Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers, but the plot and OCs are mine.
So no touchy.
Hello, everyone.
I'd like to say thank you to all of you who reviewed once again. You are awesome! You keep me writing!
Now please enjoy chapter 5 and let me know what you thought!
Chapter 5
To say that Bumblebee was excited would be the understatement of the millennia.
Not that that really bothered any mech around him. He was sort of adorable when he was acting like this. Which was why with beaming grins Sideswipe and Sunstreaker swung their legs back and forth on the medical berth they sat on together watching the little bundle of yellow run in giggling circles around their feet, around Ratchet, around the whole bay, he was just kind of running laps for some reason. Though since he really wasn't coordinated enough to run more than a few steps before he tripped and had to right himself it was a comical sort of running that left Ratchet cringing every few klicks just knowing that this last trip was going to be the one he'd have to scoop a balling mechling up off the floor to patch up.
Bee didn't fall though much to the CMO's surprise. However, he knew better than to speak up about it. It was best just to watch the youngling's progress without saying stuff that didn't necessary need to be pointed out as of just yet.
There were many a night Ratchet sat alone in his office looking over all the notes he had made over the several vorns that regarded Bumblebee in general. From his records, to his charts, to Ratchet's own personal worries that he tortured himself with typing out and then proceeding to stare at for long breems of the night racking his processor trying to come up with answered he didn't know how to find.
Like why the little mech's vocal processor was still so under developed.
True, Bumblebee was only twelve vorns old but technically he should already be able to talk much better than he did. He couldn't though. The medic and the rest of his family knew for a fact that it wasn't just the youngling clinging to the cute little way he talked to keep attention.
No.
It bothered Bumblebee that he couldn't speak any better than he could.
They were all very aware that it did.
It was clear as the sun when he would say something and wouldn't like the way it came out and then would proceeded to pout about it until somebot distracted him from the fact. It was something that often had Ironhide, Optimus, Jazz, Pit even the Twins talking a little slower as they tried to let Bee catch on better to syllables and words so he could learn how to form them, but nothing really seemed to help.
Bumblebee still struggled with some words and sounds that should be easy for him by now.
Ratchet sighed as he sat at his desk rubbing a thumb between his optics.
The mechling couldn't form an 'I' where it belonged most the time, but he could say 'Damn'. The CMO snorted shaking his head as he went back to typing his notes on the data pad before him.
That youngling was gonna be the death of him one orn, he just knew it. If the twins didn't beat him too it.
The little bundle of yellow was going to pull some stupid little stunt and the medic was going to go fully off his rocker and finally just glitch into stasis and never wake up.
He sighed again shaking his head.
Oh how much those two twin fools would never let him live that down. Even if he was offline.
He could just imagine how they were going to laugh about it for the rest of their lives. That is if they could handle a life without him there to ground them. The notion worried him slightly. Would the twins stay sane if he ever wasn't there to smack them back to reality and keep them pointed the direction they wanted to go since on their own they didn't know how to find it?
He glanced the pairs way as Sideswipe dropped to the floor and began playing patty cake with Bee the two of them grinning like brilliant stars as Sunstreaker reclined on the berth above them looking very much like he was memorizing every shade, poster, play of the light, and gleam on metal so he could convey it to a canvas later.
Ratchet smiled, taking a discrete still image of the scene unfolding before him and filed it away in an already overflowing folder of pictures mentally held close to his spark.
He'd never admit it out loud, but it was quiet mornings like this he cherished the most. The mornings where he could simply sit back and watch the three mechs he held so close to his spark, the three he took direction responsibility for, the three that for all intensive purposes belonged to him.
He'd put them all back together enough times—even Bumblebee already—that he didn't care what any mech said. They belonged to him. They were his younglings.
Their stupid, foolish, curious, impulsive, troublesome, and adventurous afts belong to him.
No ifs, ands, or buts about it.
Which he knew was a feeling that would probably put him in the ground one orn, but he couldn't bring himself to care. Not even the slightest bit. If loving these mechs as much as he loved his brothers, as much as he loved his long gone mate, killed him then so be it. At least he could say that he had come back to life. That he hadn't give up on living when half of his spark was ripped right out of him.
He would never truly get over the pain that burned in the back of his spark for the love of the femme he'd never be with again in this life, but the family that he had now made up for it in a lot of ways. True they could never fill that void left behind, but they opened up a part of him he'd never thought he'd know.
The Sire part of him.
The one that loved them like they were his sons.
Yes, first and for most Bumblebee was Ironhide's sparkling. Every mech on the ship knew that. He was and always would be Hide's sparkling. No matter how old he got or how much growing he did manage to one orn do. Not even death was going to change the fact that Bee was Hide's son and that Hide was Bee's Sire. They all saw the little picture data pad that the twins had helped him make.
A gift that Ratchet's spark had swelled over.
One out of love for the little darling creature that came up with it, two for the pair of secretly very loving fools that helped him do it, and three because of the way it had brought Ironhide back to something they all thought would be gone forever. Bee had been slowly bringing him back to life since he came to be one of them—just as he had been doing with all of them—but when Ironhide saw those words from the youngling and not his own spark it healed that last aching place inside him and let his spark burn back to all the power and love that had been lost to it for so very long.
He had a son to love and protect again. A son that he was going to keep safe from anything and everything.
A son he could share with this whole psycho glitched family of theirs.
Because even if Bee was Hide's he was also all of theirs as well.
He was their young one, their Bumblebee, their Half Pint, their Lil' Bee, their Squirt, their little brother, their son they had never had, their hope, their home, their . . . everything.
And he always would be.
Smiling to himself Ratchet looked back down to his notes.
He was all that and more, but he was also the product of something much darker. That was something they were all becoming very quickly aware of. Sparked in the Rings his prospect of linage wasn't all that great. Even if that didn't matter to any of them. He was theirs and that was never going to change, one orn they knew it was going to matter to him.
It also mattered with that dark shadow that hung over them now. A shadow by the name of the Guild.
Several vorns and not a peep. Not even a fleeting glance on a radar. They had vanished as quickly as they appeared, but that brought no amount of relief to the Autobots. It was worse than if they were there all the time demanding that he be with them. The not knowing what they were up too and what they meant by all they had said about Bumblebee.
It was going to drive Ratchet to glitch he just knew it.
Going back to trying to distract himself from his thoughts he went to reviewing his notes keeping a careful optic on the little youngling that was using Sideswipe as a climbing wall while the red mech chuckled and Sunstreaker simply watched. It warmed him like nothing he could explain.
They went on like that for a while, Ratchet working and the twins keeping Bumblebee occupied until something caught Ratchet's attention when the youngling was seated in Sunstreaker's lap watching him draw.
He was scratching at his wiring with a distracted sort of pain in his optics that he was trying to hide behind his focus on the sketch pad.
Ratchet was on his feet in a nano-klick the movement startling the twins to look up at him when he was suddenly before them glaring down at the little bundle of yellow that quickly snapped his hands still to his sides and gazed up at the medic in a sort of knowing guiltiness.
Ratchet all but hissed at him.
"Wrench?" Sunstreaker asked carefully when Ratchet suddenly snapped a hold of Bee by his scruff bar and hauled him to a berth. Bee wiggled and whined in protest when he was sat down and was suddenly having a scanner ran over him. When the medic's weakest scans showed nothing out of the ordinary his gaze narrowed at the worn wiring and scratched at plating on his arms and middle. How had he not seen that before?
"Talk, Bumblebee." Ratchet rumbled aware that the twins were hovering behind him and that Bee was shrinking down under his gaze.
"'Bout what?"
"Don't play dumb with me, Youngling." Ratchet warned. "Why are you itching?"
The little mech's antennas folded down. "Not."
"Do not lie to me."
"Half Pint?" Sideswipe questioned looking the youngling over. That was when he and Sunstreaker noticed the worn places as well. How the pit had they missed that? "What's wrong, Bee?"
"Nothin' wrong." Bee looked away.
Ratchet grabbed a hold of his arm leaning down for a closer inspection of the wiring he was picking at and opened up a far more invasive scanner over the youngling's form. He didn't expect the little mech to give a yelp of pain at the action though.
"Ratchet!" Sunstreaker snarled when the little mech recoiled from the CMO's scan and balled up on the berth to keep himself away from the scanner. The golden warrior quickly scooped him up off the berth and held him tightly to his chest while Ratchet stood and blinked at him and Sideswipe put himself between them.
"You hurt him?" Sides stared dumbly.
"It was just a scan it shouldn't have hurt him." Ratchet took a step forward and Bee shrank back against Sunstreaker's chest making a protective growl rise up in the frontliner.
"Don't fraggin' do that again!" He growled though Ratchet completely ignored him and his twin as the stepped up and looked down worriedly at the little mech.
However, Bumblebee was having none of it.
He was done with needles, and scans, and tubes, and all things that had to do with being stuck in the medical bay against his will. He was not doing it again! He was fine and that was that!
The plating along his sides burned definitely again.
He cringed fighting the urge to scratch at them.
"Bumblebee," Ratchet said quietly as the little mech hide behind Sunstreaker's tightening fingers making the medic's spark hurt. He was hiding from him. Why the pit was he hiding from him? "Squirt, I'm not gonna hurt you, you know that. You just have to let me look and see what's wrong."
"Nothin' wrong." Bee insisted.
"If nothing was wrong the scan wouldn't have burned you."
"You burned him!?" Sunny hissed.
"Quiet, Sunstreaker." Ratchet pinned him in a dark glare. "Something is wrong or it wouldn't have happened now give him here."
The golden warrior knew the medic was the best judge of what was to be done and he was about to hand him over when Bee latched tightly to his fingers and let out a pitiful sounding plea.
"NO! Please! Be good! Promise!"
"Bumblebee," Sideswipe whispered the tone and the little cries hurting his spark as well as his brother's who flinched at the sound while Ratchet just grew all the more worried.
"No more needles! Please! Don't wanna!"
Then Ratchet understood and it hit him like a slap to the faceplate.
This was because of all that had happened with the virus-viper.
Oh pit! He hissed to himself. Damn you to fraggin' Pit Megatron. Damn you!
His youngling was scared of him because of that damn bastard. Ratchet felt like pulling some foolish sparks out. However, for now he would have to settle with figuring out and then fixing what was going on with the little bundle of yellow now.
"Bumblebee, I'm not going to stick you with anything. Just tell me what's wrong."
"Yes will." Bee mumbled hiding behind Sunstreaker's fingers curled up in his tight little ball with his arms wrapped snuggly around his knees and his faceplate hidden behind them.
Ratchet sighed. "Okay I might have too, but it's for your own good. I might not have too. You have to tell me what's wrong first."
His tight little ball unclenched slightly and he sat up in Sunny's palm who opened his fingers so that Bee could stare pitifully between them and the red warrior who hovered at his brother's side.
Knowing that he was never going to get out of this medical bay without coming clean the little mech glued his optics to his toes, held up his arms, and sighed.
"Itches."
Ratchet plucked him up carefully mindful of the worn places on him and placed him lightly in one hand while the other rubbed a thumb over a very worn bunch of wires in his right arm at about his elbow. The medic's gaze narrowed at him.
"Where, Bee?"
"Kinda everywhere." Bee admitted.
His gaze narrowed even more as he ran a finger over the scratched wires and plates along his sides. Bee squeaked when he did making the medic pause and glance to his optics, but Bee wouldn't look up.
"Itches." He just shrugged.
Ratchet let out a sigh before he pushed at the bright yellow protoform metal mindful not to hurt Bumblebee, but watching carefully as the plating shifted a little more than it should have. He could move it way more than what was normal. Which added to the itching meant only one thing.
The medic grumbled low in his chest before checking the plating and wiring on his arms as well.
It was the same.
Well damn.
"Uh . . . Ratch? What's going on?" Sides poked at the medic's armor.
Ratchet waved him away turning to place Bee back on a berth before he walked to a counter and went to pulling out drawers.
Bee sank down on the berth and Sides was quickly at his side with a hand resting on his head rubbing softly at his antennas. "It's okay, Half Pint."
"Ratchet say something." Sunstreaker came to stand beside his brother.
The CMO ignored them.
When he had what he was looking for he walked to his office, found a cube, filled it with his medical supply of energon in his office, and then returned to the youngling mixing the powder into the purple liquid. Once he reached the twins and Bee he offered up the cube to the youngling and just shrugged.
"I told you no needles so you're going to have to drink it."
Bee blinked.
"Drink what?" Sunstreaker huffed. "What's going on?"
"Minerals." Ratchet snorted. "Carbon, iron, a few other things, and you're going to need a lot of it for a little while little one. A good few orns. Also if you want it to stop itching and hurting you're going to have to let me give you some meds."
Bee blinked again before tilting his head. "Know why it itch?"
"Of course I knew why it itches." Ratchet rolled his optics in annoyance. Not at the youngling, but at how he knew this next orns were probably going to go. This was just what they needed. He finally gets the youngling feeling fine again and then Primus decides to go and give him a sudden growth spurt.
Damn.
Ratchet was well aware he'd probably grow less than a couple of inches at most. He was only twelve vorns old so this was in no way the growth spurt that was going to get him into his second frame, but it was going to itch, and hurt, and be metal and wires growing and expanding all the same. It was not going to be a lot of fun.
So far the tiny mech really hadn't had a growth spurt.
Pit he'd hardly grown at all since they found him. He was tiny. Way tinier then he should be at this point in his life.
The youngling's first growth spurt at twelve vorns old? He had no idea what it was going to be like, but the medic did know it was going to probably make a very cranky youngling for a little while.
Great start to the other commanders and crews getting here this afternoon.
"Well why does he itch?" Sideswipe snapped, glaring at the CMO.
Ratchet cut him a glare in return as Bee took the cube and started sipping slowly. His faceplate told how much he didn't like the taste, but he didn't want needles so he'd drink whatever Ratchet gave him.
"Sideswipe, didn't you ever have a growth spurt?" Ratchet grumbled.
Bumblebee choked on his energon.
The CMO all but sprang forward snatching Bee up ignoring the cube splattering all over the floor as he cradled the youngling and rubbed at his throat trying to get the liquid to go down and not end up with the stuff coming back up. That was the last thing Ratchet needed right now.
"Easy, Bee." Ratchet soothed as Bee coughed and wheezed trying to get air back into his vents with the energon stuck in his throat. "Just breathe."
A few more coughs echoed around the bay before Bee shucked in some much needed air and then just stared at Ratchet in shock.
Grow? The youngling felt like chirping.
The twins beat him to the words though.
"Did you just say growth spurt?" Sunstreaker stared with wide optics at Ratchet.
The medic cast them a look as he rubbed the youngling's throat. "Yes."
Sideswipe started bouncing while Sunstreaker grinned.
"Really!?" Sides asked happily.
"Don't go getting all chipper just yet it's not going to be much and it's not really going to be fun for any of us." Ratchet sighed.
Bee was on the verge of giggling as he stared with big bright optics up at Ratchet.
Grow!
Both warriors deflated slightly trying to think back to the growth spurts they'd had in their youth. It was such a damn long time ago they couldn't really remember what they were like.
Ratchet rolled his optics. "Plating is stretching and cracking, wires are growing and twisting. He's made of only protoform metal remember, you two? It's not like armor. It has to stretch and grow on its own. That isn't really all that much of a painless process."
Their smiles faded, but Bee was on the verge of vibrating with happiness.
"So it's gonna hurt?" Sides mumbled.
"Well it isn't going to be a bubble bath." Ratchet grumbled before all attention fell to Bumblebee when he let out a happy squeal.
Laughing and cheering and giggling and bouncing and squealing out both over his spark and his voice the little yellow mech was all but scrambling out of Ratchet's hand trying to find his way to the floor.
"Hey, hey! Stop that, Squirt!"
Bee didn't listen though; he was calling for Optimus and Hide.
"Hide! Optimus! Hide! Optimus! Hide! Optimus! Hide!" He called out to both bonds that were linked to him as he leapt from Ratchet's grip despite the yelp of protest and the two snarls of the twins as Sideswipe lunged forward and snatched him out of the air yanking him back up only to have Bee go back to scrambling trying to get to the floor.
"Bumblebee! Quit it!" Sides growled worriedly trying to keep the little mech in his grip. Bee went right on ignoring him as he felt the curious pulses from his guardian and his Optimus.
"Bee?" Hide pulsed back.
"Young one?" Optimus answered.
"Want you!" Bee all but hollered over the bond as he kept rolling around in Sides' grip trying to get to the floor.
"Bumblebee!" Suddenly all the wiggling and scrambling stopped as Bee squeaked quietly when he found himself dangling in the air by his scruff bar in Sunstreaker's grip. The handsome golden mech was glaring at him through narrowed optics. Bee decided right then that it would be a good idea to stop his wiggling and be still now. "Knock it off!"
His antennas folded down and he whimpered slightly.
"That's enough." Ratchet quickly took the youngling from the frontliner with a stern look, but Bee wasn't really all that sure who Ratchet was talking too. Him or Sunny. He figured it was better to be quiet just in case.
Then he huffed.
His arms itched again, but at the moment he really didn't care.
That was when Ironhide burst through the medical bay door with Optimus right behind him. The youngling hadn't answered the further questions in his spark after he hollered for them and when that happened they dropped everything and came to the little one's side at once.
"What the pit is going on?" Hide growled at the sight before him.
And Bumblebee came back to life in an instant.
"Hide!" He cried happily wiggling in the medic's grip again until he got lightly thumped over the head.
"I told you to be still!" Ratchet had to rein in the hiss in his voice that wanted out, but when Bee went still again it made him sigh.
"Ratchet?" Optimus asked hesitantly as he and Ironhide strolled in their optics fixed on the now very still youngling in the CMO's palm.
"He wants you. Take him." Ratchet grumbled dumping the little yellow bundle in Ironhide's hands before he went to make another cube of energon for the tiny mech. The two officers shared a glance before looking down to Bee who was still sitting very quietly in his guardian's palm.
The twins were watching Ratchet along with Bee and since they were here when whatever happened, happened and now that Ratchet was grumbling under his breath in his office they figured their best shot at answers were the two warriors.
"Sunstreaker, is something wrong?" Optimus asked.
"Wrench says he's having a growth spurt." The golden mech answered making both the Prime and weapons specialist go very still.
"Growing!" Bee chirped quietly making Ironhide turn his gaze back down to the little mech.
He couldn't help his smile at the happiness that was positively radiating from Bumblebee's frame.
"Well it's about time." He told him though the words weren't as happy as Bee would have thought they should be. They were amused, but not really all that overjoyed. It confused him a little bit, but in all honesty he was too happy to care at the moment.
Bee resumed his bouncing completely ignoring the looks that passed between the mechs around him though.
"Ironhide," Ratchet started as he returned from his office holding a cube of energon.
"I know what growth spurts are like Ratch, you don't have to explain them to me." The ebony mech said watching his son bounce.
"It explains his look last night." Optimus stated, nodding slowly as he watched the youngling. "So he wasn't being fully honest."
"He was scared of Wrench sticking him with stuff." Sides defended quietly.
"After all he went through with the viper do you really blame him?" Sunny added.
"No," Ratchet sighed. "But I am going to have to give him medicine to keep him from scratching himself raw. These next few orns aren't going to be as fun as he thinks they will be."
"Oh let him be happy, Ratchet." Sides pleaded. "He hates being so small."
"Well it's time he stopped." Ratchet cast him a knowing look. "He's always going to be smaller than the rest of us."
"Well he doesn't need to know that yet." Sunstreaker crossed his arms with a huff.
All the while the mechs around him had been on comm links—he knew they had he had grown to know what it felt like—Bumblebee had taken it upon himself to sit there giggling quietly as he played with Ironhide's fingers trying to imagine just how much he might actually grow. He didn't figure it would be much. He was still young after all, but that really didn't matter to the little mechling.
He was going to grow!
He felt like giggling for the rest of the orn.
In fact that was just what he planned to do.
Well that is until a plate of his protoform along his side seized up in what could only be compared to a human muscle spasms as it shifted and cracked making Bee let out a pained squeak as he doubled over in Ironhide's palm bright blue tears rushing to his big optics.
Ironhide startled at the sudden change, but he hardly had time to feel his spark cringe in fear at the sight before Ratchet had snatched the youngling from him and had him placed on a soft berth crouching down in front of him as Bee sucked in a pain breath the exhale coming out as a sob when the plating along his side protested to the movement of him sucking in air. A few blue tears leaked down his cheeks before there was a slight pinch in his arm, then the pain faded away again as quickly as it came.
Blinking at the difference the little mech looked up to find a needle in Ratchet's had before it poofed back into subspace.
He stuck him?
He stuck him!
Bee shot him a pout.
"What? Would you have rather hurt?" Ratchet lifted an optic ridge at him. "It's not enough to numb your spark, Squirt. Just enough to keep the pain away."
As if to test the words Bee reached out and poked at the medic's spark with his own earning himself a small grin and a pulse in answer to his poking. Bee went right back to giggling.
Growing.
He still couldn't believe it!
Curled up in a fuzzy blanket with his head resting on Jazz's silver chest and with a rather large orange energon sucker in his mouth Bumblebee was the complete and utter picture of contentment.
However, the same could not be said for the bright blue mech that was seated by himself in the quiet mess hall far away from the saboteur and the youngling. Both the officer and the youngling were watching the young trainee medic closely though as he sipped quietly at his energon.
The other three halves of the Autobot crew were running around the ship in loud merriment while the commanders and other officers were in a meeting—Jazz had been exempt simply because Bee threw a hissy fit about not being able to go and refused any other caretaker besides Jazzy since Ironhide and Optimus really did have to stay—so the mess hall was abnormally empty and quiet since all the mechs were either in the rec room or on the other ships causing havoc as they partied. Prowl had decreed that until the meetings were finished that no mech was to be swiping high grade from the mess halls so the doors had been locked. The only reason it wasn't happening anyway was because the mechs knew they could get it later, but Jazz had been allowed in seeing as it would be a quiet place to try and get the youngling to nap.
However, the silver mech had been admittedly surprised when he turned the hall to the locked doors with a blanket wrapped an energon goody satisfied youngling to find Jolt leaning against the doors with an empty cube of energon.
One look into those electric blue optics and Jazz had seen the pain and fear glittering there. He asked no questions. He just opened the door and let the blue mech in.
Jolt had yet to touch the high grade though.
He simply got a cube of regular fuel, retreated to a far away table, and sat quietly.
It was making the silver mech's armor crawl.
Jolt was far from being a loud mech, but something was defiantly wrong with him, and Jazz had no idea how to approach the subject. He knew next to nothing about the newbie. Not even mister smooth talker himself knew how to figure this mech out. Not yet.
However, it seemed he might not have too.
Because when he glanced down to the youngling in his arms he found mischief and worry swimming in his optics.
Jazz realized that would probably be his best shot.
Leaning down his whispered in Bee's audio receptors. "Lil' Bee?"
Bee chirped in reply.
"Wanna help me cheer up Jolt?"
An earnest nod and then both of them were across the mess hall sitting at Jolt's table. The bright blue mech looked up slowly to find the little youngling with a sucker still in his mouth and his present caretaker before him. Shaking his head to the sight he went back to sipping his energon.
With a rather loud pop Bee yanked his sucker out of his mouth, pushed himself to his feet, kept his blanket wrapped tightly around his shoulders, and toddled across the table to stand in front of Jolt. The bright mech lifted an optic ridge at him in return.
Bee smiled.
Jolt stared.
The bright smile became a pout.
Jolt continued to stare.
And then Bee huffed out loud, rolled his optics quite dramatically, and stuck the sucker up into the air above his head offering it up to his new friend.
The sight actually got Jolt to smile a little bit before he sat his cup down and pet the youngling's head.
"I do not need your sucker, Bee. You keep it."
"But Jolt not happy."
"I'm fine."
"Lie." Bee's antennas folded down.
"No I'm not. Everything is fine."
"You're a really bad liar, Jolt. Anybot ever told ya that?" Jazz spoke up with a grin.
He looked away. "I've not had much practice."
"We know . . . ." Jazz sighed searching for the right words. "Look young mech if there is something bothering you I'm all audios."
"It is not your concern."
"Mech," Jazz's gaze narrowed at that. "Like or not you're a part of this crew now and that makes you a part of the family. What troubles one of us is the others' concern. We look after each other. It's the way this place works. We're a million times better together than we are apart. The nano-klick that you agreed to be Ratchet's apprentice you agreed to that. So yes mech it is my concern. Now spill."
Jolt looked the older silver mech over as he spoke in surprised confusion until a poke on his arm drew his optics to the table. Bumblebee was standing before him wearing that beaming smile of his as he offered up sucker again his big optics twinkling with innocent magnificent that sent Jolt's spark doing summersaults. He wondered what it would be like to let that little mechling in, to be as close to him as the other mechs were, to know the bubbly joy that just seemed to spill into the very air around him.
He would be lying to himself if he said he didn't want to know the sense of family that made this place up . . . but he was afraid.
All he'd ever been was alone.
He didn't know how to be anything else.
And he certainly didn't know how to face the towering commander that was currently sitting in a meeting.
Come on, what was he supposed to do?
Walk up and say 'Hey I'm the sparkling your mate was carrying when you thought she was killed, but she was really just taken and killed later.' . . . yeah that was going to go over well.
They'd all either put a plasma round through his spark or check him into the medical bay as having lost his processor.
There was no good way to do this. So he didn't want to do it, but he knew he couldn't keep his secret forever.
Because the bots around him already knew something was familiar about him, something they just couldn't place, but they knew it all the same. A few had known Artemis he figured so that was why he had no doubt they recognized how much he looked like her in the faceplate and optics. He'd never seen Ultra Magnus so he had no idea if he looked at all like him, but there was one thing he was positive of.
The sparkmate of his carrier was going to know her youngling when he saw him.
Something just told him it would happen.
And he wasn't sure he was ready for it.
Sighing as he rubbed a finger between his optics the young blue mech whispered. "You've no idea what I'd give to just vanish into the background again . . . and you've no idea what I'd do for some high grade right about now, but sadly I don't drink it."
"Ha-ha!" Hot Rod swung into a swivel chair spinning it around with far too much excitement for a mech his age. Not that he cared in the slightest. "It's been too damn long, mechs!"
Optimus couldn't help his chuckle at the slightly younger commander's actions.
The red and gold highlighted with yellow mech was right though. It had been too long since they were all together.
"What's it been?" Roddy grinned. "Since the little trouble maker came along right?"
Ironhide snorted with amusement. "There about."
"Where's Jazz?" Glancing around him the vibrant blue optics of the youngest commander danced around Prime's conference room and all the familiar faceplates; Prowl, Ratchet, Ironhide, Ultra Magnus, Crosshairs, Quickfire, First Aid, Hammerdown, and Jumpwire.
However, there was a faceplate missing from the bunch.
Cyber's.
The reminder of the empty chair sitting there cold and dark wasn't needed, for any of them, but especially not Roddy's crew. Definitely not Roddy.
No, Hot Rod was very much aware that his loyal solider and ranked officer—for all intensive purposes—was gone. Offlined by Shockwave's hand trying to protect the youngling. He was gone and he was never coming back.
Hammerdown's best friend was just gone.
Gone . . . never to be replaced.
And because of that Hot Rod refused to fill the empty chair. He just couldn't do it. His ship had never been as organized or 'protocol' based as Prime's or Magnus'. He never really named officers like they did. It just wasn't how he ran his ship.
He didn't fell like he needed it.
His most loyal and trusted bots were his officers without need for a title.
Though now he really only had two left. Which was a sad fact in and of itself.
Hammerdown was one. The big battle hardened mech who was falling into the tread marks left for him quite well. He was proving that he was more than capable of being all and more of what Ironhide had taught him to be. He didn't bare the title weapons specialist—he didn't want it—but he fit the role.
He wasn't the same though.
They all knew that.
He was still grieving for the latest brother that had been lost to him. He still missed his best friend. He very much still needed that anchor back to solid ground . . . to sanity.
That anchor was gone though, and it was never coming back.
That was a fact Hammer was having to come to terms with. His once again rekindled family was trying to help with that but there was only so much that even Ironhide could do.
Just as now when he sat across the large table from the younger blue and black mech he saw the pain behind the smile. He saw the guilt and the spark-ache.
Some orns were better than others. When he was goofing off, messing with Hide or Bee, or playing with his blasters. He was fine. Though when he was forced to sit there beside an empty chair and be reminded.
Well . . . those were the not so good orns.
He took it with a grin though.
He obeyed his place at his commander's side, and Ironhide watched him with pride for it. He loved him all the more for it. He just wished there was something he could do to make it better for him.
The only other 'officer' Hot Rod had was Jumpwire, his Chief Medic.
And Jumpwire . . . well he was a mech that fell in perfectly among Roddy's crew. He was a far cry from Ratchet's strict, gruff, beat-stupidly-out-of-mechs-with-a-wrench tactics of running a medical bay and that might be the best thing he had going for him as far as his whole crew was concerned. He was laid back and friendly, not easily pissed off, hardly ever pissed off actually, and that was a welcomed change for a lot of bots.
Because even Quickfire and First Aid had their orns where they were chasing mechs with buzz saws.
With Wire though, bots came to see him just to say hi and to ask what they could do to help him. Because Wire was always buried in something or another that he had put off until the last klick. The tall, lanky, lime green mech highlighted with two blue streaks down across his chest was nothing like Ratchet.
Maybe that had something to do with the fact that he was the only medic in the Autobot ranks that hadn't been trained by him. He grew up in the glory of Iacon. He went to school to be a doctor. He was the only one besides Ratchet that had seen any classroom based training.
Quickfire and First Aid had just been trained in the field by Ratchet and now Jolt would be the same.
It was true, Wire and Ratchet had very different methods of going about their duties, but the younger green mech respected Ratchet will all his spark.
After all . . . he owed the mech his life.
"Some bot has to keep Bee occupied." Quickfire almost purred as she reclined in her chair her feet propped up in First Aid's lap as the white and red mech sat next to the orange, red, and yellow femme. She looked content with her arms crossed over her small yet lethal frame and though First Aid looked like he'd much more appreciate being anything else than his comrade's foot rest he couldn't hide the silly light in his bright optics.
They might bicker like siblings, but they loved each other like them just the same.
"I'd have watched him." Hammerdown shrugged. He didn't add the 'much better than being here' part, but it was in his optics.
"Oh no," Jumpwire smirked. "You get to help me out with this report."
Hammerdown whined pitifully. "Oh come on. You don't need my help. You know when the last time I actually finished and filed a report was?"
"Umm how about never?" Quickfire giggled at him.
"Oh like you do any slaggin' better."
"I do actually." She smirked.
"Please, Aid does all the reports."
"No he doesn't!"
"Yes I do." First Aid muttered.
"Stay out of this you traitor!" Fire smacked him over the back of his head.
"Oww! Last fraggin' time I help you."
"You big sparkling." Quickfire rolled her optics with a huff yanking her feet from his lap and pulling them back into her chair.
"Oh yeah I'm the sparkling!" First Aid grumbled at her.
"How is it you two ever get anything done?" Prowl commented from down the table.
He was ignored.
"Yes you are a sparkling. Worse than him!" She jammed a thumb over at Hammerdown.
"Hey!" The big blue brute sat up right in his chair glaring at the femme. "I am not a sparkling!"
"Yes you are." Fire snipped.
"I think you're both sparklings." First Aid leaned back in his chair rolling his optics.
Both Hammer and Fire sent him seething glares.
Jumpwire laughed when they started yelling at the pour white and red medic while he cast his optics down to Magnus who was resting his head against his hand which was propped up by his elbow on the table as he massaged between his closed optics.
"Do they ever stop bickering?" Wire questioned motioning between the two partner medics as they snapped at each other playfully yet seriously with Hammerdown only fueling the picking.
Magnus lifted his head with a sarcastic huff. "What? They are bickering again? I can't tell. I've learned to tune it out. Don't even hear it anymore."
That got all the bots laughing.
"Oh you wouldn't know what to do without us." Quickfire beamed brightly down the table to her commander.
"I could give you back to Ratchet and find out." Ultra Magnus snorted.
"Please!" First Aid sat up straight in his chair clasping his hands together to beg his commander. "Please! Please! Send her back! I might actually be able to find the floor of the medical bay if she left!"
Hammerdown threw his head back laughing when Quickfire nailed her best friend over the audios with a data pad.
"YOU FRAGGIN' MESS IT UP TOO FRAGGIN' GLITCH!"
"I do not!"
"Both of you knock it the slag off!" Ratchet's snap muted them both. "You're behaving worse than Bee when he hasn't had a nap. Mute it. We actually do have stuff to discuss."
They quit their bickering.
"Sorry, Ratch." They mumbled together to their former mentor.
He glared at them darkly with no real anger in his optics, but the warning was still there, for a moment before he cut the look over to a snickering Hammerdown.
Hammer decided it would be a good idea to hush up too.
For another few klicks all was quiet until Hot Rod leaned forward against the table grinning as he glanced to Ratchet and Prime.
"So how is my transferred trainee medic?"
"Yeah! Where's Jolt?" Jumpwire added with his own smile. He liked the bright blue mech. He considered him a friend. Even if he wasn't sure Jolt really knew how to have friends.
"Off doing who knows what. Probably getting into trouble with Sideswipe." Ratchet shrugged. "He's smart though. He'll make a good medic."
"Can't believe you swiped him." Jumpwire mumbled falling back in his chair with a huff. Ratchet just rolled his optics at the younger bright mech that he'd saved all those vorns ago. He could still feel the heat of the flames and hear the screams of bots sometimes when he looked to the mech and saw the jagged weld scar that marred his right optic starting right above it and running all the way down to his chin in a harsh line. It was the reminder of the dagger strike meant to end him that missed for no other reason than Wire was not as passive as first looks might make a mech think. He was a skilled warrior and a lethal adversary when he was pissed off.
That night in Iacon had been one of those times.
Though both mechs knew that Jumpwire never would have made it out of that crumbling school if Ratchet hadn't hauled him back to his feet and drug him from the pandemonium. Neither really liked to talk about the joors that Iacon fell though.
It was a truth better left to silence.
"You have enough help." Ratchet retorted.
"Maybe if you wouldn't smack everybot that comes through your doors you would to." Wire sassed only to have a screwdriver nail him between the optics.
"Mute it." Ratchet glared lightly while the other CMO pouted and rubbed at the scratch.
"That's what I'm talking about."
A low growl.
"Alright," Roddy took the conversation before every medic in the room decided that it would be a good idea to try and kill each other just to see who could pull it off. He rolled his optics. It was pointless anyway. They all knew Ratchet would win. "How about we get down to business so we can get out of this slagged room and go have some fun."
"Remind me again who made Hot Rod a commander of this army." Crosshairs lifted and optic ridge as he glanced between his Prime and his unit commander both of which he'd watched grow up.
Magnus snorted while Optimus laughed.
"That would be that glitch." Hot Rod pointed down the table to his towering friend and leader.
Ironhide and Hammerdown about died of laughter at that comment.
"Primus! I missed having that glitch around." Hide snorted through his laughter.
"Over grown sparklings." Crosshairs sighed rubbing at his forehead. "The lot of you."
"And you wouldn't change us if you could." Quickfire beamed.
"How is it we ever get anything done?" Prowl repeated himself with a heavy breath.
"Normally we don't." Ultra Magnus put in playfully.
"I'd have to disagree." Optimus finally spoke up. "I think we get quite a lot done. Besides laughter is good for the spark. Primus knows we need more of it.
"Your crew gets enough of it." Quickfire suddenly pouted. "You get to keep Bumblebee."
"Femme has a point." Jumpwire added.
"Yeah, you mechs get to keep the morel mascot." Hammerdown snapped.
"That's right." Ironhide grinned down the table at all of them. "We do."
"You could share you know." Hammer crossed his arms.
"He's not a pet to pass off between ships, Hammer." First Aid told him.
"But they get the happy, bubbly, goofy little thing all the time. It's not fair!"
"He's where he wants to be." Crosshairs told the frontliner jokingly.
Prowl slumped down in his seat in exasperation. "Wasn't there a point to this meeting? Because if there isn't it is only logical to end it so we can just let the twins have the high grade before they blast down the mess hall doors looking for it."
All of a sudden Quickfire leaned across her chair to close the distance between herself and the white and black mech in the chair right next to her, bright blue optics glittering for a moment with mirth. Prowl watched her with apprehension while the rest of the table was trying really hard not to laugh when she reached out and poked the mech in the arm.
And then kept doing it.
"I swear," Prowl narrowed his gaze at the young, brightly colored femme who kept poking at his armor. "Are you sure you aren't somehow related to Sideswipe?"
The whole table keeled over in laughter.
Trying to keep her giggling aft in her chair while she hung over empty space Fire grinned madly. "I just had to make sure you were real. After all, Prowl never slumps."
The SIC straightened in his chair while he glared.
That got another round of laughter.
"Oh pit! Where is Jazz at a time like this!?" Hammer laughed uncontrollably holding his middle. "He's gonna throw a fit for missing it!"
They laughed a good while after that at Prowl's expense, but the two tone tactician didn't really seem to mind and sat there quietly until the laughter died away and all optics turned to Optimus.
Because they really did have things to discuss.
"Anymore encrypted messages from strange and unknown sources?" Hot Rod asked him.
Optimus's deep gaze darkened.
"I'll take that as a yes." Magnus let out a breath.
With a slight nod Optimus reached for a data pad before sliding it down the table to his fellow commanders.
"That makes four. And once again that is all Jazz, Wheeljack, and Preceptor can decode." Was all he said as the two seated next to each other glanced to the words on the screen.
Prime:
Desperate situation.
Need help.
Heading back.
"Well that makes loads of sense." Hot Rod snorted handing the device around. "That's worse than the other three."
"In the doesn't make a pit damned amount of sense department? Yes it is." Ratchet grumbled.
"This is a trap." Ironhide growled.
"I'm with Hide." Hammer nodded.
"It is most likely." Crosshairs offered. "It's coded so the whole message cannot be read."
"It's driving Jazz and Perceptor nuts." Prowl added with a sigh. "They do not like not being able to decode things."
"I just want to know who it's from." Quickfire said. "Someone is desperately trying to get your attention, Prime."
"And the 'heading back' part. That's the one that gets me." Jumpwire put in. "Like they are supposed to be here or something."
"Trap." First Aid sat back in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest. "Lord Mighty Mega-idiot has been far too quiet lately. They've only attacked one outpost in the last Decacycle. Something is up."
"Yes," Optimus rubbed a hand down his faceplate. "But the question is what."
"If old big, bad, and ugly thinks he's getting his claws on Bee again he's got another thing coming." Hammerdown snorted as his blasters hummed in anger.
Quickfire's optics narrowed dangerously as memories of a few vorns ago flashed behind them. "I'd like to see him try."
"Easy you two." Magnus warned them. "Bumblebee is fine."
"And he's gonna stay fine." Hammer bit.
His last best friend had died to make sure that happened. His teacher-might-as-well-be-older-brother's life revolved around that little bundle of wires and metal. Too much relied on that little youngling and Hammer was going to make sure 'fine' was just how he stayed.
"Yes he is," Hide shot a warm yet warning glance to Hammer reminding him where he was and that nothing was wrong. The big blue and black mech calmed down slightly at the look.
"I have been running the possibilities." Prowl spoke up drawing every bots attention.
"Do tell." Ratchet prompted leaning back in his chair and crossed his fingers on the table.
"With the limited information we already have it is . . . difficult to come up with logical reasoning besides the obvious possibilities such as a trap, a way to draw Optimus out, or a way to put us on edge and over compensate not seeing something bluntly obvious."
"You mean like last time when we let a virus-viper into Bumblebee's berth." Ironhide growled out the dark words that weren't a question in the slightest bit.
"Yes," Prowl nodded solemnly. "That is just what I mean. There are far too many variables in this new issue that have not yet been defined. I will need more time and more information, but there is one new variable that has been added that wasn't there before. A variable that appeared just after the messages started coming in."
"What variable is that?" Optimus questioned.
"Jolt."
The room went very still after that for a good seven klicks until Ratchet slowly turned to glare over at Prowl.
"You think my new trainee has something to do with this!?"
"All I know for fact is that the young mech is hiding something." Prowl curved Ratchet growling with the hard truth. "Something he doesn't want any of us to know."
"He's just quiet, Prowl." Jumpwire defended. "He's been alone all his life from what I managed to get out of him. He doesn't really get the whole team work thing yet I don't think. He'll come around. But he isn't some 'Con spy if that's what you're thinking."
"I do not think he is a 'Con." Prowl clarified, once again hating that he had to be the one that was being logical and blunt about all this. However, it was his place and his purpose and he would do what was necessary to protect all of his family. Even if it meant suspecting their newest member. "But I do know he is not being fully honest with us."
"Every bot has secrets." Hot Rod reminded. "You being one of them."
Prowl held him in a steady gaze. "But mine to do not threaten the well being of this ship. Something is off about what he is hiding. He walks his own ship like he's treading around landmines. He is afraid of something coming to light. I do not think he has intentions of harming Bumblebee. If I did he would not be here," His optics flashed cold at the threat behind those words. "But he is hiding something and I want to know what. I do not like so many unknown variables on my own ship."
"Then perhaps it is best if he no longer had secrets." Ultra Magnus said.
"You can't make him spill his spark." Hot Rod argued.
Optimus let out a heavy breath. "Prowl is right. Something is off. He is afraid of something and I will not have one of my own soldiers scared of his home. If we can help we will help. And I will admit it is a little strange that Jolt showed up just after their first message."
"Maybe it's just a coincident." Jumpwire offered.
"I do not believe in coincident." Prowl answered.
The table was quiet for a long spark-beat as each and every one of them weighed the information out in their processors.
"I'll comm Jolt to your office." Ratchet grumbled to Optimus as he glared down to the cold metal table before him.
A million and one things were running through Jolt's processor.
None of them very good as he thought out his options.
He even considered sneaking off the ship while no mech was watching and just disappearing back into the shadows from which he came. Though he knew that would be pointless. No part of him—well besides the part that was scared out of his fragging processor—wanted to leave the Autobots. He liked them.
He'd never had a . . . family . . . of any kind.
He didn't want to lose this new one.
He enjoyed Bumblebee. Enjoyed sitting back and watching a living, breathing, youngling just exist. He brought warmth to his spark he thought he'd never know again after he heard the Sectors fell.
No.
He would not runaway again.
He would stand up tall and face what was behind these terrifying silver doors. Even if it meant he was going to face a plasma round in his spark.
After all he had survived there.
He could survive anything else Primus threw at him, and if he couldn't. Well at least he would get to see all those he'd loved and lost again . . . get to see his Carrier again.
Stealing himself for what was to come he knocked his knuckles against the surface of the Prime's office door and waited.
"Enter," Was called out through the metal and Jolt stepped through the swishing doorway to find himself staring at Prime, Prowl, Hot Rod, and Ultra Magnus though in all reality he was only looking at Ultra Magnus and the commander . . . well he kinda looked like he was about to glitch.
In fact he just might have if he hadn't of been who he was. Instead though he pushed himself from his chair in one fluid movement the action startling his fellow commanders and the SIC of Prime into looking at him and not the entering young mech.
Jolt didn't say a word.
Just stood an inch inside the doorway so it could close behind him with his electric blue optics guarded and his short doorwings pinned tightly against his back. His whole posture screamed defensive—even the deadly cackling whips that lay curled up in his arms hummed in deadly purpose with the stress that was running through his spark and he knew they all could hear it—but he couldn't help it.
He was standing there staring at the faceplate he never thought he'd know and that mech was staring back at him like he'd just said he knew a way to win the war.
It wasn't really a situation the quiet, kinda shy, not very good with words mech wanted to find himself in. Yet here he stood.
Because it was time to face the music.
He'd kept his mouth shut long enough.
"Magnus?" The word left Hot Rod though Jolt didn't spare the commander a glance. He just watched the towering tri-tone. "Ultra Magnus?"
The commander's mouth opened, but no words came out. He just kind of gapped like a fish and Jolt took pity on him.
"Hello, commander." He said his voice tight, guarded, and afraid.
Ultra Magnus gulped a sound between a whimper and a choke, but no words came out.
"Magnus?" Optimus rose from his chair his hand coming to rest of his friend's shoulder as Hot Rod watched them both carefully. Prowl however was staring through narrow optics his processor running a million miles a nano-klick. Something wasn't right. Ultra Magnus was staring at the new comer like he'd just come across a ghost. Which was not possible since Jolt was very much alive, but the haunted kind of terrified to be hopeful look in the massive mech's optics said that something was really not right here.
Magnus had never been the most outspoken mech. He was the quiet, level headed commander, he acted with controlled precision. He watched more than he talked. It was just the kind of mech he was, but the fact that he now couldn't get his fragging vocal processor to utter a word was starting to drive him glitchy. All he could do was stare into those electric blue optics that stared back at him. Those electric blue optics and that soft, sculpted, angled faceplate. He looked so much like her.
So fraggin' much!
The doorwings on his back twitched painful at being held the way they were, but all Jolt could do was take a shallow breath. Since it seemed no words were going to come out of the mech before him, he figured he'd just have to come up with them himself.
"I guess . . . since we've never really met . . . ." Damn this was harder than he thought it would be. "I . . . umm . . . my name is Jolt." He finished pitifully and the scared tone of his voice didn't go unnoticed by the mechs in the room.
Optimus looked between the trainee medic, his stocked silent friend, and Prowl who was taking in the room with narrowed optics.
"What's going on, Magnus?" Optimus reached out yanking almost harshly on the long ago formed bond between him and his fellow commander. It had the desired effect. Magnus snapped back into focus though his throat worked harshly to keep the tears he felt crawl up at bay.
Taking a shaky breath he shook his head trying to clear his processor.
It wasn't possible.
It just wasn't possible!
She was gone! And that unsparked sparkling had died in her womb.
There was no way that he could be looking at what he thought he was looking at!
Clamping down on his emotions he fought with the urges in his spark and straightened his posture back to the proud Autobot commander that he was. He couldn't hide the panic and the pain in his optics though. For he was lost in a world of memory.
He felt warm, light, like he could jump up and touch the Well of Sparks as it shown in the stars up above. It was a feeling like he'd never known and the only thing he knew to do about it was reach forward, yank the beautiful gold and blue femme from her place before him, and spin her around their makeshift berthroom laughing for all he was worth.
The musical sound of her own laughter and happy sobs filled his audios and he just crushed her tighter to his frame spinning them around again and again until he collapsed against a wall holding her tightly to him while he stared down with watery optics into her electric blue orbs.
"I take it that means you're happy?" She giggled up at him.
All Magnus could do was nod vigorously as he nuzzled his faceplate into her neck. Her grip around him in turn tightened as she ran careful hands up his back in smoothing motions as she sighed softly in his audios.
"Me too," She whispered.
Pulling back Magnus cupped his beautiful mate's cheeks in his hands leaning down to kiss her lightly before pulling back just the slightest bit and resting his forehead on hers.
"I'm going to be a Sire." He breathed.
She chuckled. "Technically you already are."
He snorted in return though he kept his smile. For a moment there was no uprising. There was no Megatron trying to destroy the noble cities. There was no pain, death, and fear. There was no fact that they were currently living in an underground, secret military base on the outskirts of what was left of Iacon trying to form an army. There was no fact that his best friend's brother was trying to kill them all.
There was no threat of death lingering in every shadow.
There was only him, Artemis, and the pulsing little life that was growing inside her.
Closing his optics he softly whispered to her. "We're going to be creators."
"Yes," She leaned forward pecking him on the lips. "We are. Didn't I tell you, Magnus? Hope will never die."
"Not as long as I have the two of you." He agreed.
Magnus stood with his arms crossed glaring at the screen before him as Ratchet, Ironhide, Prowl, Jazz, Hot Rod, and Optimus stood around with him glaring just the same.
"That was too fraggin' close." Ironhide hissed slamming his fist into the wall beside him as the video footage of the attacked base from a few joors early faded to black before him.
"There was nothing at that base of any remote importance." Jazz snapped. "Why did he slaggin' blow it up!?"
Prowl shot him a look. "Because the femmes and Whiteout were there."
The mechs whose mates and sparklings had almost been murdered in the attack snarled low at the words as they glared at the dark screen before them.
"He's targeting your greatest weakness." Hot Rod mumbled angrily. "Fragged up in the processor two-bit glitched data chip!"
"We knew he would." Optimus let out a defeated sounding breath, turning from the screen his optics narrowed and calculating.
"I'll kill the bastard." Ratchet swore darkly.
"Not if I kill him first." The words leaving Magnus were shocking and yet not as he curled his hands into fist at his side. His unsparked sparkling and his mate had almost been killed by that fraggin' mad mech. The rage growing in his spark was making his whole system vibrate in anger. He hadn't even felt this angry when Iacon fell.
No.
This was nothing like that.
This was anger grown out of fear and pain.
He'd come this close to losing everything he cared about. Just because they were connected to him.
This had to change.
"This can't happen again." Magnus lifted his optics to Optimus and for a moment the two commanders held each other's gaze before Optimus smiled a weak, scared, kind of smile.
"Alright, than you can be the one to tell them we're locking them away from the battle for their home."
Ratchet and Ironhide snorted in pain.
"Yeah, like Chromia is going slaggin' anywhere. I try to tell her to get off the front lines she'll blow my head off." Ironhide mumbled miserably. "She won't stop fighting. Not even to move Whiteout. She feels like if she's not fighting she's not protecting him."
"Arcee would rather die than hide behind the battle lines. Not when she can fight and fix." Ratchet sighed. "And I can't tell her not too."
"And Elita would most surly leave my aft before she allowed me to tell her what she can and cannot do." Optimus nodded tiredly.
Magnus smiled with defeat. "Yes . . . I don't even want to breach the subject to Artemis."
"She'd go straight for the spike." Jazz nodded sadly. "They all would."
"Yep." Hot Rod crossed his arms over his chest. "And it would be a painfully slow detachment."
"The chances of them leaving the battle lines is about 3.52%." Prowl breathed. "The changes of Megatron continuing to target them as all of ours' greatest weakness; 100%."
"Thanks for the words of optimism, Prowler." Jazz groaned.
"I am simply being realistic."
"What are we going to do?" Ironhide ran a hand down his faceplate.
Optimus and Ultra Magnus cast each other a glance.
"We stop him." The new Prime said, a new conviction in his voice.
A brokenness like which he had never known swam in the powerful tri-tone commander's chest. His normal calm, calculating, dark blue optics now void of anything, but the emptiness that had consumed him.
She was gone.
They both were gone.
Lowering his head to his hands Magnus pushed his fingers into his closed optics to keep the tears at bay. He had cried enough. Honestly . . . he didn't really think there were any tears left inside to cry.
With a quiet swish the door to his office opened and then closed again with an eerie stillness that Magnus ignored and his guest cringed at. He didn't care. There was nothing left inside his spark to care with. His sparkmate and his unsparked creation were gone. What point did he have for living now?
A heavy with dread, pain, and guilt hand lay on his shoulder but the mech didn't need to lift his optics to know that it was Optimus. He didn't protest when his towering friend sank down into the spare chair beside him, scooted closer, and pulled him into a frame crushing hug. He just kept his head bowed as his friend sat a quiet vigil over him into the long joors of the night.
Because nothing either one of them said was going to change the agony inside.
He knew their pain.
He knew it more than he let himself remember most orns, but that didn't mean he was saying he understood it. No . . . there was no way anybot could ever truly understand another's sparkbreak. There was no way to express the pain that was having the other half of a spark ripped away . . . there was no way to console the loss of a sparkling.
Maybe that was why he said nothing.
Instead he was just there.
A silent support like they had been for him half a vorn ago. He was just there. A shoulder to lean on and a spark that had felt the pain.
He offered no words. No words would ever make it better.
Nothing would ever make it better.
No amount of revenge or anything like it could ever make it better. Because it would never bring them back.
Nothing would ever bring them back.
So all he could do for his friends was to just be there. Sit there in silence watching the florescent lights of the medical bay flicker from the power grid struggling.
He could just sit there and pretend he didn't hear the not so silent tears.
"You never stop amazing me, Roddy." Ratchet said in amazement as the officers stood in the dark tunnels under Tyger Pax.
"Well . . . ." Hot Rod shrugged. "I was bored."
"We should make you bored more often." Prowl snorted.
"Yeah . . . ." Jazz for once in his life was kind of at a loss for words. "You build ships . . . really nice ships."
"I haven't named them yet." Hot Rod cast a look over to Ultra Magnus as he stood silently observing the eight mighty vessels before them. "Though I did already pick yours, Magnus."
The tall mech cast him a glance with a lifted optic ridge. "Really?"
"Yeah," Hot Rod paused, thinking over how he was going to do this. "It's that one."
The other mechs looked to the long, sleek, silver battleship that sat among the others.
"It is quite impressive." Ultra Magnus nodded with the hint of a smile. "But why that one, Hot Rod?"
The brightly colored commander flashed him a bright grin. "Because that's the design Artemis was working on."
The tri-tone commander's spark stilled in his chest for a moment as he stared down at the shorter mech before turning his attention back to the ship. His lip quivered slightly despite himself as his processor and spark became lost to the past.
Hot Rod and Optimus who watched their friend closely pretended not to notice.
Swallowing the mixture of emotions Magnus offered his friend a rare easy smile. "Thank you, Roddy."
The shorter mech just grinned. "I wasn't being fully honest in the name department though."
The other mechs raised their optic ridges.
"Oh really?" Ironhide laughed.
"Yeah kinda pick out your ship's name too." He kept his optics on Ultra Magnus.
"And what would that be?"
"Artemis 1."
For a moment once again all Magnus could do was stare until he quickly turned his attention back to the ships to hide the tears glittering in his optics from his fellow mechs.
"It fits."
Optimus blinked at him in disbelief.
"You can't be serious."
"I'm very serious." Magnus nodded as he stood looking out the window of the ground base thinking over the events of the last Decacycle.
Optimus' battleship had been blown to tiny little pieces. That marked the count up to five. All of Hot Rod's and his crew's hard work was making very good cannon fader for Megatron. Now they only had three ships left. The Long Bow, Artemis 1, and the Axalon that was still safely hidden away in the tunnels under Tyger Pax.
It was logical to assume that since Prime was now without a ship that he would get the one that had not yet been risen from the tunnels. However, the notion unnerved Magnus. He had no doubt in Hot Rod's skills at making ships. That was not why he had brought up this subject.
He doubted Megatron wasting a nano-klick in trying to gun down his brother's whole crew a second time just to prove that he could. Ultra Magnus wanted Optimus to take his ship to confuse the war lord. He would not think that Magnus would take the new ship, and when he launched his no doubt coming second assault on Prime. He would find that the commander he searched for was not there.
"But Magnus." Optimus walked to his friend side taking him in with calculating optics. "She is your ship."
"She will serve you as well as she has me. Besides, discuss it with Prowl. He will say my plan has merit."
"I know Megatron will come after the new ship just as well as you do, that is why I should be the one on it."
"That would make the sneak attack that we could launch with Artemis 1 and the Long Bow pretty hard to accomplish wouldn't it? If you were already on the ship he was trying to blow up."
"Sneak attack?" Optimus blinked.
Ultra Magnus cut him one of those rare devious smiles. "Yes, Optimus. Sneak attack."
"A part of me still doesn't really think it's real." Hot Rod whispered through the vid screen on Ultra Magnus' desk. The red, blue, and white commander nodded solemnly from his place in his chair in his quiet, dark office where he was spending the night instead of in his cold, lonely, berth.
"You saw him yourself, Roddy. He's real."
Hot Rod agreed. "He's really there I know that. I just don't know how! A sparkling? They're gone, Magnus . . . they're gone."
"One still remains."
"But how!?"
"I do not know." Magnus answered him truthfully as he recalled the little bundle of yellow metal and wires that had curled up into recharge in Optimus' hands. A part of his spark ached at the memory. It wondered what his would have looked like. Would it have been that small?
He forced the thoughts away.
They only appeared because it was late and his processor was still trying to figure out what to do with this new information.
"He's kinda adorable." Hot Rot said with a small smile.
Ultra Magnus snorted his agreement.
"But this is just another target, Magnus." The other commander whispered. "Just another thing that when he finds he'll try to use against us."
Magnus turned his attention to his hands as he stared down with narrow optics. "You are right. This one will be different though. We will not lose this sparkling."
"You . . . ." Magnus struggled for the words and he found himself gripping the table before him until the metal bent to his grasp. Optimus' hand on his shoulder tightened. "Who . . . ."
"I told you." Jolt forced his optics to hold the commanders. "I'm Jolt, and though we've never met . . . well . . . damn. Slag it all to Pit I'm just gonna come out and say it since we both already know it. I'm your son."
To his credit Ultra Magnus stood there for two whole klicks staring at the young mech in shocked silence before he full on glitched. When Optimus was forced to catch his suddenly limp friend his along with Prowl's and Roddy's optics were still locked on the bright blue mech and suddenly they knew what was so familiar about him.
Those optics.
They were Artemis'.
Jolt should never be allowed to break news to anyone ever again.
He's awful at it.
Anyway,
That was a dang lot of stuff wasn't it? Growth spurts, officers acting like adorable sparklings, blasts from the past, and strange encrypted messages from unknown sources. I wonder, what could possibly be coming next?
I've waited two whole parts to get to what happens and who joins the fun in the chapter six. Hope to see you guys there!
Chat with ya later!
-Jaycee