Chapter Text
There was only so much sand and so many tumbleweeds one bot could see before they went mad and right now, said bot was teetering on that line of self offlining. If the road seemed never ending 3 months ago, then it was really starting to seem as if this was going to be the end of her; she already burned through the energon supply on her more than a scrapheap she called a ship and there was no way she thought she was going to find anymore. “This can’t be how I go out! I didn’t almost get blast to bits trying to win back the city of Vos just to get crash-land in this barren empty aghh!” She let out an annoyed growl as she revved her engine a few times.
It’s been nearly 4 months since the Autobot known as (Y/N) crash landed to Earth, her ship had been sabatoaged back in Devisiun by some Decepicon spy, the battle had ended with her squadron getting slaughtered and she haven’t been able to forget about it since; she failed them. Now she was here with no way of trying to contact any Autobots that could be stationed here, the crash busted both her comm link and her scanner. She could be here all alone on this planet and not even know it!
Suddenly the (F/C) Jaguar XK skidded to a hard stop, kicking up a cloud of dust worthy enough to cripple a city; (Y/N) quickly put herself into reverse as she went to the source of the explosion that caught her attention. The car transformed into a tall yet slightly bulky (F/C) and black robot, her right arm transforming into a short barrled blaster as she slid down a cliff side. It was determinded to be an energon mine and right now, it was under attack and she was going to figure out by who. The Autobot hid behind a rock formation, watching as a vehicon was thrown from the mine before quickly getting back up and running back in; blasters firing. If Decepicons are here and they’re engaged in a battle, that can only mean one thing… Autobots! She might’ve been of a larger stature, but she was still able to be nearly silent as she made her way over to the mine’s enterance; it was empty for as far as she could see but the sounds of fighting deeper inside was enough for her to sneak in.
It’s been so long since (Y/N) seen another bot, let alone fight one! To say she was overly excited would be an understatement, still she knew she had to be careful as she looked around the mine; trying to determine where the noise is eminating from. The Autobot cried out in surprise as she sidestepped out of the way of blaster shots, looking up there were a small group of troopers shooting at her. She growled softly as she hid behind the wall, waiting for a gap in the shots before jumping out of cover and hitting two of the three vehicon’s in the chest. The third vehicon brought out his other blaster when she charged towards him, jumping over his shots and kicked him hard, using him to skid down the steep dip where she was greeted with the sight of a familiar blue Autobot. (Y/N) couldn’t believe her own optics as she offlined and onlined them several times to make sure it wasn’t just her imagination, it was Arcee!
Wait… if Arcee was here then that meant-
This must’ve been the planet she heard Team Prime was stationed at, The Team Prime! For the entire war, she had always looked up to them, wanting to be them; they had done so many amazing feats that were known all across the galaxies! Optimus Prime was her hero, her inspiration that made her want to do good. Ever since the war started, she had wanted to join them and help turn the tide in the Autobot favor. It helped that back on Cybertron, she was close friends with Bumblebee and the thought of being able to work with him again brought a smile on her faceplates. However she was quickly brought out of her thoughts when Arcee was thrown against the wall with an audible cracking, crumbling of the mine wall made it perfectly clear that if she didn’t get out of there; she was going to be buried alive. Acting quickly, (Y/N) tackled Arcee and knocking her out of the way of the several large rocks collapsing upon each other. She could see the surprise on the other femme’s face but she was more focused on using her momentum to kick off the wall, her left servos transforming into a blade as she cut off a vehicons head; jumping off his body to give the other four a similar fate. (Y/N) was panting heavily as she straightened up, turning to make sure Arcee was alright when she was face to face with the femme’s blasters to her surprise.
“Who are you!?” She asked or well demanded with a small growl, confusing the poor other femme. She saved her and expected her to be thankful but instead here she was frozen in fear as she stared into the light of her blasters, practially hypnotized by it. A lack of response from her only seemed to serve to irk Arcee even further as she slowly began to fire up her weapon, ready to fire. “Answer me, now!”
<“No! Don’t shoot!”>
The sound of beeps and whirls caused (Y/N)’s optics to widen as she pushed past Arcee with a loud squeal, she recongized that lack of voice anywhere! She couldn’t stop herself from jumping into a certain yellow scout’s arms. “Bumblebee!” She didn’t think she would ever see her long time friend ever again and she didn’t know if she would ever want to let him go.
Arcee put her blasters away, walking up to the pair to examine the femme suspiciously. “You know this ‘bot?” She asked stiffly her servos moving to rest on her hips.
Bumblebee nodded squeezing her tightly which caused to to giggle softly to his delight. <“(Y/N) and I go way back! She was my best friend back before the war, we lost contact during the battle of Crystal City.”> He explained as heavy footsteps were heard walking up behind them.
“Then any friend of Bee’s, is a friend of ours!” It was the Autbot known as Bulkhead who came over to check on the commotion. As tough as he was and sounded by the stories she heard, she also heard he was a gentle giant despite his size. “It’s nice to meet cha, I’m Bulkhead.” He gave her a lopsided grin after he hit her on the back a little to hard, it nearly knocked both her and Bee over!
(Y/N) smiled back politely, ready to respond when something else caught her sights and she just about fell out of her friends arms as she scrambled to get to her feet, she could feel her own spark beating heavily in her chest as a certain Autobot finally made his way over to the rest of his team. It was Optimus Prime! It was a miracle that she didn’t faint right then and there, it was really him; she couldn’t believe she was actually graced by the presence of her actual hero!
“As grateful as we are to see a fellow Autobot on Earth, one question must be answered, how did you arrive here?” His deep baritone voice caused a shiver to creep up her backstrut, especially with how it seemed his optics were staring right through her.
(Y/N) looked up at him, as she tried to choose her next words carefully; not wanting to ruin any of her chances to get in their good graces. “Well Optimus sir, you see I came from the Cybertronian colony of Devisiun, it’s where I was stationed at the time to keep it from falling into Decepticon hands when my ship was tampered with by Decepticon spy. We ended up getting overwhelmed with no choice to but to retreat, I was the only one able to get out and even then; I didn’t last long as my ship completely shut down and I was at the mercy of the astroid belt. I was hit badly and knocked into stasis and well, ended up here. I’ve been driving around this planet for three months, trying to comm for help but...” She smiled sheepishly as she tapped her comm link a few times but nothing seemed to happen. “It’s completely busted.” The femme was starting to get a sinking feeling in her stomach as Optimus’ furrowed his brows slightly, it seemed he was in deep thought.
Finally, Optimus extended his servos towards her with a serious expression on his features even as her own face lit up with pure joy at the realization of what was to come. “Then allow me to be the first to welcome you to Team Prime.” He raised an eyebrow as she squealed loudly, gripping up his servos surprisingly tight and gave it several quick shakes. Even if he didn’t express it, there was a certain amusement in Optimus’ optics at the sight of the femme being twirled in circles by Bumblebee.
Everyone seemed fine with the decision well all except Arcee, she looked as if she was waiting her turn for execution. She locked eyes with the femme for a moment and that caused a shiver to creep up her backstrut, even Decepticons haven’t looked at her with such hatred before and it hurt. “You can’t be serious! With all due respect Optimus, how could you be so trust with her? Especially after that trick the Decepticons pulled with Wheeljack, we can’t get lucky twice!”
Even though (Y/N) didn’t fully understand what had happened to them, not even she could not deny the fact that she definitely had a point that they had to be weary who to trust. Still there was no stopping her door wings drooping downwards as she looked around the group, she never had someone question where her spark was especially since there was never a moment where she would willingly betray her kind.
It was Bumblebee who stood up to her defense as he walked over to her and rested his servos on her shoulders, her faceplates were heating up slightly as he stared deep into her optics to try and get a read on her. It was silent for a moment as he nodded, his own optics glowing in happiness. < “She’s the real deal, trust me.”>
“Very well then but know this… if you do anything to decieve us or bring harm to our human allies, you will not enjoy the outcome. Do I make myself clear?” Optimus’ stern expression caused her shrink down a bit, all she could do was nod in fear she would say something wrong. “Then it has been decided, Ratchet prepare the medbay for we are bringing a guest.” He spoke into his comm link, causing Arcee to growl in irritation.
It took everything in (Y/N) to not start squealing in excitement when the groundbridge appeared in front of them, this was actually happening! She took a deep breathe to help contain her composer and was about to take a step when Arcee shoved past her with a scoff, her smile faultered as she watched her disappear into the groundbridged. “Welcome to the team.” A servo squeezing her shoulder caught her attention, it was Bulkhead.
“Don’t let it get to you, ‘Cee will come around… eventually.” He could see it didn’t do much to help the sport’s car emotions even if it made her smile. “Hey, maybe Miko and I could show you around the base after Ratchet patches you up!” Bulkhead offered as he nudged her with his shoulder, walking with her through the groundbridge.
(Y/N) gave him a strange look as she raised her eyebrows. “Miko?” There was no reason to ask because the moment she entered the base, she was bombarded with questions by a human child; the other two were more weary.
However she didn’t have time to answer as Ratchet quickly interrupted them and shooed them back over to the couch, he gave her a quick side eye before pulling Optimus off to the side to complain and although it did seem whatever he had to say may have been noted but the Prime had already made his decision. Ratchet groaned loudly. “Fine, fine… Well then don’t just stand there! I need to examine you!” He ushered her towards the medbay, it wasn’t much but it was enough for what they needed.
She didn’t say anything as she made her way over to the examination slab, her spark was in the pit of her stomach while she watched the medic dig through his tools. This was her dream and yet it was starting to feel as if she was a burden, maybe it would’ve been better if she had stayed lost in the desert. “Comm link got busted in the crash.” She tapped on her comm link and as expected it did nothing, so she hit it hard with her palm and suddenly it garbled loudly before cutting to feedback, proving her point.
“Hm, let me get a better view” He muttered, tipping her helm so he could have a better view. “Easy fix if you can keep still long enough.” Ratchet began to work on her and it was immediately made apparent that it was almost near impossible for her to keep from squirming much to his annoyance. “Would you rather lose your hearing entirely?” He snapped causing all movement to halt.
While he worked on repairing any other injury she may have had, (Y/N) looked up to see that Arcee was glaring at her from across the room. There was no hiding the blantant contempt and distrust she had for her as her frown deepened, if looks could kill then she would be dead ten times over. It hurt to see and the sports car had decided she was going to talk to her, they got off on the wrong foot and she was determinded to mend that.
After a painful couple of minutes of being still as a rock, the hyperactive Autobot could finally jump up and stretch her legs. A bright smile took up half of her face after testing out her comm link with Bumblebee, it worked! “Thank you so much Ratch!”
Ratchet rolled his optics. “If you experience any more issues with your comm link make sure to report back to me.”
“Yes sir!” She couldn’t stop herself from giving him a salute, she giggled as he scoffed and walked away muttering to himself. (Y/N) turned her attention back to Arcee who was no longer staring her down and was instead chatting with Bulkhead and his human partner, who she assumed was Miko. She took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself to walk over and talk with her.
Arcee’s smile diminished into a frown when she saw the other femme walking over, she rolled her optics and turned to Bulkhead. “Hold that thought Bulk, not that you ever had much of one.” She teased softly, causing them both a laugh.
“I’ll try. Don’t be too harsh on her ‘Cee, if she is on our side we don’t want to give her a reason to change sides.” Bulk had a feeling by the look on her face that she was going to make the other femme’s life a living hell.
Hearing those words cause her to purse her lips, she didn’t understand how everyone could be so open with her. “Wouldn’t dream of it.” Arcee shrugged as she decided to meet (Y/N) halfway in order to not cause a scene for everyone’s sake.
The sports car was confident that they were going to be able to patch things up, she just needed to talk with her and open up so she could see that she wasn’t a threat to her or this planet. “Hey Arcee, I just wanted to say that um- um…” She had completely lose her train of thought as she felt her faceplates began to heat up, she had never been this up close with the other femme before and she had never noticed how gorgeous her optics were before. They were an intense shades of blue with traces of pink, it was hard not to just get lost in them.
(Y/N) shook her head when Arcee snapped her fingers in front of her face, she already seemed to be losing her cool. “You going to finish that sentence there?” She asked placing her hands on her hips.
She was glad for the fact that she wasn’t blushing, she was certain she would not be able to live that down! The femme smiled sheepishly as she rubbed the back of her neck, she guessed Primus really wasn’t going to have her back on this one. “Sorry about that, I just wanted to tell you um… well, I’m sorry.” She said with a shrug, catching Arcee off guard.
“And you’re apologizing for…?”
“For appearing out of nowhere, I don’t know exactly what happened with Wheeljack and it’s completely understandable that you don’t trust me. I just wanted you to know that this is the real me and that- that you can trust me, maybe there’s even a chance that we could be friends.” Her smile was bright and hopeful but it was immediately crushed as she was only greeted with hate.
“Let’s make one thing clear (Y/N), you and I are never going to be friends. You’re only here because it was Optimus’ decision and I have no choice but to respect what he decided to with you. I don’t trust you and I will never let my guard down because if there is one thing that I am certain of; it’s that you will betray us and when you do, I will gladly be the one to snuff your spark.” Arcee growled through clenched teeth and she didn’t respond, she smiled and gave her should a squeeze. “It was nice talking to you.” She then turned her attention back to the humans. “Come on Jack, it’s time to take you home.”
The human with dark hair groaned as he threw his game controller down and headed over to the now transformed Arcee, he hopped on and gave (Y/N) a small glance and a wave. “Nice meeting you.” And with that, they were gone.
(Y/N) was quiet as she stood there with her optics wide and trying her best to hold back tears, her words would not stop replaying in her head as she walked past a questioning Bulkhead after she asked him where her own quarters were. She waited so long to be able to join Team Prime and now that she finally did, she expected it was going to be one of the best days of her life and yet… it wasn’t. (Y/N) let out a sigh and collapsed on her berth, her sights focused on the ceiling before she quickly offlined them. She felt like such an idiot for believing she and Arcee could ever be friends, she tried to not think about it as she fell into recharge and just let the entire day fade into nothingness…
(Y/N) thought she was coming to Team Prime to be a hero but it seemed the only thing she was doing was making enemies.