Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hello, everybody! Ava here.

I hope that everybody reading this has been having a good day so far! This first chapter is basically a guide on any requests. Actual oneshots come in the other chapters. Your biggest sign is if they have a name.

For the one-shots, there must be certain things avoided, as I will only write things I am comfortable with. It isn't too horrible, but NSFW readers can just go ahead and leave lol.

___

Angst is PERFECTLY fine, angst makes my day EVERY day, so don't be shy. I will GLADLY write it. Found family is great too. Bumblebee is a Malto yes!!

Smut is NOT allowed. I won't write smut.

I also won't do ships (specifically Bumblebee ships). This is mostly family stuff with the Maltos and Autobots, Cons may be featured. I don't have NEAR enough romantic experience to even write something like that. I won't erase canon couples like Dot and Alex, but no fan ships.

SA and SH are also no-nos. I just don't want to write that. I wouldn't even know how if I tried.

Be aware that I have the right to turn down requests if I don't want to write it, or I decide it too difficult. Just because your request follows the guidelines and is perfectly okay, doesn't mean that I am obligated to write it.

Anyways, that's all for now! I will update this chapter if I get any new rules, but other than that, feel free! If you have questions, or are unsure if something is allowed, don't be afraid to drop a comment. I will try to respond to the best of my ability.

Chapter Text

“Kids, get back!”

Bumblebee threw his hand out to block Mo, Robby, or any of the Terrans from approaching the pink pool on the floor. It suspiciously looked like Energon, which could either be really bad, or mean absolutely nothing at all. He touched some, rubbing it in between his digits. Oh, this was Energon all right. But the question was, where was it coming from? Energon didn’t usually just spawn in the middle of wrecked underground fighting arenas. Maybe one of the contestants had left their lunch..?

His questions were answered when another thick drop fell from above and landed in the growing puddle.

Bee’s optics widened as he looked up to where the drop had come from, headlights following his line of sight. His eyes narrowed as he recognized the person before him.

“Brawl!” Bumblebee yelled, voice cracking just slightly, “Twitch, get him down!”

The young Terran flew up and slashed the cables holding Brawl’s limp body in the air, resulting in him falling down. Before the Decepticon could crash into the floor below, Bee rushed forward and caught him, the additional weight pulling him down. His body had already seen enough, fall damage didn’t need to be added to the list.

“Brawl! Are you…” Bumblebee began, before his optics landed on Brawl’s expressionless face. The red optics flickered faintly, and Bee’s spark sank to his tanks.

“He’s been drained of Energon…” Bumblebee muttered in disbelief, shaking his head as the others exchanged looks of horror. How did this happen? Brawl was completely gone, his spark snuffed out. This was no natural phenomenon, bots didn’t randomly end up attached to cables that sucked the Energon right out of their bodies. “I fought him in the ring, but I- I didn’t think-”

Bumblebee was cut off by Jawbreaker’s horrified voice. “Is this what they do to every Decepticon who loses a fight?” Jawbreaker sounded devastated. Somewhere in Bee’s processor, he thought about how naive the Terrans were. If only they knew that both humans and transformers alike were capable of this and so much worse. Bee swore to himself that he would protect that innocence.

“Who could treat a living being this way?” Twitch breathed, optics darting around, almost as if she thought the answer would be written on the floor in front of her.

“Someone who thinks bots aren’t people…” Nightshade automatically answered, whispering quietly.

Bee looked back down at the lifeless body in his arms, his servo hovering over Brawl’s chassis. He vented out a sigh. Another life he couldn’t save. His optics drifted to the empty arm socket. A wave of dread creeped up Bumblebee as a puzzle started to piece itself together in his processor. Missing limbs… hatred for transformers… it vaguely reminded him of…

A thin and sharp red light in the corner of his vision caught his attention immediately, centuries of war putting him into action.

“Everyone, get down!” He commanded, just as a missile shot right into the middle of their group.

Everybody got thrown back by the impact, the Terrans successfully managing to shield the human children from most of the blast. Stupid Bumblebee, failing again. He should have been quicker. He had to be better. Centuries of war training, for what?

Bee groaned, venting as he looked around through his dizziness. Fire ignited in a circle around them all. Brief images of melted trash and ravaged wastelands flashed in his optics, before he shook them off. 

Focus. 

Of course , it was a trap. How could Bumblebee be so foolish? Brawl’s body was only there to occupy them while the trap was prepared, because why else would someone place incriminating items out in the open for anybody to happen across?

Especially when that person responsible was none other than the one known as Mandroid .

All of the bots looked at the deformed silhouette in the flames, frozen in anticipation. His image was distorted, but there was only one man who was capable of pulling off this stunt, who also happened to wear stolen limbs as well.

Bumblebee could feel the suppressed instinct within him to grab the children and bolt bubbling up towards his processor, but he fought it. There was nowhere to go, even if he could seize the opportunity to get all the Maltos together.

“Mandroid?!” Twitch cried out in surprise, as the doctor’s face lifted. 

“Maltos.”

He said the name as if it was a disgusting fruit, sour and bitter, that left his mouth aching. The expression on his face was nothing short of deranged, the result of hours of isolation and boiling hate.

“Wh- How are you even alive, still?” Robby questioned. Bee didn’t know if he meant the colossal machine sinking underwater with the man trapped inside, or the fact that he had replaced two of his limbs with an entirely different race’s. Bumblebee had to admit, Cybertronian wasn’t a good look on the guy.

“Isn’t it obvious? I have evolved. Nothing can kill my noble purpose. Not the loss of my resources. Not injury, not even death,” Mandroid rambled on, spitting his words and rolling his eyes. He spoke as if the audience wasn’t worth the decency of at least a pleasant tone. To him, they probably weren’t.

Hashtag stood up. “Of course you’re behind ‘Bot Brawl,’” she sneered, glaring at the man who had tried to break apart her family multiple times.

“It would be comforting, if that were true,” he responded calmly, unfazed by her hatred. “However, Bot Brawls were happening long before I arrived, and they’ll continue long after I leave. Even if I were to vanish , the desire for Earth free of idiot scum burns in the hearts of humans everywhere.”

Hashtag growled, and Twitch stepped forward, “Some people might think like you, Mandroid, but not everyone. But I want you to know that it’s never too late to do the right thing.” 

Twitch stepped towards the man and held out her servo, extending it to Mandroid. Bee wanted to close his eyes, because he had seen situations like these countless times before, and this man was beyond saving. He had made up his mind long ago, the hatred for Cybertronian kind engraved into his very being. He resisted the urge, though, because closing your eyes on the battlefield meant a moment of vulnerability that could cost a person many things, and Bee was beginning to run low on the things he held dear.

Mandroid stood still for a moment, stunned by the unpredictability of the drone Terran, before he started laughing. It then devolved into manic cackling, and then into weak coughing. Mandroid would not last much longer in the state he was in. Cybertronians and humans were never meant to merge as one.

“Says the descendants of war mongering aliens who brought their violent war into my planet. It’s you and your kind who make this world unsafe for me and mine, so I’m glad you’re here to test my latest Cybertronian annihilation tool.”

Scrap.

Bumblebee’s optics widened as ropes wound themselves around his pedes. He internally cringed as he felt his backside mercilessly get scraped and grinded against the coarse, rocky ground. He let out a short cry of shock and panic as he was thrown into the air. The Malto children below him cried out his name. Despite his best efforts, he began to panic and struggle from his upside down position, venting heavily. More ropes attacked his body, tying his other leg and his arms. He tried to transform his arm, but nothing but futile shifting happened. He was completely helpless.

The only thing he could move from his entrapment was his right arm, which could only dangle uselessly. How could he fail so badly, and get taken out so easily? His optics landed on Mandroid, and he watched as the scientist visually ordered his Arachnamechs to do something . Bee prayed to Primus that he wasn’t about to meet the same fate as his former opponent from the ring.

His wishes proved useless as he heard a whirring noise, and the first tube latched onto his armor. More and more followed, until he was frozen with pain and fear, speechless as the wormlike machines dug their way into his systems. He could feel his Energon, his blood, be stolen from him, it disappearing from his body. His HUD started to spam alerts and his entire self ached, screaming at him to escape, flee, what are you doing?

The room lit up, and he could hear little Mo cry out, “He’s stealing Bee’s Energon!”

It hurt so much.

Pull yourself together, Bee. You are a soldier, you can handle this.

Mandroid was coughing again, and he turned to take his leave. At least, that was what Bee thought he could tell from his fuzzy vision. The multiple warnings popping up in his HUD didn’t help.

Hashtag tried to run after Mandroid, but Twitch grabbed her arm. “Wait! Bee comes first!”

Bee shook his head, clearing his processor. He would have to disable the pain receptors later.

“No! Go get Optimus and Megatron. Now!” He frantically called down to them, attempting to stress the importance of them evacuating immediately.

“We’re not leaving you, Bee. They’re just Arachnamechs, we can take the-”

An unbearably bright flash of light blinded Bee, an explosion ringing in his audials. When his vision cleared, he lost much more hope. There were hundreds of those “just Arachnamechs” actively stacking on top of each other, creating an entirely new and different insect.

And he thought just the spiders were bad.

“Good… monster,” Thrash laughed nervously, as Mandroid reappeared on a higher platform behind the Arachnamechs.

“Not even close,” the doctor spat, and he disappeared once more.

“Kids-” Bumblebee was too tired, too drained, to care about concealing the emotion in his voice. His body burned, and he couldn’t get into his systems anymore to turn off the pain receptors. It would take too much Energon, Energon he didn’t have, and he was locked out. A body as big as his needed more, he needed more. He wished Optimus were here. He always knew what to do.

No. He needed to push those feelings away. He had to pay attention to his job of protecting, not wishing to be protected like a mere sparkling.

He desperately needed to tell the kids to run, to go get help. He probably wouldn’t make it through the time it took, especially since they were all the way in Philadelphia,  but as long as they were safe it was fine. He had come to terms with his early death long ago, when he was forced into the war.

If only they would just GO.

But he couldn’t. Before the words could leave him, the words they would struggle to accept, he felt his optics flicker.

Nonononononononono.

Please.

Please don’t let him lose consciousness. He could practically feel his body shutting down from the rate of Energon loss. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if the children got injured while he was unaware, weakly offline .

Before he knew it, his head tilted forward, and his eyes closed, his body shutting down with a small whir. Before his audials completely went down, he could hear the faint sounds of lasers fading out.

___

The first thing he processed was the sound of snapping, and then parts of Twitch in the corners of his vision. He even thought he saw Nightshade swooping down to slice the ropes binding him with his wings. His kids… they weren’t dead, they had a chance. They were even winning. In the back of his processor, he repeatedly thanked Primus, since that was all he could do.

His memory blanked, and he was back on the ground, the children huddled around him. Everything felt so muddy. His audials were glitchy, his optics hardly operating correctly. It felt like there was somehow a lag. It had been a long time since he had been this low on Energon. A warning popped up on his HUD.

Energon: 8%

That would explain it.

It was a miracle that he was even online, if he was being honest. He hadn’t been this low on Energon in vorns.

But he needed to move. Mandroid was still nearby so the kids were in danger and if the kids were in danger then he needed to be on alert but he couldn’t move or do anything since he was out of Energon but he needed to-

Energon: 7%

Bumblebee vented. He had to stop overthinking right now. Not only would it drain his Energon faster to keep up, but it would hinder his ability to observe his already murky surroundings.

He mentally started to do a head count, a habit of his that he had developed somewhere along the way. No children shall be lost under his watch. 

One…

Two…

Count faster.

Three.. Four..

Come on Bee.

Five. Six.

That was it.

Wait. Someone was missing. Jawbreaker was holding him. Twitch was in front of him. Thrash was beside Jawbreaker. Nightshade had landed a moment ago to join them. The humans were behind him. Hashtag was… Wait. Where was Hashtag ? In his daze, he sensed Twitch leave, and he struggled to stand up. What was happening? Everything blurred together, his audials ringing, and his pistons refusing to respond properly. He managed to look up, only to find Hashtag blankly staring down at them.

Were her optics white?

His optics moved down to the chip securely attached to her chassis.

No…

How could he let this happen?

Mandroid started talking, but the words weren’t working right with his processor. The only thing he could pick up on was Mandroid’s voice fade into a cough, and then a faint wheeze afterwards. He spoke to Hashtag, and left. Bumblebee’s buried anxiety threatened to resurface after the centuries of suppression as Hashtag slowly approached them.

Mo started to freak out, and Robby tried to reason with the mind-controlled Terran. But it was of no use.

“Mal…to…”

It was the first full word he had been able to clearly make out since his awakening.

___

“Go, they need you more than I do right now.”

Bumblebee softly mustered a smile for Twitch. Everyone had chased after Nightshade and Hashtag, but Twitch had hesitated to leave Bee behind. Guilt and shame started to worm its way into him as he sat there, thinking about how the children could be getting hurt right now, and that he was preventing Twitch from helping him. If he couldn’t do anything, at least let Twitch assist them.

Thankfully, he saw Twitch’s unsure face steel into determination as she stiffly nodded in response to his words. She flew out into the tunnel where everyone else had gone, and Bee felt himself start to calm down, but he was still stiff. 

There was no way that he would be able to get back in time to be of any use, and he didn’t think that he would be of much help anyways. The low amounts Energon coursing through him slowed down, and he was finally able to think, despite the fog and delay that clogged his thought process.

He would just have to slowly make his way outside. Hopefully, by the time that he made it out, the Maltos would have been able to find a solution to Hashtag’s mind-control chip problem.

There, he had a plan. A very simple one that didn’t require much, but a plan no less. So he staggered to his pedes, and steadied himself on the bent subway car he had previously been resting on. This was going to be a long journey.

One Bumblebee began walking, he let himself think about the events that had just gone down.

They had returned to the arena to search for Grimlock, only to find it to be completely deserted. That part was clear in his memory. It was only after their arrival that his memory files started to blink. Symptoms of a shutdown too quick for the processor to keep up with, he thinks. It’ll catch up eventually, though. Just give it a few hours.

A terrible feeling emerged from where his fuel tanks were, as he thought about Brawl. He didn’t know the Decepticon very well, in fact, they had only known each other as opponents in the ring. But seeing a face that he could recognize actively leaking the last of their life source, that still made Bee nervous, despite the years of strife. He would have thought that he would be used to the sights by now, but that’s just what joining a war prematurely does to a bot, he supposed. It never gets easier, you just get colder.

Mandroid revealing that he was indeed alive and ready to tear apart the Malto family even more had issued an exhaustion in his frame. Why was it that every single threat could never just go down easily? The centuries of having to fight so hard to protect everything he held close wore down on him. Even a fragile, sickly human had managed to overcome him. If Optimus were here, he wouldn’t have allowed himself to get captured.

A burning emotion flooded Bee as he thought about it. Bee certainly had to be the weakest of the autobots. None of them would have this trouble. Not only had he been removed from the fight before it had actually even started, but he was of no use when he was rescued. Rescued, by the children he was tasked with protecting. Children, who were fighting right now against one of their own, and had no place on the battlefield.

Subconsciously, Bumblebee had picked up his pace. This caused him to stumble, left pede catching on an uprooted piece of metal, and he fell forward. He scrambled to latch onto the wall, refusing to fall. If he fell now, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to get back up again.

It snapped Bee back into the present, and the bot looked around at his surroundings. He wasn’t near the end, but he could see a sliver of streetlight in the distance, far in front of him. At least the outside world was visible…

He heightened his audial sensitivity, straining to try and detect any sounds of combat from the end of the tunnel. He didn’t think he could hear anything, but that could mean many things. A scenario that told him nothing, was that he just wasn’t in earshot. Best case scenario, the conflict had already been resolved, and Hashtag was freed from her state. Worst case scenario…

Bee didn’t want to think about it.

He made sure to look out for rubble littering the path. It would take almost nothing to topple him if he was caught not paying attention while passing over something tricky. The end was getting closer and closer, he couldn’t falter now. Not when he was so close.

It was still silent as he could begin making out specific shapes and items outside, and it confirmed to Bee that the fight was over. The winning side had still yet to be determined, however, so it brought Bee no peace of mind. A bot could hope though, no matter how rusted and destroyed that hope had become. If Mandroid had succeeded in taking out all of the Malto family children by using Hashtag as a puppet, Hashtag would never forgive herself, and Bee would have to live with constantly thinking about everything he could have done differently. Things that wouldn’t have resulted in the slaughter of his little siblings students.

He got closer and closer to the edge of the tunnel, and he thought that he could begin to make out faint conversation. Hope rose in his spark, and he started to limp faster. The urge to make sure that the Maltos were safe overrode his pain. Talking was a good sign. Dead people didn’t talk. (At least not usually…)

He emerged, stumbling from the mouth of the tunnel, and caught a glimpse of the children. With a newfound motivation, he went back and forth between places he could hold onto, gripping walls, cars, and lampposts. Throwing himself forwards, he groaned and wrapped his hand around a lamppost, gasping with relief when he saw Jawbreaker move up the stairs, safe. He would never doubt Primus ever again if the kids all came out of this entire encounter relatively unharmed, save for a few guaranteed scratches that their parents would surely question the next morning when they awoke.

Jawbreaker let out a brief noise of surprise when he noticed Bumblebee, and called out, “Ah! Hey, over here!”

Jawbreaker ran to him, and he saw Nightshade emerge from behind him, along with Hashtag. Hashtag, who was safe and no longer in that monster’s clutches. Thrash was excitedly chattering to the human children about some “freaky power.” Bee would have to ask about what he missed when they saw each other again. He wouldn’t be going back with them to Witwicky. After Thrash finished chatting about that mysterious power, Robby asked nobody in particular if they could go home now, to which Twitch responded.

“But we never found Grimlock.”

Everyone looked down, staring at the concrete ground beneath them. It was true, the only reason why they had even gone back to the arena was because they had wanted to locate Grimlock after he had destroyed the place in his rage. Hashtag opened up the internet from the projector on her arm to see if there had been any sightings, but she found none. Considering how late it was, there probably weren't enough people awake to even see the guy.

“Still no chatter about a Dinobot in the city,” Hashtag averted her gaze, “If he went through what I just did, he’s definitely going to look for somewhere safe.”

The sadness in her voice made Bee feel anger. Anger at both himself for failing to protect her, and Mandroid for doing this to her.

“But, what about all the Decepticons on the run?” Inquired Jawbreaker, “They can’t rest.”

“Yeah,” Thrash agreed, “Wouldn’t they just go to another Bot Brawl?”

The young Terrans had a point, but there was nothing the yellow bot could do about it.

“They might have to,” he said, “It will be really difficult to change things for the better as long as hateful people try to control what Cybertronians need to survive…” Bee’s voice trailed off, reality pressing down on the atmosphere.

“But… we’re not giving up. Right, Bee?” Robby put his fist with the cybersleeve up, his infectious confidence even making Bee feel somewhat inspired. Right after he said this, Mo interjected.

“Okay, but Mom and Dad will wake up soon, and we don’t need to get ourselves in any more trouble tonight.”

She was right, the kids needed to be getting back, and the human children should try to attempt to salvage some sleep before day came. Bumblebee sighed, and stood up.

“You all go. I need to stay back and lay low for a while.”

Twitch flew closer to him, looking up at him with a disappointed look in her optics. He smiled sadly at her, fighting the urge to scoop all the kids into a big hug, and turned to leave. He  spaced out and gave himself some room to transform, but when he tried to, nothing happened. He grew frustrated and groaned, his body tensing up from the strain and effort. The armored plates on his body shuddered like they were trying to move, but ultimately, nothing changed. He started to become a little embarrassed as his battered body failed to transform. He tried to do it again, but his vision began to fade in and out, becoming blurry.

He whined in annoyance and exhaustion as he felt himself tilt forward, his body creaking and giving out on him, sending him crashing into the pavement.

The last things Bumblebee had sensed before he collapsed were the sounds of Hashtag and Twitch calling his name, and then the feeling of protective servos moving him.

The scout drifted off.

Chapter Text

Why? Why couldn’t there just be some magical system where Mandroid’s G.H.O.S.T mechs would just automatically disable when their creator died? They weren’t sentient , they weren’t even alive. They were just creepy, functional robots that obeyed only one singular leader. But without their creator, what are they?

Apparently, still a threat.

Twitch dodged and weaved around plasma, twirling out of the way. The beams shot by her, hitting random trees that bordered the clearing. She felt kind of bad, if she was going to be completely honest. Those trees didn’t deserve it.

When Bumblebee and Mom had taught the Terrans that trees were in fact alive and capable of feeling pain, and even able to communicate, guilt had started to creep up on her. Images of destroyed trunks and scorched bark had reshown themselves in her optics. She had always been so focused on protecting her family and innocent bystanders during combat, that she had forgotten to take care of the land around her. But the way that those plants, even though they don’t talk, eat, or move, are alive just as much as her.

Twitch found Earth fascinating.

Bee usually taught combat stuff, like fighting techniques, agility, and observation. Sometimes he would even test their reflexes and instincts, but it wasn’t as common. Sure, they were entertaining enough, because her teacher was the best teacher, but nothing could ever compare to Bee’s lessons on Earth and humanity. According to Bee, the ones that she liked were called science, but that was irrelevant.

When Twitch was told that every living creature on Earth works together to support each other, she could hardly believe it. So many creatures lived on earth. Plants, land animals, birds, water animals, humans. How could so much be happening at once all around her?

“If one thing were to go extinct or get removed from an ecosystem, the entire ecosystem could collapse,” the yellow Autobot had explained to her, “For example, if the plants that the rabbits ate in a forest were to all get sick and die, then the rabbits would have no food. Then they would all starve to death. After all the rabbits disappeared, the foxes that ate the rabbits would starve as well. Most of the time, predators have multiple food sources, but in restricted systems where there are only one or two options, there would be catastrophic consequences.”

Twitch had looked down at the ground, inspected the grasses and weeds around her. “So if the plants got poisoned, it could even affect the foxes?”

“Yep, even some of the birds that are big enough to eat rabbits too.”

“Birds can get that big!?”

Bee chuckled. “Yes, some birds eat small animals like rodents. I believe they are called ‘Birds of Prey.’”

“What else is there? What about humans?”

“Well, plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen, which humans breathe in. Then they release carbon dioxide back out for the plants.”

“So it’s all like a big loop?”

“Precisely. And then without the sun, none of this would be possible. Even if Earth didn’t completely freeze over, all plant life would die, starving out every other creature.”

It was so cool how a big hot ball in the sky maintained all of Earth’s life. She internally smiled, since she couldn’t in her alt form.

She bobbed up and down to dodge another attack from a robotic G.H.O.S.T soldier. Now wasn’t the time to be getting caught up in memories and thoughts, Twitch reminded herself. Bee had drilled that into her enough times during training, she didn’t want another lesson if she were to get hurt. Seeing her big brother upset at her made her feel bad.

Just then, she heard revving from behind her. In any other situation, mysterious revving from an unknown source during a battle would inspire panic, but not this revving. She would recognize her little sister anywhere. 

Hashtag burst through the trees, driving full speed towards the surrounded drone. Behind her came a motorcycle holding two human children, a green owl, and a metal dinosaur. 

Hashtag flew up off of a rock, transforming midair, punching a droid right in the face on her way down. Jawbreaker rammed into another, swinging his tail out and throwing multiple back. Thrash ran over one, transforming after passing to throw his wheel at the head of another. Mo and Robby had quickly jumped off Thrash’s back, teaming up on a small group of mechs. Nightshade was the only one to remain in their alt form, swooping down and picking off defenseless mechs.

Her family! They had responded to the distress call she sent out!

Twitch wouldn’t expect anything less.

Dealing with the G.H.O.S.T bots became significantly easier as the current party of one sextupled. What was once Twitch was now Twitch, Robby, Mo, Hashtag, Jawbreaker, and Nightshade. These mindless mechs didn’t stand a chance.

It didn’t take long for Mandroid’s leftover creations to get defeated and disabled. As the Terrans brushed dust off of their plates and inspected their bodies for any new scuff marks, Robby turned to Twitch.

“Hey, Twitch, you good?”

“Yep! Those bots didn’t see what was coming when they tried to mess with us!” The Terran excitedly jumped into the air, throwing aimless punches at nothing in  particular. Robby laughed, and Twitch smiled brighter.

“That’s good to hear,” Jawbreaker walked up, out of his alt form, fiddling with his digits, “We were worried when we got your signal.”

“Yeah, what were some of Mandroid’s old Arachnamechs doing running around on their own anyways?” Hashtag asked from her place next to Nightshade, who was attempting to pick stray scraps of destroyed Arachnamech out of their feathers.

Twitch raised her digit to her helm, thinking. “I’m not completely sure… but they’re taken care of now!” She victoriously threw her servo in the air.

“Wait, what were you even doing out here by yourself?!” Hashtag spun around to face Twitch, expression morphing into one of exaggerated suspicion.

“Um… I was just exploring Witwicky!”

“Without us?!”

“Sorry!”

“Hey, Twitch,” Mo called, hand cupped.

Twitch turned to face where Mo was sitting beside Thrash, who was vigorously rubbing dirt off his third wheel.

“Yes, Mo?”

“Did you see Bee come by at all?”

Bee? She didn’t send Bee a signal, she didn’t think. She had only alerted the other Terrans. She would have sent one to Bee, since he was so good at fighting, but she was a bit preoccupied. She didn't have the time.

“No? Was I supposed to?” Twitch asked, curiosity overtaking all previous emotions. She looked around, optics scanning the nearby trees. She didn’t know Bee was supposed to be here.

“When we got your signal, we contacted Bee,” Hashtag explained.

“Yes, I believe that he said that he would meet us here,” Nightshade looked around, “But I do not see him around. It is unlike Bee to be late, especially in situations like these.”

Robby commented, “Yeah, Bee said he was going to come from where he was immediately. He wasn’t too far away, he should definitely be here by now.”

Twitch frowned. “Are you guys sure? Bumblebee might have just gotten stuck in traffic.” Anxiety started to worm its way into her processor, but it’s best to think positive, right?

“We should call him, just in case,” Mo said, looking up at Thrash.

“On it!”

The Maltos stood still for a moment as Thrash attempted to get into contact with Bee. The silence was awkward, and Twitch felt the urge to clear her throat before Thrash started speaking.

“Bee? Hello?” Thrash spoke into the comms that Wheeljack had personally made for them. The line remained silent. “Bee?”

Only the sound of staticky buzzing responded.

“Oh, no! What if something happened to Bee?” Twitch cried out. Bee always picked up, he was always worrying over everything. The Bee that Twitch knew always tried his hardest to be accessible. Bee couldn’t be delayed by something as simple as traffic if he wasn’t picking up.

“We need to find him,” Mo’s face was set with determination, everyone else sharing her sentiment.

“Where did you say he was again?” Twitch asked. She could feel the digits on her servos slightly tremble. Bee was strong, she had faith in him, but no amount of logic would ever make her stop caring about him. Nothing could make her stop caring about her big brother.

“I think he said he was patrolling the outer edge of our property. Something about being on the lookout for Cons.”

“Well then, what are we waiting for?”

___

“All right, everyone spread out. We can find him faster that way!”

The Maltos had made it to the edge of the property that Bee was last recorded at. Wherever he had gone, he had started from here. His trackers had gone offline, and there were no more updates on his location since.

Twitch rose up. “Got it! Nightshade, Robby, you’re with me!”

Hopefully, despite how unlikely it may be, Bumblebee really had just gotten sidetracked. Hopefully.

Hashtag, Jawbreaker, and Thrash transformed. Mo hopped onto the motorcycle’s seat.

“We’ll call if we find anything,” he called, driving into the trees, Mo hollering for him to go faster as they disappeared into the green. They were gone before anyone could say anything. Twitch could only hope that they wouldn’t crash and wreck themselves.

“Same,” Hashtag said, pointing the opposite way Thrash had gone, “JB and I will go together.”

Jawbreaker nodded, and they sped off into the trees as well. Within moments, the only thing left of them were tire tracks and dinosaur footprints imprinted in the soft mud.

Only Nightshade and Robby remained, and Twitch lowered her body for Robby to climb onto her flat back. “Nightshade, are you ready?” Twitch asked, tilting her body slightly towards the green Terran, but careful not to knock Robby off.

“I am going to assume that we will survey the area from above the trees?” Nightshade asked. Oh, right, she never actually told them what the plan was.

“You would be correct! Let’s go! Bee’s waiting for us,” Twitch responded, shooting up into the air. She felt Robby position himself to better his balance, and she heard Nightshade transform as they took off from behind her.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to see him from up here,” Twitch heard Robby comment. He was right, the leaves were all in the way. If Bee was inside the trees, then there was no way they’d be able to see him. But if he wasn’t, they would definitely be able to locate him from their position. 

Plus, Thrash, Mo, Hashtag, and Jawbreaker were all searching the surrounding forest. They’d find him. Twitch was sure of it. They just would. How hard could it be to find the scout anyways? He was bright yellow, for Primus’s sake. (She still wasn’t sure who this Primus guy was, she had just heard Bee say the phrase a lot, so he must be important. It kind of sounded like Prime, like Optimus Prime, so maybe Optimus would know. She would ask him later when Bee was found.)

___

Apparently, it was very hard to find a bright yellow scout in a forest. Sometimes, Twitch wished that Bee could be a bit worse at his job. It was like he was too good. But Twitch should have been able to at least find traces of him by now! He was their teacher after all, she knew his patterns.

Was he deliberately hiding from them? Was this a test? But that didn’t make any sense. Bee had thought she needed help, he wouldn’t have thrown a surprise test at them. He had his priorities. Making lesson plans while his students were fighting was not one of them. Or what if that was the point? She wasn’t expecting it, it was the ultimate surprise test. It technically was a possibility, but it still didn’t sit right with Twitch. She didn’t think that was the answer. She knew Bee better than that.

Maybe Bee got kidnapped! Or botnapped, or whatever it was called. Sure, there would probably be a lot more destruction, with fire and blaster scars littering the forest, but maybe it was an ambush. Even if he was ambushed, Bee was too tough to go down without a fight! But, what if a Decepticon had snuck up behind Bee and knocked him out before he had any time to react? No! Bee was strong! No stupid Decepticon could catch him off guard!

“Twitch!” Nightshade called up to her from where he was flying behind her.

“Yeah?” Twitch yelled over the wind, not turning around to face the owl.

“Should we not call Optimus or Megatron?”

…

Well…

That would be a pretty good idea…

“Oh why didn’t we think of that?” Robby groaned, smacking his face. Twitch resisted the urge to groan as well. How could they have forgotten something so simple? Of course they should call Optimus and Megatron! They would have already found Bee ages ago! Optimus was practically Bee’s dad, nobody knew Bee better than Optimus.

“Yeah… we should probably do that,” Twitch cringed. She would never complain about Bee being in charge ever again. This was hard, keeping up with everything. She gained a tiny bit more respect for her mentor.

“I will do it,” Nightshade offered. Twitch stayed quiet as a silent confirmation, one that Nightshade picked up on, of course.

“Should we land? The wind might make it hard to talk,” suggested Robby. Without answering, Twitch stopped, quickly descending. Before she hit the trees, she transformed so that her alt form didn’t get caught in the branches. She caught Robby in her servos as they fell and watched as Nightshade swooped in, transforming as they neared the forest floor.

“Alright, I will call them now,” Nightshade said as they tapped into their comms, momentum still carrying their pedes.

“Nightshade to Optimus, are you there?”

There was faint buzzing before Twitch heard the indicating sound of someone picking up, and then Optimus’s faint and muffled voice. She walked a bit closer so that she could hear better.

“Nightshade? What’s wrong?”

Usually, Twitch would complain why the old robot always had to think something was wrong every time he got contacted, but she couldn’t now, considering there was something wrong.

“We can’t find Bee.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line.

“Tell me the details.”

“For an odd reason, some of G.H.O.S.T’s old mech guards were giving Twitch trouble. She had sent out a signal to us to help her, and we told Bee. He said that he was going to come as soon as possible. That was an hour ago. We haven’t seen him at all, which is unlike Bee. We’ve been searching for him where his tracker has updated last, but there has been nothing new. He didn’t respond when we tried to call him, either. In other words, Bee is missing.”

A tired sigh came from Optimus’s end, and he responded, “I’m on my way, send your coordinates.”

___

“Where do you think he could have gone?”

Optimus and the Maltos were walking by pede now, since Optimus wasn’t exactly known for his flying abilities. Twitch wasn’t sure that letting him ride on her back would be the same as it was with Robby. There was a bit of a difference in the amount of tons they each weighed.

The Autobot leader stayed quiet, leaving her question unanswered. For some reason, this made Twitch momentarily feel a spark of nervousness run through her systems. Optimus had to know something .

“I wonder why Bee’s tracker stopped working. It isn’t like he’s in a far away place. He’s here all the time. If there were connection issues in this area, we surely would have detected them,” Nightshade muttered quietly to themself.

“It is… not a good sign,” Optimus commented, causing Nightshade to blink his owlish optics. They were not expecting him to engage.

“I just hope we find him soon, maybe this is all one big misunderstanding, and Bee is actually the safest he’s ever been,” Twitch tried hopefully, “Then we can all laugh about it!”

She knew that it wasn’t wrong to hope, but a part of herself accused herself of being too delusional. Too distracted. She shoved it down.

“I wish that I could share the same optimism as you, little one, but Bumblebee is not one who is known for unreliability. His disappearance is concerning, especially when your family was in danger. Bumblebee has never failed a mission.”

Both Terrans looked up at the Autobot, who had stopped walking and was now staring at the blanketed ground.

“Do you think that the attack was staged?” Nightshade asked, ignoring the implications of Optimus’s previous statement.

They were more than a mission, right?

“It is not out of the question.”

Well that wasn’t concerning at all! That totally made Twitch feel better about their situation.

“If it was staged, then who orchestrated it. The Decepticons would not work with Mandroid’s old creations, even if he himself has passed,” Nightshade pondered. They had a point. G.H.O.S.T was disbanded, Mandroid was dead. The Cons, despite their conflict with the Autobots, wouldn’t stoop to using their imprisoners’ technology. Especially after that stunt they pulled with Mandroid, trying to kill all of the Cybertronians on the planet. At least, that is what Twitch thought. They seemed to really hate those guys.

“Well, it could have just not been planned!” Twitch offered nervously.

“Until we know more, we should not jump to any conclusions,” advised Optimus, looking down at the Terrans. “We must focus on finding Bumblebee.”

They walked in silence, only the sounds of bugs buzzing in the bushes accompanied by the chirping of birds gracing their audials. They were all straining their optics for any sign of Bumblebee. Any flash of yellow, any tire track, any piece of damaged forest. She hated to say it, but Twitch might even take a streak of Energon. Anything to indicate that Bee hadn’t just… disappeared . At the end of the day, a hurt Bee was better than a gone Bee. She wished that there wasn’t a hurt Bee, but a few scrapes would be a good sacrifice to make to have him back.

They walked for a while, moist pieces of dead leaves clinging to the bottom of their pedes. Twitch tried to shuffle it off by dragging her pedes on the ground, but she quickly found out that it was not an effective way of cleaning herself. The multiplying amounts of dead plant on her pedes were good indicators of that.

Finally, Twitch had had enough of this unbearably loud silence. She was going to do something about it! Clearing her throat, she prepared herself to say something, anything. Oh! Nightshade seemed pretty deep in thought. Maybe she could ask what they were thinking about? Perfect!

“Freeze!”

Huh?

Chapter Text

Hi guys!

Thank you so much for your support, I really appreciate it! To everyone who has left kudos or commented, thank you so much. I couldn’t do this without you!

So, I’m working on War is Over part 2, and I wanted to get some opinions. Should I post the unfinished continuation, as a part 2 out of 3, or wait and try and wrap the entire thing up this week? Your choice! Let me know what you think, I’ll be working until then!

Again, here are your options:

- Post an unfinished part 2 and give it a 3rd part to finish it

- Wait and finish part 2 before posting anything else

Bye!!

Chapter Text

Sorry that I keep tricking you guys with the updates, haha, but I just have some info for you all.

I decided that I am going to have to break it into two more parts despite my poll. The first one that I will post (either today, tomorrow, or the day after that) will be the middle part. It is the one I am working on right now, and it's the one that gets everybody back together again, to set up for the final piece.

Then, the final part will come out next weekend.

It will be the main part, the one with the learning and drama, and then the conclusion where the shot ends. Then "War is Over" will be finished and I can check it off of my list, starting a new project. Sorry that it's taking so long. I didn't realize that it would draw out like this. I am in a STEM academy, so updates are really slow. There's so much more work here lmao. Whenever I finish a class early, I am just making up work that I didn't finish in another one. It really takes away my working time.

I hope you can all forgive me for my slowness 😅

Regardless, I should definitely finish the middle part this weekend. I may even get it out today if I really work hard. It's a long weekend, so not only do I have the standard 2 days, but I have a third.

Thank you all for your constant support and amazing comments. Every comment and kudos does wonders to my inspiration, and I definitely would NOT be able to do this without it.

To those who told me to wait it out, I am not disregarding your suggestions. I really appreciated your input, and did not stop listening to it, but I do not want to leave anyone waiting too long for the update. I already skipped one weekend's update, and I don't want to miss another one. Think of this as a snack!

Chapter Text

“Freeze!”

Wait, what?

Were they under attack? Maybe she was right, and there really was an ambush! Maybe Bee really had gotten snatched!

“Hold it right there.”

Twitch, Nightshade, and Robby all whipped around to find the source of the voice. Concealed in the bushes lining their path, aiming his blaster at them, was a small yellow bot. Maybe they weren’t being ambushed. This guy didn’t seem to be that aggressive, only defensive. By the way he was crouched back, warily staring at them, she assumed he was being defensive. If he was being aggressive, he was doing a pretty bad job at it. He even had those cute little horns on his head that Bee did! His optics were squinted with fierce concentration as they glanced back and forth between them all, assessing them as if they were a threat. The way that he surveyed them reminded her of someone else, but she just couldn’t place it yet. That was a problem for another day.

The bright blue optics widened in shock as they landed on Optimus’s still frame, and the bot lowered their blaster, a relieved smile making its way onto his faceplate.

“Optimus? Is that you?” He cautiously wondered aloud, before a thought seemed to spark in their processor. “Optimus! You can tell me what’s going on! You got teleported here too, right?”

The transformer’s English, at least for this dialect, was a tad rusty, that she could tell. It was hardly noticeable though. There were a few subtle pauses in their speech, but they didn’t seem to have trouble understanding the language at all. It was as if their voicebox was having issues in effectively pronouncing the words. It was intriguing, Twitch didn’t think she had ever heard transformers talk like this before! She thought that she heard Mo talking to Robby about something similar that the humans had. They even had special programs at their school for them! Something like a speech sediment? No, wasn’t sediment something about Earth? Maybe it wasn’t sediment, but it was something like that.

Twitch looked up at Optimus, who was frozen, pedes glued to where he was. His optics were narrow, trained on only the bot in front of them. It was almost scary how still and unresponsive the Prime was.

The strange bot’s smile faltered as he registered Optimus’s odd behavior.

“OP? Is there something wrong? You look different…” the yellow bot paused, reading the Autobot’s face for any cues or indicators. “Did something happen? Is it something I di-”

“What happened?”

Optimus’s voice came strong and stern, interrupting the bot’s hesitant questions, and triggering a complete change in atmosphere. What was once anxious and mysterious was now tense and borderline dangerous. The apprehension was almost painful. Twitch felt as if she could cut through the tension with her blades if she wanted to. Not that she did, of course, but it got the point across. Super small alarms were ringing in Twitch’s processor as she looked back and forth between the two frozen bots.

Nightshade was observing them with curious optics, standing quietly behind them, not nearly as nervous. The stranger had a look in his eyes, similar to the one that Bee got when Optimus ordered him of something. The look of professionally trained loyalty and compliance. Pure, unadulterated obedience, forged through years of complete adoration. Twitch backed up, optics refusing to leave the two bots staring at each other as she lightly nudged Robby back as well. They should give them some room, with… whatever was happening right now. 

She wondered how these two knew each other, and why Optimus seemed so disturbed. Whatever relationship these two had, it was… turbulent at the moment. Like it would explode if someone walked over it the wrong way. She didn’t think she had seen Optimus like this in forever! He was the powerful commander of the Autobots, he never let uncertainty show.

Primes were fearless! Maybe Optimus was just surprised, and hadn’t been expecting the yellow bot to be found here! Yeah, that must be it. This guy was probably supposed to be somewhere else, and Optimus was just shocked by his presence in Witwicky.

“Wait, what are you doing on our property?” Robby asked, cocking an eyebrow. Oh, right! Twitch had completely forgotten, they were still on their land. Robby did raise a good point, however. Why was this mysterious transformer intruding on their home? Then again, did Cybertronians even really understand all of how properties work here? Wasn’t Dad 2 just walking around searching for his missing drone when they met, too?

“I’m not entirely sure. I was fending off a surprise ambush from the Cons just southwest of the base when I just appeared here in a… weird flash of light,” he explained, “It left my optics stinging for a good nanoklick.” The bot chuckled, but the enthusiasm of a proper laugh didn’t quite reach their face. Twitch frowned as he continued, “What place is this? I don’t recognize it. How did we get here? Are the others here too?”

The questions came as a barrage, and Optimus closed his optics. He was… processing, perhaps? Maybe he was getting overwhelmed? She could never truly understand the Prime.

“We are in Witwicky, a town in Pennsylvania on the eastern side of the United States. For how you got here? That, I am not sure of,” Optimus shook his helm. “The other Autobots are here, but you can not see them yet. There is something that we must tend to first, scout.”

Every word that was spoken left Twitch confused more and more. These two obviously knew each other, and by Optimus’s vocabulary usage, the newcomer was an Autobot. Now that she thought about it, he had an Autobot insignia too, right in the open. It was obviously placed, Twitch felt silly for not noticing it sooner. She had never seen him before, however. But, she didn’t know a whole lot of Autobots outside of Witwicky. The only ones she knew were Optimus, Bee, Wheeljack, Elita, Grimlock, and Arcee. 

What flash of light was he even talking about? He was either in Witwicky, or he wasn’t! He seemed genuinely confused as to where he was, but it didn’t make sense.

Regardless, she was going to assume that this transformer was a Cybertronian, since he didn’t appear Terran, and she hadn’t heard of any Terran Autobots running around. If it was a Cybertronian, he must be a fairly young one. She hadn’t seen an Autobot so… small yet. Every thought made more and more questions, as the numbers in her head refused to add up. If he was Cybertronian, how was he so young? She thought that there weren’t any new Cybertronians. Maybe they were? Then why did Optimus look at the Emberstone like a precious, life-saving relic. Was the guy just a short Cybertronian, and he was actually really old? 

Optimus had called the guy “scout.” Wasn’t Bee his scout? Did he have multiple? She didn’t hear mention of any others, at least here where they lived. Plus, wasn’t this guy a bit too young to be a scout? Even if he was short for a Cybertronian, he would still be… She couldn’t remember. Twitch would have to redo a lesson on Cybertronian lifespans translated into human years again. Oh, this was too much. Thinking was too hard, that’s why it was Nightshade’s job. Thank you, Nightshade, Twitch thought, for taking on this burden for us.

Wait, they were getting sidetracked, weren’t they?

“Shouldn’t we continue looking?” Twitch asked Optimus, glancing up at the much taller bot. This bot may be interesting, but they had to find Bee first! The newcomer could come later. What if Bee was in danger, and they were idly chatting with some confused Autobot? Yeah, introductions could wait.

“There is… no longer a need anymore,” Optimus replied, shaking his helm. Well that certainly wasn’t ominous at all. What was that even supposed to mean? Surely Optimus wouldn’t give up on the search for Bee? He was… what was Optimus to Bee again… his Dad! Yeah, OP was literally Bumblebee’s Dad, like her Dad was to her! Maybe she had just missed something! OP probably found a lead, and they knew where Bee was now, so they didn’t need to look anywhere else. She wanted to know who found him.

“Go on ahead, we will follow behind you,” Optimus told the mystery Autobot, and they started down the path, hand posed as if ready to transform into a blaster at a moment’s notice. They seemed tense, like they were expecting for someone to leap out of the bushes and attack them on sight. Megatron had told her something about that, one day a couple of months ago. Something about stress and trauma disorders?

“When someone has lived through a very traumatic event, or experienced a terrible thing, it can change a person entirely. Their whole personality may flip, or they may break off from certain relationships. War is an example, and by looking around, you can see symptoms of this in the veterans. Tension, flinching, panic. Those are all indicators,” he had taught the Terrans, the humans relaxing behind them.

“Yes,” Mom had confirmed, “PTSD is a real thing. A lot of officers and war vets have to go to therapy since their brain perceives harmless things as threats, or reacts violently to small ones.”

“Really?” Mo had asked, looking up from her comic.

“Oh! I think I remember one of my old teachers talking about something like that!” Robby chimed in.

“Oh, yeah!” Mo said, memories clicking in her mind. “She told us that husband had fought in the war, yeah?”

“Apparently, when one of her children had dropped and broken a plate during dinner, he bolted and hid under the table!”

“It is sad that people live through this.”

“I know, right? That sounds so scary!”

Their words echoed in her mind as she watched the bot continue walking away. He didn’t seem that paranoid.

“Be careful, there may be Cons around here, setting up an ambush,” he called towards the Prime, in a hushed but strong voice. As if he were concealing his location from any 3rd party. Okay, maybe he was that paranoid.

The plates around Optimus’s optics creased in an unreadable emotion as the scout walked ahead, putting distance between the group.

“Did you find something that you aren’t telling us?” Nightshade whispered, peering up at Optimus, as soon as the other bot was outside of hearing range.

“Yeah, who was that? And why are we stopping our search for Bee?” Robby interrogated, straining his neck to look up at the significantly taller being. Twitch felt sympathetic for the humans, having to look so hard to see the Cybertronians. She was Terran, a transformer just like them, and the Cybertronians will still so tall to her. She couldn’t imagine being as short as a human. Their necks probably hurt all of the time.

Optimus stayed silent for a while, the only sound being heavy pedes and small feet digging into the moist soil beneath them, leaving behind detailed prints in the brown dirt.

“The reason why we are not resuming our pursuit, is because I believe we have already found our target.”

All three children stopped in their tracks, staring at the Autobot commander. What could he possibly mean by that? They hadn’t found Bee! They only found a weird, horned, yellow, loyal.. Autobot… scout…

“Do you mean to tell us that this Cybertronian scout ahead of us is truly Bumblebee?” Nightshade beat the rest to the question, peering up at Optimus. The Autobot wore a complex and foreign expression, one that Twitch could not seem to decipher. There was no way that was Bumblebee. He didn’t even recognize them, and she couldn’t recognize him either! 

Bee was so much taller than them too, how could he have shrunken back down to their height? It didn’t make any sense at all, Cybertronians didn’t grow backwards, especially in such a short amount of time! It had only been a few hours since he had been seen last. There’s no way something this insane happened so quickly.

She felt her optics gleam, and her siblings shot her a short glance.

“May I ask why you think this, Optimus?” Nightshade inquired, once again asking the question for all of the present Maltos. Optimus had to have mistaken, Twitch had never seen that person before. The only indication that they had ever met before was the faintest ring of recognition in the back of her mind, but that could be from a mere sighting in an old photo. Mom and Bee had tons of those. She still thought that Bee’s old alt mode from that picture was adorable. There were so many old records and comics that it could be anybody!

“Hey, are you coming!” Bumblebee The Autobot stranger called back to them, significant distance having come between them from their lack of movement. They should start walking again, before he got too far and started to become suspicious. Suspicious of what? Twitch wasn’t sure, but she knew that people tended to get rough when they felt that they weren’t being told the truth, or that something was being intentionally kept from them. She’d seen humans do it in movies, and even on streets in real life. It was scary to watch, something as simple as twisted curiosity triggering such rage.

Optimus, raising his helm from his position of looking down at the children, called back, “Yes, we shall be there shortly! Don’t bother waiting for us, go on ahead!”

They started walking again, and Optimus returned back to his conversation. “I do not know how to explain this either, but the one we just met bore a striking resemblance to Bumblebee during the Cybertronian War, when we first arrived on Earth.”

“But there’s no way though, right?” Robby asked, confusion extremely obvious on his face. It was evident that Twitch was not the only person severely puzzled by this situation.

Nightshade had started lagging behind, and Twitch could hear them faintly muttering. She caught Bee’s name, and something about time travel? Honestly, who ever knew what Nightshade was thinking about? If they hadn’t been bonded at birth, then Twitch doubted she would ever know what was going on in the owl’s processor.

“Then explain how the Cybertronian-War era Bumblebee is here!” Twitch cried before getting shushed by Robby. Right. The so-called Bumblebee was in front of them, not too far to be entirely oblivious to their conversation.

“There are many things in this universe that we do not know or understand. Much of those are things that we could never even begin to hope to comprehend. Some things are just not meant to be understood,” Optimus said. Twitch waited for him to say more, but when the silence stretched on for a few seconds, she realized that his comment was being left to interpretation.

“Could this be some new Decepticon technology?” Robby asked the sole Cybertronian.

“Yeah! Maybe they made a new secret weapon to fight against the Autobots!” Twitch added.

Optimus shook his head. “While I understand where you are coming from, I do not believe that the Cons would make something like this. The Cons are spread thin, I don’t think they would waste resources on such a risky experiment.

I do not know how they would have even crafted such a thing. If they had these capabilities, the war would have ended much earlier, with a much different outcome.”

Nightshade spoke up from behind Twitch, “I agree, I don’t think that the Cons had anything to do with this.”

“Then who did?”

“Some kind of 3rd party?”

“Are we sure that it was a group of people at all?”

Nightshade’s question remained suspended in the air, halting all thought processes. Were they sure? Here they were, coming up with people and organizations to blame, when they really had no idea what happened. At all. Anything could have happened. They didn’t even know if it was Bee or not!

“You ask a good question, Nightshade,” Optimus said, “We know nothing of this situation, and it would be unwise of us to pin responsibility on anyone until we have acquired more information.”

“Alright.”

“I still don’t see how this makes sense,” Twitch whispered to Robby, who nodded back.

“Someone needs to call the others to report back home.”

___

“What did you say was happening before you came here?”

“I was in battle with the Cons.”

They caught up to Bee the stranger a little more than halfway down the path. Optimus was asking the bot some ordinary yet valuable questions, in a covert attempt at gaining more information.

“Were you with anyone?”

“Just Cliff and Mirage.”

Twitch saw Optimus’s servo tense up at his response. Hm. She wondered who they were.

“Did you see the Decepticons do anything suspicious before you were transported here?”

“No, they seemed to be just as surprised.”

So the Decepticons, at least the ones in this Bee’s time, weren’t involved.

Then who took Bee from her?

“What did you see?”

“It was like this big portal opened up around me, but it was too bright. I couldn’t get a good look at it.”

That was… weird. Could it have been something like a groundbridge? It would have had to be a pretty crazy groundbridge though. Didn’t they need a structure to operate? She hadn’t ever seen one be pulled out of thin air. They had those circular shapes, like big rings. She didn’t remember the one that she used at Ghost being a blinding white either. Also, if Optimus’s theory was correct, that would also mean that this device was capable of time travel, not just transportation. She was fairly certain groundbridges didn’t do that. So, maybe not a groundbridge. No matter how much she racked her processor, she couldn’t think of a reason as to how any of this happened.

“Hey! You never told us your name,” Robby interrupted, staring at the transformer. This was perfect, they would finally get his name. Here was where they would find out if this bot really was Bee! She had been dying to know, how didn’t she think of just asking earlier?

“Oh, right! The name’s B-127 technically, but my friends call me Bumblebee. Bee for short.”

Time slowed around her, despite her already being well aware deep down.

She knew that this response was a possibility, it always was. In fact, she was sort of expecting it, but it still shook her processor up regardless. So this stranger who had no recollection of her, or any of her siblings, standing before her, was supposed to be Bee? Her annoyingly amazing big brother? What happened to him? Was he hurt? Would he ever go back to normal? What if he was stuck in this form and all of their memories together were lost? She didn’t want to lose Bee! They didn’t even know who caused this! She didn’t want to believe it. 

She wanted to sink back into ignorance and believe that this Cybertronian who shared a name and numerous physical traits with her mentor wasn’t really him. That it wasn’t really her Bumblebee. 

Twitch wanted to believe that it was only a very inconvenient and ridiculous coincidence. The problem was, it really was Bee! No amount of gaslighting herself would change that fact. It had already been confirmed by their Prime himself, he had recognized him before they knew his name. But, how could it be? It shouldn’t even be possible!

“Are you okay?” she felt Robby nudge her, gazing up at her from his spot beside her leg. She nodded, but that frantic anxiety still clawed at her processor, no matter how hard she tried to reel it back in. Robby did not seem very convinced with her answer. She tried paying more attention to the sounds of the forest. Yeah, that’s right. All she had to do was listen to those adorable little insects that lived on the leaves that Bee always told her about whenever she asked —

She was really bad at this.

Bumblebee continued, entirely oblivious to Twitch’s thoughts, “What are your names? I don’t believe we’ve met. And what faction do you belong to?”

“I am Twitch,” she said, placing a servo to her chassis, weakly smiling to cover up her unstable emotions.

“Yes, and I am Nightshade,” the owl Terran continued, sharp feathers perking up, drawing the attention off of Twitch. She silently thanked her sibling for their service.

“Robby,” her human brother introduced himself, meeting Bee’s optics, “It is nice to… meet you.”

“We belong to neither faction.”

Twitch thought she saw Bee’s face change for a fraction of a second. She blinked, but he only wore the same smile he had the entire conversation. No frown or disappointed grimace in sight. Strange. Maybe she needed to get her optics checked, if she was beginning to see things. She would ask Dad 2 when she came across him again, he always knew how to fix things, especially since her form was modeled off of his own creations!

“I believe we are here,” Optimus finally spoke up again, and he was right. Ahead of them, just a few yards away, the forest opened up into the clearing that their house was built in. She could even see glimpses of the barn’s walls through the thinning trees.

“Where exactly are we?” Bee asked, looking around at the unfamiliar terrain.

Optimus only looked down at the yellow Autobot, and responded, “Somewhere safe.”

This seemed to be enough for Bumblebee, despite its simplicity, as he seemed satisfied with the answer. He really trusted his leader. She could see that this really was Bee now, any doubts lingering in her processor getting painfully crushed under her due confirmation. She had wanted to hold onto that hope for longer, but she guessed she just wasn’t meant to. Not when the truth was so blatantly obvious. Dread started creeping in again, and she pushed it back. They would get Bee back. There was no time for wallowing over every possible future or scenario that had yet to happen. She didn’t know why she was being so paranoid today, but she needed to stop it.

“Oh, kids! There you are!” Mom was waiting on the lawn, looking out at the forest with a glass of water in her hand. She looked like she had been waiting a while, if her comfortable and settled position said anything.

“Hi, Mom!”

“Oh, hey!”

“Dorothy.”

Her eyes drifted over to Optimus and Bee, and she furrowed her brows. “Prime?” she apprehensively stared him down, as if expecting him to start relaying the worst news imaginable to her. Maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but Mom didn’t really like it when Optimus came over unannounced. Twitch didn’t blame her. Whenever someone like him showed up without a clear reason, then it made sense to feel like something was wrong. She would be suspicious too, if the leader of the Autobots, the ultimate bearer of bad news, suddenly showed up at her home while parading her missing kids around. Not like she’d know. She didn’t have any kids.

“Who’s this?” Mom asked, lazily holding her hand out at Bee’s young appearance, taking a sip of her drink.

“I am Bumblebee,” he said, before Optimus could shush him. Mom’s eyes went concerningly wide as she spat out the water in her mouth. She immediately met Optimus’s optics and he shook his helm. The helm shake was so small, if the weather were any colder, Twitch would think he was shivering. She wondered if Cybertronians even got cold. That was besides the point though. She should focus on the tension between Mom and OP.

Don’t ask yet, he seemed to convey through expression alone. Twitch thought it was slightly impressive how he could communicate like that. He didn’t even need a cyber-sleeve!

Mom seemed to get the message, but she was still frowning with disapproval. Twitch could practically feel her thoughts. She had had many of the same ones just moments ago, after all.

“Alright kids, let’s meet in the dug-out,” she paused, “Has anyone seen the others?” Mom set her water glass down on a small portable table that she had dragged out, glancing around the yard. As if on cue, a loud noise sounded from the outlining trees of their yard.

“We’re right here!”

Hashtag and Jawbreaker crashed out of the forest, tumbling through the grass. Beside her, Twitch could distantly hear Bumblebee startle and sharply suck in a short breath, before venting it back out, as if nothing had happened. She’d pretend she hadn’t heard it.

“We’ve made it!” Jawbreaker exclaimed as he stomped and transformed back into his true form, exiting his dinosaur alt mode.

“Hi, Mom!” waved Hashtag as she transformed back as well. Turning to the others, she waved again, calling out, “Hey guys! What did you all find?” She paused, recalling their exact conversation. “You told us to come back, yeah?”

Twitch waved back, just as energetically, “Hashtag, Jawbreaker! You’re back!” before answering, “Yeah, we did!” Jawbreaker ran up to them, enveloping them in a big hug. He was careful not to squeeze too hard, since Robby was in there too, but it was still a tight embrace nonetheless.

“Haha, hello,” Nightshade smiled as the orange dinosaur lifted them up.

“Did something happen?” Jawbreaker asked, “Did somebody get hurt? Why’d you call us back?”

“No, don’t worry JB, we’re all good.”

“Wait, who’s that?” Hashtag said, after she had caught up to Jawbreaker. She was the only Malto child present who wasn’t in the hug, Twitch realized. Probably because she wasn’t with them when Jawbreaker ran over to crush them all, she thought humorously.

“My name is-” Bumblebee went to introduce himself to the new addition to their gathering, before Mom stopped him.

“Hey, kids! Dug-out, remember? We will handle introductions when everyone is there! Get a move on!” she called out.

Good save, Twitch thought, as Bee closed his intake. They should tell everybody the news once they are all together. It would probably get messy fast, and someone would let something slip. Bee didn’t even know what’s happening, either, Twitch remembered. He had no idea that he was in the future right now. This would be just as much of a surprise to him as it will to the others, so it would just be best to wait. She wanted to reveal everything now and get it over with, so that they could discover a solution. But… she knew that after all of the training and mentoring from Bee and Mom, sometimes it was better to wait things out. How painful it was though, seeing her older brother wander aimlessly around, being completely indifferent to the memories and thoughts and feelings that he should have. Because it was Bee! He was Bee.

But it wasn’t the Bee that comforted her when she was feeling sad. It wasn’t the Bee that ensured that she would remain unharmed on missions. It wasn’t the Bee that laughed when she fumbled the flag and lost her team the round. It wasn’t the Bee that gratefully embraced them tightly whenever they did something to scare him. It wasn’t the Bee that would let her ride on his shoulder whenever she didn’t want to walk and her rotors weren’t working.

At the same time, however, she knew that it really was Bee, because this bot wasn’t a different person. What was once Bumblebee, had stayed Bumblebee. He had just changed, unknowingly.

It was like carrying an empty canister around in her mind. It was the same canister as it was when it was full. But without its filling, it was just empty metal, and held no weight to her.

How cruel, she thought, thinking of her older brother like that. But she couldn’t help it, for was it truly inaccurate? He really had no connection to them. The only thing that her Bee and this one shared was a name and a spark.

Stop it, Twitch. Everything will be fine. Robby was once again giving her weird looks, sending pings of questions and reassurance to her through their bond.

Just then, interrupting her increasingly negative thoughts, Thrash came rolling out of the woods, Mo comfortably sitting on him. She had a bright smile on her face. At least one of her family members was having fun. 

“Thrash, Mo! Over here!”

“Hey, kids!”

Mo jumped off of Thrash, and the Terran transformed, crouching down.

“What’s up everybody?”

“Huh? Who’s that?”

“Oh, hey Optimus!”

The questions and greetings exchanged between everyone before they calmed down.

“Well, I suppose it’s time to head to the dug-out,” Hashtag commented, and Twitch nodded.

“Wait, what did we miss?” Thrash said, looking back and forth between everyone, helm tilted to the side.

“We are heading to the dug-out for a very important meeting,” Nightshade explained, and Thrash nodded.

“Alright, I’ll be there.”

“Perfect,” Twitch said, before squinting her optics and turning to Mom. “Is Dad going to come?”

“Speaking of Dad, where is he?”

Mom laughed and shook her head. “He’s fine, kiddo. He’s just inside making lunch right now,” she leaned back into her chair, a soft smile on her face.

“Oh, oh! Tell him I want some!” Mo said as she bolted to the dug-out, pushing off of Thrash for a boost. Their unsuspecting brother fell over, face first into the dusty ground, and he squealed. Mo cackled as she ran away, the rest of the Maltos giggling. Thrash pushed himself off of the dirt, faux offense displayed on his faceplate, helm now coated in a fine layer of earth.

“Hey, no fair! Wait for me!”

Thrash had taken off after Mo, messily swiping at his helm to rid himself of the mess. It did not take long for him to catch up to her, due to their significant size and strength difference. Thrash threw himself at his older sister, and Mo shrieked as Thrash lifted her up, putting her on his back. She automatically gripped his helm tightly, laughing as her legs dangled off of his shoulders.

“Hah, race you there!” Hashtag shouted as she sped past them, causing both Mo and Thrash to cry out in shock.

“Hey, you can’t do that!”

“We were ahead of you!

“Not anymore!”

“No, get back here, Hashtag!”

Jawbreaker’s face lit up and he ran after them too, riled up by the excitement.

“I am coming! Wait for me!”

Nightshade transformed into their owl form and took to the sky, diving towards the dug-out at a very quick pace.

“Hey, Twitch, come on!”

Twitch looked down at Robby, who was grabbing her leg in hopes of getting her attention. He was smiling up at her mischievously.

Instead of transforming like Robby suspected she would, she just looked at Bumblebee, who was standing still. He was staring at where the Terrans (and Mo) had gone off to, Optimus’s servo resting on his shoulder. He looked… sad, maybe? No, that wasn’t quite right. It was dreamy, like he was missing something.

“Twitch?”

Robby’s uncertain voice broke through her thoughts, and she looked back down at him.

“Are we going?”

Twitch nodded.

“Oh, yes! Sorry, I got distracted! Let’s go!” Twitch apologized.

She swiftly transformed into her alt mode, and Robby hopped onto her back, quickly adjusting his stance to balance himself before she took off. Twitch flew forward, heading towards the dug-out. She knew that there was no chance they would get there first, the others probably already arrived, but that knowledge didn’t need to ruin their fun. The exhilaration and the rush of the wind going by her made her feel giddy, as if her day hadn’t been near tortuous. Emotionally, she was exhausted, but it didn’t stop the excitement bubbling up from inside her.

She was correct in her assumptions when she arrived, and everybody was waiting for her. Even Mom had somehow gotten ahead of her.

“Where’s Optimus and the yellow guy?” Mo asked as Twitch let Robby off, transforming back into her root mode.

“Are they even coming?”

“We should give them a few minutes.”

“Maybe they got caught up with something?” Mo said, shrugging.

“Uh, I’ll go get them!” Twitch said, flying out before anyone could say anything. What was it that she had heard once? Ask for forgiveness, not permission? Yeah, that!

She caught a glimpse of yellow, blue, and red in front of the barn, and she ducked behind it, sticking her helm out just far enough to see them without them seeing her.

“ — remember anything?”

“I don’t understand… What aren’t you telling me?”

“You will see soon, Bumblebee. For now, we must convene with the rest of the Malto family.”

“Alright, Optimus.”

Bee bristled, and he snapped his head to the barn, optics scanning the surrounding area. His optics locked on Twitch and he frowned.

“You there, whirlybird, how long have you been watching us!”

Twitch scrambled for something to say, before her processor registered what he had said. Whirlybird… Bee had called her whirlybird! She shook her helm, trying not to get distracted. Then, she decided on honesty. “I just got here! I… uh… wanted to tell you guys that the others were waiting!” she said, holding up her servos to assure that she wasn’t a threat. Yet another Bee lesson put into work. But… whirlybird…

Optimus calmly turned to her, and nodded affirmatively. “Understood, we are coming. Bumblebee, let’s go.”

Bee’s optics remained on Twitch for a moment longer, before he looked back up at Optimus. He didn’t respond, he didn’t need to. Twitch transformed into a drone and flew back to the dug-out. Her job was done.