With his medical expertise, it only took Ratchet about 30 minutes to complete the procedure. He completely bandaged the amputation site, and after the procedure was completely finished, he incinerated Russell's amputated limb.

Upon closer inspection, he found that his other leg, while it didn't have to be amputated, would never be able to move again. The nerves in the leg were completely destroyed.

Ratchet sighed, mental exhaustion finally succumbing to his processor. He sat next to the small berth that held Russell and looked at him. Apart from the obvious, his body was covered in bruises and gashes that he had to treat. He would no doubt be in severe pain when he wakes up.

Seething anger coursed through the medic, as he balled his fist so hard he almost damaged his joints, "This won't happen again…"

He sat and dreaded the boy's awakening.

Team Prime and the rest of Team Bee just returned recently. Optimus and Bulkhead were carrying a stasis pod containing the heavily damaged frame of Starscream, and Sideswipe was given the unfortunate task of carrying Denny's lifeless body.

Strongarm had not said a word since she returned to base. She sat leaning up against a pile of cars, secluded from the rest of the Autobots. Her eyes gazed into a random area, completely lost in thought and shock.

Drift, along with Jetstorm and Slipstream, were angry. Drift vowed to never allow such an event to ever happen again. The twins promised to remain by Russell's side forever, and very plainly voiced that they wanted Starscream dismantled for what he did.

Windblade felt similar to the twins. She hasn't known the two humans very long, but she knew that they were kind and brave. They were never a part of this war, and yet they were suffering because of it.

Optimus stared at his Autobots, noticing each one clearly being affected by what took place. How could he allow this to happen?

The Prime starts thinking back to his time with Raf, Miko, and Jack. He'll never forget the day Rafael was struck by dark energon. He failed to protect him, and promised to never allow something like that to happen again.

Yet here they were. An innocent man had brutally lost his life, and his son left paralyzed, broken, and orphaned.

He didn't feel like a Prime right now.

———————————————————————

Ratchet was still in the room when the boy began to gain consciousness. He saw the boy's eyes begin to ever-so slightly open, a groan exiting his mouth.

"Fix-it, quickly, go inform everyone that Russell is waking up, but do NOT allow anyone in the room except for Bumblebee. We can't have a traumatized

boy being overwhelmed the second he wakes up."

Fix-it gives a salute with a servo, "Right away, sir!" He quickly left.

In an instant, Russell's breathing grew out of control. He begins to panic as he remembers the events that took place.

Gently, Ratchet placed his servo on top of the young boy, stopping his thrashing, "Russell… Russell! It is alright. It's me, Ratchet. You're safe now. We've got you."

The boy looked up at the massive mech, thrashing ceased and breathing beginning to even out, "R-Ratchet?"

The medic smiled, happy that he was talking again, "Yes, it is me, and Bumblebee is coming now.

"Is he ok?"

Ratchet was shocked at his disregard for his own condition, "Bumblebee, along with the rest of us, suffered no to minimal damage."

Russell gave a sigh of relief, "Oh, thank God…", he gave a puzzled look, "Ratchet… Why can't I feel my legs?''

A look of complete guilt washed over Ratchet's face, "Russell… The damage to your legs was too severe. I had to amputate one, and the other one will most likely never regain functionality…"

Russell's puzzled look was quickly replaced with a neutral one, "Oh…"

Loud, ground shaking footsteps interrupted him before he could finish. Bumblebee walked into the room, Russell… You're awake! Thank Primus…"

The child looked up at the former scout with a smile, "Hey, Bee." He couldn't help but notice the guilty look on the mech's face.

Bumblebee looked down at Russell, now fully taking in his condition, "Oh… Oh my God…", he tried not to show it, not wanting to scare him.

"Bee… What's wrong?"

The mech placed a hand on the boy's body, "Nothing's wrong, nothing…", he lied.

A snort left Russell's mouth, "Ha, nice try, Bee, but you are a terrible liar… and you don't have to say it. I know I look like shit."

Bumblebee smiled. Even in his state, Russell still retained his sense of humor, "Yeah… You're one tough kid, you know that?"

Ratchet watched Bumblebee and Russell converse with a smile. He remembered when Bee had a similar relationship with another child years ago. It was virtually impossible to separate the two.

"Bee, Ratchet… Can I go see the others."

Bumblebee looked at Ratchet, waiting for approval. The medic nodded.

"Very well. But Bumblebee, you must keep a constant eye on him, understand? And be gentle. His body is in an extremely fragile state right now."

Bumblebee nodded, gently picking up the boy and holding him against his chest. This was the first time Russell got a good look at himself. His body was covered in bruises and scars, and he looked down. Where one leg was, nothing remained. And the other leg lay there useless.

A chill went down his spine as he thought about the monster who caused this.

Bee immediately noticed something was wrong, "Russell, are you ok?"

Russell swallowed a lump in his throat. He wanted nothing more than to curl up in a ball and sob, but he had to be strong for everyone, "Y-Yeah. I'm okay."

He knew it was a lie. It didn't take a psychiatrist to know that Russell was tossing all of his pain to the side, but for now, Bumblebee let it go. Maybe Russell would let it out once he was around everyone else.

The big thing that Russell noticed when they walked out of the medbay was that it was quiet, eerily quiet, like whispering a single word would cut through the air like a hot knife to a stick of butter, and everyone would hear it.

Bumblebee walked through the scrapyard, eventually reaching an open space in the middle. There, the Bee Team was waiting for them, Sideswipe, Strongarm, and Grimlock.

He saw Sideswipe leaning against an old crane, staring at his hands. Strongarm was still sitting in the same place in thought, Grimlock was drawing things on the ground with his tail, completely separated from the outside world like Strongarm.

Russell had never seen them like this before. Were they like this because of… him?

"Uh… h-hey, guys…"

All four of them were immediately pulled from their trance, as they turned their head to look at the source of the voice. Their faces turned to that of absolute joy as they looked at the face of Russell.

"Russell!"

The three bots quickly stopped what they were doing and crowded around Bee and Russell, wanting to be as close as possible. Russell smiled at them, happy to see them, "Yeah… I missed you guys, too."

Russell noticed Grimlock's tail was wagging and he couldn't help but laugh. The dinosaur immediately looked towards his lower body area, "Woah, Russell… Are you okay? Does it hurt?

The boy shrugged his shoulders, "Well yeah, everything kinda hurts right now, so…"

"Well yeah… I bet it does," Sideswipe ruffled his hair with a finger, "You're tough, dude."

"He shouldn't have to be tough! We should have done a better job at protecting them," Strongarm said right below a shout, "If we had just been better, protected them, Russell wouldn't be in this state, and Denny wouldn't be…" She stopped mid-sentence, immediately regretting her choice of words. She put a finger on the side of his face as he started to tremble, "Russell… I'm so sorry! I don't know what I was thinking! I-"

"It's ok, Strongarm. It's not your fault," he looked around at the other three, "And it's not any of yours, either. This is Starscream's fault and his alone."

Strongarm seemed relieved that Russell didn't blame them, a little pressure being lifted off her shoulders.. But at the same time she knew that Russell shouldn't be acting this… fine. He was anything but fine. She knew he had to be hiding his emotions away…

"Are you sure you're okay? You know we're here for you, right?" Strongarm gave the boy a worried look.

Russell brushed all his feelings aside, opting to keep them hidden, "Yeah, I'm ok. Thanks guys."

The bots gave each other worried looks. They knew he wasn't ok.

(Internal Comms.)

Sides: Why is he acting like nothing is wrong? I mean, he's gone through so much recently….

Bee: Humans are… stubborn. He probably thinks we'll judge him for showing us his emotions.

Strongarm: So he's just gonna bottle all of his feelings inside? That's not good for him… Shouldn't we do something?

Grimlock: Yeah! Even I have outbursts from time to time.

Bee: You guys, this isn't about us! The point is, he'll eventually open his emotions up to us, we just have to give it time.

Sides: Well what if he doesn't?

Bee: Then we'll just have to find a way to force them out of him.

Bumblebee closed the internal communications server, looking down at the boy cuddling against his chest. By Primus, by God, by whatever higher being there was out there, he was going to make sure that he was loved. He had a feeling that the other Autobots felt the same way.

"Sir," he was interrupted from his thoughts by Strongarm, "Can I… hold him?"

He looked down at him again. More than anything he just wanted to stand there and coddle him for a while longer, but at the same he knew that the others wanted to be there for Russell, and that he had some business to take care of with Team Prime. He ran a finger down Russell's back, "Is that ok with you?"

Russell nodded, "Ok."

The femme smiled, gently taking the boy into her own servos. He cuddled into her chest, and she blushed.

Bumblebee smiled at the sight, "Can you guys spend some time with him? I have to go settle some stuff with the others."

Sideswipe was at his side, "Of course, man! Don't worry about it!"

He smiled, giving a slight nod, and left to go find Optimus, knowing that the conversation they were going to have was going to be far from pleasant.

———————————————————————

The Prime didn't know how far he was from base, and honestly he didn't care.

Through this whole war, there hadn't been a single human casualty. The Autobots have always managed to protect their charges and the rest of the human population, putting their safety at top priority. Now, a boy has been orphaned simply because they didn't get there on time.

Optimus sighed. He was only making himself worse. He knew that it wasn't his fault, that blame belonged to no one but Starscream.

But at the same time, he can't help but connect this with the dark energon incident.

Bee: Optimus?

He was interrupted by Bumblebee, who opened a comm link.

OP: Yes, Bumblebee?

Bee: You wanted to speak to me, sir.

OP: Yes. I will meet you back at base. This is a conversation I want to have with only you, Ratchet, and Bulkhead. Prime out.

He stopped dead in his tracks in the middle of the road and made a u-turn, heading back to base.

He knew that this subject should have been brought up back when Starscream killed Cliffjumper, and it pained him that it took this long to finally reach this conclusion.

Starscream had to die.

Hey guys, I know, It's been a while. I've matured a lot since I last wrote a chapter. All this mental stress sucks, but it's making me stronger. I just want you guys to know I haven't forgotten about you or my stories, and that I will be trying harder. I'm a senior in high school now and I'm trying to make it as easy as possible. I still have a few weeks left of my last summer break to update a couple times. Thank you all for sticking by me!