"Are you two okay?" Optimus asked as he worked B's gag off.
"Yeah, we're okay!" B declared the moment his mouth was free.
"Charoite's propellers cut through my cuffs and the ties on her wings! I didn't know propellers could be that sharp!"
"That's great!" Optimus turned to Jazz. "Jazz, cut the rest of their ties."
As Jazz worked on Charoite's ties, she saw the rest of the Autobots taking defensive stances while the flying Decepticons landed, the ground-based ones coming closer.
In his tank mode, Megatron sped up to the scene. He de-transformed and stood in front of Optimus, breathing heavily, his fists clenched. "We're not done with them yet, Prime, unless you hand Cybertron over to me."
"Not a chance, D-Megatron." Optimus lowered his axe. "I'm giving you a chance to walk away and let us take our friends back to Iacon."
Charoite's spark sunk. No way was he going to walk away.
Megatron smirked and looked back at his army. "Sorry, everybody. Looks like we're going to have to take over Cybertron the hard way."
Charoite saw Jazz cut through the last of B's bindings before the Decepticons charged the Autobots.
"Oh, it's on!" B laughed before he extended his knives out of his hands and slid his yellow battle mask over his face, a visor over the eyes.
Charoite slid her own purple battle mask on, which also had a visor. "Wait! You couldn't have cut through the cuffs?"
"I tried but the-" B sliced both his hands across a bot and made him stumble, "-cuffs neutralized them!"
You'll pay for humiliating me!" Starscream yelled and rushed to Charoite. He lifted a foot, blasted a flame in her face and kicked her.
Charoite stumbled to get back up and screamed in his face, purple and blue circles of light projecting from her mouth.
"Ahhh! Why?" Starscream covered his audible as a few nearby Decepticons the same.
Charoite, not having used her sonic scream in a long time, crossed her arms and smirked. "Huh, maybe my name should be Starscream instead!"
"Wow! That was really cool!" Charoite heard B declare.
Charoite would have mourned the loss of her second triumphant moment of the day, we're it not for the other Decepticons charging towards her and the Autobots.
After a few minutes, Charoite and the Autobots had the majority of the Decepticons incapacitated. Charoite was so frightened and frantic during the fight that she didn't notice this until Megatron yelled for the Decepticons to retreat.
The Decepticons sauntered away from the scene, some limping.
Charoite dropped to her knees and sighed. "It's over."
"B?" Optimus asked.
"Holy Primus! B!" Elita shouted.
Charoite turned around and saw B lying on the ground. She ran up to him as the Autobots crowded around him.
B had his hands around his throat as he trembled.
"B! What's wrong?" Charoite touched his shoulder.
B slowly removed his shaking hands from his throat and revealed a hole, sparks flying, oil leaking out.
"His vocal component is damaged!" Optimus said quickly, "We need to take him to medical Bay right now!" Optimus transformed into a truck.
Elita picked B up and laid him down on Optimus' back area. "It's okay, B. Lie on your back, and jeep your hands pressed against your throat; you don't want to lose too much oil."
B nodded as he squinted.
Charoite sat next to B and laid a hand on his hands. It was the least she could do. She started to wonder if this was, in the end, her fault.
Optimus drove off with the two in the back, leading the Autobots back to Iacon City.
The mostly quiet state of the Iacon Medical Bay didn't do anything to ease Charoite's fear and guilt. She, along with Optimus, Elita, Jazz, and Arcee, sat silently in the waiting room as B was in the Emergency Wing. Charoite could barely look at the bots around her; she sat far away from them. She told Megatron she would spy for him, then...didn't. How stupid she was to think that he would just leave her alone if she pretended to be too dumb to be a good spy! Worse yet, maybe she knew deep down it wouldn't work, but just hoped it would so she wouldn't have to confront the possibility that Megatron would do something horrible.
A green femme with a red cross-like symbol on her white chest entered the room.
Charoite, along with the other bots, sprang up from their chairs.
"Are you all here for B-127?" The femme asked.
"Yes," Optimus answered.
The femme took a gentle step forward. "We were able to seal his throat back together, but unfortunately, the damage to his vocal component is too severe for it to be immediately fixable. He's been rendered unable to speak."
"No!" Charoite grabbed her head and sat back down.
Elita shut her eyes and sighed.
"What do you mean by 'immediately fixable?'" Optimus asked.
"You see," replied the nurse, "B-127 needs to have his vocal component replaced, and one that calibrates with his system. The good, albeit morbid news, is that there are plenty of donor vocal components, among other parts, available at our hospital and in many other hospitals in Cybertron. The bad news is that a procedure as rare and delicate as this one is going to always cost a fortune. Adding to the damage to his wires, I would estimate about fifty-thousand shanix."
"What?" Everybody exclaimed at once.
"Wait! Optimus!" Charoite ran up to him. "I don't wanna pry, but don't you have a lot of money, being the ruler of Cybertron and all that?"
"Well, it just happened not too long ago, Charoite, and our government is still being rebuilt." Optimus, still in shock, stared at the floor, "I don't even have ten thousand! We...we can save for it, but who knows how long that'll take? I don't think any of us former miners have much left from when we mined; we all were just about living pay day to pay day!"
"I'll give everything I can!" Charoite offered, "Working with Sentinel paid well, and I have a little bit of money saved from when I worked as a store clerk. I was going to save up my money to buy my own place, but this is way more important. I'll also see if I can get my old job back. I've been scared to, because I don't know how my old boss is going to react, but-"
Optimus put a hand on Charoite's shoulder. "Thank you."
"Anyhow..." the nurse began, "...he should be waking up from the anesthetic. He'll be ready to be taken home in a few minutes. If any of you can transform into something that can carry him, I'd advise you to carry him home, just to be on the safe side."
Optimus raised a hand a gave a solemn nod.
A few minutes later, the same nurse emerged with another, both supporting a weakened B on both sides. He had a jagged line around his throat where it was welded shut. A small smile spread across his lips, his eyes on the verge of tears.