(Please see all previous disclaimers)
Optimus and Hide carefully led the eight minibots back towards the Autobot's underground base just outside of Iacon. While the older bots thought little of it, as they had been lower class bots on their Kingdom, the four youngling were amazed. "Is…Is that really Iacon?" Shifter asked, he was curious as he saw the ruins though he noticed it was not nearly as ruined as the kingdom the eight had survived in.
"Yes, that is Iacon. It suffered damage but not as much as many other kingdoms of this world. All of the old Kingdoms will be turned into Citadels and if we have to create new citadels for bots we will" Optimus carefully and gently explained. The eight minibots just nodded. They liked the sound of that.
Hide was carefully monitoring things when he just stopped. Optimus noticed. "What is wrong, Ironhide?" Optimus asked.
"It sounds like there are bots inside the gates of Iacon" Hide replied, unsure if the bots were friends or rogue foes.
Optimus was a bit puzzled. "Who would be in Iacon? I gave no orders for bots to start working" Optimus replied, concerned as well.
"You nine remain here, I am going to check this out" Hide stated. Optimus and the eight minibots stayed put as hide headed for the gates of Iacon. As the old bot got close, he heard voices. He carefully made his way closer, sincerely hoping that these were friendly voices and not rogue bots. But the voices sounded far off, so, so far, Hide didn't recognize them. He carefully entered the ruined soon to be citadel of Iacon.
Meanwhile, inside the gates, Mirage was working carefully and thorougly with Skyfire and Skipper to entomb each bot that had been left. They had no idea that Hide was wary of the noise in Iacon and was sneaking up on them.
"There" Mirage said, "another bot properly entombed."
"Do you know who that bot was?" Skipper asked, neither he nor Skyfire recognizing the bot.
"No, I don't. Optimus might, but you have to remember, I grew up in Kaon, so I am not likely to recognize this bot" Mirage answered, studying the bot before trying to close the lid for full entombment.
Hide found the three then and drew his weapon before he realized who he was aiming at. Hide quickly put his weapon away when he realized that he was aiming at Mirage and two large Autobots. "What are you three doing here? Optimus gave no order to start this" Hide stated, curious and concerned.
"I came here because I wanted to properly entomb Sentinel and Eliza 1. I couldn't do it on my own and I didn't want Optimus to see what terrible thing had been done to them" Mirage replied. "Once we were finished with that, we just started working on entombing any bots we found including this one." Mirage then pointed to the box they were just about to shut. Ironhide nodded then. Hide figured that if Sentinel and Elita had ended up anything like Onyx and Quartz, it was best Optimus didn't know.
"Well, once you finish with Straightshooter, I need you to come with me" Hide stated, nonchalantly naming the bot they were working on.
"Who?" Skyfire asked, stunned to hear a name.
"That's straightshooter. He was young. I was training him to be a palace guard. The last order I ever gave him was to defend the palace at all cost. It looks like he took my order to spark" Hide stated, a hint of sadness in his voice. Mirage nodded, carefully lowered the lid and then labeled the bot's remains now that they knew who he was.
"Alright, now you three are coming with me as we need to get back" Hide stated matter of factly. Mirage and the others didn't argue. And soon Hide brought the three to Optimus, who was talking with eight minibots. Mirage, upon seeing the eight, recognized only one – winder, as bed had introduced Mirage and Winder at one time.
Optimus looked up at the approaching engines and bots. He recognized his mate in an instant and was a bit confused. Mirage soon rolled up. "I was starting to help entomb bots in Iacon" Mirage stated, the other two backing Mirage up. "And who do you have with you?"
"These eight were found in a special place in Kaon, having survived the attack thanks to a shelter created by Bumblebee before he was assigned to the castle" Optimus replied.
"Welcome, my friends. I know some of you may not recognize me, but my name is Mirage and I am very happy to see all of you" Mirage stated.
"You… you are the Prince of Kaon?" Driftwood asked, stunned.
"I am, but I just am a regular bot, no different from you" Mirage stated.
"But… you are so much bigger than us" Slider blurted out.
Mirage felt bad to hear that. "Size doesn't bother me, outside of my mate, Optimus, all my best friends are minibots, including Bumblebee" Mirage stated, knowing all the older bots would know of bee.
"He lives?" Winder asked.
"Yes, come with us and I will reintroduce all of you, or introduce you as the case may be" Mirage answered. The eight minibots agreed and soon, all were heading back to the underground base. Mirage just hoped Bee remembered these bots as well. They would find out soon enough.