Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. Just the plot and OCs.
Wow, the response on the last chapter! You guys are amazing.
Thanks so much, all of you.
Hope you enjoy this chapter as much as you did the last one. I did.
Chapter 24
A low chuckle went through the massive jagged grey armor covered mech as he leaned there against a fallen, dull, dead crystal. There wasn't much of the once radiant and mystical objects left in this wasteland that had once been filled with their singing. In fact the only reason this one was probably still in any kind of way of existence was that it had been a wild crystal, not like the tame ones that had been the first to shatter in a city under fire. However, not even being free couldn't forever save it from destruction it seemed was this war ravaged world.
Such was true with everything left on Cybertron.
There was nothing left on this rock that hadn't been left with some kind of painful reminder of the feud that was eating away at the very spark of the planet. The feud that had pitched sibling against sibling in a energon soaked massacre.
It was sad really, how much of the world they were supposed to protect that they had now destroyed.
Add their petty bickering into the Civil War that was already going on and between what was left of the Master's creations both gifted and plain there was going to be no world left for them to bicker over soon.
Somehow, Impulse found that laughable.
Well since it was laugh or cry—something the massive mech was never going to do—it seemed laughter was the far better option. Though he knew if Evermore or Trickster were around to find him laughing at the state they were all in now they would probably strap him down and try to figure out what he'd fried in his processor. He could see it now. Ever would certainly be doing some of her fancy mumbo-jumbo to try and fix whatever had gone wrong.
Even if Impulse doubted there was anything left to fix in this scarred, cold spark of his. Evermore could argue all she wanted but there was a part of Impulse that would never be the same again. The guilt inside him was never going to die.
No matter if this youngest little runt seemed to have the object of his guilt living somehow in his strangely powerful spark.
A flash of white and blue plating caught the massive mech's attention causing a tilt of his head as he watched the assortment of bright colors trail after him. With a snort he stepped back into the shadows watching them. They had maybe a few more miles to go through the ruble before the Autobots were in for the shock of their lives.
Well at least the first shock of their lives that was going to be in the not too distant future.
It still amazed the powerful warrior, just how many twisted and dark paths led back to their origins sooner or later, and a part of him wondered would that little runt ever be able to survive where his path was taking him.
And that same small part of the Guild Member wondered why he even bothered caring.
Jazz blinked.
And then he blinked again.
And again.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Swoop tilted his head, those bright red optics wide in confusion at why the room had suddenly gone so quiet, well that is until the door swished open and in walked Quickfire. The bright femme coming to a confused stop at the tangible silence as every head in the bay turned to her in a snap.
Lifting an optic ridge she glanced around before tilting her head. "What's going on in here?"
Silence and slightly horrified stares before the flier of the Dinobots grinned proudly.
"Me Swoop translate—"
"NOTHING!" The command ranks almost yelped in unison almost jumping out of their armor making Fire take a quick step back at the sudden sound only to leave her standing there blinking at them like they'd all gone insane. Which she was serious questioning at the moment before she simply rolled her optics, crossed her arms, and huffed.
"Fine, whatever, Magnus wants you two." She pointed between the CMO and the Prime. "And when you get down there remind the overgrown filing cabinet that I am not his turbo-pup to be sent to fetch you when you all won't answer your comm links. Turn them on damn it."
And with that she spun on her heels and stomped out letting the door swish shut behind her.
There was silence again until Sideswipe swung on Ratchet with narrow blue optics. "What the frag do you mean nothing!?"
"Hush." Ratchet hissed, trying to get his processor around what he just heard, and what it meant.
"HUSH!?" Sides yelled. "He said MIRAGE!"
"I heard what he said!" The medic snapped. "Now hush!"
Sides opened his mouth and then slammed it shut because he had no idea what to say. What did one say when the name of a dead mech was written at the end of a secret encoded message, the name of which belonged to the mech that Quickfire loved? The one that never came back.
The one who's name was written at the bottom of that data pad.
Mirage was alive?
Sides' processor hurt.
He wasn't the only one thinking this was weird right?
Right?
Because this was weird.
It couldn't just be him.
Two sets of black audio receptors twitching on both sides of him told him that he wasn't the only one finding this to be strange. Echo tilted her head as the three of them stared out the window together. Scout's tail flicked back and forth in irritation behind them as he stared out the dirty glass into the open expanse of wasteland as the acid clouds rolled in.
Bee sat between them his antennas flicking back and forth as he scratched at his itchy plating.
This so wasn't normal.
"Weird." He pulsed to the two that were crouched in the windowsill on both sides of him.
"Not get it." Echo pulsed back.
Scout let a shiver run through his plating. "Storm."
"More than storm." Echo argued.
"Something in storm." Bee agreed. And he was pretty sure he was right. There was something out there. More than one something actually, but he could only get a real good feel of one of the something's. The problem was, the real good feel wasn't all that great of a grasp on the energy he was trying to understand.
It felt like a spark.
He was pretty sure it was a spark.
But it wasn't like any spark he'd ever felt before but yet it kind of was, and this one was a great deal away. Yet he could sorta feel it.
It was weird.
And then there was that other energy.
The one that also felt like a spark, a very old very angry spark. It was in the wrath of the storm that was coming toward his home and even that he didn't understand. This spark though, this one was sort of familiar. He just didn't know why it was familiar to him.
It didn't make any sense.
What was going on in that acid storm?
And why was nobot else noticing it?
Tilting his head Bee turned toward Echo. "Lets go find Opt."
Scout snorted. "Big mechs too busy to see where putting own feet. Been that way for orns."
Well Scout really wasn't wrong in that aspect. The larger pup was still rather put out about the fact that Optimus stepped on his tail the other orn. He was also right about the fact that his family had suddenly become very busy again. It was just like before. They were all running around in circles trying to figure out something Bee didn't understand hardly even looking up to realize they'd stepped on his pup. Or to notice that over the last few orns Bee had been itching so much he was scratching his own nanites off.
He felt funny.
His plating was doing this sort of dull ache, especially his back. He wasn't all that sure what was going on, but since he had no plans of being feed anymore tonics that made him hic-up for orns, or needles, or being stuck in the medical bay he was just going on with the fact that Ratchet, First Aid, Jumpwire, Jolt, and Quickfire were too busy yelling at each other and running around in circles to notice the fact that he was scratching his nanites dead.
Whatever it was that was going on though it had something to do with Quickfire. He could feel that much. Her spark was caught somewhere between this overbearing joy, this festering anger, and this protoform deep sadness. And it was all happening at the same time.
To the point that Bee really didn't want to be around her or any of the other medics for that matter. The emotions he could feel were just too confusing. Their sparks were too jumbled and unfocused.
However, they weren't the only ones.
Everybot else felt weird too.
Caught between this dread and this joy that Bee just couldn't find the reason of.
So far all Bee had been able to really come up with was that fact that it all had something to do with that coding Jazz had been working on, and since he really had no idea what all that meant he'd already figured out that all this was pretty much out of his league.
Now though he wasn't alone.
He had Echo and Scout totting him around everywhere. His caretakers were thinking to check more than a few glances an orn this time too. Which was better then what happened the time he went off and found the Dinobots because nobot noticed him, but the little mechling still wasn't all that happy about what was going on around him. Especially now that he could feel this . . . this something and nobot else seemed to have even noticed.
With a snort the mechling decided.
He had to tell them that he could feel something weird. Even if he didn't know what it was yet. He'd promised before that he would not go off the ship on his own anymore, and besides, he really had no wish to go out in that acid storm that was blowing their way. So instead of going to figure out what was stalking their way by himself, he was just gonna go find his distracted family and smack them in the faceplates until they listened to him—or just saw him—again so that they could figure it out.
He was a little afraid that doing that might mean somebot was going to notice the growing patches of grey that were collecting on his frame where he was scratching his nanites until they died, but he guessed nothing risked nothing gained.
So it was time to go crash a meeting he'd been shut out of.
"What if its just Shockwave screwing with us all again?" Jazz threw his hands up grasping his audio horns between sharp silver claws as he paced.
"What if its not?" Magnus asked.
"Whether it is or whether it isn't I'm still gonna kill him either way." Fire fumed from where she was balled in a chair, pretty much in Ratchet's lap as she shared the chair with him. The bright femme hadn't gone far from the medic's side since he and the others came to Magnus' office after she went to get them and told her what Swoop said the datapad had written on it. She still wasn't all that sure though if it was her that had clung to him or him that had clung to her. She just knew that one klick she'd been standing there staring at him and next she'd woken up with First Aid and Ratchet both hovering over her.
The red and white mech was never going to let her live down glitching, but really what else could have been expected of her?
She'd come to terms with the fact that the mech was never going to come back, and now his name was written at the bottom of that coded message that nobot but the stupid Dinobots could read?
Gah! She felt like screaming.
Oh and she'd done a lot of it over the last couple of orns, but that wasn't going to help any of them. So she sat there pretty much curled into the mech who had been there for her since she found her way into his and Arcee's bay all those vorns ago back at the Academy. Because she he didn't know what else to do.
"Who, Shockwave or Mirage?" Hot Rod tilted his head at her.
She snarled at him for using the name she had yet been able to make herself say out load. "Either one!"
"Hush," Ratchet scolded her lightly, his deep gaze holding her wide and uneasy optics until she looked away fidgeting with her fingers again.
"Snapping at each other is getting us nowhere." Prowl said. "Swoop can't translate anymore of the code. The only way we're going to figure out what's going on around here is to go and find out."
"And just how do we do that?" Ironhide questioned. "We have no idea where the messages are coming from."
"Well do you have any bright ideas?" Prowl flicked a doorwing.
"That's your department, my friend."
"I need a little bit more than his name at the bottom of a datapad to figure out what nonsense is going on here."
"Well—"
BARK!
All attention in the meeting swiveled toward the shut door across the room. A few optic ridges rose before another loud bark followed by claws scratching at the thick grey metal could be heard.
A heavy sigh left the chest of the Prime before he rubbed a finger between his optics. "Who is supposed to be watching Bumblebee?"
A klick of silence and then.
"Grimlock." Hot Rod offered so helpfully.
"Who bright idea was that?!" Ironhide snapped.
"Hammer's." Roddy grinned.
Hide slammed a palm to his forehead. "Wonderful."
With a roll of his optics Jazz walked across the conference room and keyed the door open glancing down to find two static-hound pups and Bee who was grinning as he sat between Scout's thick shoulder blades. The silver mech couldn't help but smirk at those big baby blue optics shining up at him.
"Hey ya Lil' Bee." He chuckled.
"Hi Jazzy." Bee giggled as Scout snorted and pranced on into the conference room with Echo skipping on along beside him, the two pups heading for Optimus' feet. The Prime's bright optics watched with a warm glow at the little mechling's antics as Scout stopped at his feet. The little mech pup snorted up at him, tail lashing behind his back—the pup never really had been all that fond of the rest of them—while he glared up at the massive mech before Bee hopped off his shoulders and scurried up the Prime's leg until he got himself plucked up and cradled against a powerful spark.
"What are you doing little one?"
Bee just bat his optics.
The Prime lifted an optic ridge and the mechling went to giggling burrowing his little self into the grooves in that heavily armored chest. Feeling every vibration that rumbled through the commander.
"Mechling." Optimus stroked a thick finger down the tiny youngling's back not noticing when Bee tensed a little in pain at the action since he was still snuggled into his armor. But Bee was wiggling away from the touch pretty quickly, hiding it behind squiring up Optimus' front to grin at him.
"Whatcha doin'?" He chirped.
"Having a discussion." The high commander answered.
"Oh." Well Bee already knew that. "'bout what?"
"Things." Optimus answered.
Bee stuck out his bottom lip in a pout at not getting a real answer.
The Prime just went to laughing as the little mech pouted. "Why aren't you with Grimlock, Bee?" He questioned once he got his laughing to die down.
Bee shrugged. "Grimy and Slag sparring. Scout got bored."
Optimus sighed. "So you left huh?"
"Uh huh." He nodded quickly.
"Of course you did." Ironhide mumbled with a roll of his optics. That got the massive ebony mech barked at by the bigger mech pup who he just snorted at in return.
"Me has question though." Bee chirped drawing all attention back to him.
Optimus titled his head. "Oh? And what is this question?"
"What's weird?" He questioned making the Prime lift an optic ridge again at him while a few glances went between those present and Bee just sat there waiting for an answer. Finally it was Hot Rod that spoke up.
"Umm what?" The bright commander mumbled.
Bumblebee glanced over the slightly grey patch on the edge of his shoulder to hold the bright mech's optics. "Me wanna know what weird."
"What do you mean what's weird?" Roddy asked.
Lifting a tiny finger Bee pointed to the wall as a sort of direction. "Out there. What is weird? Feel something weird."
And the very air in the room tensed.
"You feel something?" Optimus pressed. Cupping the little mechling in his large hand until he had Bee's full attention again gazing deep into those young, open, bright orbs that blinked innocently up at him.
"Yep." He nodded.
"What kind of something?" The Prime went on.
But Bee just shrugged. "Don't know. They both weird."
"Both?"
"Uh huh." Another nod. "Not at same place either. Don't know how know, but know. Just know coming this way. In storm."
"In the acid storm?" Jazz mumbled.
Bee shrugged. "Just feels weird."
"Do you mean you can feel a spark?" Optimus tired to make sense of what Bee was trying to make them understand. "Like you felt Jazz when he was coming back."
"Umm . . . yeah." Bee tilted his helm. "But not feel like Jazzy. Don't know felt like one of them before, but the other one. It kinda feel like—"
"JUST WHAT ITTY BITTY THINK ITTY BITTY SLAGGIN' DOIN'!?" The explosive snarl as well as the conference room door crashing open from the force of how hard Grimlock slammed a fist into it rocked everybot in the room as the massive beast mech stalked in. His dark visor positively vivid with the angry that gleam behind it. His gaze snapping around the room and the gathered bots until he found the tiny little yellow thing that suddenly shrank in Optimus' palm while the King of the Dinobots gaze narrowed behind his visor.
"Grimlock," Optimus' lip curled back in a bit of a growl at the sheer anger that was rolling off the destructive mech while Ironhide pushed himself up his cannons whirling and the two static-hound pups in the floor at the Prime's feet braced themselves in front of the mech that had their brother with lips peeled back in pair of hissing snarls, backs arched, tails lashing, and audios pinned as the deep sounds static-hounds were famous for echoed from their chests.
The beast mech ignored them all though. Stopping in his stalk halfway across the room as he snarled down at the guilty looking little youngling.
"THINK CAN JUST VANISH ON ME GRIMLOCK?" He hissed. "ITTY BITTY MIGHT THINK CAN VANISH ON HIM PRIME BUT ME GRIMLOCK LOCK YOU IN SPARK VAULT FOR REST OF EVER IF THINK CAN JUST VANISH FROM ME! LOOK UP AND LITTLE GLITCH GONE!"
And if that wasn't proof that the mechling really had wormed his way under even Grimlock's plating, nothing was.
The anger bled out of Optimus and Hide as the huge mech hovered there somewhere between wanting to beat Bee and wanting to squeeze him in a hug. His normal caretakers in the room were fighting back a bit of laughter. It was about time the Dinobot understood how they felt almost every orn.
Of course when Bee turned those big blue optics up and that guilty little pout up and mumbled. "Me sorry Grimy." Even the leader of the beast mechs crumbled like glass.
A heavy vent that was some kind of mix of a snort and a sigh left the big mech as he sort of sagged there in the middle of the room rolling his optics behind his visor.
"Why Itty Bitty leave then?" Crossing his massive arms over his thick chest Grimlock sneered down at the mechling.
Bee shrugged. "Scout bored."
Said mechling pup snorted from the floor still glaring up at the massive bot even though Echo had since plopped down beside the Prime's foot again and gone to scratching at her audios without much concern for the beast mech anymore.
Grimlock glared back, seriously considering the notion of squishing the little pest.
"And 'cuz it weird." Bee went on.
Grimlock's gaze returned to the mechling while he tilted his head. "Huh?"
But suddenly Bee's optics flashed with excitement and he turned back up to grin at Optimus as he suddenly understood. "Like Grimy!" He hopped. "Feel like Grimy."
"What?" Grimlock titled his head the other way utterly lost now while Magnus just waved at him to be quiet as the room focused back in on Bee.
"It feels like Grimlock?" Optimus wasn't sure he understood. "How does it feel like Grimlock?" He was well past the point these orns of asking how it was Bee could feel whatever he felt. It didn't take too many visits with a myth for him to figure out that there was more going on inside this little mechling then any of them had yet to figure out. A spark that had a power so similar and yet different from his own was something they had all sort of gotten use to Bumblebee having. Most of the time it wasn't even noticed anymore. What he could do had become normal to all of them.
But then he went and started up with something like this and Optimus was forced to remember that not everything Bee did with that spark of his was normal. Actually, not most things Bumblebee did with his spark were normal.
Very few things when it was actually thought about.
It really was something they had all gotten use to however. They didn't even take note of it much anymore. Bee just did what Bee did.
Until he starting saying he could feel something weird out in the middle of an acid rain storm that felt like Grimlock.
What did that even mean?
"Told you it's Shockwave." Jazz muttered, slumped down in a chair pulling off a very youngling like pout as he glared at the table. Fire shifted uneasily beside Ratchet, the medic keeping a hold on her. "He's playing with us."
"What mean feel like me Grimlock?" The big mech questioned, looking around the gathered bots.
"Bumblebee feels something." Prowl answered as if that filled in all the blanks for the beast mech. When Grimlock just continued to stand there looking lost it was obvious that it did not. "You know how he feels sparks Grimlock."
"Me know that." He snorted. "Just not get how feel like me Grimlock."
"Well neither do we so join the club." Quickfire sighed.
The beast mech tilted his head again in question. He didn't understand what was going on here.
Bee shrugged again. "Feel like Grimy."
"Do you know where this spark is, Bee?" Hide asked him from across the table.
"Storm." Was the simple chirp of a reply. "Getting closer though."
"To here?" Magnus spoke up.
"Uh huh."
"Me Grimlock not get it."
"Should we check this out boss bot?" Jazz leaned forward against the table, casting his visor covered gaze down the table to the Prime.
"After what Swoop translated. Yes." The Commander nodded.
"Me wanna go!" Bee bounced up in Optimus' palm to lean against the thick armor of his chest, but the amused purr that he got wasn't really the answer he wanted.
"I don't think so, little one."
"But me can feel it."
"Yes, and you would also be out in the middle of an acid storm. So that's a no."
The tiny yellow thing pouted.
"And no amount of pouting is going to change that."
More pouting.
"I'm sorry Bumblebee."
His thin little arms crossed over his chest and his antennas pinned tightly down to his head as he gazed up at the commander with a spark breaking pout. Optimus had to break his gaze away so not to give in to that adorable little look.
Well when all else fails the Prime was not above bribery when it came to getting out of that spark shattering look.
"Besides, didn't Sunstreaker say you two were going to finish the mural this orn? Wouldn't he be pretty upset if you bailed on him?"
And just like that Bee lit back up. Because Sunny had promised they were gonna finish their picture this orn. He'd almost forgot.
"Yeah!" He clicked happily before scrambling around in Optimus' grip, getting himself chuckled at by those around the table before he somehow managed to get his little self back on the ground. The commander might have helped out a little bit with that. Before he was snatched up between sharp fangs and swung around to perch between Scout's shoulders while Echo pushed her smaller self up off the ground beside her brother. The pair of pups ready to go where ever it was Bee's spark pointed them this time before a thought struck me and he yanked on Scout's audio receptor to spin him around. It earned him a hiss and the shake of a head, but the mechling pup did nothing more than that as Bee went to gazing up at Optimus again.
The Prime lifted an optic ridge down at Bee as he smiled. "Yes?"
"Take Grimy." He told him.
"What?" Prowl snorted.
Bee glanced the black and white's way. "Take Grimy."
"Why?"
"'Cuz me think you need him to go." Bee went on. He wasn't sure why he all of a sudden had this notion, but something inside was telling him that his family was going to need the massive Dinobot with them this time. So he was gonna make sure that he went.
"Bumblebee—" Hide started.
"No. Need him."
A rumble rose up in Grimlock's chest making all attention drift back to him, but the mech's optics were rested on the mechling.
"Me Grimlock not one of Prime's little soldier mechlings."
To that Bee's antennas flicked back in irritation from where they had perked back up at the notion of Sunstreaker and him painting.
"Me only here because of Itty Bitty." Grimlock went on. "Not take orders anymore."
Bee crossed his arms over his tiny chest, ignoring the rest of the room watch this little exchange going down between the littlest member of this faction and the biggest.
"Not order. Ask." Bee huffed.
"Me Grimlock don't care. Stay here. Watch Itty Bitty."
"But me want you to go! Spark like yours."
"What that even mean? No other sparks like me Grimlock's except brothers."
Bee rolled his optics. As if he didn't know that. He could feel them all, remember? "Me know that. That why gotta go."
The King snorted. "Not gotta do nothin'."
Well this was going nowhere fast.
The massive mech seemed to be too put out with him about leaving when they were watching him to really listen to what he was saying.
Bee pouted.
Well, it might be low but he didn't have any other options. Something inside said that Grimlock had to go and so Grimlock would go. Even if Bee had to fight dirty.
It only took two sniffles for the first beads of coolant to well up in the corner of his optics and steak down his cheeks before everybot in the room snapped.
"GRIMLOCK!"
Hide had his mechling snatched up in less than a blink, a growl rumbling in his chest as he glared over the tiny head burrowed into his cheek as the room threw daggers into the beast mechs soul via their optics.
"Nice goin' ya glitch you made him cry!" Jazz hissed as he slide his chair over to Hide's side and went to trying to coax the little whimpering youngling out of Hide's neck cables. Bee was having none of it though. A loud sob half muffled by Hide's neck made the powerful beast mech cringe more than a little across the room as he shifted uneasily.
"Itty Bitty don't cry."
Sob.
"Me Sorry!"
Louder sobs followed by Hide's building growl and Grimlock let out an exasperated sound as he threw his hands up in the air.
"Oh fine! Me Grimlock go! Just stop crying!"
And Bee popped right back up with a grin perfectly alright without a single tear. "Okay."
Grimlock's jaw dropped open at the tiny grin on that tiny faceplate while Jazz choked on a laugh for a nano and then fell over in his chair cackling up a storm and Roddy threw his head back laughing while the look of shock on the beast mech's faceplate quickly turned to building announce.
"Why you little viper." He snarled.
Bee snickered. "Said would go. Now have to go."
All he got was a hiss in return while Jazz was still dying in the chair beside him. Around his laughter he croaked out. "You just got played by a youngling! Oh that's priceless! Ah I can't feel my sides!" Another round of cackles while Grimlock turned his growling to the silver saboteur. "Oh that settles it, you're so gonna be in my department Lil' Bee! I win! Oh that's slaggin' amazing! Gah I can't breathe!"
Bee just kept on grinning.
Sometime between being slagged off about all this nonsense and complaining about all this nonsense Impulse managed to miss something rather important. Like how in all of fraggin' pit there were this thing on its way to crossing paths with those he was supposed to be watching and the ship it seemed they were all now heading toward.
Just what the pit was going on here!?
"How exactly did you miss that!?" In a flash of bright blue light Impulse suddenly found his brother stalking up beside him to stare down the cliff front with him to the creature that was stalking its way through the pelting rain.
Impulse snarled. "How did I miss it? How did you miss it!?"
"I'm not the one supposed to be watching them you glitch!" Trickster hissed. "You are! You've been following the four of them since they got out of that pit!"
"Yeah, them. The mech and the femmes. Not this thing!" Impulse threw a clawed hand out to the form far below them. "What the slag even is it!?"
Trickster snorted. "You know just what it is."
"But how is that even possible? The five of those brothers are the only ones that are left."
"Oh come on now brother, you and I both know that there is far more then that left."
Those deep red optics cut over to ice blue in a glare. "What has that lunatic been playing with that you didn't tell me about?"
"Which one?" Trick laughed.
"You know which one!"
"No. I'm afraid I don't. The Con or the Ring Emperor?"
"Whichever one did this!"
"Well technically this is both their faults." Trickster shrugged.
"Oh and how is that?"
"Because the Con has been playing to ancient metal for vorns and the Ring Emperor snatched a few . . . oh something like half a million vorns or something like that ago. So in all reality this is both their faults."
Impulse growled.
"What?"
"And why the frag didn't you tell me about this?"
"Because I didn't know they got out. Ever and I have been watching the Tiny One."
"Well the Tiny One's precious little family is about to go rolling up on something rather big and unhappy."
"It is rather big isn't it."
"STOP BEING A GLITCH TRICKSTER!"
"Okay, jeez, chill out." The smaller black mech chuckled, patting his larger brother on the shoulder while he went on growling. "Nothing bad is going to happen."
"Nothing bad? Nothing bad!? They're driving right for them!"
"Yeah and the mechling convinced that biggest beast mech to go with them. He can handle this one just fine. Who knows maybe this will even work out the way Evermore thinks it will."
"Evermore thinks everything is going to end up wonderful and happy again." Impulse hissed.
"Yep." Trick laughed. "And who knows? Maybe she's right."
"And maybe she's not."
"Well we're never gonna know until we try right?"
"You realize that at the rate of travel and direction currently happening between all three parties they're all going to end up in the same place in less than a joor right?"
"Yeah . . . ain't that gonna be fun to watch."
Impulse rolled his optics. "You get to save the damn Prime when he tries to strangle him."
"Oh I think the femmes will do that."
"I'm not so sure."
Trickster barked a laugh, throwing his head back as he chuckled. "Primus! We gotta find some kettle energon."
Impulse slammed his palm between his optics.
Waddle, waddle, waddle, waddle, waddle, waddle, trip, slosh, yelp, catch, guilty little giggle.
"I told you it was too heavy." Sunstreaker said as he helped Bumblebee get his balance again with a soft nudge of the foot he was caught with. Watching carefully as the little mechling tried to balance the large can of orange paint against his front as we went to waddling down the hall again.
"Not too heavy." Bee chirped over his shoulder making Sideswipe snicker and Sunstreaker roll his optics as they followed after him and the two little pups that were prancing around him as they walked down the hall.
"I'll carry it for you, Half Pint." Sides offered as Bee almost tripped again.
"Can do by myself." Bee huffed, not really minding when Echo walked a bit closer to him to help steady the offset to his weight the paint made. Other than that though he was pit bent on doing it for himself. Even if Sunstreaker had a dozen or so colors of paint tucked away in subspace. At least he was helping. That was all he wanted.
The warm pulse of emotion that ran through the twins' connected sparks at the little mechling's antics had Sideswipe glancing his brother's way with a smile. "He's so fraggin' cute you know that?"
"Don't let him here you say that."
"Oh he already knows he's cute."
"Yeah he does, and he's starting to figure out how to use it."
"Because we never did anything like that." Sides lifted an optic ridge.
"He doesn't need to know that."
"Yeah you're probably right."
"Well come on!" Bee giggled back at them making both mechs roll their optics before they took a few strides to catch up.
"Orange?" Bee glanced up.
Sides tilted his head. "Blue."
Bee snorted. "No."
"But there's already too much orange." Sides mumbled.
"No there not!"
Sides pulled his head back giving himself a shake to try and get the sudden ringing out of his now very possibly damaged audio receptor. "Alright there isn't too much orange."
Bee huffed out another snort and went back to swirling the brush over the wall. Sunstreaker looked between his younger brother and his youngest brother before going back to the streetlight he was painting.
"You should never tell Half Pint there is too much of a color, Sides."
"So I have learned."
"Not too much." Bee mumbled as he swirled his brush.
"Alright, not too much." Sides grinned as he repeated himself, laying back down and tilting his head against the tiny shoulder he was propped against from his place laying on his front on the floor by the wall as Sunstreaker sat to left and Bee to his right. The mechling was—for once—not covered in paint as of yet not that the crimson mech had the issues with getting his armor dirty like his twin did, but it was nice to know that he wouldn't come away with smudges of bright colors against his black audio horns if he got some snuggle time in with his favorite little youngling. That and it was fun to watch the mech pup glare at him from a few feet away for touching Bee.
These pups really were proving to be entertaining at least.
Especially Scout.
He was tons of fun to mess with.
Though watching Sunny and Bee paint was also pretty entertaining. Not to mention relaxing, so Sides was content to just sigh out happily kicking his legs over his back from where he had them drawn up at this insane angle that Sunstreaker just kept looking at and shaking his head while Sides just grinned.
It was nice to just spend an evening with his two favorite mechs and pretend that Hide, Ratchet, Jazz, Prowl, Optimus, and Grimlock went off in the middle of a acid storm to chase whatever it was Bee could feel. Whatever it was it had to mean something though. Because every few klicks or so the mechling would pause in his painting and rub at his chest above his spark like something inside felt off. It had both brothers watching him carefully from the corner of their optics while also trying to keep him entertained. He wasn't all that happy about not getting to go since he was the one that could feel whatever it was out there that was so interesting to him. He felt entitled, Sides guessed, but the chances that Bee was getting off this ship to chase down weird feelings in the middle of a storm were none to nonexistent so it was better for everybot in the long run if the twins just kept him busy until Hide could come back to tuck him in for the night.
It was in Sides' wondering of what was going on inside his Half Pint's spark as he leaned away again to watch him out of the corner of his optic while he gazed up at the mural that was coming to life on the rec room wall.
Meta Roan.
Between the two of them they were honestly bringing it to life again.
It wasn't the picture that suddenly caught Sideswipe's attention though. What had him suddenly pushing himself up on his elbows to stare down at the tiny youngling was the strange patches of grey that were scattered here and there along his back and shoulders.
What in pit?
The mechling wasn't using grey.
Why did he—holy pit!
And suddenly Bee found himself snatched up, paintbrush clattering to the ground, his pups spooking from their relaxed sprawls and twisting to watch as Sideswipe shoved himself upright in one clumsy motion before Bee was toppled over on a palm on his front while Sides' fingers pressed into his back. That only lasted for about half a nano though because an aching plate of protoform shifted under the frontliner's strength and Bumblebee let out a painful squeak flailing a bit in the crimson mech's grip.
Sideswipe's hand snatched back in flash at the sound, but Echo and Scout were already on their feet with a hiss and a growl springing over only to have Sides hiss back at them making them slide to a halt while he glared and Sunstreaker dropped to a crouch beside him trying to figure out what was going on.
"Sides!" He snapped. "What did you—"
"Mute it," The red brother growled as he tried to keep Bee from wiggling around off his front. "Be still, Bee." He ordered, the tone not one that the mech had ever used with the mechling before causing Bumblebee to go very still in confusion as he glanced around slightly trying to figure out what Sideswipe was doing.
"Hurt." He whined pitifully, the sound followed by Scout's growl and Echo's pace back and forth. However, Sideswipe ignored them. He was too busy staring down at the dead nanites along his Half Pint's protofrom.
"What the slag is wrong with you!?" Sunstreaker grimace, latching hold of his brother's shoulder and forcing his attention toward him.
Sides' dark blue, vivid optics just glanced up for a moment though before he went back to looking at Bee.
"Look!" His inner voice was half panic half barked out order as the confusion and fear in his spark was suddenly forced across the bond almost knocking Sunstreaker on his aft. "What's going on with his nanites?!"
Shaking off the force of the emotions that were shoved at him, Sunstreaker shoved himself back to his feet, latching hold of his brother's wrist. "What the slag are you talking about?"
"THIS!" Sides yelled.
It was then that the big golden mech finally looked down at the squirming mechling in his brothers grasp, and when he did he almost fell back again. If he hadn't been holding onto Sideswipe he probably would have.
"What the pit!?" He snapped out loud, plucking Bee from his place in an upturned palm to yank up him close staring at the patches here and there of dying nanites that had collected along his back.
Bee's confused whine as he was held oddly in Sunstreaker's long dexterous fingers filled the empty rec room for a few klicks before both brothers cast each other a rather fearful glance and then sprang to their feet with a simultaneous yelp of.
"QUICKFIRE!"
"How come you didn't want to go?" Aid questioned as he shifted through the assortment of scanners he was trying to update while Quickfire sat perched on swivel stool beside him. Though when she didn't answer the red and white mech he paused in his sorting of data to glance her way finding her optics clouded and far away.
Aid sighed.
"Fire?"
Startled out of her thoughts the bright femme snapped her gaze around to stare up at her partner before looking away again. "Whatever feels like Grimlock I have no interest in."
Aid smirked. "That and Ratchet said you had to stay here, huh?"
Fire narrowed her optics at him. "Maybe."
Laughing a little under his breath, Aid went back to downloading scanner charts waiting for the femme to get tired of pouting in this confused place she was in that he couldn't blame her for. The mech she thought she was dead now had his named signed at the bottom of a coded message. She was confused.
And he didn't blame her.
As her best friend he couldn't, but also as her best friend he had the right to not let her mope. It wasn't going to help any of them. Especially her.
"You don't think they'll find anything do you?" Her quiet tone didn't surprise First Aid. Which was why he paused for a nano before glancing back at her again.
"I don't know, Fire." Aid sighed. "That spark of the youngling's is impressive. He's not usually wrong about what he feels."
"But he feels something like Grimlock. There isn't anything else out there like the Dinobots. They're relics lost in time."
"I agree." Aid nodded. "But stranger things then that have been known to happen around here."
Fire snorted. "I can't argue that one."
"And we will do what we always do in the mean time."
"We will?"
"Yes."
Fire gave him a small smile as his optics twinkled back her before she held out a hand with a huff. "Then hand one of those over. I'll help."
First Aid laughed, picking up one of the datapads to hand it too Quickfire. Or at least he would have had the door to their medical bay not suddenly flown open to two very frantic scrambling twins.
"FIRE!" Sideswipe yelped frantically, startling both the medics so much so that Aid almost jumped out of his armor and Quickfire feel off her stool, only Aid catching her before she hit the floor and hauling her back up just in time to have the golden mech dump a very confused looking mechling down in the middle of the datapads while the brothers freaked that frag out.
"What the frag?" Aid hissed as he made sure Quickfire was balanced on her feet before they both looked down at the slightly dazed and confused little mechling on the table that was looking around at all of them like they'd completely lost their processors.
Whether or not Sunstreaker and Sideswipe had was still up for public debate.
"SOMETHING'S WRONG WITH HIM!" The twins barked together making Bee tilt his tiny head in confusion while the two medics tensed before Quickfire snapped forward and yanked Bumblebee up into her grasp.
"What do you mean something's wrong with him?" She asked as she quickly went to scanning him while the twins shifted nervously on the other side of the work bench. Fire was aware of the flash of twin spots of black that came streaking into the medical bay just then. It seemed the twins had left in such a hurry that even Bee's pups couldn't keep up with what was going on. From the growling and hissing going on around the floor she also put together that at least the bigger mech pup wasn't all that happy about what was going on at the moment. However, the brightly painted femme was far too busy trying to figure out what the brothers were glitching out about at the moment to be too worried about the fact that Scout looked fully ready to start trying to chew her foot off.
"Look at his slaggin' nanites!" Sides was almost hysterical at this point, but for the red warrior graying nanites meant death. The only time he'd ever seen nanites grey from their color was when life drained out of a spark and even though he and Sunstreaker had been standing in that room when Trickster told them that Bee's spark wouldn't fade no matter if he was premature or not none of that was really mattering much to him or his twin at the moment. All either of them could think was that this had to be something horrible and they were terrified.
Which was understandable.
Since neither one of them knew all that much about younglings, only what they listened to Ratchet ramble about Bee so far they didn't know what to think.
All they knew was this had to be awful and they had no idea what to do but run to Quickfire and First Aid since Ratchet was gone and Jolt was with Magnus doing something of importance with Jumpwire's help. And quite honestly they trusted the femme and Ratchet's oldest apprentice far more than they did the bright blue mech that had lied to them all at first.
It wasn't that they hadn't forgiven him for not telling them all who he really was at first . . . accept that it kind of sorta was.
However, what the twins thought of Jolt was the furthest thing from their worries right now as they watched Quickfire twist the still very bewildered youngling around in her grasp to set her optics on the grey patches of dying nanites that were forming in a few places along his back. Her optics narrowed and Aid was suddenly in her space looking over the smaller femme's shoulder as she quickly went to rubbing at the grey places only to have Bee let out a squeak of pain that sent his static-hounds in a snarling fit.
Fire ignored it all though, Aid reaching out to keep the wiggling form of Bumblebee still as Fire pressed and prodded at the distinct four places along Bee's upper and lower back her processor reeling as she tilted her helm.
"It can't be . . . ."
Powerful tri-clawed feet thundered into the grey ash that was hissing with the downpour of the of green acid raining from the sky. The owner of said massive feet was hissing as well, though that was more because of the stinging substance rolling into his dark red optics making him shake his colossal head back and forth every few klicks as he stalked through the storm.
Grimlock was seriously reevaluating this whole liking the youngling decision he'd made right about now.
"Come on Grimlock," Ironhide said through the comm link channel as the bots drove in alt mode a few dozen yards ahead of the pouting Dinobot. "You're three times as big as us keep up."
The t-rex mech snarled with a flash of countless dagger like fangs, but said nothing into the comm. Just stalked on at his own pace, senses and nerves far past frazzled from the elements biting at his thick armor. His plating was really far too thick for the burning substance to be much more than an annoyance to him, but every now and again these damn drops of chemicals found their way into groves and seams, trickling down until they reached his protoform. Those were the ones that really stung. For even the King of the Dinobots had protoform just like everybot else and his protoform, though as ancient as him, was still just as sensitive as all others. And in a downpour like this the stinging of acid against sensitive metal was more than enough to make the powerful mech snatch up the Prime by his real axial and shake him around until he snapped.
That would displeasing the mechling and him Wheeljack though.
So . . . Grimlock was stuck with pouting.
Thunder boomed above them vibrating even the beast mech causing him to stumble and glance to the sky. This sure was some storm. According to what Jazz had helpfully chirped when they started out, Tyger Pax was known for its audio shattering storms, so apparently this wasn't anything too out of the ordinary but weather like this reminded Grimlock of the Cyanide Geyser Fields in the Sea of Rust.
He and his brothers had spent a good deal too long there looking for something that wasn't there. He had the burns to his protoform to prove it. He didn't like the reminder. He didn't like being out here.
He didn't like feeling like a kept pet again.
"Grimlock is there something wrong?" The Prime had rolled to a stop, the whirling and shifting of metal and gears signally that the big mech had shifted out of his alt mode. The sound echoing around proving that the others had as well. However, Grimlock wasn't looking nor paying them any mind. He just stood there in the onslaught of burning liquid staring out across the desalt wasteland that had once been a city. Or so he had been told.
He'd never seen Tyger Pax himself.
The wishy-washy city being among the first to tumble when the war broke out. Wheeljack had told him once that after Praxus fell followed by Vos that the next to go was Tyger Pax. There had just been too many of both sides trying to have the strategic location for their faction. It was the greed of both sides that fell the city. It was the greed of both sides that left it these mountains of charred remains.
The beast mech snorted to himself.
These bots called him and his brothers primeval. They had all become just as much beast as he was. It was something he saw quite clearly, even if the Prime and his stupid brother did not.
Grimlock wasn't about to tell them though. He didn't care.
This wasn't his home. Never had been, never would be. His home was wiped out a long, long time ago. His age was nothing but a memory carved into walls now. He was a lost relic. He and his brothers.
The last of their kind.
"Grimlock,"And suddenly there was a hand against the thickness of his lower thigh causing him to snort out the rain from his nostrils and twist his thick neck around to gaze down at the red and blue form of Optimus squinting the stinging liquid from his optics.
With a growl the beast mech gave his leg a slight shake, knocking the Prime off of him and back a few steps.
"Not touch me Grimlock." He grumbled, stepping away from the commander. Optimus respected the beast mech's no touch policy, but he wasn't sure what was wrong with the massive mech so he didn't really stop his pressing.
"Are you alright?" He questioned.
Grimlock blew a deep vent of air out over the roll of thunder. "Nothing wrong. Thinking. That all. Not that Prime think me Grimlock can."
"Grimlock," Ratchet started only to have a snarl thrown in his direction.
"Not need sappy explanation. Not youngling that need coddle. Not pet to be drug round on leash either. Here 'cuz him Itty Bitty asked. Only reason. Not you Prime's solider. Never be that again."
Optimus' optics filled with a little sadness, not that the emotion was all that clear with how pinched they were due to trying to keep the rain out and ignore the sensation of it seeping into seams of his armor to burn against his protoform. His mind wasn't on it though. The dull sting hardly a thing his processor was taking notice of. He was far more worried about the fact that the huge beast mech still wasn't convinced that Optimus was sincere about wanting Grimlock and his brothers to be a part of this wacky family of theirs.
He wasn't sure how he was to go about assuring him that he was.
Grimlock didn't truly trust any of them. That much was obvious. The mighty beast mech trusted only Wheeljack and Bumblebee. The rest of them were nothing more than an annoyance to him. He wanted nothing to do with any of them. What he had said was just what he had assured them all when he trailed after them back to Eternity in the first place. He was only here because Bumblebee asked it of him. As much as that didn't completely make sense to Optimus he also had a pretty good idea of why.
Grimlock had left when the Sectors fell, when the last younglings and sparklings were brutally taken out of this world. Yet now, here he was back again because he and his brothers had found a tiny ball of yellow protoform lost in the middle of no-where.
He was only here because of the youngling, he would only stay because of the youngling, he would only help because of the youngling, and the youngling was Optimus' best chance of trying to show him that he respected the mighty beast mech for who he was and what he could do. That he was sorry for how he had been treated in the past.
"I know why you're here, Grimlock." Optimus assured him. No bitterness or judgment in his voice. Simple knowledge. He wasn't asking for the mech's loyalty to him or to the Autobots. He only wanted his loyalty to Bumblebee. For if he was loyal to the youngling he would protect him—as he already had when those bounty hunters came calling—and they needed all the help they could get in protecting the last innocent life on Cybertron.
"Then you Prime know not ask stupid questions. All wrong is me Grimlock tired of rain. Nothing out here. Itty Bitty wrong." The beast mech gave himself another shake, trying to dislodge the stinging liquid from where it had gathered. It didn't do him any good though and he growled with the effort of another full frame shake. Wiggling himself down to even the spines that lined his back. Every part of him; armor, plating, even the stubby tip of his long tail. He shook it trying to shake off the nagging feeling somewhere in the bottom on his tanks.
He was blaming it on the storm rolling on around them, the purple lightening that scared the sky followed by the ringing of thunder. It was uneasy on sensor relays. That was all. That was all that was making the spines along his back prickle.
"Bee isn't often wrong." Jazz sighed, whipping at the acid collecting in the rim of his visor.
Grimlock snorted. "Youngling."
"Yep." Jazz nodded with a grin. "A very special one. He found you mechs didn't he?"
To that the beast mech paused. A thoughtful look coming across him—strange since he was still in beast form—before he gave himself another shake annoyed by the burning in his optics.
"Dinobots found Itty Bitty. Not other way 'round."
Ratchet laughed. "If you say so."
A low growl.
"I wasn't mocking you, you over sensitive sparkling." The CMO snapped back. "It was just a response."
"You Ratchet just—" Suddenly Grimlock cut off. His attention snapping up, nostrils flaring wide, optics widening to take him more data, audios filtering out rain and thunder, his whole focus narrowing down on one sound.
A swaying gate of powerful steps.
Sloshing through wet terrain at a very fast pace, but with the storm raging he couldn't track its origin. Ignoring the confusion and concern suddenly directed his way he twisted around on his thick legs swinging his head back and forth trying to take in every angle and input.
What was that?
"Grimlock?" Optimus questioned rather loudly only to get a growl in return.
"Hush you Prime." The King of the Dinobots snarled out as he tried to focus on the sounds he was hearing.
"What are you doing?" Prowl pressed.
"Hear something now mute it!"
To that the mechs hushed, glancing at each other. Ironhide's cannons whirled responding to the tense air around the beast mech as he too went to surveying their surroundings. He suddenly became aware that they were in the belly of a valley. Tall walls of interlocking metal and stone towering around them. They'd drove right into a gully.
A low growl rumbled through him. "We're boxed in."
With a 'shink' Optimus' energon blade slide out, Prowl drawing a blaster, Jazz's claws flexing, and Ratchet's saw whirling out as all of them tensed up.
Grimlock rumbled, his gaze raking the terrain around them. He couldn't track the sound! Where was it coming from!?
A strange flash of blue light caught his focus making him snap his gaze straight up to the valley ridges trying to track the glow only to find a massive dark shape spring itself off the edge a roar as deep as anything he could make bellowing into the valley. A flash of razor claws, shinning fangs, and a weight to possibly surpass his own slammed into Grimlock's back with crushing force.
A bellow of rage and pain exploded from his vocal processor as he found himself slamming into the hard ground, armor buckling and pieces shattering under the weight of the first thing he'd ever come across that was as big as he was other then Sludge. Agony raced through his sensor-net as thick powerful claws dug into his back as they hit the ground and a massive mouth full of fangs latched onto the back of his neck slamming shut.
Another cry of pain and shock before the massive King twisted and rolled, the movement throwing his attacker off of him as they both twisted into the movement. A thunder loud bang sounding through the valley as the gigantic form was thrown from his back and landed with a snarl just to his side.
Scrambling as he heard the Prime and the other's call his designation Grimlock worked to get his bulk back under his control. Force his powerful legs to haul him back up, but the movement was hard. His upper frame strength was not as even in this from, he didn't have that great of arm strength in his short clawed forearms. His powerful legs made up for it though as he shoved them into motion hauling him back up in a roaring rage, his gaze snapping around only to have his processor stall up in shock to the form that was scrambling back to its clawed feet before him.
What he found was a beast bot snarling as it stood to it's full height, a height that gave it a bit of difference of looking down into Grimlock's deep red optics through its own bright blue ones that glared down a long slender muzzle that was parted and hissing showing off fangs that rivaled his. Long claws flexed at the ends of arms, thicker and stronger and longer then his. Three clawed peds flexed into the stone and metal ground wet from the acid rain as powerful legs paced almost nervously back and forth, a long thick tail swayed back and forth. It was the towering spins that stood in three dangerous arches along the middle and sides of its long back that made Grimlock take half a step back as he couldn't believe his optics.
Grimlock was staring off a beast mech—no.
The King shook his massive head in shock.
Not a mech.
He took a deep vent through the pouring rain and then could only blink in shock.
Femme.
This beast bot was a femme.
His growl trailed off in surprise as those big blue optics narrowed while she hissed and it was his stalled surprise that got him bull rushed. Standing still too long in shock to notice when the beast femme dropped her weight forward and charged him. Too shocked to do much more then tense for the impact when she crashed into him. The force of the impact taking him to the ground and into a roll as her sharp claws dug into his chest, tearing into armor and drawing energon as he crashed back into the hard ground the pain of impact knocking him out of his daze seemingly at the same time it did the Autobots.
The cannon blast caught the beast femme in the lower right hip sending her tumbling away from Grimlock as he rolled back upright with a growl and a burst of fire that scorched down the side of her plating earning him a pained squeal he took no pleasure in as she fell back into the stone behind her scrambling for footing in the loose gravel just a nano too long. Grimlock charged forward massive jaws parted slamming his fangs into her shoulder, not as deep as he could have, just trying to prove he could best her.
However, he didn't see the power tail slam to the side of the head coming.
The pain had him roaring out letting her lose only to have her slam back into him her own fangs find a place in his throat as her sheer size matched with his got twisted to her advantage and for the most times ever in his life Grimlock once again found himself sprawled out onto his back only this time the femme slammed her clawed feet into his midsection as her long thin jaws remained clamped around his throat.
He snarled and thrashed to her equal weight crushing down onto him and her fangs tearing into the mesh of his throat protoform. An actual flash of fear ran through the King of the Dinobots as he felt the fresh hot gush of energon she tore from his hide in both her jaws and her claws, now digging in and holding on with her front claws as she tried to keep a grip as Grimlock kicked out and slashed trying to get her off. She wasn't budging though.
Grimlock . . . couldn't get her off.
What the frag was going on here?
He didn't lose.
And he sure as pit didn't get pinned!
Brought on by anger another burst of fire exploded from his jaws flashed through the air as he fought her grip trying to get the blast to scorch her. He no longer cared that she was a beast bot like him—something he'd never seen before—or that she was a femme. He was going to tear her to pieces.
However, he didn't see the weight of the Prime and the WS slamming into the other bot sending her ripping out of his hide. She crashed back with a stone only to get Optimus' sword slashed through her side before she swung her head around, fangs slamming down not an inch from his arm sending him and Ironhide stumbling back as Grimlock rolled back to his feet, ignoring the medic that was suddenly at his side just as he ignored the energon dripping in steady stream from his midsection and throat. He was far too set on glaring at the creature that had scrambled her way back to her own feet while she backed into the wall across from them all her narrow bright blue gaze sweeping around the blasters, cannons, swords, claws, and teeth that stood before her.
A low growl rumbled through her when Grimlock stepped forward a pace or two, head low, lips drawn back, engines roaring, and fire licking at the back of his tongue. He was too angry to think clearly, pain flickering in his processor keeping him from taking much else besides shredding her into account. Well that is before Optimus threw his arm out, his blade banging against Grimlock's knee to get his attention. With a hiss of rage the beast mech swung on him only to stop by the narrow look in his optics.
That was when the truth of it all came crashing back into him.
He looked back at this huge femme. This huge ancient femme.
Like him.
A mech out of his own time. Found and saved vorns ago from death by the Autobots. None had known how or why any of his brothers or him were even barley alive to begin with. The beast bots like them had died out millions of vorns ago. And yet there they had been. With no memories and no reasons.
And here she was.
Backed into a cliff by all of them. She'd attacked him first, the question was why and how she was even here to do that.
"Easy Grimlock," Optimus commed.
"Me Grimlock not understand." The beast mech hissed through his radio waves, his weight swaying back and forth as he matched her movements ready for whatever it was she might do next. "Who she?"
"How should we know?" Ironhide hissed. "You're the one she apparently wants to kill. How about you tell us!"
"Me Grimlock not know her!" At least he didn't think he did. "How she here in first place? None like us Dinobots left. You Ratchet and him Wheeljack say so."
Ratchet narrowed his gaze at the tense beast femme across from them. "It seems we might have been wrong."
Prowl's doorwings twitched. "Whatever we're going to do we better do it soon. She isn't going to just stand there forever."
It was with that that the red and blue commander turned his attention back to the creature that stood there snarling at them. This wasn't the first beast bot he'd had to reason with, but he was still very confused as to how or why she was here in the first place.
"Who are you?" Optimus figured it was best just to see what it was they were dealing with. If the femme would answer him he would know how to go from here.
Those bright blue optics of hers widened a little in confusion, that long narrow head tilting as a deep breath blew out threw the pouring rain while she watched them. So long in fact that the Prime was sure she either couldn't or wouldn't give him an answer.
And then she surprised him.
"Scorn." It came out in a voice as thunderous as Grimlock's and yet somehow was richer, smoother, easier almost, a femme's voice. Even if this voice belonged to the biggest femme the Prime had ever seen. It wasn't very often that a mech as big as himself was looking up at a femme, but then again how often did one come across beast bots anyway? "Me Scorn."
Huh.
Well she spoke like Grimlock it seemed.
"Scorn." He nodded slowly, watching Grimlock from the corner of her optic as the beast mech tilted his massive head at her. "I am Optimus Prime."
The femme blew out a snort. "Prime? There is still Prime?"
"Yes there is still Prime." It was Grimlock that answered. Taking a few steps forward only to stop when she hissed and back further into the stone wall.
"Back off!" She snarled.
He stopped. Unsure.
She was afraid of him, but she was also capable of taking him. As crazy as that seemed and as angry as all this made him. He was the one dripping energon while she stood there with just a few scratches and a scorch charred down a side. There were few that Grimlock could remember that had ever drawn his energon.
Ever.
"We mean you no harm, Scorn." Optimus spoke up again trying to keep this from turning into another shredding match. She just snarled. "You attacked us first."
"Why me would not?" She barked out a growl.
"We didn't do anything to you." Jazz lifted an optic ridge above the rim of his visor. "You just jumped down and landed on Grimlock's back."
"Last bots me Scorn saw tried to slice me up. Not give chance to this time."
"Who?" Grimlock rumbled a sudden flash of anger rolling through him.
She swished her tail back and forth behind her. "Not know. Not care. Tore them apart. All that matters."
Well. He could respected that.
"From some game." Her massive shoulders seemed to shrug the only way she could in that form. "Fighters."
The Autobots attention perked.
"Fighters . . . where?" Prowl pressed only to have her snort at him throwing her jaws toward the west.
"That way."
Optimus was about to drill her more, but the sudden mass of stone that nailed him in the side of the head and sent him stumbling kind of jarred him and all the others out of the conversation. That and the yell.
"SO WHAT THE FRAG YOU GLITCH?! YOU CAN'T READ NOW OR SOMETHING!?"
The Prime whipped around, blade ready yet optics confusion only to freeze up in shock at what he found stalking toward him with a glare burning so bright those high bred blue optics were almost unrecognizable, but Optimus would know that sleek—yet now very dirty—white and blue paint job and frame anywhere. He'd know that mech anywhere. Just as Jazz, Prowl, Ironhide, and Ratchet would know him as well.
"Do you not GET that when a mech is asking for help you should, oh I don't know, HELP HIM!?" He ragged as he stalked the last yards toward the Prime.
Optimus' jaw just bobbed a bit as he watched the shorter mech stomp all the way to him only to stop when they were hardly a step apart, the smaller bot glaring up at the powerful commander with a look that could peal even Grimlock's armor from his protofrom.
"After all the slag I've done for you! You couldn't even come lead me a hand!?" He threw his elegant hands up over his head waving them around in sheer desperation. For the noble was so past annoyed at this point he didn't give a frag about decorum or anything like it. All he cared about was yanking the Prime's audios off his head and shoving them down his throat. "Do you even know what the slag I've done for you over the last few vorns!? I got thrown into a pit full of scraplets! SCRAPLETS! Those little fraggers bite! I haven't had a decent wash in over six vorns! Do you have any idea what I'm going to slaggin' do to you for all this fraggin' nonsense you put me through!?"
All Optimus could do though was bob his jaw and stare down at him while he was glared at like he was his older brother or something until he managed to squeak out.
"Mirage?"
That seemed to be the worst possible thing in the whole wide universe he could have said though. For fury flashed anew in those bright optics before a low growl worked its way through the mech before him until he pretty much exploded.
"WHO ELSE WOULD I FRAGGIN' BE YOU PIT SPAWNED GLIT—"
"Mirage," It was hardly a snap, hardly even a raised tone really. Nothing more than an elegant, smooth, soft voice drifting through the rain and the storm and the yelling drawing what Optimus already thought was a tense frame into a stone still mass of numbness as his spark stilled to a very literal stop. "It's time for you to calm down, mech."
Mirage spun around with a huff while Optimus' gaze slowly lifted only to find that he couldn't breathe. A familiar gasp and another choke sounded behind him but Optimus couldn't move even if he wanted too. All he could do was stand there and stare at the form of the dawn colored femme with bright blue optics standing between a bright blue highlighted in pinstripes of white femme with dark blue optics, her strong arms crossed over her lethal and yet slightly smaller than the other frame, and a dusty pink that was a good deal shorter than the other too though with her hand propped on the curve of her hip and her light pale blue optics that twinkled defiantly she didn't truly seem that different from her sisters.
"Can't I just hurt him a little bit?!" Mirage shouted, glaring at the dawn colored femme in the middle.
The femme chuckled. "No."
He gave a exasperated scream of sorts throwing himself into pacing while the mighty mech named the Prime couldn't even follow his movements. He could only stare at the three femmes in front of him as the bright blue femme smirked dangerously her head tilting to the side as she laughed.
"Hey big mech, long time no see."
A choke came out of Hide's vocalize.
Optimus gasped not fully able to believe his optics. Because that was . . . .
That was . . . Elita One, and Chromia, and Arcee.
That was . . . their mates . . . . ?
Well, who saw that one coming? *insert even laughter* Oh I've waited for this chapter for so long now that I've got here I can't really even believe it.
They're back guys. And everything just got a little more nuts.
And yeah, I made Scorn a femme. Which there are reasons for. The notion just struck me and suddenly it all made sense. So there you have it it. Scorn is in the story and she's a femme.
Oh and Bee, whatever have I gone and done to the pour little mechling now? Really. I can't give this kid a break can I?
After everything that happens in this chapter I'm dying to know what you guys thought of it all. This part of GG is coming to its climax, it's just getting wilder from here. Oh how I love it.
So hope you liked it, can't wait to see what you thought, and the next chapter will be up next, next weekend. I'm staying on schedule lately! It's it great?
-Jaycee