Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. Just the plot and OCs.

Thanks so much for the reviews you guys. I'm glad you liked the last chapter as much as I did.

Hope you enjoy this one too.

Chapter 28

It truly was remarkable how much life could change in three decacycles. Now sure, Bumblebee didn't really have too much of a history to go off of. He'd been wrapped safely in Hide's arms for so long he'd almost forgotten that he'd ever been anywhere else besides his home. And while things did chance every now and again around here everytime the ship moved nothing had ever been changed quite as much as it had now.

In the course of only three cycles the whole world got tipped up and shaken around, but Bee had only held on in a giggle fit and ran with it.

Because this was all so slaggin' cool!

He might have hated the idea of them in Fire's and Aid's bay not so long ago but now Bee couldn't imagine life without the fascinating appendages that were now hardened into solid protoform on his back.

Growing the stupid flightless things had been a real pain in the aft, he'd spent more than a few night balling in either Mia's or Hide's arms because, well, the things really hurt. Meds or not. Ratchet and Cee couldn't make everything go away, and then once the two giant panels and the two smaller ones had finally shoved their way through his back, then Bee couldn't do anything but lie on his front for three whole orns so that they could harden while they finished forming.

It really hadn't been all that much fun and never in his life did Bee ever want to repeat the processes of growing a pair of doorwings and a pair of winglets—as Ratchet finally figured out they were once the smaller, angled, different panels had finally finished hardening—but the end result of the fascinating over-sized things that were waving happily behind him while he stood in the sink basin of the washroom staring at himself in the mirror while a pair of pups snored soundly on the large berth back in the main room and two very warm, happy, calm sparks pulsed to his once again sedative free self while they milled around this early morning was worth it. Mia was shifting around in the bottles of polish, mineral wash for his still very absorbent wings, and detail wax in the cabinet beside the sink while Hide was back in the corner of their washrack trying to get the temperature setting right.

Bee paid little attention to either of them though. Still finding the responsive and expressive wings utterly fascinating. They responded to his emotions without him being conscious of it. A flick, a twitch, a wave, a tuck, a flare. The two larger panels that made up his actual doorwings were far more responsive then the much tinier, thinner expansive of narrow and angled downward instead of upward little panels of sensors that Hide had took one look at and snorted.

"Those are . . . winglets." The ebony warrior had rumbled quietly as he and Mia stood there in the middle of Ratchet's bay while the red and yellow mech pressed lightly at the soggy, malleable newly emerged appendages.

With a snort of his own the CMO responded. "They are."

"Isn't that interesting." Arcee purred as she distracted the drugged up little mechling with strokes to his antennas to try and keep him still in her mate's hand. Over the last two decacycles they all truly had fallen back into a rhythm it seemed they never truly lost, and since Bee seemed just as happy with Elita's and Arcee's new presence in his life as he had been with Mia's once he understood that they too were sparkmates to his favorite Sires. She still couldn't shake the owlish wonder those brilliant blue orbs had looked up at her with when the true introductions had began.

This little youngling really was something special.

"How the slag does he have winglets?! He's a grounder!"

Bee had chirped at that statement, too distracted by the petting to really get the growled words. But it was enough of a reaction that Ratchet switched to comms.

"We don't know the lineage of his coding, Hide. We will probably never know it. There could very well be flier mixed in there somewhere."

"It would explain how much he likes the notion of flight." Mia offered.

"They'll never be air worthy." Arcee added. "They're nothing but sensor panels. Just like the doorwings."

"He's no flier, Hide." Ratchet finished with a snort. "But he does seem to have grown another set of sensory inputs that are no doubt going to give me a headache more than once in his life time."

"Well that's just how younglings are, Ratch." Arcee purred.

Bumblebee still didn't really get why the winglets were such a big deal. They felt and worked just like the doorwings. He liked them.

Over the last few orns the sensors that the panels were jam packed with had spliced into his neural net—Arcee had tried to explain how that worked and what it meant to him, but really he still didn't get it—and suddenly his whole view of the world around him seemed to more than double.

Amazing was an understatement for what these new sensors took in. He could sense things he'd never even been aware of before. Air moving through the ventilation system of the ships, the vibrations of heavy mechs moving throughout his home, and so much more. And this was with sensor inputs that were brand new. They would get stronger, more sensitive, as he grew and learned more of how to process the information they were constantly and yet almost without notice funneling information to his processor. What made the new sensor all that much more powerful however, was once again that little miracle that burned inside his chest.

It seemed his spark's abilities responded well to the new sensors. Strange because there was no real way his spark could be effected by the sensors linked to his processor, but Bee really knew no good way to describe the influx of feelings. It might have had something to do with he was now once again without medicines and his spark could feel those around him again.

He wasn't all that sure which it was. Relief of being able to feel again or new input enhancing his already miraculous abilities. Either way he wasn't really worried about it.

He could feel again, but more than that.

He could now really feel these bonds between his family and those that had just made it bigger. The first time Bee could truly feel Chromia, Elita, and Arcee linked to those that had taken him in the wonder over the connection to a kind of spark that Bee hadn't known since his real carrier disappeared. And while Elita One and Arcee had began forming their own places in his spark it was Mia that was the first of the sisters he got to feel without meds deluding him.

A large yawn worked its way out of the tiny yellow mechling as he lay balled on his side with slightly squishy two sets of panels still folded down unusable as they hardened into set protoform against his back. They no longer caused insane amounts of pain though so Ratchet had let him off his medicines this morning. It had taken the whole orn, but eventually Bee's system worked through the left over meds slowly letting him feel those around him again. One someone in particular.

The warm, welcoming, curious, confident, and bright spark of the dark blue femme that had him curled against her chest as she lay back in the safe expanse of the berth Bee had recharged in as long as he'd lived on this ship. The berth that no longer just belonged to Hide and him. It was Mia's home now as well. The same as their room and their whole world. A fact that was reenforced because Bee could still see from the joy flowing and actually glowing through his huge guardian. Ironhide was a level of happy that Bumblebee had rarely seen in his short little life, but it was pretty awesome to get to watch.

Getting to know Chromia had been nothing short of an interesting experience as well. It really had taken no time at all for Bee to fall for her just as hard as she fell for him. His shyness still came out more often than it did with any mechs he'd ever met, but the reason behind that was more of a lack of experience existing around femmes than anything else. The only ones he'd ever actually none were his carrier and Quickfire.

Now suddenly that number had tripled with the sisters and Scorn. Though Scorn was a whole other concept all together.

At the moment however, Bumblebee was far too interested in the feelings creeping into his spark as the meds faded to worry about much more outside the imitate bubble of contentment that seemed to surround this pieced back together family of theirs.

A soft, comforting purr was vibrating through Hide's frame as he relaxed among the piles of blankets and mesh covers that made a nest of sorts out of the huge berth. Mia was sprawled over and yet somehow also snuggle into the mech's thick black plating and though Bee was cuddled into her chest above her spark one of his little hands was stretched out to have his tiny fingers curled into a groove along Hide's chest. Listening closely to the soft rumble of the two pups that were curled together at the end of the berth, never far from the mechling.

They were a tangled pile of bonding and content until Bee shifted suddenly against the warm plating he was rested on. Little head popping up, optics wide, and antennas standing tall drawing the half dazed in recharge mates back to reality.

"Bee?" Hide questioned softly, dark optics zeroing in on him. "What is it?"

His tiny head tilted to the side, optics sparkling as a smile crept up his faceplate.

The mates shared a look before Mia laughed quietly. "What are you smiling about?"

"Me feel it." The smile bloomed into a full on grin and he all but sprang upright clapping in excitement like a two vorn old sparkling startling his pups awake. However, he was far too interested in the flaring connection to bother with Scout's angry snort at him at the moment.

"Feel it?" Mia couldn't help the giggle his giddy little clapping self pulled from her as he sprang back forward and went to burrowing into the plating over her spark.

"Bond." Bee chirped into her armor. Lifting a hand and pointing between the two of them. "Your bond."

"Our bond . . . ?" Hide muttered in confusion before his tired processor actually connected the dots. That and Bee's presence suddenly swimming back into where it belonged. No longer trapped behind a blockade of meds. The full force of the mechling's brilliance flowing back in heading straight for the new—to him—connection that lived in Hide's spark.

Opening it as wide as he possibly could Ironhide allowed Bumblebee to wiggle his way in and explore as a soft "Oh." Left the warrior. A look turned toward Chromia while she twisted onto her side allow Bee to wiggle physically into both of them while he did the same to the bond he was now fully able to explore. Her bright orb of life was just as opened to the youngling went to exploring the sparkbond. A connection he'd never known before.

By the giggle fest that had ensued afterward Hide and Mia were pretty sure he was okay with it.

Okay with it was quite the understatement though.

If they only knew how very cool it was to Bee. Theirs and the ones that he was now fully allowed to explore between Ratchet and Arcee not to mention Elita and Optimus. Everybot seemed pretty tickled by Bumblebee's utter joy at the bonds. Not that he really understood why.

He had no idea just how much Ironhide, Optimus, Ratchet, Jazz, Prowl, pit even Magnus, and Roddy had feared the very real possibility that Bumblebee could have rejected the femmes being thrown into his life entirely.

It wouldn't have been all that hard to understand had he thrown up his barriers and refused anything to do with them. For him to hate the place they already had in the sparks that belonged to his family. This was his home, and the young mech had no real way of understanding a whole history he wasn't around to have known.

In all reality, the reaction would have been justified had it come from him. It hadn't though. Luckily enough.

Once he understood—mostly—what Mia was to Hide he just did what Bee normally did—what they should have expected all along—he came alive like a solar flare and dove in head first. For them and for the others.

Oddly enough, the only ones that really had any issues over the last few decacycles were the twins.

Eight orns and they'd all but been hiding from him.

Okay . . . so they really were hiding from him.

Not that either frontliner was going to admit to that truth.

They were though.

When they didn't have shift they were holed up in their room just like they always did when they were trying to sort through something that in the presence of others would more than likely just make them violent. It was for every other bots good.

Really it was.

It wasn't because they were utterly terrified of what had just took their world and turned it upside down.

Nope.

Not at all.

This sad little routine they'd settled into was only broken by short trips to check on their Half Pint, but considering wherever Half Pint was now usually one of the sisters of the one they were avoiding him because of were there as well. It all got very stuffy very quick for them and they always ended up fleeing. Not even the pitiful looks shot there way by a drugged up mechling could stall them for long. They cursed and hated themselves for it, but they couldn't stop it.

The trouble was, that it was really hard to hide from a bot that they lived on the same ship with. A bot that had all but officially adopted them. A mech that they actually felt they could talk to and he'd listened. Wouldn't—couldn't—judge because of the stupid fact that he'd for some Primus unknown reason actually grown to care about them.

It wasn't that they didn't trust the rest of their crazy family—they did—but there was only one mech here that had ever made them feel like they weren't completely screwed up. Only one that ever cared about them like they thought a Sire was supposed to. Not that they really ever had anything to compare it too.

But now they were running scared.

Like fraggin' pups tucking their tails and hiding from what they knew was going to be something they couldn't handle.

For the medic had his mate back, why the frag would he have room for them in his spark anymore?

However, one could only avoid Ratchet for so long before it backfired horribly, and when the one that was avoiding was actually two and that two was actually the glitched up pair of frontliners he considered his sparklings that was just going to make it all that much worse.

It took him eight orns to really stop spinning in shock, joy, and love to realize it—a fact that even after the three decacycles he was kicking himself for—but when he did look up and realize that the twins had seemingly seemed to vanish the burly two tone medic snatched up a wrench and went for a walk.

Not that he made it far though before he had a pale pink shadow walking lightly at his shoulder. For the femme knew her mate well enough to know he was angry, hurt, and confused in that moment. From the klick standing there in that bay when they first returned to the ship and Ratchet had opened his connection to the twins to her to show her just how he felt about the chaos inducing pair of troublemakers. Not only could she feel it, but that first moment of solitude they'd had afterward the shortest sister had full on tackled him in a laughing and crying delirium. Partly because she could wrap her arms around him again, and partly because the big mech had found something as amazing as his care for these two mechs was. And he'd offered it up to her without even a thought.

Arcee finally had the chance to have sparklings.

For a carrier that could never carrier because of an illness that nearly killed her when she was a youngling it was the greatest gift Ratchet could have possibly given her.

They'd both resolved a long time ago to the notion that having their own sparklings was just never going to be in their future and while the option of adoption had always been there for them the timing had never been right. First they'd been helping to raise Smokescreen, Outrider, Quickfire, and Hammerdown. Then there had been Whiteout and cruelly enough when they did finally feel they were ready for a sparkling of their own Megatronus blew his Sire's ship out of the sky, tried to strip his brother of his title, and then started a war that tore them all apart.

And it was a fact that Arcee had resigned herself too. That she would always have Ratchet, but a sparkling would always be out of the picture. But then she'd stood there in that bay feeling him open his new bonds to her and she had found this creators link to these two massive warriors that stood there protectively around that tiny mechling.

Suddenly there was not only the mechling Mirage had vaguely described, there were these two grown mechs that her sparkmate loved like they were his own creations, like he did Bumblebee, but simply put this was different. Bumblebee's closest sire bond was with Ironhide and while he loved Optimus and Ratchet like they were his sires as well it was Ironhide who was his guardian and therefor closest link. When he accepted herself, Mia, and Elita it meant that he let them in a creator bonds as well, but Mia would take the places as the closest thing to a carrier he would ever know now.

He was curious of Elita and herself, learning them, and wanted to be close to them. He let them in. He wanted them. And just like Mia they'd fallen hard and fast for those big baby blue optics. Who couldn't? Honestly. He was slaggin' adorable.

The twins however, and what Ratchet felt for them, was something else all together. When Arcee stopped crying around her laughter long enough to start asking questions though, she'd sobered up in a flash.

Ratchet knew that she couldn't truly know just what they meant to him if he didn't tell her their story, and while he wasn't completely sure they'd be alright with his sharing, the truth was the femme was his sparkmate. There was nothing he could keep from her. There were no such things as secrets between bots that shared sparks the way sparkmates did.

At least that was something Ratchet knew the twins would understand. After all, they were twins.

So all that he'd been told came out. Curled together in a mound of blankets Ratchet shared it all. How they'd come into all theirs—his—life, how they'd found a place among all these glitches, how truly remarkable they were in their own right, every quality and quirk that he'd always known that Arcee would adore, and eventually everything that had come to light in these last few vorns. Their past, their pain, and their mistrust.

He'd told it all and had been left with a pair of pale blue optics staring up at him with coolant brimmed in her optics and a determinedly set jaw. She'd done just what he always knew she would have the times every now and again when he imaged what might happen had she ever been around to meet them.

She took them in, mind and spark, flaws and all. Just like he'd done.

All that was left to do was try and convince the twins of that. Only they vanished like smoke. Their normal pattern of showing up no less than once an orn as long as they weren't pulling double or triple shifts to simply be around him awhile be it with everybot else or just simply piling up in a corner or beside a table somewhere to entertain themselves—Sunstreaker with a sketchpad, Sideswipe with a scheme—to do nothing more than share space with the mech that they had come to view as more than just that medic that had put them back together so many times there was no point anymore in even bothering to count, but that pattern vanished. Just like they did.

Arcee walked in, and the twins walked out.

It might have taken eight orns for the rotation around him to slow down enough that he really noticed, but when he did it seemed he wasn't the only one. Cee deemed it was time she truly met these mechs beside just that confused 'hi' in the bay. So there she was. Strolling on beside him for she wanted to know these mechs as bad as she did the mechling, and there was no way in pit she was going to allow them to run from Ratchet because of her.

It wasn't hard for the medic to find them either. He knew just where they'd be.

Considering the CMO was well past knocking at this point it didn't take him long for him to be standing there glaring at the two of them. Medical override codes for doors and all that.

That didn't mean his and his mate's sudden appearance didn't startle the two of them bad enough that Sideswipe flailed off his berth.

Sunstreaker straightened from where he had laid against the wall behind his brother's top bunk where they'd both been pretty much cuddled together—not that Sunstreaker would ever admit to something like that—trying to offer the other some kind of peace for the turbulence in their sparks. His glitched bright red brother flailing off to land on his aft though snapped Sunny from his rest and left him staring with wide optics.

Ratchet watched both of them for a long klick as Arcee stood quietly at his side, the twins door having slid shut behind them, and the low dimmed lights making the identical vibrant blue optics of the warriors glow even brighter than they normally did. Than Sideswipe quickly shoved himself to his feet, looking more like a startled youngling then the full grown ex-gladiator of the Rings that he was. A fact that had Ratchet deflating almost instantly.

"Evening mechs," He greeted.

A glance that any other that didn't know them so well would have missed flashed between the two before Sunstreaker swung himself off the berth. Landing with a thud to the floor below he straightened besides Sides as the red mech answered.

"Hi Ratchet," He muttered, leaning more into the safety of his brother's field space then he would have normally done in front of another. The two of them might have been feeling more than a little bit clingy at the moment though.

Possibly.

"Umm," He shifted even closer to his brother when his optics settled on Arcee. "Hi Arcee."

Sunstreaker wasn't in the mood for stuttering timid words in his own berthroom. "What do you want?" It wasn't a growl. Not really. Ratchet knew them well enough to know the difference between Sunstreaker's real anger, and his forced annoyance.

But if the golden mech wanted to play hard ball then so be it. The medic wasn't letting him off quite that easy. He'd spent to long striving for them to trust him to lose it now for whatever reason it was they were.

"What do I want?" Ratchet tapped the wrench against his thigh, more to have something to do with his hands than anything else. A smirk was shining through his link with Cee, but she kept her faceplate neutral and her mouth shut. This wasn't here conversation yet. They didn't trust her. "What do you think I want? You've been fraggin' avoiding me! I thought we didn't do this anymore. I thought you trusted me. Could talk to me."

"We do trust you." Sideswipe snorted, though he still wasn't truly meeting Ratchet's optics.

"Then what's going on?"

Sides shifted again. Always moving, Ratchet knew that. The red mech didn't do still. Especially when he was nervous.

"Nothing." He shrugged.

Ratchet's optics narrowed, but he didn't get to answer. Arcee did.

"Me." She spoke up softly, drawing the optics of the twins to her. "You're avoiding him because of me."

And they were.

So when the truth flashed in the twins' optics Ratchet all but balked at them. They were running and hiding from him because his mate came back. Why the frag would they—

Ah. That.

With a sigh the medic threw the tool into subspace, walked to their couch, motioned Arcee to follow him, and plopped the two of them down to wait. Sideswipe didn't really do quiet. Not for long. And Ratchet wasn't going to let them run because they thought they weren't important enough to care about once a bond like Arcee came back to him. For two mechs that were hated by their real creators, allowed to be stolen into the slavery of the Rings, and raised into monsters by a mech that turned younglings into gladiators.

Suddenly it all made sense.

They trusted Ratchet like they had never trusted anybot before. It was because they had grown to trust him that they had been able to begin trusting the others around them. It was because of him that they even knew how to open up and let Bumblebee in when he came along. They held him on a level with which only a few shared shelf space.

He became something to them that they'd never known.

A sire.

And it seemed they had done just what he'd feared Bee might.

They didn't think the other half of the creator bond that had taken them in would want them.

Bee snorted to his own reflection with a roll of his optics. He still couldn't believe that Sunny and Sides had thought Ratchet would toss them aside now that he had Arcee back. It was utterly ridicules. It wasn't until after the first decacycle the femme had returned that Ratchet had coxed them back out of their conviction that they weren't good enough to keep around and let them slowly get a feel of this femme that they truly had always wanted to meet. The twins quickly found out that Arcee was as interested in getting to know them as she had been with Bumblebee and it didn't take long after that for them to open up even easier and quicker to her then they had the CMO. Their quick acceptance didn't stop Bee from bopping them both in the forehead when he found out about their little fit.

Now however, everything had settled down. Even Scorn had fallen in with the Dinobots, settling into Wheeljack's watch as easy as the brothers had. Though Bee hadn't been there to see the first meeting. He'd heard about.

"What you Grimlock mean there is bot like us outside!?" Swoop was all but bouncing around his much larger brother as the eldest ancient lead his brothers and Wheeljack outside to the femme that waited under Magnus' watch.

"Me Grimlock mean just that." He rumbled, trying to hide the smirk his youngest brother's bouncing around him brought out. Sludge, Snarl, and Slag trailed on behind him, interest sparking not only in their sparks, but their optics and fields as well. And though Sludge was excited and showed it just as often as Swoop did this orn he was listening more than talking. Rare, but happening.

"You mechs seriously found an ancient femme?" Wheeljack however, was talking. "That's what Bee must have felt! It must have been her. Fascinating. And she fallowed you back. That's even more interesting. She wants to meet us too!"

"Wants meet Dinobots." Grimlock corrected as they reached the hanger doors and walked out into the heat of the afternoon of the orn they'd returned with the femmes. There had been a small part of Grimlock that had feared when he went inside to fetch his brothers and the mech that took them in that the femme would leave. However, the thick silhouette of a beast frame, silver armor, a blue visor over bright blue optics, her long towering spines still there tuck down her shoulder blades, her armor was just like the Dinobots in the regards of dagger like plating thick and jagged. This was the first time Grimlock had seen her in her bi-ped for and it was impressive to see how her massive form contracted and twisted into this form. While she was almost the same size of Grimlock in her beast form in this one she was a good bit smaller, her head about at his bottom of his throat. It wasn't her smaller size now that caught most of his attention about this form though. It was how her tail was formed into her armor like a whip on her left arm and one of her spines formed into a very obviously removable dagger on her right wrist.

She was built for battle.

Just as they were.

She stood now outside the Eternity staring into the intensely blue optics level with her that belonged to Ultra Magnus. They seemed to be discussing something when the others arrived, but their arrival drew Scorn's attention. Her curved blue visor slid to take them in. Her shoulder's rolled at the sight of them followed by a whirling of gears and creaking plating before the whip that covered her arm shifted in a spiral of shifting plating and armor before it folded away into the jaggedness of her arm.

However, neither Grimlock nor Scorn could speak before a happy little squeal—sounding more like it should belong come out of Bumblebee then the mech it did—left Swoop as the youngest and only flight capable mech among the ancient brothers bolted forward.

The first instinct that ran through Scorn was to transform, or draw her favored blade as she rocked back on her feet readying herself for whatever this crazy bundle of armor was up too. The much smaller mech wasn't exactly intimidating to the ancient femme though leaving Scorn to watch with narrow optics behind her visor as the mech skidded to a stop in front of her all but vibrating in excitement. A youngling like smile was bloomed across his faceplate as he beamed up at her bouncing on his foot claws.

And then he all but beeped up at her. "Hello,"

Scorn just stared at him.

"Swoop!" Grimlock snarled over the distance, his deep voice making the younger mech flinch like he'd been struck. Spinning back around in a shrunk down posture Swoop returned his bright gaze to his brother with a sheepish grin. He gave a curious whirl only to be answered by a deeper snarl. "Back!"

Almost pouting Swoop trudged back away from the femme and Magnus who stood quietly watching the exchange, returning to his brother in a slouch. Head low and posture curled Swoop all but cowered under the rumbling growl, ducking under the swat of half felt claws that were swatted at him half sparked before Sludge yanked him back to his side silently bleating him while Grimlock went on snarling at him until he was tucked into his other brother's side to hide from that burning glare.

Rolling his optics Grimlock let his optics return to Scorn.

"Stayed." He pointed out the obvious.

She shrugged at him. "Said would." Though she turned her optics from him to the ship behind him. "Want to see this youngling you Grimlock talked of."

"Him Itty Bitty with him Sire." Grimlock replied. "Not see him until him Prime says can."

Scorn sneered at him with a low grumble of her own. "Me Scorn not here to behave for no Prime."

"Want to see Itty Bitty then you Scorn behave for him Prime. Not get see Itty Bitty if not. Me Grimlock not allow it either."

"Never harm youngling." She hissed, more than tired already of having to defend that to these mechs. Though it didn't take her more than this conversation and the one she'd been having with this commander here she knew she would have to wait. Scorn was a skilled predator though, she'd been taking care of herself long enough to know the true power of patience. So she took the conversation down another path. "Who them?" She nodded toward the mechs that stood quietly around Grimlock.

The beast practically screaming from all of them. Their jagged armor, their powerful builds, they were as made for battle as she was. From a time long since forgotten to the walls of caves. A part of her spark was singing with the sight.

She was no longer alone.

Now five just like her stood before her, but the truth of it all was that Scorn had spent far too long battling for each breath to hand out her trust just because these mechs—especially the largest, eldest one—sparked her interest.

Grimlock gave his frame a shake to lessen the tension gathered in his joints. This femme seemed to cause him a lot of that. "Me brothers." His head tilted toward his right where Slag and Snarl stood silently watching with counseled emotions. "Slag and Snarl." Both nodded, but said nothing. Then Grimlock tilted left. "Sludge and Swoop." Swoop stuck his head out from behind where he was hiding behind Sludge and gave another beaming grin drawing a smirk from the femme. Sludge smiled as well. He was by far the calmest tempered of the five brothers, and his easy going look even with his massive bulk made him less intimidating even then his tiniest new yellow brother at times. At the moment though he was more concerned with keeping Swoop tucked into his side well out of Grimlock's temper range.

Scorn's impression of them was hidden behind the curve of her visor, but the small smirk at the corner of her lips was harder to hide. However, it wasn't just beast mechs standing around Grimlock. Her bright blue optics settling onto the tri colored plated armor of white, green, and red of the much smaller in comparison mech. He had almost glowing blue intelligent optics and a curious air about him. He quite honestly was like nothing the femme had ever seen before. Most mechs she'd known in her life were warriors. This mech, while he looked like he was capable of defending himself, was a bit more bookish under those panels of armor.

"And this is him Wheeljack. Him like us Dinobots. Looks after us."

"You must be Scorn." Wheeljack offered up a smile of his own, knowing better them to move forward before permission was granted with a bot like this.

She snorted at him. "That me."

Now it was Wheeljack that was all but beaming. "Well welcome to the Autobots."

It was safe to say that Wheeljack was more than a little giddy at the moment.

Bee found it hilarious.

The inventor was practically skipping around all three ships on this puffy cloud of bubbling joy. According to Sunstreaker it was revolting. According to Sideswipe is was being committed to video to be used for nefarious purposes at a later date.

Bumblebee thought it was cute. Almost as cute as Swoop being all awestruck over the fact that they'd found another ancient. The flier had held Bee for like five joor a few orns after she came back to the ship because Wheeljack had said something about them finding her and because Bee sensed the strange ancient spark that belonged to her in the first place.

Hide hadn't really been happy about that.

The Swoop refusing to let him go from the hug part not the fact that it was him feeling not only her but the other femmes that led them out there to find them in the first place. He was actually kind of happy about that. Bee hadn't really minded the attention though when it was when Swoop snatched him up from his meds induced napping in the rec room under Jazz's watch. Because when he'd woken up in the flier's arms there was the glow of new blue optics shining down at him.

Waking through the haze of painkillers in his systems had become something of a chore these orns. It took way too much effort if you asked him. Not the actual waking part.

No, that was as easy as optics opening.

It was the actual figuring out the optical and sensory input through the haze that was numbing him. What was real and what was dreams was confusing for a few klicks after his optics. That was why when he blinked through his recharge and found a unknown blue visor staring down at him it was a bit of a shock. Because he was pretty sure he went into recharge in Jazz's lap watching a movie in the rec room. And yet suddenly he found himself against a familiar powerful chassis that belonged to the smallest of the Dinobots. However, the new sleek grey interlocking and complicated faceplate protoform and the thick blue visor did not belong to the flier with red optics.

Bee actually for the first few nanos that he and this visor locked gazes had no idea who he was looking at, until a shared detail over the last few orns connected the dots for him. Optimus had said the ancient femme had blue optics and a visor.

Scorn.

This was Scorn.

"Him Itty Bitty awake!" The purr rolled through Swoop, and Bee found himself cradled up higher and upright against the mech's chest as the femme sitting beside the smaller mech stared at him curled on one of the giant couches that were found in the Dinobots hanger.

He was in the Dinobots' hanger.

Huh.

Somehow, he didn't figure Hide wasn't going to be happy about this.

And then there was Mia.

She'd only been here a decacycle and Bee was already pretty sure that his overly enthusiastically protective sire now might have a bit of competition in the terrifying when provoked with a missing youngling department.

Which was also kind of cool.

With a few blinks toward the innocent faceplate of Swoop Bee turned curiously to the form that had leaned away slightly as if sensing his hesitation and gave a soft smirk.

"Itty Bitty," Swoop chirped. "This is her Scorn. She be with us Dinobots now. Him Prime said could and him Wheeljack said could and her Scorn wanted too. Her Scorn wanted to meet you Itty Bitty though. So me Swoop went to get you. Hope don't mind."

Another long stare before he lifted a tiny yellow optic ridge.

"Jazzy gonna mind." Bee beeped. "How get away from him?"

Swoop snorted. "Me big mech, but me not stupid. Him Jazz not quite as good as him thinks."

Well that was an opinion that Bee might argue at a later date, but for now he was far more interested in the large femme that sat alone with Swoop in the Dinobots lair. That little detail catching his optics made him ask one more question.

"Where Grimlock and others?" He asked.

"Him Grimlock went with Slag, Snarl, and Slag to argue to him Magnus 'bout something me Swoop didn't pay no attention too. Had something to do with him Prime busy and us room need more stuff because Scorn here now. They be back soon, but me Swoop take you Itty Bitty back to Jazz before then. Him gonna notice sooner or later you not in recharge on couch where him left you to play C-Ball."

Oh.

So that was how Swoop pulled it off. Still, it was kind of hard to miss the ancient mech. Even if he was the smallest of his brothers he was still huge. It wasn't really easy to miss the flier. Jazz really must have been into his game. That and the fact that with these drugs in his system Jazz no doubt figured he'd recharge without starring for joors.

He probably would have too if the rumble of ancient engines hadn't pulled him from recharge.

He was awake now though so he might as well she what this new ancient he heard about was like. He had no way to get a real feel of her. Even if he desperately wanted too. There were far too many meds in his veins for something like getting the feel of new sparks. He did have her name however. So just as he'd done with Mia, Cee, And 'Lita Bee went to analyzing. Rolling the name of this massive creature around in his processor he stared up into that thick curve of glass he could see the shiny outline of what seemed to be a pair of brilliant blue optics.

She absolutely screamed power, but more than that. There was a certain resolve behind that visor. Bee could only imagine what kind of steadfast loyalty and determination to whatever cause she deemed worth fighting for would be bubbling in her spark once he got a look at it. The prospect of finding out had the tiny mechling smiling up at this new member of his family.

"Me Bee," He beamed. "Welcome to family."

And Scorn fell like a ton of bricks.

Scout and Echo?

Not so much.

Bumblebee was still trying to convince his pups that the newcomers weren't a threat. The sisters they had accepted. After all they were recharging in the same berth every night as Mia. They saw and could sense to the love that had bloomed to life in the femme's spark for the one they viewed as their own. It was hard to hate her when she was in the process of spoiling a sort of sick mechling rotten.

Not that Bee was complaining.

Scorn though, was everything the other femmes were not. She was big, she was loud, she was kind of downright scary, and she was very obviously built to fight. Her how aura threw up every red flag the protective pups had and her presence around him and from the two of them had Scorn so far had been met with nothing but flared up armor, thrashing tails, pinned audios, and more than a few sharp fangs.

They didn't trust her.

Which was utterly ridicules now that Bee was free of numbing things and could feel again. He now knew the gigantic femme down to her very core and what he found was a bot with a spark as warm and happy as Swoop's but with a stubborn will to rival Grimlock. She truly was an interesting femme to say the very least.

Bee liked her.

She was fitting in well around her, especially after she kicked Grimlock's aft in a sparring match. He was told that had been a sight to see.

A bottle of wax being sat down on the rim of the sink beside him snapped Bumblebee was his thoughts causing the tiny mechling to glance straight up to the soft glow of blue optics framed by a dark blue faceplate with a few detailing swirls of white along her optics.

"Having fun?" Chromia lifted an optic ridge at him.

Bee simply stuck out his tongue earning himself a light swat between the antennas which lead to giggling and then to burrowing as he was plucked up from his examination of the bright panels now flapping happily against his back. Mia met his burrowing with a soft, high purr that he had come to a associate with the femme. It was not a noise that Hide or any of the mechs were capable of making. It honestly was a sound that Bee couldn't really recall.

He thought maybe.

Possibly.

That his actual carrier might have made the noise, but he barely remembered her anymore. Besides. It was hard to try to reach back in his memory and find the blurred, fuzzy, half imagined images that just left him empty and alone inside. The warmth and love that poured out of Mia was here now. She was here now.

She wanted him.

She wasn't going to leave him.

Not now.

One look at the way she tucked herself into Ironhide as he back into the spray of the washrack allowing both his femme and his youngling to be shielded from the pounding liquid by his massive shoulders was proof enough. They were sparkmates.

And while the true extent of what that was supposed to mean was still slightly lost to a processor as young as his, Bee did understand the basics of it.

He could feel the basics of it.

Love.

This vibrant, almost violently powerful, bond that burned like an inferno between these two hardened to the outside by the world around them, hard to get into because they had felt real pain, a bit too unwilling to trust because of all the times it had come back to bite them sparks. It was like nothing Bee had ever known before.

This connection that was unlike anything he'd ever felt before he wiggled his way in that night the meds wore off. It was like nothing he was even capable of, and maybe that was why he found it so amazing.

He'd always thought his connections to his family burned as bright as stars—and they did—but as Hide had tried to explain to him it was a different kind of bond. His spark was the brightest in this faction—even if he was the only one that didn't know it—but these bonds that burned between his Hide and his Mia, his Optimus and his 'Lita, his Ratchet and his Cee they fascinated him to no end.

Maybe it was because they were a two way street on the cosmic plane between sparks he had explored and yet didn't really get that seemed were only supposed to be accessible between the two that had forged it. And yet they let Bee in . . . sort of.

He couldn't invade the bond.

Not really. He wouldn't try, there was something that felt wrong about that. It wasn't his bond to be nosing in on, but it was from those bonds that flared between the mates that he had been offered up a sort of arced out connecting tether of burning color and power.

He'd had no idea what it was at first—latched on with all his might anyway—but once he opened up to it he found it was a straight shot short cut to the power and protection of those bonds.

It was a creation tie.

Or so he had been told.

Because it would seem that all three pairs—especially Hide and Mia—held Bee in their sparks like he was their own. Like it was the energy that lived in each of the bonds that had created him. Loved him like he wasn't the forgotten piece of somebot else.

He was theirs.

And they were his.

That was what these glowing connections to his bonds meant now. He'd been linked to Optimus, Ratchet, and Ironhide so long he couldn't remember ever not being that way, but it was the energy added to their bonds from the return of their mates that made Bee burrow himself in and hold on.

He loved the bonds. He loved them.

He loved being allowed to be a part of them. All of them.

And that love had only grown after he felt the two cold links that he'd never noticed in Ironhide before.

It wasn't until a few orns after his ability to feel came back that Bee had been resting against his sire's chest as Hide too him with him to monitor duty. He'd been bored and busying himself with exploring this new connection he was tied into via Hide and Mia when he stumbled across something in Hide's spark that he'd never noticed before.

Opposed to all of the burning, beating, breathing links that arched out from the powerful orb of life in so many directions over the inner planes to all the spark he was tied to there was these two sad, severed, dull, and lifeless little branches that had all but curled into themselves curling back up to Ironhide's spark. But Bee knew very well—for he had one—just what they was.

Once a spark formed a connection there was no way to ever get rid of it. A bond could break, it could shatter, it could do every kind falling apart that could possibly be imagined but no matter what it would never truly go away. For bonds were not just connections and attachments formed in a processor. They were actual physical connections between the orbs of life that belonged to every bot. No matter if the sparks never actually physically touched as they did in a merge that formed sparkmate bonds all links were still attachments.

That was something that Bumblebee had just always sort of none.

Optimus tried to explain it to him once, as if it shouldn't have made sense to a youngling, but he'd simply stared up at his huge Prime with unimpressed optics. He knew how links worked.

For Primus' sake he could sort of see them.

And when he'd told the big blue and red mech that the complete shock in those wise orbs of his had told him once again this was one of those things that he could do that wasn't really supposed to be able to.

So as his shyness took over he'd turned the conversation so place else and it had seemed to be forgotten.

That didn't mean Bee still couldn't see it and thought over it all though.

He watched the flared links between himself and other, and others all the time. The bright pulsing connections of life and emotion that created bonds over the thing he knew no other way to describe besides this vast cosmic kind of field were every spark he'd ever known was somehow attached to and could link with others without real touch because of.

It was because he could see so much of all those around him that he understood not only what was inside himself but also what was inside Hide.

They were dead bonds.

Shattered links that actually looked like they ached. Wound back and twisted in on themselves after vorns of knowing that the sparks they was supposed to be linked to were gone forever. This wasn't the look of a broken bond that came when friendships fell apart or time changed bots to the point that they just didn't fit together the way they once had.

Broken bonds only looked like that after they had been forcibly severed. Stolen away violently.

Bee would know.

It was what the bond with his carrier looked like.

And he had no fraggin' idea how he'd never seen these broken links before.

He had been about to open his mouth and demand to know what they were when he realized that one of them, the one that felt and looked very similar to his own, was not only broken from Hide.

It . . . it was linked to Mia too.

Connected between them and yet broken all the same. Severed from both ends in a way like he'd never seen leaving two equally broken and crying links between the sparks. He had stared at them in almost scrutiny for he didn't need to be near Mia to see her spark now.

And then it had all made an awful kind of sense.

It was a creation bond.

Like the one they made with him.

Only it had long since been left empty by death.

Bee's mouth had shut as quickly as it opened and he burrowed just a bit deeper into his working guardian's chest.

He wasn't ready to ask that question yet.

He still wasn't ready to ask about it. So that meant he couldn't question the other broken bond.

Not yet.

Maybe one orn soon.

But not yet.

He wasn't sure he really wanted to know.

A plop of wax bubbles against his noseplate shocked Bee from his thoughts making him shake his head with a snort before shooting a glare toward the laughing form of his adopted sire.

"Hey!" He growled playfully, swiping at the suds.

"How about you come back to this reality for a little while and start scrubbing." Ironhide chuckled plopping a generous amount of soap down on the mechling's head getting a song of laughter and giggles to come to life as Bee quickly went washing with the suds.

Chromia snorted at the youngling trying to figure out how to scrub his plating while he was cradled between the two of them. Her attempt to help him did nothing but start a bubble war and within a klick Bee had both the hardened fighters laughing like younglings as he flung bubbles and wax around the large rack. The laughter woke his pups and when they realized Bee was not recharging where they left him both were quickly prancing into the washroom hopping into the rack with them. Tails wagging with happy barks when Bee's giggling turned to them and he started splashing at them.

Somehow bathing with the youngling always turned into more of a game than an actual wash. Chromia wondered if Bee knew how much she felt she owed him for that. He just induced laughter. He created happiness everywhere around him.

For a spark that had spent so very long thinking it was going to die alone. There was nothing quite as mesmerizing as the glow of this happy, go lucky spark that spread joy wherever he went.

Half a planet away in a far less joy and happiness filled place.

He was growling again. Not that the medic was surprised. He'd been mated to the massive warrior long enough to know that there was only one way the gigantic black mech striped in brilliant shines of gold that set off the glow of his fire orange optics knew how to work through his emotions.

Fear was met with growls.

Confusion. Met with growls.

Anger. Met with growls.

Pit he couldn't even express his love for the few things—one thing now—that he actually still felt for without growling. Even most of that was just him growling under his breath while he put up with the affection the medic shot his way.

But Dust had known that when he sparkbonded with the mech. Pit. It was one of the things he loved about him.

Now however, the sulking in the corner of his 'bay' was getting under his hide.

Don't get him wrong. He loved the bastard for all his quirks, but he'd been hanging around in here for orns and if he didn't get the pit out from under the tan mech's feet he was going to fraggin' strangle him.

"Up!" He snarled waving his hands at the slightly larger mech that was glaring at his claws in the dirty dim lighting.

"What?" Those orange optics flashed angrily.

"Up, I said!" Dust grabbed him by his shined armor plated shoulders and since the warrior was only a few feet taller than him and not that much more bulked up he managed to offset him just enough to toss him out of the chair and over to the side.

"What the frag is wrong with you!?" He snarled slapping the hands away, but backed out of the medic's main work space all the same. He knew his mate just as well as his mate knew him. When those cherry red optics darkened with that much annoyance it so wasn't worth the fight.

"You!" The medic hissed. "You're my problem. You've been pouting around down here since you sent them out. I love you mech, but if you don't get out of my way I'm going to kill you!"

"I am not pouting!" His plating flare and his optics flashed.

Dust only lifted an optic ridge over his own bright optics though.

"I'm not!"

"Fine." He shrugged. "Pouting. Plotting. Call it what you want. It doesn't matter to me. You know I relish being able to actually see you not covered in energon and fresh from a fight. You know that. But I hate seeing you brood even more than that. The mechs can take care of themselves. They'll find him and they'll bring him back. Though what you plan to do then I'm not all that sure."

With an angry snort his larger mech swung from him and went to pacing.

Dust paused, then narrowed his optics. "You did tell them to bring the youngling back . . . didn't you?"

He was only gifted a growl in return.

A growl he wasn't sure what to make sense of and despite his best judgment he assumed the worst. His voice lowered to a shocked tone and he all but gasped at his mate. "Tell me you didn't tell them to kill him!"

Now it was the warrior's time to pause, his plating tightening down to his protoform in unease.

Dust couldn't believe his optics.

"You did! Mech! He's her fraggin' son!"

"I didn't!" He swung back flashing a few sharp fangs that shined among his teeth as he sneered down at him. A thundering growl exploding from him. "And I know who the runt is! I don't need you to remind me! I sent them to get him and bring him back here."

Dust narrowed his optics again. "Why?"

Another pause. "What?"

"Why bring him back here? He'll just get killed here. Oblivion is the one that issued the bounty."

"Trying to cover his own slaggin' aft, the glitch." Another snarl.

"Yes." The medic nodded. "So why the frag are you bringing him here? I thought you didn't want anything to do with the . . . oh how did you put it . . . the bastard's little runt."

"He is the bastard's little runt."

"Yes, but he is Mercy's as well. She carried him. She bore him. She died for him."

"Without a choice!" He hissed.

Cherry red optics saddened. "She made her choice, mech. She chose to keep him and that's what hurts you so much. That she chose the sparkling over us."

"MUTE IT!" A clawed hand curled to a fist and flew, but the medic didn't even flinch. He'd never strike him. Not now. Not after what happened to bring them to the love they had for each other now. And so he stood stone still as the fist was yanked back before it collided with a harsh protest of joints. The massive mech turned away with a look that rarely shown to life in his optics.

Shame.

Dust said nothing for a moment until the larger mech let out a heavy sigh that shook through him as he hung his head. "I won't let him win. I don't care what I have to do. I won't let that monster win."

"So you're really going to save him?"

"If the mechs hall him in as a bounty and bring him back to Oblivion I kill two scraplets with one blaster shot. I can make it look like the mechling was killed and our Ring Master will meet an untimely demised. The monster loses an operator, but he'll think he rid himself of his left over mistake."

"And then what?" Dust asked. "What happens to him after you steal him and fake his death?"

"Then I'm done. The bastard runt isn't my problem. I want nothing to do with him." And with that he stormed out of the medical bay leaving the medic to let out his own sigh. He wondered how long the mech was going to be able to convince himself to stick to that.

Well that went from adorable to ominous in three nanos flat didn't it?

Wonder who they were, and what they've got planned? Wonder who they sent after Bumblebee? Wonder how the Autobots are going to take somebot trying to snatch him again?

More adorable youngling and family to come, and also a whole lot of trouble.

Looking forward to seeing what you all thought. About the femmes, about the twins, about the Dinobots, about are sort of still unnamed mysteries, and about all those weird things Bee can do.

-Jaycee