Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. We already know this. Just the plot and OCs.

So no touchy, cuz Impulse is in a mood.

Guys!

Two hundred reviews! You're amazing! Completely amazing. Thank you so much!

So here. Enjoy.

Chapter 25

"Fate is a cruel thing." Trickster chuckled as he leaned against the rock formation staring down at the absolute silence that had taken over below.

"You're enjoying this too much." Impulse snorted, watching the happenings himself.

Ice blue optics flashed. "It's possible, but really we've been without entertainment too long. Wouldn't you agree?"

"I find the two idiots trying to kill each other slightly entertaining."

"Which two idiots?" Trick tilted his head. He knew the answer, he just liked watching his older brother glare at him.

And glare he did. Deep red optics cut his way with a frown that would make another mech shudder before the larger grey mech looked back to the valley below. "The Princes."

Trickster snorted. "And here I was thinking they annoyed you."

"Not as much as you do."

That got the black mech cackling. "Oh my brother, you wound me!"

"Will you mute it!" Impulse hissed. "I'm trying to listen!"

"They're gawking at each other. What is there to listen too?"

Impulse was halfway through growling before he answered when a feeling struck them both in the spark. The pair of mechs paused mid argument before glancing at each other and turning their attention inward.

Trickster's tall, pointed audio receptors twitched. "Ever." He murmured.

"Let's go." And in a flash of blue and red the watchers were gone.

It probably wasn't the most Prime like thing to do. Stand there in the middle of a now drizzling out acid rain storm gawking like some second-frame youngling who found his alt mode transformation for the first time.

Yet.

There Optimus stood.

Blinking through the drizzle at the slim figure standing across the way from him with one optic ridge lifted over her bright, clever, blue optics that just seemed to be staring right into him. He shouldn't have been surprised.

Not really.

She always had been able to see down to the spark in everything that had to do with him. The only issue with all that . . . was she was supposed to be dead.

Because he'd felt it. He'd felt the sparkbond that linked them shatter. He'd felt his world come crashing down around him. He'd been living with an emptiness at the other end of his spark for longer then he cared to think about. Which was probably why he didn't think about it.

And it was that truth that left the mighty commander of the Autobot's, heir to Cybertron, and last of the Primes standing there looking like an idiot at three femmes he never thought he'd see again.

However, Chromia never really had been one for long drawn not and somewhat meaningless bits of silence.

With a snort she let her gaze rake over all of them before settling on Ironhide who wasn't doing much better then Optimus was as he stood there questioning his sanity. Mia was through waiting around for him to figure out he wasn't seeing things though. Rolling her optics she glanced her sisters' way before uncrossing her arms and taking off forward at an unhurried pace to cross the gap between them until she was standing before the massive ebony form of the mech she loved with all her spark. The very one that was standing there before her somewhere between hyperventilating and passing out—not too qualities usually associated with the weapons specialist—while he looked down at her like he was seeing a ghost.

In a few ways—to his spark—he was.

Which was why Mia simply stood there for a few long nanos before leaning back on her heels, stretching to her full height, reaching up, latching hold of his thick chest armor, yanking him down, and crashing her lips onto his as a bond flared back to life.

Because, well, Mia never really had been one to play around.

Maybe it was the sudden action, he wasn't sure, but one moment Optimus found himself staring at his best friend and then he turned around just in time to find Elita smirking at him.

"Oh Optimus," She sighed. "You always did think too much."

And then she yanked him down just like Chromia had done to Hide. Somewhere in the back of his processor he was aware of Arcee having crossed the distance and was now being spun around in the arms of her own mate as she did the same thing her sisters had done. It wasn't much past that that the Prime noticed much else though.

Because Elita was in his arms.

Elita.

And for a moment nothing else in the whole universe mattered beside the link at the other end of his spark that suddenly burst back to life and the soft lips that were pressed against his.

"What can't be?"

Sideswipe was ignored as Quickfire dropped Bee in First Aid's outstretched hand before she spun around and raced to the back of the bay. While she bolted Aid brought the whimpering in confusion tiny form that was Bumblebee up against his chest to cradle him there. Those bright baby blue optics of his were wide in unease as he gazed up into the red and white medic's optics but Aid stroked a finger down between his antennas trying to calm him down.

"It's alright, mechling." He murmured, rocking him slightly as he swayed back and forth. There was the beginnings of tears pooling in the edges of his orbs and the last thing they needed right now was a bawling youngling and no Ironhide around to calm him down. "You're okay, Bee. You're okay."

"Aid," Sunstreaker hissed over a comm channel he slammed open between the pair of brothers and the two medics. "What the pit is going on?!"

"Give us a klick," First Aid didn't look at the brothers as he tried to keep the little one calm with his pups turning circles around his feet growling at him.

"For what!?" Sunny seethed, strung up tense. He really hated not knowing what was going on, and if the red and white glitch didn't tell him in the next three nanos why the frag the nanites on his youngest brother's back were dying he was not going be held responsible for his actions.

"I might not be Ratchet," Aid's gaze snapped up to the twins. "But if you don't chill for a klick I'll reformat you into an energon dispenser."

Considering that First Aid had never threatened anybot before let alone had a look in his optics to back it up both the twins straightened in shock at the words, optics flashing in surprise just as Fire came sprinting back out of the back office to slide up to First Aid's side. Lowering Bee from his chest Aid ignored the whine of a negative and the snatch trying to hold onto the medic's plating. They had to figure out in the next handful of klicks whether or not they were right because if they were they were going to have to get some serious sedatives in this little mechling.

Fast.

And Bumblebee hated sedatives so that should be fun.

It was loads of fun right now because Bee wasn't really big on being still at the moment.

"Aid," He whined as he wiggled around in the grown mech's hand. "Down."

"Hang on, Bee." The medic mumbled, twisting the stubborn wiggling little mess of yellow protoform that wouldn't lay still as he tried to get him to stay on his belly so that Fire could look at the grey along his back. It took longer than either of them were please with before Aid finally forced the tiny mechling still and Fire ran the scanner she'd fetched along with her fingers down the dying nanites, Sides and Sunny almost passing out when a few flicked off his back. She pressed down hard in the center of the two largest spots just to the sides of his main backstrut and earned herself a yelp that had Scout almost climbing her leg to get to him had Sides not reacted fast enough to snatch the mech pup by his tail and yank him away. It got him a nasty scratch down the side of his arm, but he shoved the pup back all the same growling at him for the sting of claws.

Scout paced on the other side of the red mech as he placed himself between the medics and the mech pup as he hissed. Echo wasn't any happier about all this then Scout was, but she was more concerned over what was going on to throw a fit like her brother. So she paced behind the medics, watching the youngling carefully as he squirmed around in the fingers that wouldn't let go of him. He looked downright miserable making both the pups want to free him at once, but Echo knew there was more going on here. These bots were never mean to Bee so whatever they were doing had to be important. The femme pup didn't like it—Scout hated it—but they stayed back and watched.

Bee on the other hand just wanted to be put down, and he really wanted Fire to stop pushing around on his back. It hurt!

He whimpered and wiggled, however Aid held him fast while Fire prodded and the twins hovered.

Where was Hide when Bee needed him?

There was a very large part of the massive ebony mech that was afraid if he opened his optics again he'd find himself staring at the dark ceiling above his berth. There would be a tiny yellow bundle of protoform curled up either in his arms or resting above his spark, and there would be the warmth from a bond that gave him a reason to keep going in this world, but there wouldn't be this link—this inferno of long lost emotions, memories, connection, and life—flaring through a part of his spark that had been cold for so long he'd almost forgotten what it felt like.

What this spark felt like.

What she felt like.

Only he hadn't.

He remembered.

Because how could he ever forget? How could he ever forget the defiant, confident, beautiful, strong spark that had stolen his so long ago? How could he forget those midnight blue optics that had always kept him in check, that had burned with a will to prove herself as more then what her light weight build marked her as. The only bot in the whole world that had ever bested him with a gun.

The first bot besides his sparkling brother he had ever loved with his whole spark.

The only bot he'd ever wanted to hand his spark over too to keep. The only one he ever had or would.

Chromia.

His Mia.

Who was currently wrapped in his arms in the middle of a drizzling acid rain storm with her thin yet strong arms clasped tight around his thick neck with those lips he also had never forgotten pressed to his and a spark he'd never forgotten hammering away through armor right above his own. A spark his own was screaming for more of, reaching for, crying for.

So close and yet so far, still almost too good to be true.

That was why he was afraid.

Afraid that he'd wake up and this was all be a dream. For these were all feelings that had been brutally torn away from him in an explosion that had shattered his world and taken a piece of him with it that he never truly got back.

And then those lips pulled back and when he tried to follow, arms tightening as he held a shorter frame up off the ground and against his own, he heard a soft sad laugh as hands cupped his cheeks.

"Hide," It was a whisper he was too afraid to believe which caused the terrified whimper to escape him as he pushed his helm forward burying it in the soft cabling of her neck keeping his optics closed tight. Too scared to wake up. Because when he woke up his spark was going to shatter all over again and this time it might be too much. "Hide, love." The whisper came again pressed against his right audio. "My Hide. Open your optics. Look at me."

"I can't." He chocked, pulling her closer still. "I'll wake up." He'd dreamed this too many times to open his optics.

And then that laugh, that laugh.

Mia's laugh.

"We can't both be dreaming, big mech." Now that was a taunt. Just like Mia would say. "Open your damn optics and look at me before I slug you."

Yep.

Totally Mia.

Opening his deep blue optics, Hide pulled back and found himself staring into those vibrant optics and a beautiful faceplate. He blinked for a moment still not entirely sure he could believe it while those nimble hands cupped his thick cheeks as she smiled up at him while he stared. Then, with a whimper since he was afraid to let the words out,he forced his vocal processor to obey him anyway as he mumbled. "Mia?"

She giggled leaning closer to knock their foreheads together. "You were expecting somebot else?"

Those shining optics sparkled not inches away from his while he stared until the feelings bubbling to life in his spark—the connection and bond that went along with it—finally clicked in his processor. It was Chromia. It was really his Mia.

"Mia!" It was almost cried across the link that burned within him and the beaming smile that was given to him before he crushed her into another kiss spinning them around in the drizzling rain before he pulled back to her soft laughter as she snuggled into his chest as she held her to his thick chest armor. "Mia. Mia." And his spark just kept chanting it. Over and over again as it flared the bond that had been cold to long wide open and poured everything he was and had into the one at the other end of that link that did the same. That ever bright orb of feisty spunk that he'd always found so bold and beautiful.

She was here.

She was really here!

Wait . . . how the frag was she here!?

He'd felt the bond snap. He'd seen the compound blow.

He'd lost her. Her and Whiteout.

The kiss broke as he yanked himself back to stare into those vibrant orbs, his own now caught somewhere between joy and pain as he stared back.

"How?" He breathed, watching as those vibrant optics darken.

She gaze up at him for a nano too long before she looked away. "A really big monster with a really big gun."

"This could be a problem." Trickster mumbled with his bright ice blue gaze narrowed.

"The bastard." Impulse snarled.

"What is he thinking?" Evermore's fingers drummed against her crossed arms.

"He's getting desperate. He's not thinking. Oh who are we kidding he never thinks." Trick sighed.

"The bastard." The snarling got louder, coming from deeper in Impulse's thick chest.

"I never thought he'd get this desperate though." Ever said. "This is insane. Him! He works for them."

"Yes he does." Trickster nodded.

"The bastard!" Impulse was practically vibrating with the fury bubbling in the bottom of his spark.

"Technically he's just sending the little lap dog. Not himself." Trickster offered.

"It's no better. That mech can cause as much damage as his mentor." Ever argued.

"That fraggin' bastard!" Impulse was almost bellowing now, but Trick and Ever were still ignoring him. There was nothing they could say. Pulse was right.

The glitch was a fraggin' bastard.

Playing this card.

As if he hadn't destroyed enough. As if they weren't already having to find way to skate around his plans. Now he goes and hires him!

Their brother always had been the drastic sort but this was pushing even his realms of nonsense. Was the glitch really so desperate that he would hire the apprentice of the one bounty hunter in the whole universe that they were slightly worried about might be able to get the better of all of them? Even him.

This mech was not just some hired gun.

He was the their hound they sent to play fetch. He wouldn't take the youngling to their brother.

No.

He'd take him back to his masters, and his apprentice would do the same. Because if there was one thing in this universe that they wanted above all else it was the power to sway the Guild once again. They'd done it once. They caused all this in the first place. They were the reason their brother swayed after all. He had backed their obliterating of worlds to build their own personal armies. They'd lacked the power that they needed to bring forth new life after all that happened. After the original council of Primes banished them only to have one of their own follow in their footsteps.

Funny how things like that worked out.

Well, right now it didn't seem all that funny.

Exact opposite really. It was kind of scarily the opposite.

Trickster suppressed a growl of his own. "What are we going to do about this?"

"Do about it?" Ever turned her galaxy filed green optics to him. "There's nothing we can do. You know that as well as I do. We can't alter what they do. Couldn't back then, and we can't now. You know they rules. They hold too much ancient sway for us to tamper with. Just like the Primes."

"There is only one Prime left." Trickster huffed.

"That's your argument?" Ever tilted her helm.

"That bastard!" Impulse swung away from their perch watching the ship hover. With his claws curled into fist the massive grey mech started stalking west. Stalled by the movement Trickster and Evermore watched him go before glancing back at each other. Ice blue meeting brilliant green wondering where he was going before panic flashed in one shared moment and they bolted after him.

"Pulse! Wait!" Trickster closed the distance between himself and his much bigger older brother that was stalking toward death. "You can't do this!"

"Oh yes I can." He snarled, containing to stalk. Not caring at all when Evermore latched hold of his barrel of an arm. He just drug her along with him. A sight that would have made Trickster chuckle if he hadn't latched hold of his brother's other arm and got drug along right there with his sister.

"No you can't!" Ever hissed at him. "We can't go down there!"

"We're the fraggin' Guild we can do whatever we damn well please!"

"That's the attitude that last us two brothers already." Trickster growled, only to have Impulse swing to his side tearing Evermore off on the way tossing the smaller femme to the side and punching Trick square in the jaw.

Pain flared through the black mech's sensor-net as he went reeling backward, only staying upright and not busting his aft because of the millennia of dealing with this mech and just being who he was. Staggering back holding the cracked and leaking plating of his right cheek he raised his optics to hold the gleaming with fury red orbs that were narrowed back at him. From the corner of his vision he caught Ever pushing herself back up right glaring daggers into the grayish silver mech's soul, but Impulse didn't take his angry orbs off of Trickster and Trick was not a big enough fool to do the same for long either.

For he'd struck that never.

The one raw wire that had never healed for Pulse. The part of the massive mech that still blamed himself for Star being gone and . . . well and for everything else.

"Don't you dare compare me to him!" Impulse screamed, weapons systems running hot and claws flexing by his side. Itching for plating, and armor, and protoform to dig into. He wanted to shred something. With every fiber of his very being he wanted to tear it all apart.

ALL OF IT!

This whole damn fragged up world!

It was so far past screwed to pit anyway! No bot would miss it when it was gone!

He was so done with it! He wanted to be done with it!

It wasn't fair!

It wasn't fair that Shootingstar was dead. It wasn't fair that that little yellow mechling was never going to have a say in any of this, that he'd never be able to choose. Because all the choices had already been laid out for him, because he was such a good vibrant little spark that would do the right thing when the time came. It wasn't fair that it was just the three of them now. It's wasn't fair that they were still here, still alive, and yet they were forced to just sit back and watch while the whole damn universe fall down in pieces around them.

They were the GUILD for Primus sakes!

What the pit were they if they couldn't do something!?

They were supposed to do something! They use to be able to do something!

Why couldn't he just stroll down into that hole and tear their betrayer's spark out? He could do it. He knew he could do it!

"Did you really just punch him?" And then the anger came to a grinding halt. When that soft tone drifted from his sister's lips forced him to look back her way. Those green optics shimmered with hurt and anger, but above all, sadness. "Did you really just throw me?"

His whole massive form sagged.

"I thought we'd moved past this." Her thin sky blue arms were crossed over her middle while she stared with a tilt of that bright green chevron topped helm.

Impulse looked away.

Trickster snorted. "Aw come one Ever. We're brothers. We hit each other all the time."

Now those optic cut to him and Trick suddenly found the ground very interesting.

"I don't give a damn how you much you two wanna play beat each other into a pulp by yourselves, but you will never do it in front of me. Not ever!" That hurt and sadness in those bright optics was quickly fading into burning anger. "We're already down two brothers because they couldn't stop fighting! I'm not losing my last two!"

Trickster sighed, lifting his optics to hers. "We didn't lose him because they bickered, Ever. You have to already know that."

She hissed at him. "I know why he's living in a hole slowing killing the whole planet! What do I look like to you, some blind sparkling!? I know what he did and how he did it which is why this bastard being hired is such a problem! You two can't start punching each other and running off to the one place we've been ordered not to go!"

"WHY!?" Impulse practically exploded as he spun back on her. "WHY EVER!? Why can't we just go down there and kill him! This will be over, Star will be avenged, and this can all end!"

Her optics narrowed to the bigger mech. "Killing him will not bright Star back Pulse. Star is back. Just not in the way that makes you happy."

"I know where he is!" Impulse growled. "But I want my brother back!"

"What about the other one?" She snapped.

He snarled. "The other one died to me a long time ago."

"Well he's not dead, Pulse, he's locked up in a hole we can't get in because we were ordered not to. Do you understand that? Our Master ordered us not to. And that's all there is to it. Or will you disobey him just like he did?"

Red optics flashed as Impulse straightened. "Never."

"Then stop questioning it!" She yelled. "There is a reason we are being forced to do things this way. You know this. All of this is happening for a reason. We don't like standing around watching him screw this up even more but our Master does have a plan here, Pulse. Don't you believe that? Hasn't he always had a plan? Hasn't it always been alright?"

"It hasn't been alright since, Shootingstar died." Pulse looked away with a whisper.

Trickster and Evermore sighed along with him. For the guilt and the pain they could see shining in his optics.

"Star dying was not your fault, Pulse." Trick told him softly.

"I couldn't save him." Impulse's claws tightened into fist. "What good is this damn power if I couldn't save him?"

"I'm the one with the ability to heal, Pulse." Ever titled her helm.

"And I'm the one built to fight." Impulse snarled. "I should have been able to stop him."

"Really?" Trickster crossed his arms. "You could have stopped him? The second strongest of all of us? The one that bridges the gap to death? The best killer in the whole universe? The only one of us that had or has the power to best him was Star and Star lost."

Impulse looked away.

Trickster went on. "You're the fighter Pulse just as I am the negotiator, the peace maker. Just as Shootingstar was the gap to the Well and our betrayer is the gap to the pits. We are balance. We are meant to exist together."

"Yeah? Then explain Ever." Pulse grumbled.

The femme giggled, throwing her hands up with a shrug. "I'm just so amazing I don't need to be balanced out."

Both the mechs snorted while she broke down into a fit of giggles.

"No seriously though," Trickster rolled his optics. "Ever is the in-between. Of all of us. She always has been. She's gifted with the ability to heal. Both physically and emotionally. While the two of us, and the two of them, were the extremes of our gifts she's always been floating somewhere in the middle of all of us keeping us linked together. Well . . . for the most part."

"She couldn't have done anything to stop him." Impulse bit.

"No," Trick shook his head. "She couldn't have. Just like you couldn't have. We haven't and never will stand any real chance against him. It's why we were forbidden from going after him. We won't win the fight Pulse and if he kills us then it's all over. There will be no more roadblocks to stand in his way."

"So is that what we're going to be forced to do now?" Pulse lifted his dark gaze. "We're just supposed to hide here in the shadows and only step in when it's absolutely necessary to make sure he never gets his claws on the mechling? But Primus forbid we actually step in and save him from all the slag that's going to happen in whatever damn plan has been cooked up for him!"

"Yes." Ever nodded.

"And you two are okay with that!?" Impulse threw his hands up over his head before latching hold of his jagged audios and went to pacing.

"No." Trickster sighed, looking away again.

"Then why can't we do something!?"

"Because we are the watchers." Evermore stressed. "Have you forgotten that? It's what we've always been. Ever since we were created. We were meant to be our master's voice and his hands after he left this realm. We were never supposed to fight his creations battles for them."

"We are his creations!"

"Yes, and we were created for this purpose." Ever said easily. "You know everything he does has a purpose. Even death, and suffering, and cruelty. Because there can't be light without darkness. There can't be one without the other. Just as it is for you two," She motioned between Impulse's bulk next to Trickster's fine sleek curves. "You could not be more different. You are polar opposites. But you were created to complement each other. To work together. To fill in the gaps the other has. To be complete."

Pulse snorted. "You make it sound like we're sparkmates or something."

Ever's optic ridges lifted in a taunt. "Well we're only siblings because we decided to go by the title. It's not like we even have remotely similar coding. Let alone real genetics."

And that was when both mechs swung on her like she'd lost her damn mind.

"What?!" They screech together making her laugh.

Not that they were disputing the fact that none of them were actually related. Technically they weren't related to anything. Not even their master. They were created from nothing other than his sheer power and grace. And a bit of cosmic dust. They didn't really come from anywhere. They just came into being. They hadn't even been proper sparklings. They just came online in the presence of their master looking just as they did this orn.

They were his Watchers. His Guild.

They were them.

It was they who started the sibling titles. They needed some way to classify what they were to each other. After all he'd given them that ability to chose.

But . . . .

They'd never thought about . . . .

The two mechs swung from Ever to stare at each other in horror.

Sparkmates?

Him!?

They swung back to her. "HIM!?"

By this time she was doubled over in laughter.

"HIM!" They screeched again.

Ever was finding it hard to breath.

"We're NOT sparkmates!" Trickster was practically screaming.

"I can't stand him!" Impulse snapped.

That ice blue gaze snapped to him while he glared. "Well half the time I'm not that fond of you either!"

Evermore choked around her giggles. "Oh please. You two love each other. You wouldn't know what to do without the other. You're brothers."

"Yeah!" Trickster snapped. "Brothers! And that's all we'll ever be!"

Ever had managed to gather herself back together by then, though she was still giggling under her breath as she smiled at the two puffed up mechs. "I know. I was only messing, Trickster."

"Well don't!" Impulse snarled.

Ever wanted to roll her optics and whisper the word denial, but she loved the two big softies too much to ruffle them anymore then she already had. It was just so easy to screw with them sometimes.

"Besides." Trickster waved her off. "It's not like he and Star could ever stand each other."

To that Ever snorted. "I wasn't talking about those too. But you are right. You two, deep down, really do care about each other just as you care for me and Star and the mechling. We are all Guild. But he never wanted to be a part of us. Even from the start. He never wanted Star to balance him out. He never wanted to be contained let alone controlled. Which is why we're standing where we are standing now."

"Yes." Trickster sighed. "It is."

"He never wanted to be a part of any of us. Did he?" Impulse quietly mumbled.

Both his might-as-well-be sister and brother turned his way with pain in their optics.

"No, Impulse." Ever whispered softly, closing the distance between them until she was plastered against his plating holding him tightly while his huge arms circled around her holding her tight. Trickster let out a tired breath before he joined them. Leaning against Impulse and wrapping an arm around Ever.

"But he was our brother." Impulse's voice broke. "He was our brother and he betrayed us."

"Yes Pulse," Trickster's other arm snaked around and clung tightly to the larger mech. "Yes he did betray us, but I don't think . . . I don't think he was ever really our brother. He never wanted to be."

Pulse's grip—now split between the two of them—tightened. "But we did. We were supposed to work together. None of any of this would have happened if it wasn't for him."

"We know, Pulse." Ever murmured into his thick armor. "But our perfect world is long gone. Now all that's left to do is for us to figure out how to make this all work until our Master's plan comes around. I suggest we start with Mayhem."

Two growls of agreement.

"Because the bounty hunter is going to cause us some serious issues."

Another two growls of agreement.

Ratchet was somewhere between thinking he'd died and thinking he was about too when he pulled back and looked into those shining blue optics and that pretty smile.

Because . . . Arcee . . . .

It was Arcee!

His Cee!

"You're alive." He whispered. Unable to get the sound to come out as anything more than that. He didn't know if he could really believe the feeling in his spark. He'd gone so long without it.

She nodded slowly. "Yeah. I am."

He wanted to ask how. He wanted to demand where the frag she'd been. He wanted to squeeze and never let go again.

But none of that got to happen because Grimlock tilted his massive horned head as he stood there beside an equally looking bewildered femme beast bot who was blinking at them all.

"Me Grimlock confused." The King of the Dinobots rumbled as he looked to the femmes. "Me thought Little Lady Prime dead."

Ratchet's gaze shifted to Optimus as the massive red and blue mech stood there with his arms locked around his mate her feet dangling a few feet off the ground, a similar situation both her sisters were in. Not that any of them really seemed to mind.

Elita One gave a soft sounding sigh as her optics drifted from the massive beast mech she'd only known for a short time to the wise, scared, and joy filled optics of her sparkmate when he whispered.

"So did I."

"We were." She mumbled. "Almost."

"If the glitch wasn't such a bastard we would be." Chromia snarled from Hide's arms.

"In a way we should probably thank him for being such a aft." Arcee's voice shocked the yellow and red mech back to looking at his own mate. "If he wasn't such a glitch we'd be dead."

Mirage hissed, though he said nothing. Just stood there fuming as he glared like he was trying to pull Optimus' audios off by sheer force of willpower alone.

"Oh would you, hush up." Cee scolded the white and blue mech slightly.

Mirage just sneered.

"Umm," Jazz's drawl drew all optics to him, and the slightly twitching form of Prowl who he was kind of sorta holding up. "Not that I'm not totally thrilled to see ya femmes. Because I am. You know I am. I love ya. And I thought you were dead. Which you obviously aren't. But I thought you were. We all thought you were. The whole damn universe thought you were. Would you please explain to myself and my very logical based best friend here who is going to seriously glitch and never wake up," Prowl sagged a bit more against the silver mech who was holding him up. Making the smaller form of Jazz stagger a little under the black and white's weight. "How it is that you are not dead. Their bonds shattered. You died!"

Suddenly Optimus' optics flashed. "Artemis."

Ironhide's, Ratchet's, Jazz's, and Prowl's optics flashed as well while the femmes tilted their heads, Mirage continued to stand there pouting, and the two beast bots swayed on their massive legs the femme too confused to do much more the watch and Grimlock so lost he didn't realize his gigantic frame was brushing hers as they stood.

"Oh Primus," Ratchet's arms tightened around his mate making Arcee stare back up at him.

"What about Artemis?" She wondered.

"She didn't die in that raid." Optimus answered, staring down into his mate's optics as Elita looked back at him her own optics widening. "Her or the sparkling. She was just so badly injured that her and Magnus' bond shattered because her spark was too weak to reach back to his. His spark panicked and read it as she died. But she wasn't dead . . . and neither were you four."

"Three." The pained tone that left Mia broke every spark around her that knew what that one simple word meant.

And a part of Ironhide crumbled all over again.

It shouldn't have. Not really. Because that place in his spark where that young little life had once lived had not returned like Mia had. It was still broken, empty, and cold.

Because . . . Whiteout was still gone. He knew that. Deep down, he knew.

But . . . .

He had to be sure.

"He's . . . ?" Tears brimmed in Mia's optics when she buried her faceplate into Ironhide's thick neck and Hide crushed her back to him. His spark wasn't breaking again. It couldn't. There hadn't been a pull at the connection for it to be torn away again, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt.

It did.

It ached and it stung. Like an old war wound. For that was what it was. A scar he'd been given long ago that would always be there to remind him of the life he'd not been able to protect. The life that he'd helped create. The life that had been his responsibility.

The life that he failed.

"He's gone." Her voice over the returning bond sounded as hurt and as numb as he did. Still hurting from a wound that would never truly go away, but having long since learned to live with the pain. "Whiteout's gone. I couldn't save him that night."

Ironhide clutched her tighter. "I couldn't save either of you."

"You weren't there." Mia shook her head. "It's not your fault."

"I should have been there." He growled over the link, not at her but at himself.

"It's not either of our faults." Mia sighed. "Its . . . It's just the way things are."

He held her tighter still.

Optimus watched the pair with pain in his optics. He knew what must be going on in that bond that had to be flaring back just like his was. The saddens in the bright orbs that he returned his gaze too just confirmed it.

The femmes had survived the attack.

Ironhide and Chromia's sparkling—Whiteout—had not.

A piece of Optimus broke all over again for his friend, but nothing was going to take that sting away. Not even Bumblebee. Not completely. There would always be a part of Hide that would hurt for the sparkling he'd created that was no longer here. The big ebony mech loved Bee with every part in his body, the mechling had brought the warrior back to life, and he had become Hide's son.

But he would never replace Whiteout in Hide's spark.

He just formed a place for himself. A very large place.

In all of them.

However, the Prime's attention was snatched by the femme in his arms once again when she mumbled. "Artemis survived?"

His head slowly shook back and forth. "Her and Magnus' sparkling wasn't killed in the bombing. She and him were taken to the Rings for reason I do not know, but she died there. Her sparkling however, he did not."

Elita's optics brightened.

"He's actually on my ship." Optimus nodded. "Well, Magnus' really. His name is Jolt. He's a fine young medic. Ratchet likes him."

"He's a clean freak." The two tone medic snapped, but the smile on his lips was fond for the bright blue bot. Arcee beamed at him.

"That's wonderful. Magnus has his sparkling."

"He's only been with us for a few Decacycles." Ratchet told her. "He just kinda showed up and we figured out who he was. It was all very dramatic. Prowl didn't handle it well."

"He's not handling this well." Jazz tried to get the bigger two tone to stand on his own. "So will somebot please explain all this to at least one of us before you break him for good?"

Elita sighed as she motioned Optimus to put her down. Though the Prime had no intention of doing that any time soon and just tightened his grip on his mate.

"We have a lot to talk about." She scolded him softly.

"Then talk right here." He leaned forward and buried his noseplate in her neck cabling. "I'm never letting you out of my sight again. I . . . I thought I lost you."

The dawn colored femme's arms tightened around him in turn as she sighed. "I'm here Optimus. This is real. But we really do have to talk about—"

"You glitches talk all you slaggin' want!" Throwing his hands in the air Mirage turned his back on all of them and started stalking toward the only thing in the universe he wanted right now. The only thing he'd been thinking about for vorns.

"Mirage!" Elita yelled after him.

"NO!" He swung back his dark optics glaring at her. "You can tell him all about the monster and his games. I'll gladly debrief the Prime after I kill him later, but right now there is only one thing on this fraggin' planet that I want and I'll not do without her any longer! So enjoy your sparkmates, I'm going to find mind!"

"Mirage you can't just stroll in. Somebot will shot you as some kind of imposter." Elita started wiggling out of Optimus' arms trying to reason with the mech that had saved them. The only reason any of them had made it out of that pit. She wouldn't let him go get his stupid self shot because he was desperate for Quickfire.

She understood the emotion, but they had things to discuss. Urgent things. And they needed to know what Mirage had seen.

"I want my femme!" Mirage's optics were pleading now as he yelled at her. Desperate now that he was so close and yet still so far away from Fire.

But they had to talk first, and he knew it.

One stern glare from the Prime's mate and the two tone noble threw his hands up in the air in defeat and stalked back until he was standing just a feet from the Prime growling and vibrating with pent up frustrations and anger.

They wanted him to talk?

Fine. He'd talk.

"You remember what you sent me out there find out?" He asked.

Optimus nodded slowly still not fully understanding all this and how it tied together.

"Well as you might have figured out I found out more than just who the sparking's Sire is."

Hide, Optimus, Ratchet, Jazz, Grimlock, and even Prowl snapped to attention.

Bee's Sire!?

His real Sire!?

Mirage . . . found his real Sire?

And so they listened.

To a twisted tale that stretched back to when the last base in Central City went up in flames under Megatron's anger and the three mechs thought they'd lost everything they'd ever loved. They stood and stared as Elita tried to explain the fact that they really didn't know how they ended up in the bottom of a cell block in their own personal little corner of pit.

They had no good explanation as of why they'd woken up in a fully functional Gladiator Ring—a place that up until that very moment Optimus thought no longer existed, not because the Autobots destroyed them all, but because Megatron had—but the simple truth was that they had. Woken up alive and put back together, but shoved in a cell and almost forgotten. While the powerful mechs had expected the worse of what had been done to their mates as what had been done Magnus' they couldn't say they weren't overall overjoyed to see Arcee shake her head and shrug.

They hadn't been used, hadn't been made to fight. If anything they were relatively well looked after. Well as well as those that that been thrown in a caged hole and forgotten could be. Chromia had sneered halfway through the conversation and said they were nothing but kept trophies. Too who and for what purpose they didn't know and they couldn't explain it.

It was all they knew.

They didn't know who had been their keeper or why they had kept them. All they knew was the dusty brown colored mech with the soft red optics that had really looked after them. They'd found out early on that the mech—whose real name they'd never learned, he just told them to call him Dust—wasn't supposed to be anywhere near them. But that the medic, of sorts, was disobeying his master and bringing them energon besides when they were about to starve to death and that it was him that had put him back together when they'd been dumped in his med-bay and left.

It was Dust that had found Mirage when he found his way down into that living pit, and it was Mirage who had learned the most about what was going on there.

Optimus had stood, with stiff spinal strut and clenched jawed as the young white and blue mech painted a picture of a place he didn't want to believe and yet should have realized was out there. Simply because of the tiny yellow thing safely on board his ship. Simply because of what they had already learned about the mechling.

Though what Mirage had to say was far worse than anything the Prime had let himself imagine.

A fully functional Gladiator Ring fueled by the catches of bounty hunters and more of a creature catch ring than anything else since there were very few bots left that weren't sided to a faction in this universe. It was when Mirage had told him that most of the fights in that place were between beast, animal, type aliens that the hunters had collected and a beast bots that they'd managed to find in the desert that the massive beast femme that was still hovering around the edge of the conversation snarled out an opinion of her own.

"That the place Me Scorn come from."

The whole gathered party, some of which had kind of forgotten the beast femme was standing there nervously beside Grimlock, turned to her in surprise. Partially because she was still standing here and partially because she spoke up. That and didn't try to shred him when Grimlock turned on her and rumbled out.

"Huh?"

The bright blue optics the femme had rolled as she shook her long narrow head. "Me Scorn kinda happened like you little femme. Woke up in cage in place like you say. Don't know how got there or why was there. Just woke up there. Then made to fight in ring. It was fight or die. Me kill many things. Weird aliens and bots. Not want too but had too."

"And you escaped?" Ratchet pressed. He was as curious about the huge femme as he was the fact that his mate was here within arm's reach again. Because Grimlock and his brother were supposed to be the last ancient bots there were. However, if all Mirage, the sisters, and this Scorn was saying added together then Ratchet might have just figured out Wheeljack's long wondered question.

How it was the Dinobots were even out there to be found in the first place? Why they had no memories of any kind of who they were and where they came from? Was it possible that whatever it was that brought this femme to their age had done the same with Grimlock and his brothers?

"Me Scorn killed my keeper." The spinosaurus shrugged.

"Then you escaped?"

She nodded.

"And why did you attack us? Or Grimlock at least?" Jazz asked.

She cast her gaze over to the massive t-rex as if she'd just remember he was there. The same could be said for the look Grimlock shot her as he suddenly shifted a few steps away from her. She peeled her lips up over her fangs in response. He growled in return.

Ironhide told them to both shut up.

"Oh hush it the pair of you! We've got more important things to worry about then why you seem to hate everybot." He was glaring at the femme. "We didn't even know you were here and you just jumped down to land on Grimlock's back. What the frag is up with that?"

She lowered those bright blue orbs. "Thought you bots were sent to get me. From fights."

Oh.

Well.

That made sense.

"We're not Scorn." Optimus looked the huge bot over. She wouldn't be a unwanted addition to his crew. She'd given Grimlock a run for his credits. There weren't many that Optimus had ever known that could do such a thing. He himself found Grimlock to be a challenge. The mech was more than just powerful, he had his own bit of cleverness too him. He was more than just brute force, and it had taken the commander quite a long time to see that. Once he did though it was never going to be something he forgot.

He was willing to bet that this Scorn wasn't that much different then Grim and his brothers.

"Me not going back." She growled. "Ever."

"We're not them." Optimus repeated.

"Then who is you?" She tilted her head.

"Them Autobots." Grimlock swayed, his tail flicking slightly behind him. Scorn looked back to him with a curious expression. "Them not so bad."

"Your keepers?" She rumbled.

Grimlock snorted. "Me Grimlock has no keepers. Me only here 'cuz of Itty Bitty."

Scorn tilted her head.

"Itty Bitty?" Mirage looked to Prime.

"Who's that?" Mia mumbled.

Mirage knew about the youngling, after all he'd been sent on this Primus damn venture because of him, but he didn't know the Dinobots were back when he left and he didn't know what the brothers had taken to calling Bumblebee.

"The youngling." Prowl flicked a doorwing, still struggling to full stand on his own with how much none of this made sense to his battle processors. "You did tell these three about Bumblebee didn't you?"

Suddenly it clicked with Hide, Optimus, and Ratchet.

The femmes might not known about Bee.

"I told them." Mirage huffed. "What do you think I am some kind of glitch? After Dust brought me too them I realized who they were. We started working on getting back out, but I was undercover. I'm a spy remember? It took a while to get it all worked out so we wouldn't get killed going out the door!"

"Don't let his attitude fool you, Optimus." Elita giggled. "If it wasn't for Mirage we never would have gotten out. Dust had no way of truly helping us get out. He'd get himself and his mate killed. He couldn't risk that. We weren't going to ask him too. It was Mirage that got us here. You trained a fine mech Jazz."

Jazz was already smiling at his apprentice he'd thought was lost to him forever, but he also knew that apprentice well enough to know that praise was the last thing Mirage needed. He was well aware of how talented he was. He didn't want anything else right now except for Quickfire. It was the only thing flickering in those optics of his.

"Seems we owe you more than I thought we did, Raj." Jazz grinned.

The once upon a time noble just glared. "You won't be thanking me so much when we get the part about the mechling."

Hide's optics narrowed. "Then get to the part about my Bee."

Mia shifted in front of him. "Your Bee?"

Hide's gaze snapped back to the bright blue femme, his dark blue optics holding hers for a long moment before he nodded. "Yes." The bond was flaring again between them. Curious and longing. Searching out new facts and data trying to figure out what had happened between the last time the two sparks had been connected and now. There was so much though.

So many emotions, so many events. So much pain and joy.

And lately, so much Bumblebee.

Mia could feel the youngling's presence in her sparkmate's spark. Just as Arcee and Elita could feel it in their own mates. It didn't take much prodding for the brilliant light that was Bumblebee to make itself known. Especially within Ironhide.

For the mechling had truly become so very much to him that Mia was shocked at first at the true depth of a connect that was burning brightly in Hide's spark, but she didn't go prodding it. She wasn't really sure she wanted to be noticed by this spark yet. And if was truly as strong as it seemed then sooner or later it was going to notice what was going on in Hide's spark. The sparkbond that was forging itself up from the ashes of pain. There was no way to miss that.

Mirage had told them briefly about what it was he was sent looking for when he found them. He told them of the youngling that the Prime and his closest friends—their mates—had found, but so much had been happening between them running for their lives and trying to catch up to the Autobots that he hadn't really had a chance to fully explain everything.

"Well technically Hide is his guardian." Jazz spoke up. "But really he's kind of all of ours. It takes an entire army to raise a sparkling it seems."

"In the middle of a war; yes." Prowl added.

The two mates didn't let their gazes wonder from each other though as Hide offered up what he felt about the tiny yellow mechling for Mia to fully see as he shrugged. "He picked me, and I needed him."

"That's some spark." Mia mumbled in awe, making Optimus sigh.

"You have no idea."

"What is this about his sire?" Ratchet questioned.

Mirage, who was still standing there with his arms cross and a pout in place, his processor and spark on nothing else then wanting to see Fire again actually came out of his thoughts a bit at those words while he let his high bred optics rest on the ones of the mech who had practically raised the femme he cared so much about.

"This is a better conversation for the ship." He was dodging the answer, and everybot around him knew it. Not even the femmes knew the real answer he'd found those long dark nights in that living pit as he listened and lied trying to get the Prime what he wanted. He hadn't had a reason to tell them, and whether or not they were the highest ranked femme among the Autobots that everybot had thought were dead. He was still a spy on a mission and his training wouldn't let him just start telling everything he was there to do.

He didn't really want to tell what he'd learned now.

He wanted to get out of this drizzle and find what belonged to him. Couldn't this wait until everybot had some time to actually realize who all wasn't dead? Didn't these mechs want to just hold onto their femmes for a while and not even think about letting go?

That was what Mirage wanted to do as he tried to ignore the very real possibility that after how long he'd been gone and what he'd done before he left that Quickfire might not want anything to do with him anymore. She might have found somebot else.

It was a very real possibility.

It made his spark ache, but he was a realist. It was why he was still alive. He wasn't going to even begin pretending to himself that it wasn't possible that she very well might hate him now.

No matter how much that hurt.

"Stop stalling, Mirage." Hide's growl tore him from his thoughts drawing him back to attention. "Tell me what you found out about Bee."

"He didn't even tell us." Arcee put in quietly, glancing to Ratchet.

"It was a secret mission." Mirage rolled his optics. "I'm a spy."

"Yeah well Jazz is your commanding officer so tell us what the frag is going on!" Ironhide snarled.

"Mirage," Optimus' tone was much more level then Hide's but there was an urgency in his own voice that made them all a bit more on edge. Even the femmes who really didn't have any idea what was truly going on. All they knew was that their mates had found a sparkling when there should have been no more sparklings and that they were doing what their wonderful mates had always done. Protect and care for those that needed it.

They had taken this little mechling in. With all their sparks apparently, and though they were confused slightly not even Mia could find it in herself to have a problem with that. Even if she had lost her own mechling and it was strange for there to be a young little thing in her mates spark again that she didn't help put there she was still her and a carrier all the same.

A sparkling still alive after the Sectors fell . . . there was nothing out there that could possibility be as wonderful as that. Besides them standing in their mates' field space again.

They were curious of what it was Mirage didn't want to tell as well though.

And when the young two tone shifted back and forth on his feet for a moment looking something that Mirage never was, uncomfortable, they wanted to know even more.

"Please, Mirage." Optimus went on making the young mech look away with a shake of his head.

"You're not gonna like it."

"After all that's happened since you've been gone . . . ." Optimus sighed. "We've come to accept that, but I need to know what you know."

He shifted again. "Can't this just wait a bit? I want to see Fire."

"No." Hide growled. "Now."

Oh fine. The spy's optics narrowed and he growled back. You want to know so bad. Fine!

"His Sire is the damn Ring Emperor."

Dun, dun, duuuuuuuuuuun!

Who saw that coming?

Hey, it's still the weekend.

So technically this isn't late.

Anyway, you have no idea how much I love this chapter. Oh there is so many things hidden in here its insane! And all the love. It's almost gushy.

I almost can't stand it! lol

But you know me, I can't let them just be happy. Nope. Doesn't work that way. So there you have it. Who Bee really comes from.

Is it bad that I love annoyed Mirage? Having him worked into a state is oddly funny to me. Poor mech.

Oh and all that with the Guild. I figured it was time you guys got a few more little bits to be putting together. Have fun.

And then there is Mayhem.

Hee-hee. Yeah. Can't wait to see what you guys have to say about all that.

Well, hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. The next one even more stuff gets answered and Mirage finally gets what's coming to him. See ya there.

-Jaycee