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There was something special about today: the sun brighter, colors more vibrant, clouds fluffier. Maybe it was because for the first time in 3 months Bumblebee didn’t have patrol today. Of course he is on call, but only for an emergency. Bumblebee took the opportunity to sleep in, or he tried to. The nonstop early patrols had messed Bee’s sleep cycle so badly he was only able to sleep until 9am before he just woke up and could not sleep any longer. Which was fine as Sari is also an early riser and that means they can spend more time together.
Bee had it all planned, he’d get Sari and they’d go race, play video games, and grab something at Burger Bot for Sari (though sometimes Sari insisted that Bee have some; and the look of joy on her face from sharing a greasy meal with Bee was worth the lecture from Ratchet when his tank gets corroded). He was so excited that when Sari reminded Bee she had school and clubs today Bee felt a little hurt. Though Sari negotiated that after her clubs (which would run a little late) they could take a scenic drive home. Bee agreed, there is nothing he loves more than driving, especially with Sari.
So he went about his day, he watched a few legal races on television and played video games at full volume, because Prowl engine makes a funny sound when he is trying really hard not to react to something that bothers him. When the sun went down, Bee didn't want to risk being late and drove down to Sari’s school to wait for her. He parked himself and opted to stay in alt mode. He let his systems idle and felt himself being lulled into recharge.
His systems startled when he felt his door open against his command. He was trying to boot up his sensors but was fumbling in his panic when he felt human hands reach by his pedals. He barely got his sensors online when he felt the searing pain of wires being pulled and ripped, and he felt a strange uncomfortable sensation when two wires were haphazardly tied together.
Once the connection was made Bumblebee no longer had control over his own alt-mode and he was scared. These kids looked young, maybe two years older than Sari. He couldn't see what they looked like clearly, but he affirmed his suspicion that they were barely teenagers when they spoke with their pubescent voices.
“Can’t believe we are doing this.” He heard one voice say, sounded male but Bee always got them confused, Bee started trying to boot up his vocalizer but the pain was making all his available functions slower than usual
“Let's get out of here before someone finds out.” Another voice rang out, this one behind his front seat, and rested their hands on his steering wheel.
“Hey! You kids get out right now before I arrest you!” Bee said, trying to sound tough even though he was in pain from these kids' haphazardous wire jumbling. He tried to turn down his audials as the two kids yelped at his voice.
“Shit! It's an Autobot! You said this was a regular car, Jackson!”, the voice behind the wheel said.
“I thought it was! It's been parked here for like three hours! It's not my fault Amanda”, Jackson said.
“Of course, you would screw this up. You always mess up when it matters.” Amanda said. Jackson looked geared up to defend himself when Bee interrupted them,
“Look it’s an honest mistake, I'll let you off with a warning if you would please get out of me.” Bee tried to reason, not wanting them to take advantage of his literal lack of self-control. He nearly sighed with relief when Jackson shifted and grabbed the handle of his door, thankful that they were leaving. Then, Amanda gripped his wheel tighter, “Why don't you just grab us out? I've seen you do it before.” Slag, this human girl is smarter than Bee thought. As he stammered for an excuse, Jackson seemed to come to the same conclusion as he sat back in the passenger seat and laughed mockingly.
“You can't, can you? We did something when we hotwired you, didn't we?” Amanda chuckled and put her hand on the center console, with her foot on the break she shifted Bumblebee into drive. “If you want us to get out, make us.”
It was violating, having a stranger mess with his internals in a careless fashion. He tried to get his systems to respond but they wouldn't. “Look, if you don't get out now I'm going to call my team! You will get in a lot of trouble.” He couldn't call his team, he couldn't activate his comm unit, but he hoped they would take his bluff,
“Do it then,” Jackson said challengingly.
So much for that bluff. With no response from Bee, Amanda pushed on the gas and sped out of the parking lot. Ignoring directional signs and hitting the curb, causing another flash of pain over Bee’s Hud. “Slow down! You are going to hurt somebody driving like that!” It's different when an Autobot goes these speeds, they were born to drive and can remain in control over their selves even at high speeds. Humans can’t, their brains can’t process such speeds. Amanda sighed and muted the radio, though it was to no avail, “Nice try, but I don't talk through my radio.” Bee said slightly smug.
“Whatever,” Amanda replied pushing harder on the gas, now that she reached the highway.
“Careful Mandy! There are cars here!” Jackson cried out as Amanda veered the car to the left, nearly hitting a vehicle.
“No shit!”
“Listen, I go faster than normal cars, you really need to slow down, you don't have enough control.” Bee tried to reason but it only made the humans agitated.
“Whatever man! We need a ride and you are taking us, so what if you get there sooner? I don't see a problem.” Amanda said, weaving through cars until she merged into an intersection that was empty.
“Where are you even going?” Bee didn't want to leave Detroit, and it seemed like that was the goal.
“Don’t worry we are dropping you off at a friend's. We owe them some stuff and figured car parts would cover the costs.” Jackson said, waving Bee off as if he hadn't just said he was going to tear Bee apart for money.
“Since you can't move, we may as well,” Amanda said. she was awfully quiet until that point, Bee wondered if he could convince them that he was not spare parts and maybe get himself home.
“Why are you going so fast? No one is after you, you can take your time.” Bee tried to get one of the kids to give more info, and see what he could do to save his metal.
“If we are late… he’ll…” Jackson trailed off, and Bee felt immense empathy for these kids, it seemed to him that they just got caught up in something that they couldn't handle.
“Look, if you are in danger we can help! The Autob-”
“Shut the fuck up.” Amanda interjected, eyes watery “You don't help with shit, too busy with Decepticons and ‘supervillains’. Anyway, we can do it ourselves.” she gripped the wheel so tight it ached.
“I get it, you don't want to need someone else’s help, but we can give you a better option.” Bee tried to comfort the girl, but he felt better knowing that these were just vulnerable kids who need help and not wannabe gangster kids trying to get a crime in to prove themselves. “You don't have to do this, I can help you.” He watched as Amanda started to shake, tears rolling down her cheek, “Look, just turn around, I won't mention this, and we can try to get this ‘friend’ taken care of, OK?” Bee smiled internally as Amanda loosened her grip and eased up on the gas,
“And we won't be in trouble?” Amanda asked, her tough demeanor gone and her voice shakey.
“No, you won't be in trouble, ok? Just turn off here ok?” Bee tried to guide her though when suddenly Jackson screamed, he barely caught the sound of Amanda screaming too through the sharp pain of a human foot basically stomping on the brake pedals when his audials crackled from the sound of metal against metal and the blaring horns as a speeding car rear-ended him. He felt his body spin with his tires gliding painfully across the road as they tried to get any traction and winced as the rubber tore and his tire popped. The pain was unimaginable and only worsened when a truck slammed into the front of Bumblebee, crunching his frame back like a soda can. The truck continued forward, dragging Bee’s ruined frame across the road before he naturally slid from the front of the car and was pushed to the side. The truck continued in before pulling over, leaving Bee crushed and beaten on the shoulder of the road. He suddenly remembered the kids in his car. He tried to speak, but the way he was crushed had mangled his intake in such a way that he could not activate his vocalizer. He felt something warm on the cracked glass of his windshield and realized with horror that Jackson was face-first through the glass. The rest of his body sprawled on his dashboard and partially in the seat, his legs snapped backward at the thigh. Jackson did not move and was not breathing. He tried to remain calm but couldn't when he realized that Amanda had slid down in her seat and was being crushed by Bee’s frame from where it crumpled up when the truck hit it. In a panic, he tried to open his doors to fish Amanda out, but his system remained unresponsive. He could feel Amanda trying to move as she sobbed and screamed in pain and fear. Bee wanted to comfort her, but he could not do anything. He felt someone pry at his door, but the way his metal bent effectively made the door useless.
He heard Amanda cry out for Jackson, sobbing loudly when she got no response. He heard a male call out to Amanda, trying to do what he could not and get her to calm down. Bee tried to reset his system when he felt Amanda stop struggling and her crying grow weak. But he couldn't do a reset without the risk of going into stasis. His spark hammered painfully in his chamber as he felt Amanda slowly die in his interior. Her blood soaked his seat and the floor but they did not stain as much as the tears that fell from her face as she cried in agony for the last time before falling silent.
Bee sat there for hours. The man stopped trying to open the door and stood on the phone, probably with the police. He felt the two bodies in his frame grow cold. His system went red with errors as he struggled to allow his systems to recharge. He heard police sirens get closer but he felt no relief. He noted that there were a different set of sirens going off with the other vehicles. His team was here. With the promise of rescue he suddenly felt the grief of his situation. The pain that was dulled through all the action suddenly came forth ten fold and if his system allowed it he would be screaming. He felt his door being broken off, the pain nothing in comparison to anything else. He vaguely heard Ratchet protest at that, though he didn't care. He felt Amanda being pulled halfway out before she got stuck again, while they also pulled Jackson from his position over the dashboard. He felt a warm metal hand on his crushed roof, Ratchet apologized to Bee saying “We can't give you anything right now Bumblebee, you need to be awake.” before carefully removing one of the seats of Bee’s interior, releasing Amanda from her metal prison. Once both kids were removed, Ratchet got to work sealing any heavily leaking areas in an attempt to preserve any energon left in Bee’s system. Once he was finished they loaded Bee into Prime’s cargo and drove to the plant. Prowl tried to access Bee’s spark energy but found it difficult as Bee slowly shut out any input into his processor. He was trying to detach himself from himself, and it was so unlike Bee it was scary.
It took a week until Bee was able to be in root mode and days after until Ratchet allowed anyone into the med bay. All the while Sari was stressed and worried to the point that no nail on her finger went unbitten and her lips were bruised and cut from the biting she did. She was quiet for the most part, unlike Bulkhead who asked every day since they brought Bee home if he could go into the med bay. The whole situation had team Prime on edge, and it was most prominent when Ratchet denied entry into the med bay after announcing that Bumblebee was back in root mode and awake.
“You said we could see him when he woke up, he is awake isn’t he? Why can’t I see him!?” Bulkhead rarely ever got mad, and seeing him so riled up was disturbing.
“He isn’t ready for bots clamoring over him. He’s not himself right now, he needs more time.” Ratchet explained, “I know what I said, but I wouldn’t even say he is awake right now Bulkhead. He is online… but he is just…” The silence was heavy, and Sari understood the implications of that. Bulkhead must have as well because he turned around and sat back on the couch, where he has been for the past week.
“Will he ever go back to normal, Ratchet?” Prowl asked, though Ratchet didn’t respond.
“Well, what matters is that we are there for him when he is ready.” Prime said, ever the diplomat.
When they finally were allowed in the room they understood the gravity of the situation. Bee was on the berth, siting upright with his optics looking forward, but he was unresponsive. He would answer anyone, move, refuel, he was basically not even there. a the only reaction he had was the fact that he flinched when Sari touched him. In fact, sometimes he would go into hysterics and muttering in cybertronian to Sari when she was in the room. When that happened, and his distress turned dangerous for himself, Ratchet had to get Sari out.
“What did I do? Why does he hate me?” Sari asked once.
“He doesn’t hate you Sari, the last time he had humans around him they broke his systems and then died inside of him.” Ratchet said bluntly. “Cybertronian systems can feel life forces like energy. It was probably incredibly surreal to feel an energy inside your systems suddenly die out. With his wires hacked into Bumblebee was not only defenseless and incredibly damaged, he was also useless to these humans.” Ratchet fiddled with his hands before sighing and returning to the med bay, Prowl came out soon after and sat with Sari. Sari climbed onto Prowls lap and cried, she didn’t want to hate these kids, but if they never carjacked Bumblebee none of this would have happened.
There was something special about today: the sun brighter, colors more vibrant, clouds fluffier. Bumblebee vaguely remembered it was his day off, and before he could do anything he found himself outside Sari’s school in alt mode. He could not transform back, he could not access even his basic systems and was stuck staring at the parking space unable to move or speak. He suddenly felt people, no, children in his seats. He was aware that he was driving, but no one was steering. He watched as his speedometer went higher and higher, his axles started to heat with the speed and the children began to cry. His vision went red as he suddenly made impact with a wall. He felt his frame crush into nothing and suddenly he was in a black void in root mode. He made to stand but fell to the ground in agony as he felt the life force of several people die out from inside him. He tried to peer into his subspace, into his internals, and into his spark. He clawed at everything trying to get those little lives out so he could save them, he needed to protect them. He ripped at later and later of metal, his energon staining his hands and his chest plates. The life inside of him flickered and dulled like a dying candle and Bee started ripping and tearing his metal away with renewed vigor. He was down to his internal wiring, his spark chamber broken in and the protoform that usually surrounds it was torn away and bleeding profusely. Bee found himself looking at his own frame and his own chamber and reached into his hollow self’s spark and yanked it out before crying out in agony. As he held his own spark he was suddenly back in his frame and the life force finally fizzled out.
With a residing crack Bumblebee crushed his spark as if hoping that they were trapped inside.
Covered in condensation and his systems running hot, Bumblebee woke up. The echoes of Amanda’s screams reverberating off his processor were the first thing he heard before his own screams of terror. Ratchet ran in concerned, “What happened? What hurts?!” When he got no response he looked over Bee’s frame and sighed, “Same defrag?” Ratchet asked before walking to his monitor to look at his vitals. He again got no response and usually for patients he would let them gather themselves but this time of day is the most conscience Bee is and he tried to prompt Bee into a conversation,
“Sari was here yesterday. She misses you.” In return, Bee said nothing.
“She played that game, Ninja Gladiator or something with Bulkhead.” Ratchet pressed, “I think she got to a higher level than you.” He looked at Bee hoping for a response.
Bee shifted on the berth and looked at Ratchet, “They died didn’t they? I felt it. I felt every moment and I didn’t do anything.” Bumblebee sounded hysterical in the last moment, but as Ratchet stared at him, he saw Bee’s optics dim as he once again shut out input and receded his conscience into his processor, leaving Ratchet with a metal husk of a mech yet again.