Chapter Text
All was quiet on the Cybertronian front, and had been for a while. Megatron was imprisoned, the Decepticon threat eliminated, peace brought to the world. Heroes were crowned – though not without a heavy price. In the aftermath, it almost seemed there would be no room for the valiant Autobots anymore, and that was exactly how the world would have it. After all, if soldiers had no reason to deploy, then civilians had no reason to fear.
Still, they ascended ranks, kept up with their training, stayed at the ready in case they were ever needed again. Regardless, all was well.
Or so it seemed.
First of all, the way they’d dispersed, Bumblebee didn’t really see any of his friends anymore, not on a regular basis. Bulkhead was locked up in engineering, Optimus was working in the political bureaucracy somewhere and trying to figure out where he even wanted to go, and Ratchet and Arcee had supposedly “retired” from the battlefield, choosing to focus on the schooling system for civilians, though it was clear that the two of them were still staying ready in case of disaster. Sari? Back on Earth, with her father. Probably trying to make some human friends.
As for Bumblebee, he’d ended up working in close ranks of the most powerful bot on the planet, and frankly, he hated it.
At first, he’d thought Sentinel had picked him for the role of spokesbot to the public because Sentinel had actually learned to respect him. Turned out Sentinel teased him as hard as ever, reminding him of why he’d given him the name “Bumblebee” at every turn, and Bumblebee knew now that he should have just turned him down, that it wasn’t an olive branch after all – it was an excuse to get him back in close range because he was the smallest and easiest to pick on.
He was good at the job, though. Bots trusted him. Sentinel knew that. Which was the other reason Sentinel had chosen him to be a mouthpiece between the government and the public: because the public would accept his words as truth. Bumblebee thought the truth was what he would be asked to say, but the scripts Sentinel kept putting in front of him bent that truth to a 90-degree angle. Sentinel was asking him to lie about the security of Cybertron, to feed the public planetary nationalist garbage about how Cybertron was the most important planet in all the universe (objectively not true), and be the one to break his new laws and decrees so that Sentinel wasn’t the one who got the backlash for it.
Bumblebee had tried to say no to all that. In return, he’d gotten Sentinel looming over him, flexing a fist, asking, “Are you really in a position to say NO to me after all I’ve done for you?”
If it was Optimus in his place, then Optimus would have given Sentinel a piece of his mind without a second thought. If it was Ratchet, then Sentinel would’ve been smacked upside the head. Bulkhead would’ve walked. Arcee would’ve been smart enough to see the ruse from the start. (And Prowl just wouldn’t have let this happen, no matter how hard he had to fight about it.)
Bumblebee, however, was just Bumblebee. He was good at rallying morale. He was good at empathizing with other bots, which clashed horribly with Sentinel’s agenda. He was good at combat, to a degree. And that was about it, as far as he was aware. He bent over backward to Sentinel’s demand, reading whatever script was placed at his desk, and he returned to his bunk every night feeling horrible about himself.
The others knew. That was why Optimus was deliberating – caught between his desire to stay far away from Sentinel’s system and his desire to dismantle it. There wasn’t much Bulkhead could do from the engineering department. Ratchet talked a big game but had no idea how to actually challenge their Magnus. And, most importantly, they all had lives – if they had no plan, what was the point on going all in on trying to make one? Who would triple-check the measurements of the engineers if Bulkhead left that department? Who would teach general education to freshly minted bots if Ratchet and Arcee gave up the school? And Optimus was trying but walking on a wire.
Saving the worlds wasn’t supposed to be like this. It was supposed to be a grand triumph. They should’ve come home to a parade, cheering civilians, and then never had any troubles again.
Well, they had come home to a parade and cheering, but…Bumblebee didn’t count that. Because it should have been all of them who returned. One of them shouldn’t have been dead metal inside a box.
That was the worst part. He could never get it out of his processor that if only Prowl had survived, somehow, everything would be different. Better. Who cared how oppressive the system was? Prowl didn’t let things like that keep him held down!
He was, however, no match for death. Bumblebee missed him every day. Quite literally. Sometimes he would even tune in to Prowl’s disconnected frequency to vent things he didn’t even say to those friends of his who were still living.
This was life as a hero. Not glamorous, not ethical, not a happy ending.
So Bumblebee took his happiness where he could. During his moments alone, he had nobody telling him who to be or what to say. There was nobody reminding him that the new Magnus’ policies were increasingly more concerning than the last one’s. (A national holiday to celebrate Sentinel? Really? He hadn’t even been there for the final battle against Megatron!)
No, he could put all those thoughts out of his head. Too bad Cybertron didn’t have Earth-style video games, or he would have used those as his escape. But making himself a little training course to practice combat, well, that was like a game in real life, right? It served that sort of purpose – a brief escape. One where Bumblebee could play the hero he actually wanted to be.
“TAAAKE THAT!” Bumblebee crowed, blasting a hole in an immense target that had been painted to look like a crude caricature of Lugnut. “AND THAT!” A spin, a kick, and a two-dimensional, cartoonish Shockwave was knocked right over. “AND – “
He couldn’t decide what sort of finisher would look better, a front-flip or a sideswipe, and whether he was actually agile enough to pull off either was questionable, so him being unable to decide and trying to pull off both at once certainly was going to end in no other outcome than tripping, falling, rolling a hilarious distance and coming to rest with an “OOF” in such a position that Bumblebee was on his back, staring up at the stars above.
Okay, so that hadn’t gone the best. But he did happen to notice, that night, the beauty of the sparkling curtain of night, the glimmers that indicated the existence of a million planets with a billion lifeforms. Sometimes it was actually a little staggering to realize.
Not that he normally took time to observe such things, but he’d actually made a promise to himself to try and do it more, after –
Nah, he wouldn’t spoil the day by thinking about that. He peeled himself off the ground, dusting off his brilliant yellow plating; “Okay. Take it from the top.”
A crackle over his comm. Bulkhead’s voice patched through, the most off-kilter and genuinely unsettled that Bumblebee had ever heard it. “Uhm…Bumblebee?” He seemed hesitant, unsure if he wanted to say whatever message he had to deliver but aware that it had to be said regardless.
“Hey, Bulkhead!” Bumblebee was pleasantly taken by surprise. It was a rare day that any of his friends had a spare moment to just call him unscheduled. “What’s up?”
Bulkhead’s vocal tremor was even more apparent now. “So…uh…there’s…something happened. Something kinda…I don’t even know how to say it.”
“You’re gonna have to be waaaaay more specific,” Bumblebee retorted, laughing it off. “What’s got your circuits so fried anyway? You sound like you’ve just seen a ghost.”
“Well, um, uh…” Bulkhead’s stammering grew more erratic. “I mean – uhm – that’s the thing – I just – something REALLY WEIRD happened.”
Well, now Bumblebee was starting to think this was actually serious. “What? Is there a horde of secret Decepticon loyalists heading toward the planet intending to destroy it or something?”
“No, it’s not that, it’s…” There was a long silence. “Look, I don’t even know – I’m not even sure it’s REAL right now. You, uh…you know the tomb where the frames of fallen soldiers are kept?”
“Uh, yeah?” Bumblebee replied. “Duh? You and I were there together when – we were there a lot of times.” Concern seeped into him now. “Bulkhead, what’s wrong? Seriously, are things okay?”
“I…I don’t know,” Bulkhead replied. “My team was working on fixing it up, and it’s…well…it’s – “
“Just spit it out!”
“One of the offline frames,” Bulkhead blurted. “It came back online. Its spark was GONE, and now it’s…working again. It’s alive.”
Well. That certainly wasn’t what Bumblebee had expected. “That’s not even possible.”
“I know. It shouldn’t be. But we’ve been running every test to see if it’s some kind of trick, and…I dunno, it seems pretty real. But I don’t know if I should believe it.”
“Let me guess,” Bumblebee mused. “You think we’re on the verge of some kind of zombie apocalypse like in those Earth movies.”
“No,” Bulkhead said, dead serious. “It’s not that. It’s not a zombie. He’s AWAKE and everything, and he’s – “ He paused a long while. “Bumblebee. It’s not just about an offline frame coming back online. It’s about WHICH ONE.”
He couldn’t mean –
No. He couldn’t. Bumblebee shut himself down right then and there on that one. “Um…okay? Who came back from the dead?”
When Bulkhead said the name, he might as well have set off an atom bomb.
The next thing Bumblebee knew, he was running, fast as his feet could carry him, practically flying toward the med bay where Bulkhead said the reanimated bot was being kept for testing. Now he knew why Bulkhead was so reticent to say anything. There was simply no way it could be true. If it really had happened, then it had to mean there was an evil trap being laid, or they were all in some kind of virtual reality realm again, or a space barnacle had hijacked Bumblebee’s processor and was filling him with rapid hallucinations while using his body to wreak havoc.
But as far as he knew, he was awake and present in reality. Which meant he couldn’t delay a moment in getting to the site.
As he hurtled down the halls toward the med bay, he was vaguely aware of a pair of familiar voices chatting. Bulkhead, of course, asking “What happened then?”
And then the response: “What I saw was thousands upon thousands of…possibilities, worlds, times, I’m not even sure what I was looking at, but it was certainly an indication that there was…so much more than we ever believed – “
Bumblebee practically broke down the door. Then, upon confirming the sight with his own two eyes, froze in place.
Because there was Bulkhead, sitting on the floor to chat with the reanimated bot. And the latter himself, folded into a lotus position as he recounted his somber journey. A bot somewhat taller than Bumblebee, much smaller than Bulkhead, and painted with deep gold and black. Unmistakable.
He turned to look at the entry to the room upon hearing the commotion, and he, too, froze, cutting himself off midsentence.
For the first time since the final battle for Earth, Bumblebee and Prowl locked gazes.
“It’s…you’re…he wasn’t…” Bumblebee sputtered.
“I know,” Prowl said, a deep melancholy tinting his voice. “I’m…as surprised as you are, I assure you.”
“If…” Bumblebee’s voice suddenly raised in intensity. “If this is some kind of Decepticon trick, then you’re gonna pay for this, you know! You can’t just steal his frame and run wild with it, or copy his paint job or whatever you did! I won’t let you – WE won’t let you disrespect him like that!”
“I think it’s really him, though,” Bulkhead said softly. Still in his own sphere of disbelief.
“…I don’t blame you for not believing what you see.” Prowl looked down to his own hands, flexing the metal joints. “I’m…not sure, myself, that this is anything more than a simulation or a flight of fancy. Perhaps something my spark conjured to make me think that…I’d really come back home.” He winced. “But it can’t be so easy. This can’t be…real…”
It seemed all three Autobots in the room shared that exact sentiment. But in that moment, they were all desperate to believe. And so they unanimously, wordlessly decided to accept the truth staring them in the face. That the one who had sacrificed his own life to save two planets and more had somehow, for unknown reasons, woken back up in a body interred in a tomb of heroes and been able to interact once more with the living.
“It really is you, isn’t it?” Bumblebee said softly.
“…Even I don’t know,” Prowl admitted, looking to him with some sort of guilt.
Then Bumblebee was hurtling again, not even thinking about it, going low –
“Bumblebee, WHAT ARE YOU – “
Prowl’s protest was cut off when Bumblebee practically knocked him over in a tight embrace, locking both arms around him with a death grip. “I thought I’d never see you again,” the smaller said, his voice wavering. “I never – even got to say goodbye – “
Upon hearing those words, Prowl was also moved by pure instinct, returning the embrace suddenly and intensely. “I’m sorry.”
“Are you…” Bumblebee found himself laughing ever so slightly. “Are you apologizing for saving Earth and Cybertron? You need to get your priorities in order.”
“This coming from you, master of priorities.”
“Okay, now I KNOW you’re real.”
They had always been friends, but they had only been in this sort of physical proximity once before. A night after a camping trip gone horribly wrong due to the interference of a space barnacle.
(“I know that part’s over with. It wouldn’t have made any sense for that thing to be around anyway! I just – I just got scared, okay?”)
The parallels weren’t lost on either of them.
Bulkhead watched, feeling a veritable cyclone of emotions. He wanted to be happy. After all, he’d known Bumblebee and Prowl had rather a unique bond among the group, what with their love of teasing one another and their propensity to inspire each other at the most bizarre moments. Bulkhead wanted to feel like finally, they didn’t have to miss each other anymore. But even as much as he’d decided to believe in the current circumstances, he knew just how impossible this should be. He hoped with every bit of emotional data inside of him that this wouldn’t end in all their hearts broken again.
“I, uh…I should call the others,” he said softly. “They’re gonna wanna know about this, and…”
Optimus and Ratchet would surely be far more suspicious. They wouldn’t believe in this sort of miracle for even a second. That was the other truth they all knew.
“I suppose I have to try and explain this,” Prowl sighed heavily, an immense weight of existential turmoil bearing down on him. He let go of Bumblebee, moving to separate their embrace –
Bumblebee refused, clinging on tighter.
“Bumblebee,” Prowl sighed. “I can’t talk to Optimus and Ratchet with you attached to me.”
“But I’m afraid that if I let go…that you’ll be gone again,” Bumblebee admitted.
Oh. Well, Prowl couldn’t argue with that in the slightest. “Then…at least reposition so I can face them.”
“Yeah.”
Bumblebee slid around to grip onto Prowl’s left arm, still holding tight. Prowl himself wasn’t very keen on letting go, either. Not of Bumblebee, not of any of his friends that he could reach out and touch. Because at any moment, it could burst like a bubble, reveal itself to be some cruel illusion.
Though even he wasn’t sure what to think in that regard, because given what he’d done and why he’d done it, his being able to return home, to his friends – no, his family – might look like a godsend on the surface, but likely had some sort of grave repercussion yet to be understood. The laws of nature and the cosmos didn’t just spit the dead back out without reason. Prowl’s sacrifice had been one of balance – his life for the Allspark, and the end of the Decepticons. If one of those things had been undone, then who was to say that the others were still preserved?
“I know you said I wouldn’t believe it,” Ratchet rasped, “and I’ll tell you what: I DON’T believe it.”
“But he’s here!” Bumblebee argued, still glued to Prowl’s left arm. “LOOK at him!”
“No…this simply shouldn’t be,” Prowl said calmly. “No one can argue that fact.”
“We’ve seen the enemy impersonate one of our own before,” Optimus reminded the group. “You of all bots should remember that time, Bumblebee.”
When Wasp had switched their aesthetics to make it seem like each was the other, turning Bumblebee into a pariah. He could still remember when Bulkhead and Prowl had figured out his true identity, the sheer joy that Bulkhead had expressed upon making the realization, and the way that Prowl had hovered over him protectively once Sentinel had attempted to take him into custody –
(He was being marched back to base for judgment. An erroneous judgment based on a false identity. “They’re not gonna believe me,” Bumblebee muttered nervously. “They don’t know me like you guys do – “
Prowl’s grip tightened on his shoulder, where it had been since after their battle with Jetfire and Jetstorm. “We won’t let you come to harm,” he said softly yet sternly. “Just stay close.”
“But what if – “
“I won’t let them interfere until the truth is known. You’re safe. Trust in me.”)
“But this is different!” Bumblebee sputtered. “You all figured out it was me in the end because we know each other! I know Prowl, and this is him!”
“We were also fooled for a good while by Wasp in your colors,” Ratchet grumbled. “I don’t even want to imagine who THIS might be, if he’d sink low enough to wear Prowl’s.”
“No, it is him!” Bulkhead argued. “Ask him something only Prowl would know!”
“That’s not a reliable metric anymore and you know it!” Ratchet snapped. “Anyone could get any sort of intel – “
“Why did I survive the final battle with Megatron?” Optimus interrupted. Calmly, yet firmly.
“…What?” Bumblebee sputtered. “How is THAT a question that works? We all know how you survived, and it was by being cool!”
“It was by the paint of your plates and your honed skills,” Ratchet added. “No ‘being cool’ or luck about it.”
“What do you think?” Optimus stared down Prowl.
“I think that I wasn’t about to let you fall,” Prowl stated. “It was all I could do before I had to…move on.”
Optimus gave a start. “I’m – “ He looked around at the others. “It’s him.”
“What the – you sure about that?” Ratchet spat.
“I never told anyone what really happened then,” Optimus stated. “That a piece of the Allspark transported me to safety…and I recognized its outline. I owe you my life, though in the grand scheme, that’s probably the least we owe you.”
“Wait,” Bulkhead broke in. “So you’re saying that when that explosion went off, you didn’t actually escape it?”
“Why don’t you tell them?” Optimus prompted Prowl.
“I…the memory is vague,” Prowl admitted. “I was becoming one with the Allspark then. I wasn’t sure where I ended and it began. One moment, I inhabited my own frame, knowing what I had to do and yet wondering if it was truly the only way. But I had no time to doubt myself. If I had, then all would have been lost. I…merged, and suddenly it was as if I could see everything at once, all over the city and beyond. Every action in every theater. I saw you and Megatron battling, and I saw you trapped behind the shields that would have cost you your life in order to put a stop to Megatron. I knew I was slipping away fast – as if I was growing, my consciousness spreading over the whole planet and dissipating. But I knew if there was one thing I could not let happen, it was for you to give up the same cost that I had. It was…bad enough for them to lose one, Optimus, and if anyone couldn’t be lost, it was you, the one who banded us all together in the harshest of times. I brought you to safety, and then…departed the planet.”
“And that’s when you saw that time-knife sorta thing with all the worlds and universes folded in on each other, right?” Bulkhead prompted.
Prowl nodded. “Once I truly departed this frame…I saw things the likes of which I couldn’t even describe. I was a thread in the fabric of the cosmic order of time and space. I WAS the Allspark, for but a moment and for all eternity. I saw the fates of living and dead alike, and I knew that I wasn’t truly a part of either one anymore, cut off from both by my bond with all that is and was. It was true beauty in every sense. Everything I had seen, everything I had experienced, it all came back together, it was all bonded by Light and Darkness and stardust and so many other things. This was the true nature of existence, and I was caught between its presence and its absence.”
“That sounds really lonely,” Bumblebee commented.
“…It was.” Prowl couldn’t help but lightly clutch his fingers around Bumblebee’s arm. “I’m certain I was far from the most powerful being in existence, but I knew I was isolated. I thought perhaps the sorrow was an adequate price to pay for finally being part of the nature I’d observed. Then I thought…perhaps it wasn’t. But no matter what, it was a price that I had to pay in order to ensure that the rest of you would be victorious and safe.”
“So,” Ratchet said, obvious doubt discoloring his tone, “Prowl, if that’s who you REALLY are, what happened before you woke up here?”
“Nothing of note,” Prowl said. “That was why I thought at first it was…some trick of the processor. One moment, I was a spark integrated with time and space…and the next, I was lying in my own coffin. I can’t tell you why, and the question grates on me, why, why, why…what cost was paid to bring me back?”
“It definitely wasn’t anything we incited,” Optimus stated. “We couldn’t have even known where to begin – “
“Even when we really wanted to,” Bulkhead finished.
“Believe me,” Bumblebee said somberly. “If I could’ve given up something, anything to get you back – for us all to be together again – I would’ve.”
“What concerns me is the other connections the Allspark had made before I reunited it,” Prowl mused. “You will recall that it had brought to life many friends and enemies alike. And you will recall which enemy made the most use of it to increase his own power. As I reconstructed the Allspark, I saw the fragment ripped from him.”
“Yeah,” Bumblebee recalled. “We…had to clean the scrap up later. Then Sentinel had me tally up the clones he brought in. None left.”
“That is the first thing that occurs to me,” Prowl stated. “If Starscream and I were both sacrificed to the Allspark, and now I have returned, perhaps that means – “
“Now hold it right there!” Ratchet spat. “You’re not saying that Starscream came back to life too because the Allspark decided to spit you both back out!”
“I’m saying that perhaps something deeply wrong has occurred,” Prowl theorized. “That perhaps another sought the power of the Allspark and harnessed it – and because of all that was linked, it had repercussions that were unforeseen. It was all in balance. I find it hard to believe that only I would have returned…and not other entities who were powered by the fragments.”
“Including Starscream,” Bumblebee finished. “All twenty of him. Oh, and her. Can’t forget the one that was a her.”
Of course, there was one thing that Prowl didn’t want to reveal just yet. That being that his sacrifice was probably necessary due to him leaving a couple of shards where they lay. During that moment, he’d been able to sense the fragments inside Wreck-Gar and Scrapper in particular, and even tugging on them had sparked extreme guilt inside of him. He’d let them be. Maybe if he’d ripped those two little shards out, he wouldn’t have needed to give his own life – but the thought was so repugnant to him that he couldn’t even entertain it. He was surprised the others hadn’t asked questions, having noticed the continued existence and sapience of those two. But that could be addressed later, if at all.
Starscream, of course, had been destroyed without a moment’s hesitation.
“Whatever it is, I don’t think we’re going to find out anytime soon,” Optimus theorized. “All we know is that…”
“That you seem to be here, metal and spark, looking as healthy as the day you left us,” Ratchet said in disbelief. “And that means we…”
Bulkhead had been trying so very hard to keep under control. And he’d been succeeding. But he couldn’t keep his feelings dammed up any longer. Without a word, he crossed the room to trap both Prowl and Bumblebee in a crushing embrace of his own.
Both of them gave yelps of surprise, but in no way wanted to interrupt this. Especially not when Optimus joined the group simply by putting one hand on Prowl’s shoulder, and Ratchet stood as close to them as he could without touching anyone.
Part of Ratchet was still afraid this was an elaborate ruse. That if he let himself buy into it, his heart would be shattered later on. He wasn’t sure how much of himself to give to that reunion for that exact reason. He supposed time would tell. But he was in no mood to lose another friend this way. Especially not one he’d already had to get over losing once.
It took them all a while to figure out how to part ways and go back to business, as there still was much business to be done. Red Alert’s medic team eventually showed up to inform them all that there were yet more tests to be run to make sure that Prowl was who he said he was, and to try to find out how such a miracle would have happened. He’d be in custody overnight.
All this time, Bumblebee hadn’t let go of him once. He faced his conundrum when Bulkhead lightly pinched his arm between a couple fingers and tugged; “We gotta go.”
“But – “
“Bumblebee,” Prowl said. “I’m not going anywhere.” Said with such confidence, almost all of it manufactured.
“…Okay,” Bumblebee said softly at last, knowing that the medics wouldn’t approve of any more delay. He let go, then, and he let himself be led out of the room, but not before putting up a hand to wave goodbye back at Prowl.
It was things like Bumblebee’s energy that Prowl had missed when he was dissipated into the cosmos. He'd told himself then, in the interest of coping, that it was a fair trade. To pass up earthly matters in exchange for the mysteries of the multiverse. But now, seeing that one little smile and that one little wave, he knew which he preferred to have. All the stars and planets in all of existence weren’t even close to worth the warmth he felt from knowing he was among bots he loved, bots who were safe.
…Maybe even that bot in particular. He would be lying to himself to say that Bumblebee’s infectious ebullience hadn’t crossed his mind time and time again when he was floating out there. He would also be lying to himself to say that he didn’t have an idea of why. But that wasn’t anything that needed to be brought up aloud, not now. What mattered was the bond between all of them…
And the fear that it simply couldn’t last because the universe – no, multiverse – would demand balance again and come back for the soul it had let escape.
Test after test. Wires hooked up from processor to computer terminal, analyzing anything and everything. A desperate search for answers, in which Prowl had nothing to hide because he wanted to know with the same fervor that the medics did. He let them see everything – his memories, his secrets, even things he was shameful about.
There were things going on file for him that he really wished hadn’t needed to be recorded in data format. But he could see no other way.
Nothing was discovered that he didn’t already know. At the end of the day, they kept him in one of the med rooms – small yet serviceable, and actually rather cozy – because, of course, as much as they had his data on file that it was the real Prowl, there were those yet concerned about an enemy plot. And he still didn’t blame them.
Late at night, far past when everyone else sensible would have been in sleep mode, Prowl remained awake, sitting lotus-style on the medical cot. Thinking about all of this. Wondering if he even trusted himself to be who he said he was.
There came a knock on his door, which surprised him. Visitors were allowed, and staff could decide to check in on him, but given the hour, neither of those seemed plausible at first. Except for the fact that the knock had been quick and erratic and impatient, and Prowl happened to know exactly who it was based on its tempo.
Which is why he immediately moved to open the door, once again staring down Bumblebee.
“Uh…hey,” Bumblebee said sheepishly, dragging one toe on the floor and looking away from Prowl’s line of sight. “So I know you’re probably sleeping, so if you wanna be all, ‘Bumblebee, I’m trying to sleep, go home,’ that’s cool, just say the word, it’s just that I wanted to, y’know, make sure you hadn’t…gone offline again when I wasn’t looking.”
Prowl had been convinced that sacrificing himself had been the right thing to do. If he hadn’t, then Optimus would surely be dead and Scrapper and Wreck-Gar deactivated, let alone multiple worlds falling under Decepticon control. At the same time, however, he felt an intense pang of guilt, recalling that from Bumblebee’s perspective, they’d simply left him alone to carry out his part of the mission and come back after the battle to find that he’d passed on when they weren’t looking. No warning.
“Actually, I…wouldn’t mind the company,” Prowl admitted.
Bumblebee had half been expecting the opposite answer, so he gave a mild flinch of surprise. He then looked back up into Prowl’s gaze and nodded. “Thanks.”
Together, they entered the room, closing the door to sequester themselves inside. “This is really where they’re making you stay all night?” Bumblebee expressed with distaste.
“It has everything I need,” Prowl pointed out.
“Yeah, at the bare minimum,” Bumblebee groaned.
“You know, some of us don’t need spacious areas with bells and whistles in order to feel satisfied.”
“Yeah, and some of us are boring.”
There was a short silence. Then Bumblebee gave what might’ve been the beginning of a half-hearted laugh, only to break down into obvious discomfort, his posture crooked, his gaze fixed downward.
Prowl reached out; “Bumblebee, I didn’t mean – “
“No.” Bumblebee looked up at him with a melancholy smile. “That was funny. I MISSED picking on you. And you picking on me. I just thought…well, you know.”
That such exchanges were buried along with Prowl’s empty frame. “I never thought I would find myself admitting this,” Prowl sighed, “but I’ve missed the same thing.” He moved to sit on the edge of the cot, gesturing to the empty space beside him. “You can sit if you prefer.”
“Yeah.” Bumblebee took the invitation outright.
“I suppose you want to talk about the obvious,” Prowl said.
“We don’t have to, if you’d rather get your mind off it,” Bumblebee replied.
“I don’t think that would be possible for me to do no matter the topic of conversation. So we may as well discuss what we please.”
Bumblebee was silent quite a while then, trying to find the words he wanted. Prowl patiently let him search, keeping eyes on him the whole time. The data probe from earlier had probably turned up one too many specifically pointed thoughts about Bumblebee, and this was perhaps the worst way to realize how he’d been seeing him near the very end of things. Especially since with what was on the table, such feelings actually seemed like small potatoes.
“When we got back to Cybertron,” Bumblebee said softly – so unlike him to be so reserved – “they held a victory parade for us. We turned over the bad guys, and everybody cheered. It should’ve been the happiest day of my life, but it wasn’t, because we were holding you up – or what was left of you – for everyone to know the sacrifice you made. And they just…kept cheering. Like there wasn’t a problem with you being gone. I thought I was gonna snap and freak out at everybody about how cheering at your offline frame was messed up.”
“And you didn’t?”
“Actually, only because Bulkhead snapped first,” Bumblebee recalled. “He told a bunch of people off, and the rest of us didn’t wanna stop him. The Elites had words for him later, but I don’t think anybody should blame him. We were a family, all together. We all…really loved each other. Even though Sari’s far away, I can always be happy thinking about how she’s still doing her thing on Earth and making new friends and having adventures, and someday, either she’ll come visit Cybertron or we can go back to Earth to visit her. Even when she’s not there, I know she’s THERE. But there was…nowhere I could go to see you again. And whenever Optimus and Ratchet and Bulkhead and I were all together, that’s when it just got really obvious, because we all knew who else should’ve been in the room. We kind of…have jobs on opposite sectors right now, and we still talk to each other when we can, but I think sometimes I’m glad we can only meet up so much, because otherwise I’m gonna see who’s not there instead of who actually is. And sometimes I wonder…who might be next. If someday, a threat’s gonna come along that somebody else is gonna need to pull what you did. I think sometimes about what if it was me. I don’t even know if I’d be brave enough to do it. I think I’d just want to save my own plating, even if I knew the right thing to do. But I know Bulkhead, Optimus, and Ratchet would do the right thing.”
He paused, gathering his thoughts before his next dive into grief. “Did they tell you that…that Blurr was compacted by Shockwave after he came back here?”
“No,” Prowl said, aghast. This certainly was news, and not the kind he’d been expecting.
“Yeah, he worked with so-called Longarm and I guess he got a bit too close to finding out the truth,” Bumblebee said. “Nobody knew where he went for the longest time, but after Longarm’s cover got blown, they started tracing things back, like the scrap he’d handed off for disposal, and…the metal was the right color. Or I guess the wrong color. And I always knew the Decepticons were the bad guys and everything, but I guess I always just thought as long as we worked together and helped each other out, we’d come through it okay. I didn’t think any of us could actually…die doing this. Stupid, right? I mean, that’s the whole point. They drilled that into us at the Academy. But I just wanted to be a hero.”
“It isn’t stupid at all,” Prowl said softly. “In fact, thinking such things is probably what gave you the confidence to accomplish all you’ve done. And because of your ability to look up and ahead, there are probably plenty of others who avoided meeting similar fates. To know that Blurr was taken permanently offline, though…”
(Color? Offline scrap shouldn’t have had any color. But perhaps there were ways to tell what a bot’s coloration originally had been. Prowl put it out of his mind.)
“And he couldn’t even magically wake up in his frame like you did,” Bumblebee pointed out. “He doesn’t even have one. Just a cube of scrap in a box.”
(Out of his mind. They had to have thought of that. No use in dwelling on whether or not a tragedy had even occurred, because obviously it had.)
“He was a good Autobot,” Prowl recalled.
“He really was. Sometimes I think I shouldn’t have screwed around competing with him so much.”
“Don’t say that,” Prowl told him. “You meant no harm, and I’m sure that in the end, it was something he looked upon fondly. The way I did.”
“Thanks.”
“I suppose it couldn’t be easy, confronting the fear that any one of us could be gone at any moment.”
“It wasn’t,” Bumblebee said hurriedly, “but I don’t want you to think it was just about numbers or losing ANYONE. You not being around just doesn’t feel right, because who was going to do what you did? Who was going to be the one of us with a respect for life that got so honestly weird that he’d try and rehabilitate the Dinobots?”
“That didn’t quite work out the way I’d imagined,” Prowl recalled.
“But it did!” Bumblebee argued. “I mean – the one guy is Scrapper’s friend now, and the other two kinda did end up our enemies, but they’re not BAD bad. If Blackarachnia hadn’t shown up, then they probably would’ve been our friends until the end. I wouldn’t have thought of giving them a chance, but you did, so they got to have pretty cool lives. You always had this way of seeing things that went past what they looked like on the surface, and since you were gone, I sort of made myself a promise to start trying to look at things like that.”
“Bumblebee – “
“You were always cool and smart and strong and on top of it,” Bumblebee went on. “And, I mean, the other guys were too, but you were YOU. And when it got down to the clutch, you really knew how to inspire me to do better. Or – you remember when Sari got out of control and – well, I kinda got hurt?” (Neither of them wanted to recall the details of exactly how.) “And you stayed with me while the others went to save her? I always thought that was just…nice. Because you knew how to get my mind off it and keep me from freaking out.”
“To my recollection, you weren’t ‘freaking out’ in the slightest,” Prowl reminded him. “Your concern lay with Sari despite your condition, which was extremely noble.”
“I might not have shown it on the outside,” Bumblebee said, “and she was the first bot I was thinking about…but after a while, it kinda sank in how close that call was, y’know? And I might’ve gotten a lot more scared if you hadn’t stayed behind to talk to me. And I always think I’m glad it was you because the other guys are great, but you just have this way of, I dunno, making me want to do better but also making me feel like I’m already doing great?”
“You…” Prowl broke in softly. “You have no idea how frightened I was that day.”
“I mean, I can guess,” Bumblebee said. “It was your version of the space barnacle. But we’ve already talked that one into the ground. The point is just – you’re…you’re something, Prowl. You’re really something. In a good way. And I just…missed that so much. I just hoped that after you were gone, maybe I could be a little more like you and remember what you taught me.”
“You wouldn’t want to be like me,” Prowl broke in sternly. “Bumblebee, when I was adrift in the cosmos, I had time to reminisce on things, and I…truly missed having you around. Perhaps most of all. Unfair as that might be to say to the others.”
“Wait, really?” Bumblebee was taken aback by that. “Me? You serious?”
“Yes,” Prowl replied. “I did have a particular worldview. You’re right about that much. You often challenged that worldview…and in a way I needed. You almost always had an air of natural levity around you that I think would draw most bots closer. There were flaws you had yet to temper, but so did I have my own. You actually…reminded me of someone I had known during my days in training. Someone impulsive, impetuous, who refused to do what he was told. But someone very dear to me all the same. That bot…eventually ended up leaving that part of himself behind, and it seemed to be for the better, but then I saw that you had managed to keep that part of yourself while maturing in a different direction. Becoming strong and kind in addition to your rasher qualities rather than despite them.”
“Quick question,” Bumblebee said. “Are we talking about Jazz? Are you saying he used to be a wild bot?”
“No.”
“Then who else – “ Bumblebee took on a mischievous smirk. “Wait a minute, you don’t mean YOU used to be like me, do you?”
“…Perhaps,” Prowl muttered. “It might have been that you irked me in the beginning because of how similar you were to what I’d left behind…and that I eventually came to realize that you’d managed to recapture the good of what I had moved on from. I would not change who I am or how my journey has gone, but the ways in which you’re different from me are what makes you…”
He was having trouble placing a word here that wouldn’t incriminate himself. “A friend truly worth having.” He paused. “I had thought…that what I did at the end was the right thing. To protect others at my own expense. But now knowing what I’d done to you by making that choice – “
“Hey, don’t you DARE say you shouldn’t have done it!” Bumblebee snapped. “I mean, yeah, I wish you hadn’t, but it’s not like we had a choice! And I only just learned that if you hadn’t done that, then Optimus would be the one deactivated! I know you would’ve done it no matter what because that’s just who you ARE. You care about protecting everybody, not about serving yourself! And it’s not like I didn’t know that I was part of that ‘everybody.’ You KNOW whose fault it was that we had to go through all that, and he’s in a holding cell right now. Though after everything, sometimes, I wish he wasn’t, even as much as I know that’s wrong. Sometimes I wish he’d just been scrapped.”
An anger was coming out that Prowl couldn’t recall having seen in Bumblebee with such ferocity. “I couldn’t tell you what I would say would be my desired fate for Megatron. All I know is that I trust Optimus’ judgment, and I want to honor his decision, because I believe he did what he knew to be the right thing. What I would have done in his place is irrelevant. What happened was the way it must be.”
“Of course you’re being all rational about it and trusting Optimus,” Bumblebee grumbled. “I know, I know, I’m letting anger get the better of me, but it’s probably a good thing it wasn’t me in his position, because I wouldn’t have let him off so easy.”
“And therein lies the importance of both perspectives,” Prowl stated. “The dueling worldviews between which lies the truth. Though I must admit I have a hard time envisioning you putting an end to anyone, even Megatron.”
“I would’ve done it for you,” Bumblebee muttered.
The thought both scared and flattered Prowl.
“…But maybe it shouldn’t matter,” Bumblebee went on, softening his tone. “Because unless this is some super stupid dream I’m about to wake up from…you’re here now.”
“Yes,” Prowl conceded. “I am.” He looked down to his hands, flexing them again. “In all respects, what happened to me seems to have been completely and thoroughly undone.” He paused. “If I may…express some of my own concerns? If it would be too much, then – “
“No, I’ve hogged the spotlight all night,” Bumblebee said. “If anyone has a reason to vent here, it’s you. You did…die, I mean. But being back has to feel great at least, right?”
“No,” Prowl answered somberly. “It doesn’t. After all the time I spent observing nature, I became aware of a distinct pattern, a cycle. Life, death…they follow one another in a graceful dance. One cannot exist without the other. All Earth creatures must come to an end, and, given enough time and experience, so must all Cybertronians, I suppose. Once that barrier has been crossed, there is no return, and that is as it should be. For anything else to be true would be a contradiction of nature, a flagrant disobedience of the very way our existence is known to be. Even having observed what comes beyond death, it became clear to me that it was the natural order, the way of the worlds.”
“What does happen afterward?” Bumblebee asked. “I mean, since you saw it and all.”
“As many possibilities as exist for the living,” Prowl answered. “Paradises, torments, and everything in between. A whole new plane of existence in which souls and sparks carry on. I can only presume that Blurr is occupying one of those worlds now, and that he is creating a story worth telling.”
“That weirdly makes me feel a lot better,” Bumblebee admitted. “Not that it was a good thing that he…you know what I mean.”
“No, I understand.” Prowl still couldn’t look at him. “I understand completely. What I don’t understand is why I now exist as a stain on the natural order. Something that simply should not be. The cycle only turns one direction. I never asked to disobey it, and yet here I am, having broken the balance. There are many who still do not believe I am who I say I am, and to be quite honest, I can hardly blame them, because…I’m…not sure I believe I am who I say I am. My life was supposed to be at its end. For me to be here now…am I the true Prowl? Am I some sort of imitation? I’m not supposed to be here. That much is very apparent. I feel…hollow, as though I know that my purpose in life now is to figure out how to live a life that simply should not be. And I wonder, as I think back on all the creatures I saw who expired, if the only way to uphold that balance, to make it fair for everything else that has ceased to be, is for me to return to – “
Bumblebee saw where that sentence was going, and immediately knew he had to stop it. “HEY!” he yelled, grabbing onto Prowl’s now-trembling hands. “Don’t say that. Don’t EVER say that!”
“I…I’m sorry,” Prowl said softly. “It wouldn’t be fair to you, my friends, after all of this. If nothing else…it gives you back what you had lost. Perhaps that should be enough. And yet still I feel empty, wrong, unsure where I’m even meant to go now.”
“You get to stay with us, rustbrain!” Bumblebee argued. “We can put the team back together the way it was, and we can all go see Sari and show her that you’re back! And we can keep fighting bad guys, and we can save worlds again, but this time we all stay together and nobody has to lose each other, and this time – this time maybe we’d even say everything we needed to before it’s too late!”
“Bumblebee, I know the depth of our bond,” Prowl reminded him. “There is nothing more you need to say – “
“No, you don’t.”
For the first time in a while, Prowl chanced looking over at Bumblebee. The expression on Bumblebee’s face was almost…ill. “There’s something you don’t know,” he went on, “and I feel like I shouldn’t tell you because it’d make you think that this is about me wanting to get something out of you or get somewhere with you, and you don’t owe me ANYTHING, okay? But I also know I can’t just not say it because you can’t not know…how important you are. And if I wake up tomorrow and you’re gone again, I’ll wish you’d heard it, even if it wasn’t from me. So promise that if I say something right now, you won’t take it to mean you have to do anything about it, okay? Because it doesn’t MATTER and you’re always gonna be my friend no matter what.”
“I…” Prowl couldn’t even begin to imagine, though in hindsight, it probably should have been staring him in the face, given what he’d realized lately. “I promise.”
“I…think I might…” Bumblebee practically choked on the words. “Maybe love you a little bit?”
At first, Prowl was taken aback, but then he remembered the word could mean several things. “Bumblebee, I know – “
“No, I mean…like…” Bumblebee looked away. “Like in the OTHER way.”
“Oh.” Prowl hadn’t meant to come across as so flippant, but suddenly, he was having every thought at once, it seemed, and he had to take a moment to sort them out while also listening to Bumblebee.
“When I said you inspire me, I really mean it,” Bumblebee insisted. “There’s no bot else like you. And I didn’t even figure out I felt that way until you were gone and I was going over things, like the barnacle and that time Sari went out of control and the time Wasp switched our places and you stayed by me, or even just…messing around with each other or those times you showed me up. I took it for granted that you’d always be there, and I think I liked hanging out with you in a way that was different than the others, even Bulkhead. I remember always wanting you to think I was cool, because I always thought YOU were so cool, and then all of a sudden it just kinda clicked that it was…not just a friend thing. But I’m not saying this to make you feel guilty or get anything out of you, okay? I’m saying it because…you just need to know that you’re that special, and if you ever pick out anybody to be with, they’re gonna be so lucky. And all your friends, we’re SO lucky that we have someone like you who was willing to give it all up to save them. So please don’t ever think you should’ve stayed gone or that you should go back, because there’s a million reasons for you to be here, and – and if you die again just because you had to protect some ‘natural order,’ I’m never gonna forgive you!”
It was a lot to take in. Prowl realized their hands were still interlocked, and so he gently ran a thumb over Bumblebee’s metal fingers. “Thank you. I…shouldn’t be so selfish.”
“No, you should be MORE selfish!” Bumblebee argued. “You should think about what you really wanna do for once, and it sounds like you were lonely when you were out there, so maybe stop thinking about the greater good and stay wherever it is you really wanna be, because I KNOW it’s not back out there in wherever you went!”
He was right. That wasn’t where Prowl wanted to be; just where he felt duty-bound to be. Or had, until this revelation.
“I still don’t know what I’m meant to do here,” Prowl said, “or why I’ve been given this chance. But I can scarcely think of a better reason to figure it out…than to live for you.”
Bumblebee was taken aback. “Heh…you know that’s a lot of pressure, right? You’re gonna find other reasons too, right?”
“Of course.” Prowl smiled. “And…if we’re both being completely honest…there’s something you need to know as well.”
“What?”
“That there was a reason it was you and your smiles and your absolutely obnoxious personality that kept coming back to my memory during that time,” Prowl said. “I think I’ve realized that I’ve harbored similar feelings about you for some time.”
“What the – “ Bumblebee wasn’t sure how to process that. At first, disbelief seemed the best option. “Prowl. You don’t have to make up stuff like that just because of what I said. It’s okay. I meant it: you’ll always be my friend no matter how I feel about you.”
“No, Bumblebee,” Prowl insisted. “I’m serious. When I said your levity would draw most bots closer…I know this because it never fails to draw me in. Even when you irked me, there was something…charming about it. I just couldn’t bring myself to admit that to myself, let alone anyone else.”
“No way,” Bumblebee scoffed. “I’m not even that hot. I’m TINY.”
“It isn’t about appearance,” Prowl insisted. “Though I wouldn’t say that yours is unappealing. We Autobots come in a host of shapes and sizes, and yours fits perfectly who you are.”
“Well, now I feel bad for just thinking that you’re hot,” Bumblebee muttered.
Prowl chuckled. “You’ve already proven it’s about more than just that. I will, however, take the compliment.” He returned to a more serious demeanor: “You should also be very aware of just how special you are. The impact you have on others. The way your kindness and your radiance brighten the world itself. And don’t ever sell yourself short.”
“I…” Bumblebee was at a loss for words. Then: “Wait a minute, ‘sell myself short’? Was that a pun on me being short?”
“Maybe.”
“Well, you’re not even that much taller than me!”
“Oh, I’m aware.”
Bumblebee’s eyes widened. “You know that was just teasing, right? I don’t mind how tall or short you are. You’re honestly really – “
“I know, Bumblebee.” Prowl’s smile was soft now, devoid of all mischief. “But I don’t see a reason we shouldn’t still have a little fun. I think by now, we’re well aware of how precious each of our lives is to the other…or at least I hope.”
“No, definitely,” Bumblebee replied. “It’s just…what do we even do about this now?”
“Whatever we want, I suppose,” Prowl mused. “Nothing stops us.”
Already, instinctively, they leaned in a bit closer together, sort of propping one another up and making more metal-to-metal contact. It felt like a massive relief – apparently they’d both been waiting to do this for a long time.
“So if we’re a thing,” Bumblebee said. “If you WANT to be a thing.”
“I do. But the final say rests with you.”
“No, I wanna!” Bumblebee insisted. “I was just thinking. I know this is super weird, but you know how in all those Earth movies, humans do that thing when they like each other where they knock their faceplates together? Am I the only one who kinda sorta always wanted to try that?”
“Hmm…” Prowl grinned. “The idea certainly is worth exploring.”
Gently, he moved both hands to the sides of Bumblebee’s face, leaning in to press the most tender of kisses to his metallic mouth.
“Yeah, okay, I see why people like doing that,” Bumblebee said afterward. “That was a RUSH.”
“I certainly wouldn’t mind doing it again.”
So Bumblebee flung his arm around Prowl’s neck and pulled him closer excitedly, and they attempted the alien gesture again, a little more enthusiastically. Admittedly, part of what made it so great was probably the cultural novelty – but that didn’t at all undermine the fact that the best selling point was who they were doing it with.
When they broke apart, Bumblebee asked quietly, “Hey, is it…is it okay if I stay by you tonight? I’m not saying we get all hot and sparky or anything. Even if you do want to, today was already…a lot.”
“It was,” Prowl agreed. “Though…I would be open to revisiting…that matter at a later date.”
(Sure, human copulation was also an incredibly alien thing to Autobots, and not even something that could be rightly mimicked, given that the anatomy of bots didn’t allow for quite the same things as humans, but they did still have their own version of pleasure and romantic bonding, involving electric surges and sensors and honestly a whole lot less mess than the humans’ baby-making process. Also, as a bonus, it had nothing to do with reproduction.)
“I just don’t want to leave and then wake up tomorrow and find out this was all in my head,” Bumblebee continued. “I promise I won’t be this clingy all the time. It’s just…”
“I know.” Prowl looped both arms around him, pulling him in close. What a relief to be able to do this, to feel as though it wasn’t pushing their friendship too far. “I had thought I would want to wake up and find myself where I’d been until today. You have, however, done a suitably good job of changing my mind. And I thank you for that. I would love for you to stay.”
They changed positions, lying down side-by-side on the cot, each with one arm draped over the other. “I really wish we’d figured this out sooner,” Bumblebee said, looking at Prowl while they were both on the horizontal plane.
“It is quite nice,” Prowl agreed. “And we can always make up for lost time.”
“For as long as we have, anyway.”
“I told you.” Prowl traced down Bumblebee’s back with one hand lightly. “I’m not going anywhere. This time, I mean it.”
He knew that making Bumblebee, or even the other Autobots at large, his only anchor to this life wasn’t sustainable. He couldn’t rely on them to be his reason for living. But he would take the inspiration he could, because at the end of the day, Bumblebee was right. He’d given up so much to help others, and now, it seemed he could finally reap his own reward without having to sacrifice anything. As counterintuitive as it felt to not just sabotage that in order to feel as though things were “correct”…he knew it would be better for everyone, himself included, once he learned to let it go and accept whatever happened to him, be it life, death, or something in between. And right now, he had something in the realm of the living that was worth appreciating with all his spark.
That said…
“I do still worry,” Prowl admitted in a whisper.
“About your ‘Starscream came back too’ conspiracy theory?” Bumblebee asked.
“That’s a casual way of putting it, but yes.”
“Man, that’d stink,” Bumblebee sighed. “But we’ve kicked his tailpipe before. And it’s probably just a you thing. There’s no reason he had to come back too.”
“I too would like to believe that. But the fact remains that we were both bonded to the Allspark.”
“Oh, hey, double trouble idea. Because I was thinking about some of the other shards, and how weird it was that Scrapper and Wreck-Gar were still walking around…though I’m starting to think I know the reason for that.”
Ah. So he had picked it up.
“But you remember who else had one?” Bumblebee recalled. “That crazy lady with the slow-down powers. There’s no saying she didn’t get a spark back too.”
“That…would be a considerably less worrisome threat.”
“Speak for yourself. You weren’t the one who kept getting frozen in time!” After a pause, Bumblebee went on: “But seriously. I don’t wanna worry about anything until we know there’s something to worry about.”
“Probably the wiser philosophy,” Prowl admitted. “I suppose there’s no point in planning for something that hasn’t happened.”
“There we go. Now you’re talking sense. Maybe tomorrow, if they let you out of med jail, we can get your mind off it the Bumblebee way. Diversions, fun, and knocking the training courses out of the park.”
“You realize we have two different ideas of ‘fun.’”
“Yeah, but now you’re stuck with mine,” Bumblebee teased. “Because you liiiiike me.”
Prowl found himself softly laughing. “So I am, and that isn’t at all a bad thing.”
Together, they entered sleep mode, still holding on to one another.
When Bumblebee awoke, before he opened his eyes, he thought at first that he’d had a very lovely dream of Prowl returning to life.
But it could only have possibly been a dream, and grief seized his spark.
…Then why could he feel someone’s arm draped over him? Why was he pressed close to somebody else –
He cracked open one optic, then the other. So it hadn’t been a dream. He really had fallen asleep with Prowl. Prowl, who was back, and that meant everything was going to be all right after all. And…they were dating now, which was a very nice cherry on top.
Slowly, Prowl stirred, as if aware he was being stared at.
“Hey,” Bumblebee greeted.
Prowl smiled slightly. “Good morning.”
“So it was real. Good to know.”
“For me as well.”
However, their respite was short-lived, because there was a pummeling on the door before Ratchet, Optimus, and Bulkhead just forced their way in.
“Prowl!” Bulkhead began. “We tried getting Bumblebee, but he’s not – “
Everyone realized at once exactly why Bumblebee hadn’t been in his quarters. Ratchet gaped; Bulkhead and Optimus shielded their eyes out of discretion.
“IT’S NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!” Bumblebee sputtered. “I mean, yeah, it IS, but we weren’t doing anything private!”
Prowl simply sat up, unbothered, and looked to his colleagues. “There’s no need for that.”
Bulkhead and Optimus peeked – yes, the two of them were decent. Bulkhead, of course, had some thoughts about how he really should’ve seen this coming, and would have been all in on teasing the two of them if not for the reason he’d entered in such a rush.
Bumblebee sat up as well, sheepishness written across his face – but really, once the others realized that they hadn’t interrupted intimacy, they didn’t seem to care. Or…be surprised. Which told him a few things.
“But surely you didn’t race here to confirm our relationship status,” Prowl went on. “Something’s happened.”
“So there’s bad news…” Bulkhead began.
“And there’s WORSE news,” Ratchet finished.
Prowl and Bumblebee looked to one another, then back at the other three. “Start with the bad,” Prowl said.
“Then hit us with the worse,” Bumblebee added.
“Well, uh…turns out there was a security breach,” Bulkhead said. “After we left here yesterday, Optimus and I spent all day looking into what happened to the Allspark. It’s gone.”
“Vanished into thin air,” Ratchet said. “Though maybe not really, when you think about what we found out LATER.”
“So that’s the bad news,” said Prowl.
“…No,” Optimus muttered. “That’s the news we EXPECTED. We knew you coming back online couldn’t have happened for no reason. But we think we know where the Allspark is, and…”
“We spent so much time on that sector yesterday that we didn’t even notice the other breach!” Bulkhead said.
“Well, our all-knowing Magnus didn’t either,” Ratchet said snidely. “Maybe if he wasn’t so concerned with throwing all his security at everything obvious to make it look like he’s competent, he would’ve noticed that FIVE of his guards went AWOL!”
“They’re fine, by the way,” Optimus said. “Just…defrosting.”
“Defrosting,” Prowl repeated. Interesting choice of words.
“It was a jailbreak,” Ratchet said. “Sentinel didn’t notice an entire JAILBREAK because he had everyone running the wrong direction!”
“Yeah, that’s not surprising,” Bumblebee sighed. “…Wait, no, that’s not important – who broke out? Not…not Megatron?”
“Well, that’s why this is just kinda bad news, not worse news,” said Bulkhead. “The bot who broke in and opened the cell…just took Blitzwing. Nobody else. Megatron, Lugnut, and Shockwave are all where we left them.”
There was a silence as Prowl and Bumblebee pondered this. “…Okay, run that by me again?” Bumblebee said. “It sounded like you said they just took Blitzwing and nobody else.”
“’Cause they did,” Ratchet said.
“But…why?” Prowl was befuddled. “Why HIM?”
“Well…we have a guess,” Optimus said. “And it has to do with who broke him out and got caught on tape doing it. Which is also what told us where the Allspark is. We have reason to believe that it’s been shattered – and that its components have returned to their last resting places before Prowl and Jazz retrieved them.”
“But who could possibly…” Prowl trailed off. He already knew.
“What?” Bumblebee said. “Why am I the last one to figure it – “ He stopped himself midsentence. “…It was Starscream, wasn’t it.”
“Against all odds,” Ratchet snarled.
“I mean, it’s great that he didn’t take Megatron,” said Bulkhead. “But…”
“But he’s conniving, he’s probably desperate, and we’ve already seen how he refuses to let anything stop him,” Optimus said. “There was a moment before the tide turned where it looked like we were going to have to worry about him more than Megatron back on Earth.”
Bumblebee looked to Prowl anxiously. Not just with concern over the fact that Starscream was a thorn in their wires again. But if Prowl felt himself responsible for it all, then…
Prowl, thankfully, had only entertained the thought (that he should have stayed dead and kept Starscream down with him) for a short moment before realizing how unfair that would be to Bumblebee. And the others, but especially Bumblebee, whose side he never wanted to leave again, now that he knew how he’d grieved. No, this was a matter that required him to be online to solve.
He knew Bumblebee would be worrying about it, and so he said “Well, then it seems my arrival was well-timed.”
Bumblebee was awash with relief, but tried not to let it show.
Prowl, in fact, was already standing up from the cot. “It seems there isn’t a moment to waste,” he said. “We have to figure out the link between his reappearance and the Allspark’s disappearance. And what it means he’s planning next. I’m certain that without the other Decepticons tethering him, he will see it as an opportunity for an immense power grab, and we had best be ready for it.”
“He has one other Decepticon,” Bumblebee reminded him. “He took Blitzwing. Why Blitzwing? That’s the weirdest combo I can think of.” He paused. “Okay, actually, maybe not, because they’re kind of the same brand of annoying. But still!”
“I think only time can reveal the nature of that alliance to us,” Prowl said, reaching out to take Bumblebee’s hand and gently urge him to stand beside Prowl. “For now…we have to be at the ready. After all…”
“After all, Sentinel’s going to be no help at all, and we all know it,” Bumblebee said somewhat venomously.
There was no disagreement.