We had been stuck here for a long longer than we hoped. Six days so far, but we had a detailed plan laid out on how to break into Sumdac tower. We just had to wait on Sideways to get a better scan of the building, then we would strike in the morning. I had yet to meet this version of my sire, only hearing his voice on com calls with Megatron. Bulkhead had to put his hand on my shoulder to keep me grounded each time. It was drawing close to when he was supposed to arrive with the updated scans, my spark hammered in my chest as I watched the digital clock on the computer screen.
"Are you alright? You look, stressed." I looked up to see Megatron looking over me with worry.
"Honestly, I don't know. I know Bulkhead and I told you that you guys are way different in our world, but Sideways…he tormented me, my brother and murdered my creator!" He put a hand over my clenched fist that was crushing the edge of the rock I was on. .
"Nautica? That's still your creator, right?" I nodded. "In this world she has also gone offline, however it was her own undoing. She was brilliant, insane, but a genius in her own right. Back on Cybertron, she build a reactor that could harvest sparks to be used to power Autocon ships. She did not account for the instability of such a thing. Her experiment blew up in her face, taking her and the technology with her. Sideways had tried to stop her but by that time she had lost her mind."
"You mean…Sideways still loved her?"
"Of course, he loved his bonded and his creations. Though unfortunately Nautica's madness passed to her eldest; however the other you was able to be rescued before she could brainwash her too."
"Sideways raised her?" He gave me a soft smile.
"Indeed. I still remember the day he brought her home. I thought he had gone mad and stolen a youngling, but when he moved the blanket you were wrapped in, I understood the truth. Your creator had been using the other you for her experimental work. You were so small then…just barely out of sparklinghood." That was hard to imagine.
"In my world, my creator had to go into hiding to keep him away from me. I never met him til the day…he tricked her into thinking he was Prowl and murdered her in front of me. I had to leave her behind, I have no idea what happened to her frame…" Most likely police bots found her and she was melted down like Prowl.
"That must have been terrifying for you. You are safe here though, that I promise." Megatron put his hand on my helm, gently, like humans did when they played with each other's hair. No one back home is gonna believe me.
The sound of a motorbike had me freeze up, paralyzed with fear again. It was him, but not…I had to remind myself. I watched as he zoomed in, skidding to a haunt before transforming in the middle of the large cavern. The Sideways of this world was white with gold accents and black legs, if I hadn't been looking closely, I'd mistake him for Jazz. His visor matched my Prowl's cerulean blue visor, but there was a chip on the corner of the right side.
"It cannot be…" the normally angry, deep, gravely voice was still deep but gentle and held no malice. Still, every part of me was telling me to run, scream even, as far from him as possible. "Starlit? My beautiful spark…" He stepped towards me, causing me to involuntarily move away, putting the rock I was on between us.
"Sideways, this is Starlit. She and her friend Bulkhead are the ones trapped here from another world." Megatron stood to distract him a bit. "The you from that world wasn't so nice."
"I-I see. Sorry, I didn't mean…you just…Primus it's like she's alive again." Sideways genuinely seemed hurt by my reaction, but more hurt that the other him had been cruel. "Excuse me, that was rude of me. I'm Sideways, of this world." He's not at all like Sire…I thought.
"Uh, hi." I let him approach and shake my hand. He didn't have claws, just normal servos. He gently took my hand in both of his, examining it like I was made of glass.
"No claws, fascinating!"
"Ehm, Sideways, how did the mission go?" Megatron broke the tension.
"Ah yes, the scans of the tower are complete, sir. There's one way in, but I wasn't able to investigate it too well without Nemesis spotting me." he used his holoprojector to show a 3D model of the tower and the nearby blocks. "Here is where we can enter. It should take us into the bomb shelter below. From there, we'll have to make our way up to the lobby." The entrance he found was a sewer, just big enough for someone my size to get through. "Their scouting route change over happens exactly at ten am and takes about two minutes, that's our window to get in."
"What about the rest? That's too small for everyone to go through." I seemed to have the narrowest frame of the group.
"Well, in the lobby is that reception bot. At the desk there should be a switch to take the shields down. Once that happens, we're free to fly to the top!" Sideways beamed.
"Free is a relative term." Starscream piped up as he came around the corner. "Sumdac has his droids all over the place and those twin seekers will be waiting! This plan is never going to work."
"The droids command center should be near the shields, if I can hack in I might be able to use them to our advantage." If the tower was built the same as my world, it wouldn't be hard. "But I'll need time to do that."
"Ve can buy ya time!" Blitzwing had been listening behind us. His random face's blue lights had an excited glow to it. "Ve have very little time left before we can no longer stabilize our worlds." His face switched back to his normal one before he spoke.
"He's right, the reading on the last scan shows we are mere hours from total collapse of time." Starscream agreed. "It is now or we all get torn to bits."
Bumblebee's View:
I regret skipping out on our engineering classes at the academy. While the others did their best, we were missing our two experts, but at least they knew the basics. I on the other hand had no idea where to begin and was basically useless. Between being useless and the empty void I felt in my spark, I felt the beginning stages of a deep depression coming on. It drug up old memories of being told how useless and small I was, beginning the moment I left forage.
Look at him, he'll never be anything….
You ain't worth the scrap you came from!
You're only worth is In between your stabilizers….
You need to leave…you're not welcome here.
I shook my head to try and clear my mind, but it only made me dizzy.
"You alright, mech?" Ironhide peeked up from under the torn apart ground bridge console. He and Ratchet were finishing rewiring the fried circuits.
"Yeah…I'm fine." I didn't convince myself.
"Quit yer moping and come solder these!" Ratchet didn't need me to do it, he just wanted to keep me busy; keep me from going crazy.
"I'm sure Starlit and Bulkhead are alright. They seem to know how to take care of 'emselves." Ironhide was right, they were more than capable, but where were they? If they were still on Earth we could track them, but their signals were just…gone. Were they out in space like I had been? Had they been eaten by a rock monster?! Well…maybe not Bulkhead…
"Watch were yer aimin!" I nearly shocked Ratchet instead of the wires he held. "Slag it kid, you gotta focus! We can't get em back without all of us workin on this fraggin thing!" Ratchet was just as worried, I could tell. He was more gumpy than usual.
"Sorry…" I mumbled.
"When's the last time you recharged?" I looked up to see the medic eyeing my face. "Don't tell me you're pulling a Prime." Optimus has been doing triple duty lately being not only our leader but as 'Magnus' he had Cybertron to lead, and now this mess. The council has heard of what happened and we're now demanding updates on all space bridges to prevent what happened. Trouble with that was we didn't know what happened and it wasn't a space bridge malfunction, it was a ground bridge. There was a difference, I just don't know what that is.
"Yesterday, I couldn't last night…" Nightmares of where they could be kept me up.
"Better than him I guess." Ratchet sighed as we finished our work. "At least I can use ya without worrying you'll fall asleep mid way."
"When's that Sari kid coming back? Ain't her and her dad experts on this stuff?" Ironhide asked.
"Experts? Not exactly. Professor Sumdac is an expert in reverse engineering, hopefully he can help rebuild what we got. Sari's ability to read what needs to be repaired could be vital…we just have to wait and see." And that's what was driving me crazy! There was no real solution, just a wait and see if we can do anything! I needed there to be a real answer and soon before I blew a circuit.
As if on cue, both of them and Prime came down the elevator. I didn't pay any attention to them at first, until Sari tapped my leg to gain my attention.
"You alright?" I couldn't lie to her while she had her hand on me, her power could read me like an open book.
"I…don't know. I'll feel better when we get this fixed."
Starlit:
Just as Sideways said, the back of the tower was mostly unguarded and the manhole cover we needed was hidden just behind a burnt out gas station.
"Now, Arachnia should be down there to help ye get to the bunkers. We'll be here waiting to get your signal." Guess I wouldn't be completely alone. Sideways opened the cover while Blitzwing and Bulkhead kept an optic out in vehicle mode.
"Wait, what's the signal again?" Bulkhead asked.
"I'll ping you three times on the coms if I can. If not, the moment the shields go down, you got it?" I gave him a wink before lowering myself into the tunnels. "Wish me luck!" I called up to them before they closed me in. It was dark and narrow down here, I had to duck a bit to walk around. I didn't dare transform and make too much noise.
"Good luck, kid!" Sideways' voice called as the cover slid into place. Now all I have to do was find…
"My Starlit?" A fems voice spoke from the darkness. "No…you smell different." A large white and red spider crawled forward, just barely fitting through the tunnel. Her six blue optics glowing with mischief as she scurried towards me. "I see…you're the one from the other dimension. Let me guess, you're the only other one who fits down here in these disgusting places?" I nodded as one of her legs reached to tap my cheek.
"What? Are you scared? Of little ol me?" She made a strange clicking noise. "I'd transform but I wouldn't fit down here anymore. Lucky you, you get to be in your true form. Well come on then.." she shifted herself around to turn around. "It's back this way. Just watch out for my webs." As she said that, I crawled through a strand, the purpley web stuck to my helm like cling wrap.
"Gah!" Of course, that's just my luck…
The main line under the tower was more open, allowing both of us to be next to each other instead of a single file line. Thank Primus, I never wanted to be this close to a spider's rear ever again. I'm sure this version of Black Arachnia was nicer, but she still had a hostility to her.
"This is it. That vent system is the way into the bomb shelter." Arachnia crawled up the wall where a large pipe sat. "Stay back for a moment." She warned as she sprayed acid on the side of the pipe. The metal quickly corroded and melted away, sizzling as the acid worked its magic. "That should do it." She lowered a thread of web down. "I'll pull you up." I was doubting it would hold, but to my surprise it held me.
Both of us entered the air vent system and into the bunker. We were cautious as we climbed out of the vents, unsure of what was down here. Arachnia stayed up on the walls in the shadows while I was trying my best to stay hidden in the long, concrete room. The only lights in here were a few emergency lights that never shut off, but they were spaced out in a way that left large areas of deep darkness.
It was strange that there was nothing down here. I'd thought we might find some humans, seeing as the city was rubble, but no it was an empty, concrete room. Arachnia spun herself down from a web before transforming just in front of me, shocking me with how pretty she really was. Why would anyone hate her for her looks? I didn't understand the stigma against techno-organics.
"For a guy who's so paranoid, he really dropped the ball here." She muttered as we made it to the stairwell. There was no one around, which put me on edge. Even once we made it to the lobby, it was ghostly quiet. Just because it looks clear doesn't mean it is. As quiet as possible, I made it over to the desk and deactivated the secretary bot and security bots in the lobby just before Evil Bumblebee came down the elevator. I ducked down, trying to get the shield's power knocked out without being seen. Arachnia transformed and scurried to the ceiling, watching from above.
Thankfully he was distracted and didn't see us, but he did stop walking right in the center of the room. He crossed his arms and stared out the front windows, waiting for something. The shield flickered, without me doing anything, and a roar of a truck engine sounded through the front doors. A dusty teal, black and purple firetruck drove into the lobby, leaving tire tracks on the marble flooring as he skidded to a stop. They transformed, and to my horror it was Optimus er…Nemesis I guess. Our Prime held an air about him that was calm, but this Prime sucked the air out of the room with the disdain that rolled off him. He might be worse than Megatron. A chill ran down my frame as he walked up to the console.
"What? No comment on the flooring?" He was talking to the deactivated secretary. "Tch, primitive technology." He reached over and grabbed its head, crushing it as he yanked it clean off. That was way too close…I was making myself as small as possible under the desk right near the headless bot. Focus…pop the panel, pull the wires… I mentally went through each step to keep calm.
"Nemesis, Sir. When are we going to stop playing as this humans' pets? I'm sick of having to listen to him!"
"Since when did you start complaining?" Nemesis' shadow retreated. "Our time will come soon. Once the human thinks the space bridge is under his control, we strike. These collars will be disabled when that happens, he needs the power that the controllers would normally be using." Evil Bee laughed, it was cold and terrifying. I peeked through a small gap in the console when the ground shook to see what was happening.
"Then we get to crush them!" Evil Bulkhead rounded the corner from a different area. I thought our Bulkhead was big, but he seemed to be one size bigger. Maybe it was the war black-green tank armor he had, but he was huge! "Finally…I love the feeling when their bones break in my fists!" The mech's optics glowed an eerie red orange.
"Yes…and set our army upon the rest of these filthy, primitive creatures. Those Deceptibots will finally bow down to me and I will be the ruler of this universe."
Come on…short out! I begged the shields to go down as I snipped the wiring to route it into my wrist. From there, I was able to access the security codes and bypass the firewalls. Sumdac really was paranoid, he had so many redundant codes that just kept getting in my way that I just used my firewall to break them. Unfortunately it meant the debits wouldn't shut down, but I could trap them in standby mode. He'll have to reset each one manually this way. Finally I got the shield codes and quickly shut them down, blocking the redundant coding to turn it back on.
"The slag?" I wasn't sure who said it, but the pink glow in the room faded away as the sounds of the shields going down reverberated in the building. Then a different alarm blared as iron gates started closing around the windows.
No,no,no! Stop! I quickly hacked those but they stopped mid way, refusing to move back up. I guess that's ok…
"You…" I gasped as evil Bee hissed in my audio. He's quick…I had just enough time to block his stinger, which plunged right into the security console. Slag!! I kicked him in the chest, pushing his body back into the decapitated secretary. As I lept out of my hiding area, Arachnia jumped onto Bulkhead, biting into his neck.
"Don't even try!" She hissed as the mech went down. "Nemesis, long time no see." She transformed, standing on evil Bulkhead's back. "It's high time I paid you back…" The two of them squared off as Blitzwing burst through the steel and glass doors.
"Knock knock!!! Honey we're here!!' he cackled as his tank form blasted towards the sky outside. "Come here little jets!!"
"Come on kid!" Sideways ran in, grabbing my arm as we beelined for the freight elevators. "This one will take us mid way up, there's another we gotta catch from there!" Sideways slammed the doors shut. "Them jet twins sure put up a hell of a fight."
"Yeah, they're top of the Elite Guard in my world for a reason."
"Elite Guards men? My, that's impressive! These two I don't think have the processor for it. Whatever moves, they shoot."
The elevator stopped abruptly, the doors forced open from the outside. Gray claws ripped the doors open, but Sideways was quick to deliver a punch to the mech's face.
"Sorry my boy! But no time to talk!" I leapt out as the elevator hitched and fell back down thirty floors. "What's wrong son? Didn't expect yer old dad?"
"I thought you went offline…" Evil Prowl growled. "I'll make sure this time!"
"Go little one! It's that way! Megatron will meet you there!!" Sideways grabbed Prowl before he could lunge at me.
"What?! How!" Prowl growled, looking towards me. "You shouldn't exist!" That roar was just like the Sideways I knew. It's not Prowl, just go! I told myself as I ran to the next set of freights. Hold on, they might of disabled them like the others. I changed course and went for the stairs. The open stairway allowed me to use my jump jets to climb six floors at a time. Much faster!!
I had only been to the top of this tower a few times, but this version was far more precarious! The rooftop space bridge was on a slope, in fact the entire balcony had a slope that if you stepped wrong, it was a looong way down. How Sumdac and this crazy team built it was a great question that I didn't have time to figure out.
It looked functional, but there was no power to it right now. I looked over the controls to see what the current settings were but found nothing, just coordinates that added up to nothing. Wait…if that note is correct, they're not traveling, they're bringing something here. But nothing is that big. No…they wouldn't. The note and the odd coordinates were where Cybertron would be positioned in the next day or so. "They're trying to bring Cybertron here?"
"Das right!" I ducked as a gray and black jet swooped me. He transformed mid air, aiming his cannon at me.
"Once it's all in place, we will be making this new home." A gray and white jet joined him but was followed by Blitzwing.
"Wooohohoho! You think you can slip away?! I don't think so!" Both him and the white jet, who ended up being Jetfire, transformed mid air and collided with a loud bang. "If I go down, I'm taking you with me!" His personality changed to the angry faced one.
"Crazy slagger!" Jetstorm turned back to me. "Have ve met? You are seeming to be familiar." He flew lower, his red visor fixed on me. "Oh I remember! You were that spy we made our toy!" The smirk he gave me was filled with malice. "Looks like we get to play again!" He flew at me, aiming to grab my chassis. He missed but caught my booster.
"Brother! Let's play a game!" He threw me, Jetfire catching me by my legs and dangling me above the city.
"How about tug of war…" Jetfire grinned. Jetstorm was coming towards me, reaching for my arms.
I released my swords and put my battle mask up as he closed it, before he could react I pulled myself up over him, gliding my blades straight through his wing set.
"Gaaahhh!" Jetstorm landed hard, almost sliding down the sloped roof. His left leg was twisted in the fall.
"Brother! Get up!" Jetfire yelled, letting go of my right leg. "If you survive again, we can play some more. For now, you need punishment for breaking rules." He let go.
It felt like time slowed as fell. I'm sorry Jazz…Blue…Bee, please forgive me…
"Gotcha!" Blitzwing caught me, holding me close his frame as he carried me safely back to the roof top. "You alright?" I nodded as I tried to steady my feet. "Good…" his face changed back to the angry one.
"Don't forget who you're fighting!" He blasted back off into the sky. Blitzwing quickly gained on Jetfire and grabbed the white twin. "I'm done playing with you!" Without warning, Blitzwing tore Jetfire into two, letting the lower half of him fall to the rooftop. "Ooohhhhoo! Looks like you can break!"
"Blitzwing! Stop that!" Megatron flew up, landing near Jetstorm. "For frag's sake, we are not them!!"
"B-brother…" Jetstorm said weakly as Blitzwing landed near the torn half of Jetfire. "Y-you monster…" Jetfire gasped and choked on his own energon, unable to talk.
"As if you weren't about to try that on me." I glared down at the injured twin. "Frag…" I looked over the others injuries but there was nothing to be done. The damage he sustained to his spark chamber when he was pulled apart was too extensive.
"My mistake…" Blitzwing gently set the rest of Jetfire down, allowing Jetstorm to crawl to him. Jetfire's systems finally shut down, the agony on his face fading as his frame turned completely gray.
"No…what have you done….JETFIRE!" Jetstorm cried, but it was short lived. Before we could do anything, Nemesis and evil Ratchet burst through the doors, Nemesis took one look at the downed jet and took aim at him.
"Useless drones!" Jetstorm was going to protest but his leader blasted his gun point blank into the black twins helm. "Can't even keep the trash out!"
"Nemesis!" Megatron gained their attention allowing me to go back to the space bridge controls. Everything had to be recalibrated which would take time we might not have.
"Watch your back!!" I heard Starscream from somewhere above. My body froze as Ratchet caught me in his magnets. Ugh I can't catch a break!
"Don't even think about messing with my machine." I didn't think it was possible for the old mech to look grumpier, but this version was. He didn't look too much different, just blue instead of red with a more pink face.
"I won't let you destroy our worlds…" I tried to resist his pull but the magnets were too much. To my horror evil Bee was now up here as well and running straight at me.
"Our worlds?" Evil Ratchet tilted his helm. "You ain't from here, are ye? You look like that traitor, I figured you were her clone. I remember now, we let the twins play with you before Bumbler took you out."
"I'm not her…" Thankfully Megatron had a clear shot just then and took it, forcing the medic to let me go, just in time for me to block Bee's stingers. The mech wildly swung at me, trying to get me off balance and fall off the roof. If I was just fighting him it would have been a breeze, but no Ratchet was involved along with Nemesis.
As we fought, Sumdac appeared along with Sari. The man looked like he'd seen war and had a scar across his left eye. His hair was gone, so I didn't recognize him until he spoke.
"You imbeciles! How could you let this happen!? I should have dismantled you all when we found you!" He yelled. Sari was in her upgraded state, but our cute little orange and cream friend was light purple and pale green and full of hatred. She activated her blades, which were apparently chainsaws, and sprinted at me. Why am I the target?!
"Not on my watch!!" My world's Bulkhead nailed evil Bee with his wrecking ball. He was being carried up by a bot we hadn't met, but I think his name in my world was Lugnut, along with Arachnia.
While all of this was going on, the space bridge whirled to life as Ratchet powered it up. Something wasn't right though, the normal blue was yellow green and sparking like mad.
"You fools! You'll kill us all!!" Starscream shrieked as the ball of energy grew. Bulkhead grabbed my arm as the pull from the space bridge started pulling everything in.
"Hold on!" He said as he grabbed a steel support beam. "I gotcha!" An energy surge pushed me back into him, allowing me to hold onto his frame.
"Oh no…"Through the space bridge I could see 'our' home world looming close, the pull of the field starting to close the gap between our planets. Gravity started ripping steel plates off the roof.
"We gotta shut it down!!" Lugnut landing in front of us to keep us from getting sucked into it. Arachnia soon a web net to catch herself and tie everyone to steel beams.
"Megatron, the console!" She yelled
"Starlit, I can launch you over!" Bulkhead positioned his wrecking ball for me to step on.
"Do it!" I jumped on, keeping in mind the gravity pull would make a clean shot difficult. Using the boost from his wrecking ball and my jump boosters, I was able to crash land next to the control panel. Megatron grabbed my waist to keep me from going over it as I desperately tried to reset the bridge.
"Stop her!" Evil Ratchet screamed, but was blasted back by Megatron.
"I don't mean to pressure you, but we're not going to be online much longer if it stays on." Megatron was doing his best to stay calm, but the gravity pull was getting stronger. He, Lugnut, Bulkhead and Blitzwing were struggling to stay on their feet. The two offline frames of the jet twins flew into the field, disintegrating on impact. I refuse to go offline! I slammed the switch down, causing a shift in the pull. Megatron was able to put me back down but kept a firm hold incase it started again. The wind swirled counter clockwise as the field changed to a sickly green and purple. Electricity crackled as the image of Cybertron went away and was replaced with a white ball of energy.
"No!" Nemesis growled, grabbing his ax and swinging at me. Megatron pushed me away, taking the hit in his right arm. "You've interfered for the last time!" He missed the next swing, hitting the controls. Megatron pushed him away, taking the battle away from the console. The field groaned as it stabilized, the glow settling into a yellow and pink ball as an image of our world basement appeared in the center.
"Gahhh!" Without warning our Bumblebee and Ironhide were pulled through. "What just happened?" The yellow mech took a look around before spotting me. "Starlit! Frag look out!" He cried, scrabbling to run towards me.
"Huh?" I turned to my left time to see Evil Bee aiming to stab be right in the back. "Gaah!" I blocked but his stinger went into my arm.
"Hehehe..." he cackled as he raised his other arm. I was quicker and ran my blade clean through his stuck arm, severing it. No more of this, I won't let you hurt anyone again! I thought as I swung my now freed arm, plunging my blade into his spark casing. I didn't register the look he had or the fact my other blade had rebounded into his side until I pulled back, ripping his chassis clean open.
Horrified my my own actions, I deactivated my blades and stepped back. Evil Bee sputtered for a moment, falling forward as he slowly bleed out from his torn open chassis. His spark fizzled out a few moments later, but in my frenzied state of mind I thought I had hit my Bee.
"Bumblebee!!" Evil Sari, tears in her eyes came running, swinging her saw blades haphazardly. "You bitch!! You're gonna pay for that!" I didn't want to hurt her, I didn't want to hurt anyone!
"I'm sorry, I didn't…" but Blitzwing punched her out of the air and into the side of the building wall.
"You two must go now! We don't have long til it destabilizes! Go my bug!" He kissed me, taking me by surprise, before pushing me towards the space bridge, Bulkhead grabbing my hand as he ran to the flickering field.
"Come on!" Bumblebee hauled us through just as the portal collapsed, severing our worlds once more.
My ears rang as a flash of light enveloped us before being thrown back into our world. The four of us landed hard on the concrete floor, Bee unfortunately ended up on the bottom, followed by Bulkhead, me then Ironhide all ended up in a pile at the foot of our ground bridge.
"Primus!" Ratchet called out, rushing to our aid.
"Ow…g-get off big guy." Bumblebee wiggled free as Bulkhead groaned. My processor lagged, nothing felt real as Bee and Ironhide helped us up.
"You look like hell kid." Ratchet gained my attention, scanning my optics with his finger scanner. "You got a bit of a concussion going on. Your ears ringing a bit? Primus that's quite the wound."
"Doesn't hurt." Even though there was a large hole on my arm, I didn't feel it. Ratchet gave me a look and shuffled me off to the side, away from audio range of the others.
"You alright? You're scaring me here." He examined my arm, pinching off a non vital emerging line to stop the bleeding.
"I killed Bee…" I don't know what happened after, the world started to spin and I blacked out.
Bumblebee's View:
Ratchet rushed us all to the med bay, even though neither I or Ironhide had any injuries, he still wanted to scan us.
Both Starlit and Bulkhead looked like they'd been through hell, scratches and dents littered both their bodies, though Bulkhead looked a bit worse, he wasn't covered in nearly as much energon as Starlit. Ratchet patched her first since she was actively bleeding, Bulkhead appeared to have superficial wounds but would need some dents pounded out.
Her face had a deep stain of blood that crossed over her left optic to her right cheek. Even though I had seen what happened, I still didn't believe it. I sat by her on the berth, she had a distant look on her face like she wasn't really here. I looked her over and myself, seeing I had it on me as well, must have happened when I grabbed her from that other world. Star looked back to me, her optics hollow and void of her usual self.
Star, what happened to you? I held her hand as she looked away from me again. She didn't say anything back, not even through the bond.
"Let's get ya cleaned up, alright? Bee, take Starlit and help her. Jazz, can ya lend me a servo on helping this one?" Ratchet pointed his thumb at Bulkhead.
"Oh come on, it's not…oh…" Bulkhead looked down at himself and over to Starlit. "Right…"
"Afterwords, I'd like to know what happened to you two." Optimus' worry lines had finally softened, having them both back, mostly unscathed, was a huge relief.
Starlit still hadn't said too much, even after she and I were alone in my wash room. I wasn't sure if she was still injured, so a solivint shower was out of the question; it would burn her wounds. Instead I filled a bucket with warm water for now while she sat on the bench. She just stared blankly at her own hands, not even acknowledging me when I knelt in front of her. It wasn't until I put my hands over hers did she even move. She flinched, looking at me with the same emotionless, nearly gray optics. I'd seen this look a few times on her, the worst I thought was when Prowl passed, but this one was more intense.
"Hey, you're home now. It's ok" Her blood soaked hands held firmly in mine suddenly tightened. "It's me…" Her optics welled up, tears leaving streaks in the energon on her face. I let her hands go and took the cleaning cloth I had soaked, wiping her tears away along with the blood.
"I'm sorry…"she whispered.
"You haven't done anything wrong." I tried to break whatever memory she seemed to be stuck in. She grabbed my wrist, stopping me from finishing cleaning her face off.
"What do you mean? You're gone because of me! You're not even really here." With my free hand I cupped her face.
"Starlit, look at me, please. I'm not gone. I'm right here." What do you mean, can't you feel us? I tried connecting through our bond again. The void I felt before was gone, but she needed to reopen our connection.This seemed to work; she opened her side of the bond and a lot of very confusing things came through.
"S-slow down. What's that breathing thing you ninja bots do again? Can you try that? Just, tell me slowly, ok." Usually I could handle both our racing thoughts, but none of what she said was making sense.
"I killed you!" Her hands were holding my helm in place to look at her in the optics. I'd never seen her this frantic. "Y-You're not here…" How do I show you you're wrong? I thought to myself. "This is all that's left…" she let go, staring at her hands. Wait…that other bot did kinda look like me…is that what she meant?
"T-that's impossible." I leaned forward to put our forhelms together, holding her hands in mine. "See? I can't be gone. Can't do that if I'm gone, right?" I watched as her optics became more focused on me, the green becoming less gray.
"B-Bumblebee? What…" That's when it clicked, this wasn't a memory glitch, she actually thought she killed me and not the other me.
"Tell me how to help." I was desperate to do something. The answer was her kissing me deeply, desperately. I obliged, sitting up on my knees to get a better angle and wrap my arms around her waist. When the kiss broke, we were breathless.
"It wasn't you…it was the other you?" She held me tight, as if I would disappear if she let go. "Bee." She sobbed.
"Yeah…you're gonna have to catch me up on that one." I sighed into her neck as she continued to squeeze me. I'm just glad you're home.