younglings tending to wounds and helping the very few medics that resided in that place. If you can call them medics. Anyway, there were many a sparkling sparked in that place. Few lived more than a few orns though. Usually the Sires would kill them because small and weak was not tolerated in that place. Which is why I'm confused as to how Bee made it past when he was sparked. He was so fraggin' tiny—still is—sparklings like him were killed usually by the medics before the carriers even saw them. I guess to save them from the sight of the Sires coming to find them. Only the sparklings that had the look that they might make good fighters were allowed to live and then most the times they never made it far. They were taken from their carriers too young and usually died in 'training'. That Carrier of his must have had either luck or a few others on her side to ever get her and him out of there alive. I'm not really all that sure how she pulled that off."
"We met Knockout and Breakdown in that place." Sunstreaker continued. "They were like us. Two younglings that got knapped and brought in because they could either be used to bait a fight or might be trainable and make good gladiators one orn. Crazy, huh? We grew up with the Decepticon mad doctor and that glitchy frontliner. World is a weird place. We never would have survived past our fifteen orn if it wasn't for him though. That one mech down there in that pit that didn't seem to think like the rest. He was cruel, he was ruthless, he had never been bested in a fight, and that made him one of the highest ranked mechs down there, but he wasn't evil."
"His name was Wardrums." Sides spoke again. "We always just called him War though. It summed him up pretty well. He was the mech in charge of the training all the younglings were put through to test them and see who was going to live long enough to grow into their last frame and fight out there in the arenas. I can't tell you what made him decide that we were worth his time. Most of the younglings he turned his back too, he had this thing in him that he didn't waste his time on those not worthy of it. The ones he knew weren't going to make it he just left to the mercy of the other trainers. They had none, so you can guess how most of them ended up. Us though . . . I'll never forget that orn when he walked the line of younglings assigning trainers and such. He stopped in front of us and just stood there for a long time looking us over. He knew we were twins. Everybot in the place did."
"It was one of the ways they tortured us." Sunstreaker took it up. "When we miss behaved or something they'd separate us. Not let us know where they took the other one. It hurts to be far apart for long periods of time, Wrench you know that, and it drove us damn near glitchy. Sometimes I don't think you realize it, Prime. Just what we would do to get the other back if we are separated. I don't think it really has ever accrued to you because I know Prowl would have said something. I've done many gruesome things to get Sides back."
"And I've done the same for him." Sideswipe added. "We don't know where that line is that you mechs walk. You'd do anything for each other, but if a Con got a hold of one of you and ransomed one of you for information and such . . . if it wasn't Bumblebee you'd probably say no wouldn't you? That is the price of war anyway. There are loses and one orn each of us is going to die. Even if it tore your spark apart you wouldn't sell out our cause for one mech, but we would. I'd sell the Well out for Sunny . . . I might even put Bee in danger. I wouldn't want too, but . . . he's my twin. We're one and the same. We can't be without the other."
"Two halves of the same whole." Sunstreaker shrugged. "Different in every slaggin' way, but a part of each other just the same. It's our greatest strength and our greatest weakness. And it has been both. When Wardrums looked down at us I just knew he was going to separate us among trainers seeing as how they'd never let us fight together in a Ring Battle if we made it that far, and I was fully ready to take all six foot nothing of me and tell him where to stick it if he tried to take my twin from me, but that didn't happen. He chose us as his students and dismissed the rest to their fates. Even Knockout and Breakdown."
"That was the last we saw of them for a long time." Sideswipe started. "Trainers took their students and the only time they ever got together with the rest again was when we fought each other. That wasn't for a few vorns though. After we had been trained some. Wardrums took us back to his quarters, gave us our own cell sort of room, and said that from here on out we were his responsibility. That he was going to teach us to survive no matter what. Never really got what he saw in us. Guess it was maybe the potential to turn us into this." He shrugged looking down at his own frame. "We are pretty fraggin' good at what we do after all. The only other bot we knew for a long time was one of the medics. A friend of Wardrums. He was called Dustoff. He was never like the other medics. The ones that liked to hurt you more than help you . . . maybe now you get why we really wanted out of your medical bay all that time ago, Wrench. You can see where Knockout got it at least."
"But Dustoff was still not what you would call nice." Sunstreaker huffed. "Of course we never knew a lot of that. He did his best to keep us in working order though after all the times Wardrums beat us into twitching piles of sparks. He was a damn good teacher, but his methods were far from hesitant. With him it was learn fast or die because he wasn't going to hold back a swing of his sword anymore than he would his fist. He said no opponent we faced was going to so why should he fill our processors with the false since of that in the end we would be shown mercy. That wasn't how the Rings works and that wasn't how he did either. However, he was a brilliant mech and a damn good teacher even if I hate him for how many times he pushed us within an inch of our lives. He turned us into this." He too motioned down to his frame. "He turned us into killing perfection at the age of forty-two vorns."
"On that spark-orn we killed our first bots. A few of the other trainees that hadn't had a mentor as ruthless and clever as ours was." Sideswipe sighed. "We were no longer younglings. We were gladiators through and through. And I hate him for making us this, but at the same time I owe him for each breath I take. He taught us how to survive in a world that wanted us dead. He kept us safe from the vengeful fighters that hated us for what we were and he kept improving us until the only mech we couldn't best was him. That was a thing about him. He would never teach any of his students enough that they could surpass him. Because there was a high chance that one orn he'd face them in the arena."
"He taught us everything he knew though. From the way to never be beaten to the way he lived. It was him that taught us too never get close to something you couldn't replace. Which in itself was a foolish thing to try and teach twins." Sunstreaker snorted. "We had each other and that was something we'd never be able to replace. For him though that was the way it was. There had been hundreds before us that he did the same thing too and there would be hundreds after us. To him we were just a couple of twerps with a higher chance of surviving what got thrown at us. So he took us under his blade and tried to give us the skills to keep from dying too gruesome of a death. He turned us into monsters. Because only the brutal and the ruthless survived in that place. If you had a weakness it was exploited by any and all around you. Which was why he pushed us twice as hard. We needed each other and that was a weakness so we had to be able to overcome that. He taught us how to slaughter just as good apart as we did together. He taught us that our sparks were more valuable than any other that would come to face us. So that we could kill and it not matter. By the time we were grown and fighting for our lives before those screaming crowds begging for spilled energon . . . it didn't. Not to me."
"He made monsters." Sideswipe said. "Because only the monsters walked away. So that was what we became. We fought, we killed, and we won by ourselves and together. We never lost a battle. But we did lose ourselves."
"Our last night in that place they had separated us after a fight." Sunstreaker's voice grew cold and dark. "It didn't really matter anymore. They separated us all the time because I never knew when to quit. I had stopped valuing all life . . . even my own. I guess some small part of me that hated what I had become wanted death so that was what I fought for. I guess that was why they did what they did, or maybe it was because they were afraid of us, nothing could beat us together or apart. So they did what would earn them stands full of spectators and rid them of two that they had lost control over. They pitted us against each other."
"When that door let me out of the dark and I found myself standing in the arena before Sunny I thought I was already dead." Sideswipe deflated. "I was sure it had to be some horrible nightmare. Because not even the Pit Maker would force me against my own twin in a battle to the death that in the end would kill us both. No mech was that cruel. Not even us. The Emperor was though. He was no longer pleased with his twin toys and wanted rid of them. So he turned us on each other."
"And I tried to kill him." Sunstreaker's voice was hardly over a whisper now but in the silence that had taken over the medical bay it sounded like thunder. "Maybe it was the suicidal part of me, maybe I just really had gone that mad, I don't know. I just know that I came out of a daze from all those screaming bots demanding energon to find that it was Sides that was laying under my blades. He didn't fight back. Stupid idiot should have fought back!"
"I wasn't going to fight you." Sideswipe gave a dark chuckle. "If we were going to die so be it. I was okay with death by your hand. At least it would be over for both of us. I hadn't know you in a long time anyway. You didn't know me when you looked at me and I didn't know you. We were living in an energon soaked daze just waiting for the next battle to test ourselves in. I just woke from it faster than you when I entered that arena."
"Yeah . . . ." Sunstreaker murmured. "I only woke from it two nano-klicks before I drove my blades through your spark chamber."
"Well hey at least you stopped."
"Mute it you half wit."
"We've been over this half wit stuff."
"I will still scrap you."
"You know you love me."
"Like a rust rash."
"Awe brotherly love."
SMACK
"Oww!" Sides leaned away rubbing the back of his head glaring over at Sunny who glared back at him crossing his arms over his chest with a huff. "Aren't we supposed to be telling a story?"
"You needed a good smack." Sunny snorted before continuing on. "Anyway, when I came too and realized what I was about to do I refused to fight anymore."
"That was not something you did in the Rings." Sides nodded. "They tended to fry you where you stood for trying that. To this orn it's still all kinda a blur how we got out. One klick Sunny was hauling me back to my feet and the next we'd blown up half the stands running away. It was really quite the fireworks display. Wheeljack would have taken notes."
"Never saw anybot we knew from the inside again. Not War, not Dustoff, not any of the ones we actually sorta liked." Sunstreaker went on. "As crazy as it sounds bots did form friendships down there, they were guarded and sort of forced because you never knew when you might have to slay that bot you called friend, but they were there all the same. You grew up around those faceplates that had survived beside you and the new ones that came along proved themselves to be capable fighters. We were all suffering the same fate so it was easy to find a sort of connection. Even if it was born out of energon lust and pain. We don't know if they died there or if they got out. Guess some did. Breakdown and Knockout showed up with Mega-idiot. So who knows what happened to the rest of them, but we never looked back. We just ran. Or more like Sides ran and drug me along. I was ashamed of what I had almost done and it took me a good while to get over it."
"Don't let him fool you." Sides spoke up. "He's not over it. He just is better about it. I forgave him. Pit, I was okay with it. I was as screwed up as he was. He just won't forgive himself."
"That doesn't mean I won't beat you into a pulp." Sunny snarled.
"Loves you too."
SMACK
"Pit! Stop doing that!"
"Stop being an idiot then!"
The red twin whined rubbing his head while the golden one rolled his optics shaking his head.
"We are severely screwed up you know that?" Sides mumbled rubbing his bruised audio horn.
"Oh yeah."
"Moving on though," Sideswipe turned his attention back to the three that were still staring at him in stunned disbelief. The red warrior paused just the slightest bit to make sure they were each still breathing before he went on. "You found us not long after that, and the rest is history I guess. We joined up with you mechs, started killing for a purpose, and were still spiraling out of control down an endless abyss . . . until Half Pint came along."
"Greatest damn thing that ever happened to us." Sunstreaker sighed.
"Besides joining up with you mechs." Sides added. "If that hadn't of happened who knows where we would have ended up. Probably would have just run right off the end of the world."
"Would have kept going until somebot killed us." Sunstreaker agreed.
"And since we never lose." Sides added.
"The chances of that happening were slim."
Silence followed their shocking tale and for a good few long moments both just glanced between the three faceplates that stared back at them before both gazes settled on the medic they trusted with everything they had. He was staring at them like he thought they might vanish in a poof of smoke at any moment and it made both the mechs cringe.
"See that's why we never told you." Sides breathed out. "It's not a pretty story, and you were going to look at us like that."
"We don't want your pity." Sunstreaker narrowed his gaze. "We don't need it. We are what we are and what happened, happened. You knowing and us telling isn't going to change any of that. The only reason we told you was because you needed to know what we know about that place. What he was describing is the Rings."
"So that means that Bee is from the same place that turned us into murderous monsters." Sides finished. "Which is a really bad thing."
Who saw that coming?
Come on, some one had too!
Oh why do I enjoy torturing Sunny and Sides so? What did they ever do to deserve the agonizing backstory I've cooked up for them?
And darling little Bumblebee. The truth is I'm cruel to the youngling. Because that was only the tip of the iceberg. Bee's past gets way darker.
But I have to keep things interesting, right?
On another note,
Wardrums! Oh how I love him! The psychotic jerk. He finally gets mentioned. I've waited forever for that! Dustoff, how I love him. The only mech in that pit with his head on straight. Sort of. And Fairlane, such a sweetspark. A part of me feels bad that I've already killed her off. But I'll get over it.
So yeah, the twins past finally comes to light. Explains a lot about them doesn't it?
Then somehow it ties in with Bumblebee's. Because he was sparked in the Rings.
As Sides said. That is a really bad thing.
Well as usual guys please read and review. You know what reading what you guys think means to me. I want to know what you thought. Especially of this one. I want to know where you think I'm headed and what you thought of what happened to Sunny and Sides. Did I do them justice? Did everything make sense?
Next chapter will be more of Bumblebee being his normal adorable self, Ironhide and Optimus facing a truth they were afraid of, Ratchet and the twins being possibly more adorable than Bee (If that is possible. Which it might be.) and than New Vorns with our lovable Autobots. I love chapter 3, its so much fun, so I hope to see you there! Reviews make me write faster by the way!
Hope you guys are liking it as much as I do!
Chat with ya later!
-Jay