Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Look here Bumblebee, I know you’re frustrated and ya wanna find Optimus, but this ain’t the way.” Ironhide moved to place a comforting servo on Bumblebee’s shoulder, but Bumblebee dodged out from under it.

“I can’t believe you guys! We have a lead on where Optimus might be right here, and you would rather just let Teletraan 1 scan for nothing again!”

“Starscream can’t be trusted you know that.” Prowl hesitated before continuing, “Bee, Teletraan 1 can’t find any signs of Optimus anywhere on the planet. We’ve been monitoring the Decepticon’s space bridge and there’s been no use of it, and no record of any spacecraft leaving atmosphere. There’s a high chance that Optimus may be—”

“No!” Bumblebee backed up further from the other Autobots, “He’s alive! I know he is! I won’t give up on him!” Bumblebee rushed from the room and down the halls, barely aware of where he was going until he found a secluded corner to collapse into.

Bee thought back to the previous battle, desperate to find some kind of clue as to where Optimus could have possibly gone. The Decepticons had some kind of new superweapon they wanted to test, and the Autobots showed up to stop them from further destroying a major city. All business as usual. Trying to fight on cramped streets while avoiding human casualties was difficult, and when the Decepticons began to retreat they used their new weapon to topple some of the buildings and block the roads. Only Optimus had been in a position to pursue and had done so without hesitation. By the time they found a way around the wreckage, there was no trace of Optimus Prime. No metal shards, no shattered glass, nothing.

Nothing except a lone seeker, half buried under rubble and screaming very indignantly about being left behind.

Taking Starscream prisoner was, in theory, a great victory for the Autobots. The second in command and air commander of the Decepticons definitely knows a lot of secrets, but with their leader missing none of the Autobots were particularly concerned with their captive. Even when he claimed to have knowledge of Optimus Prime’s whereabouts.

“That was pretty rough back there.” Apparently, his secluded corner wasn’t quite as secluded as he thought. Jazz sat down next to bumblebee. “How you doing, kid?” When Bumblebee didn’t respond, Jazz continued, “You know we’re not giving up on Optimus, right? Teletraan 1 isn’t the only lead we have.”

“Really?” Bee said incredulously, “What other leads do you have besides Starscream? Because I was there, and I definitely remember there being no trace left.”

“Bee, listen—”

“No, you listen!” Bumblebee was vaguely aware he was yelling at a commanding officer, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. “Starscream was right there! He was in the perfect position to see what happened, and you won’t even talk to him! You’ve got the perfect lead right here in the brig, but you’re not using it!”

Jazz didn’t react to the yelling and responded in his usual relaxed tone. “I know it seems that way, but you gotta remember that right now Starscream will say anything that he thinks will get him out of holding. All our intelligence on him says he cares about one thing: himself. I know it seems like an obvious answer, but even just talking to Starscream could be risky. He could lead us off on some wild goose chase and we could lose Optimus forever. Don’t you go taking matters into your own servos, oaky?” Bumblebee continued to sulk. Jazz sighed and placed a servo on his shoulder, “You’ve got a good spark kid. But cons like Starscream tear apart mechs with good sparks. We’ll find Optimus, and we’ll do it our way. Just sit tight, we’ll let you know first thing when there’s news.”

“Yeah, of course.” Bumblebee had no intention of sitting tight, and instead was considering the best way to take matters into his own servos.

Starscream was not claustrophobic. That would be beneath the air commander of the Decepticons. Never mind that the Autobot cells were tiny and had no windows and his wings scraped the ceiling when he stood straight and—

Don’t focus on that focus on getting out of here.

Starscream had been left behind on missions gone wrong more than a few times, but he hadn’t been captured by the Autobots before. It was possible Megatron would attempt a rescue, to prevent him from spilling Decepticon secrets if nothing else, but Starscream sincerely doubted it. Decepticons tended not to waste their energy on rescue missions, and he had an unpleasant suspicion that Megratron might be glad to finally have an excuse to be rid of Starscream. No, he would have to find his own way out of here and fast. The Autobots seemed preoccupied for now searching for their Prime, so Starscream had some time to strategize before they begin whatever interrogation they had planned, but he was certain it was coming sooner rather than later. Revealing he had seen what happened to the Prime was a risky move and had been done more out of panic and as a desperate attempt to avoid the small, cramped cells (Starscream was NOT claustrophobic) in the Autobot brig. There was a possibility the Autobots might try to torture the information out of him rather than make any sort of deal. He was powerless right now and it made his protoform crawl.

Starscream heard the sound of the brig door sliding open and jumped to his feet, moving closer to the bars of his cage. I’m not going to sit around here and be tortured, Starscream thought, The second a bot opens this cage I’m making a break for it, I don’t care how many there are. Starscream listened to pedesteps growing closeras he forced himself to vent normally and stay calm. The pedesteps came to a stop but Starscream still didn’t see anyone.

“Um, down here.” Starscream repressed the instinct to jump in surprise and looked down at where the voice had come from. A small bright yellow bot stood in front of Starscream’s cell. Starscream recognized him, an autobot scout name… Bumblebug? Something like that.

“What do you want?”

“Okay, straight to the point,” the bot mumbled to himself. He pointed up at Starscream, possibly an attempt to be threatening (it wasn’t working), “You saw what happened to Optimus Prime, didn’t you?”

This might be the strangest interrogation Starscream had ever been in, “I might have.”

“Well if you know something I might be willing to make a deal with you.” Starscream scoffed. There was only one thing Starscream wanted from the Autobots right now and there was no way this bot would— “If you tell me everything you know, I’ll let you out of the brig. You can leave the Ark”

What

There was no way, there had to be some kind of catch. “You really expect me to believe that Autobot? There’s no way your superiors would approve freeing a high value prisoner in exchange for totally unknown information. Or maybe you Autobots are even more stupid than I thought!” The scout’s pedes began to shuffle nervously when Starscream mentioned his superiors. Oh, that was interesting. “…Unless you don’t have permission from your superiors, do you?”

The scout huffed at him, “No, I don’t have permission. I don’t even have permission to be in the brig right now. But we’re running out of leads and they’re not listening to me! Look, I think we could both help each other, but I’m putting a lot on the line here. So I need to know: do you know what happened to Optimus Prime.

A desperate bot willing to defy orders for my sake? Starscream thought, Oh this is too easy.

“Perhaps we can help each other Bug. Yes, I know what happened to Optimus Prime.” That was true, he did, but there was no way he was telling this bot what he saw. Voluntarily helping the Autobots was almost a worse option than rotting in the cell for the foreseeable future. But if this bot wanted to get himself deactivated for treason that was fine by Starscream, but he was going to take full advantage before that happened.

“Okay good.” The bot said, “Now here’s how this is going to go. I’m going to deactivate the bars first and you can come out, so you know I’m serious about this. If you cooperate with me and tell me what I want to know I can get you outside the Ark. I’m armed and I have a direct commlink to security so don’t try anything funny, alright?”

Starscream grinned, “Your terms are acceptable.” More than acceptable, actually. Starscream was no stranger to double crosses and doubted the bot actually intended to let him leave, but Starscream was already concocting excuses for the scout to take him outside. Even with his weapons deactivated, Starscream was confident in his ability to overpower the much smaller mech and make his escape.

The scout pulled a blaster out of his subspace and began typing on the keypad next to the cell. The bars deactivated and Starscream stepped out. He stretched out his limbs taking a moment to appreciate having the space to do so. “Now Autobot, I believe we—” A loud click interrupted Starscream and he felt something heavy settle on his right servo. He looked down and saw a large metal cuff encircling his wrist that was connected to a similar cuff around the bot’s left wrist.

A beat passed before Starscream started screaming, “WHAT THE PIT ARE—”

“Shh!” The scout shushed, “Do you want the entire Ark to hear? I’m not breaking out deal okay, I’m just… altering it a little bit.”

Starscream grit his dentae, “You have five kliks to explain before I tear your helm from your body.”

“Hey!” He raised his blaster to point at Starscream. “Don’t forget I have security on speed dial! Play nice or I’ll put you right back in the cell!” He vented deeply before continuing, “I know you were planning on lying to me, it’s okay I understand. I wouldn’t want to help the Decepticons if I was in your situation. I’m going to let you leave the Ark like I promised, but to make sure you’re honest with me, the cuff stays on and you stay with me until I can verify what you say. And fair warning, these don’t inhibit function but are pretty heavy duty so don’t try transforming, you might rip your own arm off. And if you’re thinking about trying to kill me to take the key, I don’t have it. I left it with a friend.”

It seemed the little bot had thought of everything. Starscream was stuck cuffed to him until they could corroborate any information Starscream gave him. In other words, until they found Optimus Prime, at which point it sounded like he planned to leave Starscream at the Prime’s mercy. This might be worse than any of the terrible scenarios Starscream had imagined before. The one bright point in this nightmare was that the bot really did plan to let him leave the Ark. Starscream made his decision: get outside first and foremost, then figure out an escape plan from there.

“Very well, Bumblebug. But how exactly do you plan on smuggling a high profile prisoner out of your base?”

The bot looked taken aback and for a moment Starscream believed the bot hadn’t thought of that and was about to get him shot by guards until he spoke, “What did you just call me?”

“…Bumblebug? Is that not your name?”

“No it’s not,” Bumblebee laughed lightly as she spoke, “You were close though, its Bumblebee.”

“I don’t care!” Starscream was getting more frustrated, and he did not appreciate being laughed at. “How are we getting out of here!?”

Bumblebee held up his hands placatingly, inadvertently raising Starscream’s hand too. “Don’t worry, I’ve got this all figured out.”

Starscream glared, “For both our sake I hope you do.”

Chapter Text

Bumblebee had thought this through. He had planned carefully, come up with contingencies, and recruited backup. But if he was caught sneaking through the hallways of the Ark dragging a disgruntled Starscream behind him, he wasn’t sure if the defense ‘Don’t worry, I thought this through’ would make things better or worse.

Spike poked his head around the corner of the hallway, “Okay, coast is clear.” Bee and Starscream followed the human down the corridor as he continued to make sure their path was clear.  When coming up with a list of people willing to help him break out Starscream, Bumblebee discovered the list was incredibly short. Luckily both Spike and Chip didn’t have several million years’ worth of grudges against Starscream and were willing to help. Spike served as lookout and made sure they didn’t run into any Autobots while Chip monitored the security cameras and looped the footage to hide their progress. He’d already done the same for the brig security cameras which were now playing looped footage of Starscream pacing his cell. Bumblebee owed them both big time, partly for disobeying orders but mostly for putting up with Starscream.

“This is what you call ‘having it all figured out’?! Letting your pet lead us blindly through the halls and, what, pray to Primus we don’t run into anyone?”

Bumblebee grit his dentae, “He’s not my pet, he’s my friend! Really, do you always complain about everything? You know its not too late to turn around and put you back where I found you.” He looked down at Spike, “I’m really sorry about him.”

“Hey, when you told me we were breaking out Starscream I knew what I was getting into.” Spike paused, holding up a hand to halt the two mechs, “Hold up! Someone’s coming this way!”

Bumblebee darted toward a nearby storage closet, and Starscream yelped as he was yanked after him by his arm. Bee shut the door as the sound of pedesteps approached from down the hall.

“Don’t you dare drag me around like—”

“SHHH!” Bumblebee cut off Starscream by slapping a servo over his intake (he had to jump on a box first to reach it). He withdrew the servo almost immediately with a hiss of pain. “Did you just bite me?!”

“Hi Jazz! What are you up to?” Spike said far too loudly to be casual.

“Hey little man!” Jazz’s voice came through the closet door slightly muffled and both mechs inside froze. “You seen Bee around lately? He and I were talking earlier, and it didn’t really go how I woulda liked. I wanna make sure we’re all good, ya know?”

“Uh, nope! Haven’t seen him!” Spike was still speaking too loudly.

“Uh huh… well if you see him let him know I’m lookn’ for him… and that if he needs help with anything I’m there for him.”

“Sure thing, Jazz!”

“Thanks! See ya around Spike.”

Jazz’s pedesteps continued and began to slowly fade as he moved farther away. Silence stretched for a few moments before Spike’s voice cut through it, “Alright guys, he’s gone.”

Bumblebee released the vent he was holding and visibly relaxed. Starscream, on the other hand, pushed past Bumblebee and pulled him out of the closet, his frame tense.

“Let’s get out of here already. Tell me we’re almost to the exit.”

If Bumblebee didn’t know better, he’d think Starscream was afraid, but if they were caught Bumblebee would be the one in real trouble. Starscream would most likely be sent back to his cell, not ideal but he’d just be back where he started.

“Well, you’re in luck,” Bumblebee said, “We are almost to the exit and our ride.”

Starscream squinted suspiciously, “What do you mean ‘our ride’?”

In the span of one day Starscream had been trapped under about fifty tons of rubble, left for dead by the other Decepticons, spent several joors pacing an uncomfortable cramped cell, been handcuffed to the world’s most annoying Autobot, and almost caught trying to escape by Jazz of all Autobots.

Facing Skyfire again was somehow worse than all the rest combined.

He had hoped battle lines would keep enough distance between them that one of them would be deactivated before they ever talked again. Evidently, he wouldn’t be so lucky. Seeing Skyfire made him so angry he could hardly think, but it also made his fuel tank churn with another unpleasant emotion he couldn’t quite identify.

“I’m all set up to monitor your signal in my lab, Bee.” Starscream made a point of not looking at the shuttle as he spoke, which was difficult since he was cuffed to the bot Skyfire was talking to.

“Perfect. And we didn’t set off any security alerts?”

“I guarantee no one noticed a thing.” The organic creature with wheels spoke up, “But we might give poor Red Alert a heart attack once he notices that Starscream is gone.”

I wonder why so few organics have wheels. Starscream thought. It seems like a useful upgrade. I should really make more time to research them, but those stupid redundant strategy meetings take so much time away from my lab time.

“You don’t need to worry about Red Alert, Chip.” Skyfire’s voice snapped Starscream out of his musings, “I’ll handle the other Autobots once it comes to that. Hopefully they’ll be preoccupied by Optimus’s disappearance for a little while longer.”

“Thank you, Skyfire,” Bumblebee said earnestly, “All of you, thank you. I know this was a lot to ask so thank you for trusting me.”

“Don’t worry about it Bumblebee, you know we’ve got your back no matter what!” The other organic (Starscream was pretty sure Bumblebee had called him Spike) said.

“Safe travels! We’ll be waiting here for you and Optimus to return.” The wheeled Organic added. With that both of them turned and headed back into the Ark leaving Bumblebee and Starscream alone with Skyfire.

“Starscream,” Skyfire said, “I’d like a word before we leave.”

Starscream glared, “I don’t have anything to say to you.”

“That’s fine, but I have a few things to say to you.” Skyfire didn’t raise his voice, he never did, not for the whole time Starscream had known him, but that just meant that Starscream had gotten good at noticing the more subtle signs that Skyfire was troubled. Like he was now. “The entire time you’re gone I’ll be monitoring Bumblebee’s signal. I’ll have access to his vital signs and exact coordinates constantly. I can’t trust you anymore, but I trust Bee so I’m willing to give you a chance for his sake. Do not make me regret it.”

Starscream couldn’t keep the sneer off his face. How dare he? Starscream had put his neck out for Skyfire, vouched for him, and Skyfire had betrayed him. Worse, he had betrayed Megatron. After Starscream vouched for him. Didn’t he realize there were consequences for that? And now he had the nerve to lecture Starscream about trust?

Seemingly sensing that Starscream was about to say something very nasty to Skyfire, Bumblebee spoke up, moving himself between the two as he did. “We should get going before anyone notices something’s up.”

“Of course.” Skyfire’s attention shifted to Bumblebee and his demeanor brightened instantly. “Hop in and I’ll drop you at the battle ground. Good luck!” Skyfire transformed into a massive shuttle, and Starscream reluctantly followed Bumblebee inside. He hadn’t ridden in Skyfire for several million years and as the shuttle took off his spark ached with what might have been homesickness.

Chapter Text

By the time Skyfire dropped off Bumblebee and Starscream at the site of the previous battle the sky had started to turn dark. Starscream was thankful to finally get away from Skyfire so he could focus on what was really important: figuring out a way to get rid of the annoying little bot and get out of here without losing an arm or being recaptured by Autobots. His weapons and coms were deactivated which made things difficult, but he was still convinced he could dispatch the smaller bot without his blasters. Simply killing Bumblebee would leave him with another problem though, he’d be stuck unable to transform with the corpse of a 2000-pound bot chained to him. There was no way he’d outrun any Autobot reinforcements like that… but maybe he didn’t have to. When he killed Bumblebee, Skyfire, who was most likely back to the Autobot base by now, would lose Bumblebee’s signal and would likely immediately send backup to his last known coordinates. If Starscream killed him quickly, and in the right place, he might be able to hide until the Autobots moved on, and he’d have some extra time to find a way out of the cuffs.

“Alright, where are we going?” Starscream was snapped out of his scheming by Bumblebee’s voice. He hadn’t really been paying attention to where they were walking and saw now that they were standing at the pile of rubble he’d previously been trapped under. The last place the Autobots had seen Optimus Prime.

For this to work he would have to lead Bumblebee somewhere with a good hiding place. Luckily, he already had something in mind. “Prime was pursuing our retreating force. I didn’t see exactly where he went but we had a rendezvous point planned in case things went wrong, as they clearly did.” A lie. Any Decepticons weak enough to fall behind were left behind. “Your beloved leader most likely followed the retreating force there. I can show you exactly where it is if you like.”

“Alright, lead the way.” Starscream stifled a grin. He was quickly regaining his confidence and composure as he regained control of his situation. This was the kind of thing he was good at.

Unfortunately, neither Starscream or Bumblebee was able to transform while wearing the cuffs, and the spot Starscream had in mind for his ambush was some distance away. That meant they both had to walk. Starscream was not particularly happy about this development, and made sure to let Bee know.

“You know, you might have thought of some form of transportation other than Skyfire since you’ve ‘got this all figured out’”

“If your plan is to annoy me into letting you go it’s not going to work.”

“Do whatever you like but there’s no way I’m walking the entire way. My pedes are killing me.”

Bumblebee rolled his optics, “Stop being so dramatic. It won’t kill you to walk a few more miles.”

Starscream sneered, “I’m not being dramatic, my pedes aren’t made for walking long distances like this!”

Bumblebee stopped waling abruptly, “Wait, really? Why not?”

Starscream, expecting to be brushed off, was taken aback slightly by the question, “It’s… my thruster heels. They’re delicate and put extra strain on my leg struts. Not to mention all the dust on this stupid planet gets in my seams.” For emphasis he kicked up a little dust cloud from the dry desert ground.

Bumblebee seemed to contemplate his words for a moment before responding, “I guess that makes sense. We can stop for a little while if you need to.”

“What?” Starscream’s optics narrowed.

“Well I don’t want to make you damage yourself, so if you need to rest for a bit we can. Its probably a good idea to wait until closer to daybreak anyway so we’re not searching in the dark-”

“What is this?!” Starscream screeched, “What are you trying to pull?”

“What? Nothing! You were the one who-”

“I don’t want your pity! I’m not weak!”

“I guess that’s what I get for trying to be nice to a Decepticon!”

“Well then let’s just keep walking then!”

“Fine!”

“Fine!”

The two glared at each other until Bumblebee broke eye contact and pulled Starscream after him. Starscream wasn’t sure what Bumblebee had been planning but there was no way he didn’t have some kind of ulterior motive. The more time they wasted the more likely it was that they wouldn’t find Optimus Prime alive. There was no way Bumblebee would stall the search just because Starscream was uncomfortable. The last time he’d complained about aching pedes to Megatron, he’d quickly resolved the problem by removing them.

They continued to walk for a few more miles, but Starscream was noticeably lagging behind. After not so subtly glancing back at Starscream a few times, Bumblebee stopped abruptly.

“Hey, what’s your fuel level at?”

Starscream glowered with suspicion. He found himself doing that a lot lately. “57%, why?”

Bumblebee moved to sit on the ground, causing Starscream to hunch over, “I’m getting pretty low, so I’m going to stop and refuel for a bit. You’re welcome to join me or you can just keep standing over me like that if you want.”
Starscream knew what Bumblebee was trying to do. He wanted to argue again, but a warning pop-up said he was at risk of actual damage to his thrusters soon. He couldn’t afford that kind of damage if he was going to survive his own escape attempt. He begrudgingly sat down as Bumblebee pulled tow small energon cubes out of his subspace.

“Here.” He holds a cube out to Starscream.

“What’s this for?” I just told you I’m not that low on fuel.”

“Yeah, but since I’m refueling, I figure you might want to anyway. Don’t worry, I packed enough for both of us for a week.”

Once again, Starscream was tempted to refuse on principle, but the benefits of being fully fueled before a risky escape attempt outweighed his suspicions.

“How’d you even manage to get your servos on that much energon?” He took a sip, noticing that the energon was good quality too. Much better than anything the Decepticons had.

Bumblebee just looked confused, “I just got it from the dispenser in the mess hall.” Starscream stared as though Bumblebee had suddenly switched to speaking binary. “We have plenty of energon,” Bumblebee continued, “There’s not really a need to ration. One of the benefits of being allies with the humans.” Starscream rolled his optics at that, “Oh come on, you should really give them a chance. The humans aren’t really that different from us.”

Starscream scoffed, “You really expect me to believe that? They don’t even live half as long as a glitch mouse. Not to mention every time I’ve had the displeasure of working with a human it’s gone incredibly poorly.”

“Well what about Spike and Chip?”

“Who? Oh right, your humans. What about them?”

“They helped you, even though you were being a huge glitch to them the entire time. Without them we never would have made it out of the Ark.”

Starscream didn’t have a good rebuttal to that so he did what he usually did when he was losing an argument: Antagonistically change the subject. “Were they the only ones in your base that would help you? Do the other Autobots hate you so much you have to rely on simple organics, Bumblebug?”

“No.” Bumblebee replied coolly, “They were the only ones who would help you. And that’s still not my name.” Bumblebee stood up, “Come on, the sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can go our separate ways.”

You mean the sooner you can hand me over to Optimus Prime. Starscream thought. Nevertheless he stood up to continue their trek.

Bumblebee wasn’t an idiot, he knew Starscream was going to try and kill him. He also knew Starscream was probably leading him on a wild turbofox chase. It wasn’t unexpected, but it was still frustrating. He couldn’t force Starscream to tell him where Optimus Prime was, but he didn’t know how to convince him. He’d hoped the promise of freedom would be enough to persuade him, but maybe it wasn’t. Maybe Jazz and the others were right and Starscream would never help him, and he’d sprung a dangerous prisoner for nothing.

No. Bumblebee thought as they approached a large cliff. There’s got to be a way to get through to him, I know it.

“We’re here.” Starscream said.

“Really?” Bumblebee looked up at the plain cliff face. “I guess I was expecting something a little more…”

“A little more like this?” Starscream put his uncuffed hand out and reached into the cliff face. The holographic stone flickered around his arm.

“Woah! Nice trick!”

Starscream grinned at him sinisterly, “After you.” Bumblebee vented deeply, preparing for whatever surprise Starscream had in store for him, then walked through the hologram.

It was a cave.

Bumblebee wasn’t really sure what he’d been expecting, but this was a perfectly ordinary cave. As the two of them wandered deeper inside, Bumblebee started to wonder if Starscream was actually telling the truth. A secret cave hidden by a hologram seemed like a good spot for an emergency rendezvous. The cave was clearly excavated, most likely by the Constructicons, with support beams interspersed throughout to prevent collapse. While looking around the cave Bumblebee glanced behind them and noted the tracks he and Starscream were leaving behind. The tunnels branched and twisted around quite a bit so if they got lost, they could always follow those back. He returned his attention forward to the clear ground ahead of them with no tracks. No tracks meant no one had been down here for a while, which meant the Decepticons almost certainly didn’t retreat here after the attack.

Which meant Starscream was lying.

Bumblebee had just enough time to think, Oh scrap before a large servo grabbed the back of his head and slammed it into one of the support beams. It cracked under the impact and left Bumblebee’s processor reeling. He stumbled backwards and would have fallen on his aft if he wasn’t yanked forward by his cuffed arm. Starscream pulled him in and kneed him hard. As Bumblebee doubled over Starscream grabbed his helm again, but Bumblebee was recovering from the initial surprise. Before Starscream could slam his head back into the ground, Bumblebee pulled his blaster out of his subspace and pointed it at Starscream. Starscream let go of his helm and started to wrestle with Bumblebee for the gun. Bumblebee knew he should send out an SOS immediately if he didn’t want Starscream to offline him in this cave, but Bumblebee just couldn’t bring himself to do it. The second he contacted Autobot command this was over. Starscream would go back to his cell, Bumblebee would be in more trouble than he could possibly imagine, and Optimus Prime would still be missing. But his odds of beating Starscream hand to hand weren’t very good either.

As they grappled for the gun, Bumblebee kicked out with both pedes, pushing Starscream off of him and causing them both to drop the gun. Starscream fell backwards and hit the cave wall hard, and a series of large cracks started to spread across the wall.

“Stop fighting! The cave’s going to-”

Starscream didn’t listen and instead grabbed Bumblebee’s cuffed arm with his other servo and swung him into the cave wall. The ceiling above them rumbled ominously and Starscream paused his attack as he noticed the cracks on the walls growing larger. Bumblebee pulled Starscream backwards by their joined hands as the tunnel ceiling collapsed around them, before a large piece of debris hit him on the back of the helm and everything went dark.

Chapter Text

The first thing Bumblebee became aware of was that someone was dragging his face through the dirt. It was really uncomfortable, and he wished whoever was doing it would stop. The second thing he noticed was that his helm was killing him and that was making it really hard to think. He tried to push himself up at least a little bit so his face wouldn’t keep rubbing in the dirt but found that his arm wasn’t moving where he wanted it to. He tried his other arm with more success and onlined his optics. It was very dark but he could just make out the figure of Starscream, who appeared to be clawing at a wall of rubble.

My dreams are getting really weird. I should stop putting magnesium in my energon before recharge. Bumblebee rubbed his optics trying to clear some of the fog. But if this is a dream why does my helm hurt so much?

Starscream’s frantic scrabbling yanked on Bumblebee’s arm again causing him to lose balance and faceplant back into the dirt. The impact seemed to jolt something in his processor and the chaos of the past day came back to him, including the very important fact that he was trapped in a cave with Starscream who, rather surprisingly, hadn’t snuffed out his spark while he was unconscious. Looking up at Starscream he could see the Decepticon wasn’t in great shape. His fans were running too high, he was muttering to himself and, most alarmingly, his servos were bleeding energon but he continued to claw at the rubble anyway. The seeker was clearly panicking, and Bumblebee knew he had to calm him down before he seriously hurt himself.

Bumblebee struggled to get his pedes under him, “Starscream,” Starscream didn’t respond as Bumblebee shakily rose to his feet, “Starscream, listen to me!”

“Have…have to get out…” Starscream muttered.

“Starscream, stop it!” Bumblebee grabbed Starscream’s cuffed arm with both servos and pulled. Starscream cried out and clawed at Bumblebee’s face. Bumblebee clumsily dodged out of the way, his processor still reeling, and Starscream overbalanced and fell to the floor. Before Starscream could lash out again, Bumblebee grabbed his arms and gripped tight enough for Starscream to feel the pressure, but not so tight as to hurt him. “Starscream, you need to calm down! You’re hurting yourself!”

Starscream’s optics were wide and far too bright. Bumblebee wasn’t sure Starscream was hearing him at all, but he didn’t know what else to do other than keep talking. “I promise we’ll figure out a way out of here, but you need to calm down first. I need you to slow down your vent cycle so you don’t overheat, okay? Vent in for five nanocycles: one, two…” After about a minute of counting Starscream’s vents finally started to match Bumblebee’s count.

“Why… why did you do that?” Starscream spoke through shaky vents.

“What? You were hurting yourself I had to—”

“No, not that! Why did you pull me out of the way? You could have let the rockslide take care of me, then I’m not your problem anymore.”

“I wasn’t just going to let you get crushed! Besides I still don’t have a lead on Optimus Prime.”

Starscream muttered to himself, “Right… right… you still need me.” He clutched at his helm with one servo before drawing it back with a hiss, seemingly noticing the cuts on them for the first time.

“Here give me your servos. Self-repair should take care of it, but I can wrap them up until it does.” Starscream does so without argument, too exhausted to put up his usual fight. Bumblebee pulled some mesh out of his subspace and started wrapping Starscream’s servos.

“I suppose your Autobot reinforcements will be here soon to dig us out.” Said Starscream with uncharacteristic softness.

“I… didn’t call them.” Bumblebee admitted, “Like you said, I still need you.”

“Oh.” The two sat in silence for a few minutes while Bumblebee finished wrapping up Starscream’s servos.

“There.” Bumblebee tucked in the end of the mesh bandages and rose to his feet. “Are you feeling better?”

“I’m fine,” Starscream hissed, but Bumblebee noticed his pedes shook as he stood. “I don’t know what you think you saw but if you even think about telling anyone—”

“Okay, okay.” And Starscream was already back to his usual unpleasant self, “Of course I’m not going to tell anyone. Who would I even tell Starscream? Let’s focus on finding a way out of here. What is this place anyway? Are there any other exits?”

Starcream scoffed, “Yes there’s half a dozen exits scattered around. That’s why I was trying to get through this massive wall of rubble.” Bumblebee rolled his optics and turned to examine the blocked exit. “To answer your first question, this was an old mine we were using to search for potential energy sources. We had several, but this one didn’t yield any results and was abandoned not long after. All the mines have only one entrance and exit covered by hologram for security. Wouldn’t want any Autobots sneaking in.”

“It doesn’t look like we’re going to be able to dig out way out.” Bumblebee stepped back from the rubble wall and almost tripped over a large piece of rubble. Looking down he saw it wasn’t a piece of rubble at all, but the blaster he had dropped in the scuffle earlier. He picked it up and brushed off some of the dust. “Do you think we might be able to blast our way out of here? Or are the walls too thick?”

“Not with a blaster that small. If you reactivated my integrated weapons maybe…”

Bumblebee looked unimpressed.

“Well you can’t blame me for trying. I could overload the gun’s power source, generate a small explosion that might be big enough to knock out a wall. Or it might just cause another cave in.”

“I doubt we can make things much worse than they already are. Let’s give it a try.”

It didn’t take long for Starscream to find a part of the cave close to the outside, and he promptly got to work. Bumblebee insisted on holding the blaster while he worked so they were forced to sit awkwardly pressed against each other with Bumblebee leaning over Starscream while he tinkered. Starscream would have complained but he was much more concerned about getting out of the mine as soon as possible.

‘As soon as possible’ was proving to be quite a while though. The awkward positioning combined with the fact that Starscream couldn’t freely move his right servo meant that what normally would have been a simple modification was taking much longer than he originally anticipated. To add to that, since he was no longer distracted, Starscream’s anxiety was coming back to gnaw at him. Thinking about how they were trapped underground and about to set off an explosion that might just make things worse was starting to make his servos shake, which only made modifying the blaster harder than it already was, which was frustrating him immensely, which made his servos shake more, which—

“It’s not anything to be ashamed of, you know.”

Starscream paused his work, “What?”

“I just mean a lot of people are claustrophobic, it’s not a big deal. It’s actually really common in humans you know.”

“Shut up,” Starscream growled. That was easy for Bumblebee to say, if this kind of thing got out it could destroy Starscream. There was no room for weaknesses of any kind among the Decepticon high command.

“Sorry,” Bumblebee said sheepishly, “You probably don’t want to talk about it right now.”

Starscream sneered at what was obviously a mocking apology, “I said shut up. Just shut up and let me work.”

“Okay, I can do that if you want, or we can talk about something else if it’ll help take your mind off things.”

Starscream mentally weighted dwelling on the (literally) crushing anxiety of their situation against having to make small talk with an Autobot and came to the conclusion that both options sounded equally unpleasant. However, if the Autobot could distract him at least a little bit, they might get out of here faster.

“Fine. Talk if you want to.”

“Okay,” Bumblebee shifted to sit more in front of Starscream rather than up against his side, “Skyfire says you and he were scientists before the war. What did you study?”

Starscream hesitated. The question seemed innocuous, but he was hesitant to give any sort of personal information to an Autobot. Though if they really wanted to know, Skyfire could easily tell them that. “I specialized in chemistry and engineering while I was at the Iacon Academy of Science, but I picked up a fair share of xenobiology from Skyfire, and I have basic medical knowledge.”

“How’d you end up at the Iacon Academy of Science? I heard that before the war all seekers were automatically enrolled in the Cybertron War Academy.”

“That’s true, and I did very well at the War Academy. I was top of my class and broke several flight records. I didn’t care much for it though, what I was really interested in was space exploration. Only scientists were being sent on off planet missions, so I contacted the Science Academy about transferring. Of course that was completely unheard of, but my outstanding performance at the War Academy, plus a little bit of extra leverage, convinced the faculty to admit me on a trial basis.”

“And I assume by ‘extra leverage’ you mean some combination of bribes, threats, or blackmail?”

Starscream smirked, “Something like that.” Skyfire had been an outlier at the Academy as well, it was what drew them together. He was originally conscripted by the Academy to transport scientific class Cybertronians for missions, but secretly audited classes in his free time until the Academy could no longer convincingly argue that he wasn’t qualified.

Despite his misgivings the conversation was helping Starscream focus on his task, so he asked, “You said you ‘heard’ about the war academy? Not knew about it?”

“Yep, I was newly forged when the war started. I’m actually from the last hotspot that appeared before Cybertron went dark. You’re probably the first Seeker I’ve ever actually talked to, if you don’t count yelling across a battlefield.”

“And let me guess,” Starscream said, “The Autobots recruited you shortly after with tales of how the evil Decepticons were terrorizing Cybertron and needed to be stopped?”
“No, actually,” Bumblebee responded, “I didn’t want anything to do with the war. Figured it wasn’t my fight, and honestly, I didn’t have the stomach for it. I actually managed to avoid things for the first thousand years or so of the war.”

“So what changed?”

“Well one of the things I did to avoid the fighting was move from Iacon to Tyger Pax.”

“Ah.” Starscream didn’t need to ask what happened. He had happened. Or more accurately the Decepticon bombing campaign he led that razed the neutral city to the ground happened. He opened his intake to justify his actions, to explain somehow why the destruction of Tyger Pax had been necessary but couldn’t think of anything. He was sure there had to be a tactical reason to destroy the city but after so many millennia he couldn’t remember what it was. He shook off the sinking feeling as best he could, after all he didn’t owe the Autobot an explanation. They had both done their fair share of destroying each other’s cities.

“Optimus saved my life that day. I knew then I couldn’t run anymore. That if there was anything I could do that might make the suffering and death end just a little bit sooner, I had to do it.”

“How exactly is that working out for you? I mean seeing as how the war is definitely still going on.”

Bumblebee shrugged, “Just because it’s still going on doesn’t mean it will last forever. I have to have hope there’s an end, don’t you?”

Starscream nodded absentmindedly, now focused on making sure the blaster didn’t explode prematurely in his servos, “I imagine the end I’m hoping for is different than yours.”

Bumblebee laughed at that, surprising Starscream, “Yeah, you’re probably right about that. So I told you how I ended up with the Autobots, how did you end up with the Decepticons?”

Starscream did not like the turn the conversation was taking. Luckily, he didn’t have to answer, “I’m finished.” He pushed the blaster towards Bee, “Once you pull the trigger we’ll have about ten nanocycles to take cover before it overloads. Hopefully it will destroy the wall because if not the blowback may kill us both.

Bumblebee took the gun very gingerly, “Did you have to add that last part?” He propped the blaster up against the outer wall and hovered a finger over the trigger. “Okay on three. One… two… three!” Bumblebee pulled the trigger, and the blaster began to hum ominously. He and Starscream immediately made for the bend in the tunnel trying to get as far from the blast as possible. Unfortunately, Starscream seemingly forgot that Bumblebee was half his height, and therefore could only walk half as fast. The Autobot stumbled as he was pulled along by Starscream and hit the ground hard, jolting Starscream to a stop. Without hesitating the jet grabbed the smaller bot around the waist and began to haul him down the tunnel. The blaster’s humming continued to grow until it resembled a shriek, at which point Starscream threw Bumblebee down and ducked, covering his own helm.

The explosion reverberated through the tunnels followed by rumbling and the sound of crumbling stone. Both mechs waited several seconds after the rumbling ended before getting up. They looked around the corner together to see a starry sky framed by blast marks on the cave walls. The two hurried out through the door they created, eager to leave before any more collapses. Starscream vented deeply, thankful to be back under open sky and resolving to never go underground again.

“Your little detour probably cost us about a day, so we better get going. Hopefully we haven’t lost the trail.”

Starscream looked at Bumblebee incredulously, “You… still want to do this?”

Bumblebee shrugged, “Well you already tried to kill me, with very poor results I might add, so I’m hoping we got that out of the way. I don’t have any other leads, and I’m guessing you don’t want to go back to your prison cell, which is kind of your only other option. I’m willing to keep going if you are.”

Starscream considered his options. He could try and kill Bumblebee again, but the bot would be on high alert after the first attempt, and Starscream doubted he would fail to call backup a second time. Escape was looking more and more unlikely, but the only other way was to lead the Autobot to Optimus Prime, putting himself at the Prime’s mercy. The cell might actually be preferable. However… the Prime wasn’t in great condition the last time Starscream saw him, and after a few days he likely wasn’t doing any better. An idea was forming in Starscream’s mind. An opportunity to do what Megatron never could and finally end the war.

A grin spread across Starscream’s face, “Then let’s go find Optimus Prime, Bumblebug.”

Bumblebee glared, “Still not my name.”

Chapter Text

“If you try to kill me again, can I make a request? Please kill me somewhere we don’t have to walk so far.”

Starscream rolled his optics, “I’ll keep that in mind for my next plot.”

Bumblebee moved to kneel down, “Come on, let’s stop for a bit.”

Statscream didn’t protest this time, thankful to take the weight off his pedes for a minute. Bumblebee moved took two cubes of energon out of his subspace and handed one to Starscream. The two refueled in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Bumblebee spoke again, “So… you never said how you ended up with the Decepticons.”

Starscream’s plating tightened in discomfort. He grumbled under his breath, “I’d hoped you had forgotten about that.”

“Hey fairs fair! I told you my backstory you gotta tell me yours!”

“No.”

“I’m gonna keep asking.”

“And I’m going to keep not telling you.”

Bee leaned forward and crossed his legs, “Come on, you’re not going to tell me anything? What about Thundercracker and Skywarp? Did they join the Cons because you did?”

Starscream crossed his arms, “What, because we’re all Seekers we must have known each other before?”

Bumblebee’s optics widened, “What? No, no! I—I just meant… You three are always around each other so I thought—”

Starscream grinned, he loved making grounders uncomfortable, “Yes, we’re trine, but we didn’t meet until after we all joined the Decepticons. Contrary to popular belief we don’t actually need trine bonds to survive. I did just fine on my own before I met them.” A partial lie. He’d had Skyfire to help with things like preening and wing care, and after Skyfire… he hadn’t done so well.

“So…” Bumblebee hesitated, “What exactly is a Trine bond? How does it work?”

“It’s NOT a romantic bond.” Starscream snapped.

Bumblebee had the decency to look embarrassed at that, “My bad, you probably get that a lot.”

“Yes, I’m very familiar with the stereotypes. Trines are work groups. They started as just a practical thing: making sure you had someone to watch your back while flying. After spending enough time as a group, it turned into a type of spark bond. Some trines are purely professional, while some are more familial.” He didn’t really want to be discussing trine dynamics with a grounder, but technically none of this was secret information, and it seemed to have distracted the Autobot from asking about his origins.

“What about your trine? Are you close?” Starscream opened his intake to declare his trine’s brotherly relationship, a point of pride among the three of them, before stopping short. He found he couldn’t remember the last conversation he had with Skywarp that hadn’t devolved into a screaming match, or his last conversation with Thundercracker period. He wasn’t even really sure when the change happened.

“We used to be closer.” Starscream mumbled, more to himself than to Bumblebee.

The bot’s face fell, “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t— Oh, hang on.” He stared blankly into the distance. Starscream was able to surmise he was receiving a comm message, which was confirmed when Bumblebee said, “It’s Skyfire, he’s got news. I can patch you in if you like so I don’t have to repeat everything back to you.”

“How do you plan to do that when my comms are down?”

Bumblebee pulled a cable out of his subspace, “If I plug into one of your ports I can give you access to limited frequencies.”
“Absolutely not!” Starscream responded instinctively.

Bumblebee backed up as much as he could with their servos cuffed together, “Okay, okay, if you don’t want to, I’m not going to force you. I thought you’d prefer to hear things directly from Skyfire, but I can just tell you, it’s not a problem.”

Starscream hesitated. Everything in him was screaming not to give the Autobot access to any ports. But he had a point: if he was patched into his comm Bumblebee wouldn’t be able to hide any important information from him. Starscream also had very advanced firewalls (had to if he wanted to keep Soundwave out of his head) so the odds of this Autobot getting access to anything Starscream didn’t want him to see were very low.

Wordlessly Starscream extended his uncuffed arm towards Bumblebee, transforming a panel away to reveal a set of ports in his wrist.

This time Bumblebee hesitated, “Are you sure? I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

Starscream scoffed, “Oh please, as if you could make a dent in my firewalls. And if you try I will fry your processor.”

“Yeah, I believe that.” Bumblebee plugged one end of the cable into Starscream’s wrist and the other into Starscream’s wrist and the other into the back of his neck. Starscream became aware of a presence hovering around his processor. He itched to yank the cable out of his wrist port but forced himself to keep still until Bumblebee finished.

//COMMS ONLINE//

Starscream immediately attempted to send a distress call to Soundwave.

//ERROR: RESTRICTED FREQUENCY//

Oh well, it was worth a try.

//ACCEPT FREQUENCY 837?//

Starsceam accepted Bumblebee’s call. “Everything look good on your end?" Bumblebee asked. Starscream nodded and Bee disconnected the cable. Starscream released a vent he didn’t know he was holding as Bumblebee’s comm pinged him.

::Okay Skyfire, I’ve patched Starscream in. What did you need to tell us?::

::I mainly wanted to check in and make sure everything is going alright. You’re doing okay?::

::We’re fine, things have been uneventful so far.::

Starscream raised an optical ridge at the blatant lie. “I don’t want him to worry.” Bumblebee said out loud.

::That’s good to hear. Hope you start making progress soon, your absence has officially been noticed.::

Bumblebee put his face in his servos (and one of Starscream’s).

::How bad is it?::

::I’ll admit it was pretty bad when they first noticed you both were gone. Poor Red Alert was convinced Starscream killed you and stashed your corpse in a closet somewhere, but everyone calmed down a bit when Jazz covered for you. You didn’t tell me he was in on this too.::

“Since when is Jazz involved?” Starscream questioned.

“He’s not. I never talked to Jazz.” Bumblebee’s face stayed baffled as he responded to Skyfire.

::Is anyone out looking for us?::

::Not yet. Jazz told everyone that you’re on a recon mission and that one of the cassettes broke in and helped Starscream escape. Prowl is seriously slagged off and Red Alert is now triple checking all the vents for more cassettes, but other than that everything’s fine. Since Jazz says you’re accounted for and everyone assumes Starscream is long gone by now, Optimus is still the number one priority, so you guys are in the clear for now. I’d hurry though if I were you, I’m sure soon Prowl will realize things aren’t quite adding up, and Spike is a terrible liar.::

::Alright, thanks for all your help Skyfire.::

::Of course… and… Starscream?::

Bumblebee looked at Starscream expectantly. He didn’t respond.

::How are you doing?::

::Why do you care?:: Bumblebee’s face fell at Starscream’s response.

::Nevermind. Good luck, both of you.:: Whith that Skyfire’s comm cut off.

Bumblebee stood and the two continued their trek. After a few minutes Bumblebee spoke up, “He cares about you, you know. You could at least try to be polite.”

“No he doesn’t.” If Skyfire cared, he wouldn’t have left him. He wouldn’t have chosen the Autobots over him. But he had.

“He does. If he didn’t care he wouldn’t have been so upset when everything went down the way it did between the two of you.”

“You don’t know anything!”

“I do! I’ve talked to him about it and he misses you. And you care too! If you didn’t you wouldn’t be so angry with him!” Both had quickly transitioned to shouting.

“Of course I’m angry! He doesn’t know anything about this war, about what we’re fighting for, and he chose to trust the Autobots over me! He doesn’t even know what the Autobots are!”

“What exactly do you think the autobots are?!” At some point they had stopped walking and now just stood yelling at each other.

“A bunch of hypocritical prime worshiping fools, who aren’t willing to do what needs to be done!”

“Killing people?! That’s what needs to be done?”

“Sometimes the only way to stop those with power from hurting you is to hurt them back!”

“And sometimes that just makes things worse! I mean has hurting Megatron back ever stopped him from hurting you?!”

“SHUT UP!” Starscream grabbed the bot by the front of his chassis and lifted him up above his head. “You don’t know anything about me! Don’t forget the only reason I haven’t killed you is because I would have to drag your deactivated corpse behind me. But if you continue to anger me, I might just decide it’s worth the effort.” He drops Bumblebee back on the ground, their cuffed servos are the only thing that stop him from collapsing fully into the dirt. Bumblebee rubbed his free servo over the slightly warped metal where Starscream grabbed him. “Yeah, my mistake. Forgot who I was traveling with for a klik.”

Starscream turned away from him, his whole frame shaking with rage… or maybe something else. He’d threatened thousands of bots with far crueler threats than that over his long life. So why did he feel so awful this time?

That could have gone better.

Bumblebee knew it was partially his fault; he shouldn’t have pushed the Skyfire issue, but he thought he and Starscream might have been connecting. That maybe, just maybe, Jazz was wrong and there was more to Starscream than they thought. He was kidding himself, about Starscream, about all of it. His plan was a fool’s errand, he’d never find Optimus Prime. He’d be lucky to get out of this alive at all! Maybe he should call the whole thing off.

As he contemplated what might be the best way to get Starscream back in Autobot custody with minimal bloodshed, Bumblebee’s thoughts drifted back to his conversation with Skyfire. He hadn’t really processed everything (being slightly sidetracked by Starscream’s assault) and some of the information was puzzling. The fact that Jazz had covered for him was very strange. Jazz wouldn’t have done that for no reason, he had to know what Bumblebee had done.

Bumblebee sighed. Of course Jazz knew, Jazz knew practically everything that went down on base. The real question was why he didn’t tell anyone else? Bumblebee had disobeyed a direct order AND broken a dangerous high-profile prisoner out of the brig, and Jazz had just… let him. They’d even run into Jazz in the hall on the way out. In fact… Jazz was acting a little strange then too. Bumblebee recalled the message Jazz asked Spike to relay to him: “If you see him let him know I’m lookn’ for him… and that if he needs help with anything I’m there for him.” He hadn’t noticed the odd emphasis at the time, he was busy having a tiny panic attack at the prospect of being caught. But Jazz had known what Bumblebee was up to and even offered his support. So maybe his plan wasn’t completely stupid. Jazz certainly thought so, or he never would have let him leave the Ark. And if Jazz thought so then maybe his plan could actually work!

But in order for his plan to work he needed Starscream to talk to him. That meant he had to break the awkward silence one way or another.

“I’m sorry.”

Starscream’s wings tensed from where they’d been hanging low behind him, “What?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you, but I got too heated, and I did. So, I’m sorry.”

Starscream looked deeply uncomfortable and stared at Bumblebee as though he expected some kind of attack. When none came, he responded, “Well, I appreciate the apology… and… I shouldn’t have grabbed you.”

Bumblebee’s optics widened almost comically. He was tempted to run diagnostics on his audials because if he wasn’t mistaken that was almost an apology. Starscream almost apologized to him.

Bumblebee was still trying to figure out how to respond to that information when Starscream spoke up again, “I suppose you’ll want to hear what I saw at the battle before we arrive.”

Bumblebee perked up, “Yes please, that would help a lot.”

“Well as you know, my pathetic so called ‘comrades’ left me pinned under the rubble as Optimus Prime chased them away. It was around that time a bunch of grounders I didn’t recognize rolled up.”

“Grounders?”

“Similar alt-mode to that Autobot Ironhide, but darker. I thought they were your reinforcements at first, especially when they started blasting some of the Decepticons with null-rays.”

“We don’t have null-ray technology.”

Starscream scowled, “Obviously I know that. But the odds of there being a brand-new group of Decepticon grounders that I didn’t know about, who suddenly decided to start committing friendly fire is probably lower than your people finally cracking null-ray tech. I obviously realized I was wrong when they started firing on Prime too.”

“And you’re absolutely certain they weren’t Decepticons? There’s no way Megatron could have created some new soldiers and kept them from you?”

“Oh, that’s definitely possible. But I know for certain they weren’t Decepticons because no self-respecting Decepticon would ever let an organic lifeform ride around inside them.”

Bumblebee did a double take, “You’re saying there were humans inside the cars? Could they have just been human vehicles then?”

“With null-rays mounted on them? I sincerely doubt that.”

“But if they weren’t Autobots or Decepticons who were they?”

Starscream shrugged, “Neutrals? Fed up with the war?”

Bumblebee shook his head, “Any neutrals left are scattered across the galaxy at this point. I doubt any of them even know we’re fighting on Earth. What else happened?”

“After they downed Optimus Prime, the humans attached him and the Decepticons they managed to shoot down to the cars with tow cables. After that they just drove off.”

“And they just left you alone?”

“I pretended to be unconscious. I was planning to ambush the first one that got close, but one of the organics said I looked dead and wasn’t worth grabbing.” Starscream chuckled, “Humans are so stupid. My frame wasn’t even gray, how could I be dead?”

Bumblebee chose to ignore the jab at humans, “Okay so the cars drove away with Optimus. But we investigated all the tire tracks and drag marks at the scene, none of them went anywhere.”

Starscream shrugged, “All I can show you is the direction they went in, I don’t know anything other than that.”

“Well, we’re almost there.” Bumblebee sighed, “Hopefully this won’t just be another dead end.”

Chapter Text

“It’s another dead end.”

“Oh don’t say that, we just got here.”

Bumblebee buried his face in his servos, “No, it’s a dead end, and we’re never going to find Optimus, and I sprung a prisoner and practically committed mutiny for nothing, and Prowl’s going to make me spend the next century scraping rust off the hull of the Ark, and—”

Starscream smacked Bumblebee lightly on the back of the helm, “I didn’t walk across this whole desert twice just for you to give up the second we got here Bumblebug.”

Bumblebee spread his arms at the expanse of desert, “There’s nothing here Starscream! There aren’t even any big rocks!”

Bumblebee did have a point. When they reached the site of the battlefield it hadn’t taken Starscream long to find the tracks that belonged to the mysterious dark cars even if they were faded now. They’d followed the tracks until they vanished in this completely empty stretch of desert. With no possible hiding places or any other signs of the missing Prime or his captors, it really did seem like a dead end on the surface.

Starscream hoped that wasn’t the case, after all if he was going to kill Optimus Prime and end the war, he needed to find him first. He kneeled down in the dirt (why is everything on this stupid planet covered in dirt) and examined the tracks closer.

“What are you looking at?” Bumblebee kneeled down next to Starscream.

“Well, as you said there’s no big rocks, so I’m looking at the small ones.” He looked closer at the spot where the tracks ended, “Your people were right, it definitely looks like they vanished into thin air.”

“Are you thinking teleportation? We didn’t find any signs when we canvased the area.”

“Well, maybe you just didn’t know where to look.” Starscream moved away from the spot where the tracks vanished with Bumblebee following behind. Once he was a few yards out Starscream began examining some of the rocks strewn about while slowly moving away from the vanishing point.

“Looking for anything in particular on those small rocks?” Bumblebee asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

“As a matter of fact, yes, I am. I’m sure your people looked for all the usual signs of teleportation: radiation, markings on the ground, transwarp air displacement, that kind of thing. But unless you know exactly where to look it’s almost impossible to find signs of space bridge teleportation. Most Cybertronians don’t even know that space bridges leave behind a ring around the perimeter of everything teleported, but only on the bottom of material on the boundary.” Starscream lifted a small rock to reveal what looked like lightning shaped carvings on the bottom of the rock, “Markings just like this.” Bumblebee took the stone from him, examining it with an astonished expression. Starscream grinned, “I told you I studied engineering, didn’t I?”

Bumblebee’s face split into a grin, “This is amazing Starscream! If we know they used some kind of space bridge we can have Teletraan 1 search for unknown bridge signals, and if they use it again we can trace it back to where the bridge came from!” And the Autobots could send Starscream back to rot in his cell while they waited for that signal. No that wouldn’t do at all.

“You’re just going to sit and wait for a signal? Optimus Prime could be dead by then.”
The bot’s face fell, “Good point. I can put HQ on alert, but there’s got to be something else we can do in the meantime. But if this was a space bridge Optimus could be anywhere. He could be halfway across the galaxy!”

“I doubt it.” Starscream examined the marked rock closer, looking unimpressed, “Whoever built this clearly didn’t know what they were doing.”

“How can you tell?”

He pointed at the aggressively branching pattern on the rock, “The more unstable a space bridge is the more markings like this will branch. And the more unstable a space bridge, the less distance you can safely teleport. Frankly, this is the worst branching I’ve ever seen. I doubt you could even leave the planet with a bridge this volatile.”

“Okay, that’s another clue.” Bumblebee started to pace but was stopped short by his cuffed servo, “…I think our next move is to contact the human authorities.”

Starscream scoffed, “Why? What are they going to do?”

“You said it yourself, there were humans involved. The authorities keep records of people like that, the description might match a known criminal group or something.”

“Sounds like a waste of time to me but fine. How do we contact these ‘Authorities’?”

“Oh you and me aren’t contacting anyone.”

“You just said—”

“Our primary means of contact with human authorities is through Teletraan 1, and we’re definitely not going back to the Ark, we’d both be in deep trouble. Not to mention I can’t imagine any humans responding well to me turning up with you in tow. They’re not very fond of you.

“Then can’t Skyfire do it?”

“No, he doesn’t have clearance.”

“So we’re just out of luck?”

“Not quite. After all the head of spec ops said if I need help with anything I could come to him.”

::Hey Jazz?::

::Heya kid! Good to hear from you. Had me worried for a little while. I take it you didn’t listen and decided to take matters into your own servos?::

::Yeah… sorry about that. But my plan is working, and we have a lead! But we need your help.::

::Say no more, mech. What do ya need?::

Bumblebee hung up his comm call with Jazz and turned to face Starscream, “Alright, I’ve got things squared away with Jazz. He’s got Teletraan 1on alert for unknown space bridge signals. In the meantime, he’s going to meet with some Earth representatives and give them your description of the kidnappers. He’ll get whatever information he can from them and meet up with us in one solar cycle.”

Starscream’s optics widened, “Jazz is coming here? Why?”

Bumblebee shrugged, “He could just comm me, but he said he wanted to come in person. Honestly, I’m glad he is. It’d be nice to see…” Bumblebee trailed off as he took in Starscream’s tightened plating and drawn in wings pointed downward. He was getting better at reading Starscream’s body language after being handcuffed together for almost three days, so he made a guess at its meaning, “…Are you… scared? Of Jazz?”

“What? No! Of course not!” So definitely yes, “I’m reasonably cautious about us both being thrown in the brig by a dangerous Autobot operative!”

“Are we talking about the same Jazz right now?”

“I don’t understand you at all. You’re not even a little bit worried about him coming here?”

“Of course not! I’m a scout, I’m in covert ops, Jazz is my commanding officer!”

“All the more reason! I mean, what would happen if you came back without Optimus Prime? You said it yourself, you practically committed mutiny for this little expedition. What happens if Jazz brings us back empty handed?”

Bumblebee shrugged, “I’ll probably be in trouble either way. Sure, getting back Optimus would probably soften the blow, but I’m responsible for my actions no matter what. I knew that was the case when I busted you out.”

Starscream stared at Bumblebee, “So you intentionally put yourself in harms way for the Prime? Why?”

“I respect him. He’s a great leader and more importantly he’s my friend.”
“Your friend? Don’t make me laugh. He’s your commander, he can’t also be your friend. It doesn’t work like that.”

The certainty of Starscream’s statement took Bumblebee off guard. He knew he sometimes took Optimus’s selflessness for granted. It was a simple fact of the universe that Optimus Prime would protect his men with his life no matter what, and that made it easy for Bumblebee to do the same. But Starscream never had that assurance, and he probably never did. “I understand why you’d think that, but things are different with the Autobots.”

“Oh, please. People always say things are different, but they never really are. It’s always been one tyrant after another for millions and millions of years. And the only way to make sure you aren’t stepped on is to be the one at the top.”

“Well, that’s a load of slag. I’m sure something happened in your past to make you believe that, but—”

Starscream pointed angrily at Bumblebee, “Stop that!”

Bumblebee raised his servos in mock surrender, “Stop what?”

“You’re trying to trick me into talking about my past again!”

“I wasn’t! Honest! But now that you mention it we do have plenty of time to kill until we meet up with Jazz…”

“No!”

“Okay fine, but we still have to wait here for a while so we have to find something to talk about or I’ll shut down from boredom.”

“Alright fine, what do you want to talk about?”

Chapter Text

The sound of an approaching car engine interrupted Starscream and Bumblebee’s debate over whether a turbofox or a cybercat would win in a fight just as it was starting to get heated. “Jazz!” Bumblebee jumped to his pedes while Starscream rose much slower.

The approaching Porsche slid to a stop and transformed into the Autobot’s head of Special Operatoins, “What are you cats doing out here in the middle of nowhere?”

“It’s so good to see you, Jazz!” Starscream looked as though he strongly disagreed.

“Good to see you too kid. Now let me have a look at you. How ya doing?” Jazz began brushing dust off of Bumblebee’s frame, “You look like someone dropped a mountain on you! This bag of bolts ain’t giving you too much trouble now, is he?” Starscream hissed at the insult but didn’t respond otherwise.

“We… had some trouble at the start, but we’ve reached an understanding.”

“This your ‘understanding’ right here?” Jazz grabbed the metal cuff and pulled their hands closer to inspect it, “Clever move, Bee! Where’d you get this thing anyway? It looks real heavy duty.”

“It’s a prototype I snagged from Wheeljack’s lab.” Jazz took a step back, “Don’t worry, there’s no explosive components so there’s only, like, a twenty percent chance of it exploding.”

“What?!” Starscream yelled.

“Speaking of Wheeljack,” Jazz interjected, “I ran those images you sent by him and he agrees: definitely an unstable space bridge.”

“Was that in doubt?” Starscream added snidely.

“My chat with the human authorities was a bit more complicated. Your description does match a known human criminal organization called MECH that deals in high tech weaponry. Apparently, they started running Cybertronian tech a few months ago. Wonder where they got it from.” Jazz looked pointedly at Starscream.

Starscream glared back, “What are you looking at me for?”

“Well I know we didn’t give it to them.”

“And you think the Decepticons would? It’s war, things get left behind.”

“Not by us.”

Bumblebee moved himself between the other two, “We can argue who left what some other time. Did you find out anything else about this ‘MECH’?”

“See, that’s the problem. The humans only know the location of one of their bases and they’ve got surveillance operations going there that they don’t want us disrupting. They were very clear that our presence could compromise their investigation and that we should not engage, so under no circumstances should you go after MECH, Bumblebee. In fact, I’ll send ya the coordinates to their known base so you can make sure to avoid it.” Jazz technically couldn’t wink with the visor, but he still somehow made it sound like he was winking.

“Yeah, I totally get it. Definitely won’t go anywhere near there no matter what. Cross my spark.”

“Don’t oversell it, mech. I just need to be able to say for the record I told you not to do this. Speaking of things I told you not to do,” Once again Jazz looked pointedly at Starscream before turning back to Bumblebee, “Are you sure you want to keep at this? No shame in calling it quits now; you’ve already given us a great lead. We can get you home safe and do this thing by the book.”

“I appreciate the offer Jazz, but I promised myself I wouldn’t go back without Optimus. Plus, this way if things go south you can tell the humans I went rogue and it hopefully won’t completely tank our diplomatic relationship with them.”

Jazz sighed, “Alright, if you’re sure. Just make sure you’re being safe, and if you need anything call me.”

Bumblebee rolled his optics, “Yeah, sure dad.”

Starscream leaned closer to Bee, “What’s a dad?”

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you,” Jazz rounded on Starscream, and put a servo on his pauldron. The scout had seen Jazz make the same friendly gesture dozens of times, but this time his servo gripped so hard Bumblebee could see the metal beneath starting to warp. “Now I appreciate how helpful you’ve been so far, but I figure it doesn’t hurt to remind you that if anything happens to Bumblebee there will be a lot of bots very, very angry with you. Because unlike you, other people actually like Bumblebee.”

Bumblebee winced, “Jazz, leave him alone. I told you we reached an understanding.” Starscream shot Bumblebee a grateful look.

“Just remindin’ him what’s what.” Jazz have Starscream’s shoulder a rough pat before letting him go, “I’ll head back to base now and keep running interference for you two. I can probably give you another couple solar cycles before someone comes looking for ya. Good luck and keep in touch.” With that Jazz gave Bumblebee a much gentler pat on the pauldron and placed something into his uncuffed servo. He then transformed and rolled away, gone as quick as he came.

Bumblebee looked down at his servos to see a package of rust sticks and almost laughed out loud before tucking them into his sub space. If Jazz actually didn’t want Bumblebee disobeying direct orders, he really shouldn’t reward him with sweets.

The good news was the MECH base wasn’t far: just a couple hour’s distance driving or flying. The bad news was both Bumblebee and Starscream were still unable to transform, and as such were stuck walking. Starscream was beginning to really hate walking. He was starting to reconsider the idea of ripping his own arm off when Bumblebee interrupted his thoughts.

“Sorry Jazz threatened you. That wasn’t fair, you’ve been totally cooperative so far.

“I tried to kill you.”

“Just once.” Bumblebee answered with such casual certainty it stunned Starscream, and the two lapsed back into comfortable silence.

When they arrived at the coordinates it was still light out, and both Bumblebee and Starscream agreed to wait until nightfall to make any moves. Two gigantic robots handcuffed together who couldn’t even transform into slightly less conspicuous vehicles trying to sneak into a heavily guarded criminal base would be hard enough as is, trying to do so in broad daylight was probably pushing their luck. They took the opportunity to stake out the warehouse-like base and take a much-needed energon break. Using a small canyon nearby for cover, the two sat next to each other and Bumblebee pulled two more energon cubes out of his subspace. Fueling together like this was practically routine at this point and the two had no problem maneuvering their shared servos as they passed the cube between them.

“Oh!” Bumblebee exclaimed, “I almost forgot!” He reached back into his subspace and pulled out a package of rust sticks, “Jazz gave me these before he left! Let’s see…” Bee opened the package and looked inside, “Looks like there’s gold, bismuth, and regular flavor. Which kind do you like?”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Huh?” Bumblebee froze, rust stick halfway to his open intake.

“Why are you being… nice to me?” Starscream almost choked on the word.

“I mean… I did sotra threaten and coerce you into acting against your will. I don’t know if I’d call that ‘nice.’”

“Yes, but I understand why you did that. It’s what I would have done. What I don’t understand is why you didn’t turn me in to the other Autobots when I attacked you? Why you stood up to Jazz for me? Why you keep asking me how I’m feeling? Why you’re offering me candy for Primus’s sake?!”

“Starscream, I don’t need a reason to do that stuff, I do it cause I want to.” Starscream didn’t look convinced. “I guess if you really need a reason its because other people have been kind to me during hard times, so I know it makes a difference. And if you don’t consider being shackled to one of your sworn enemies and dragged back and forth across the desert after being abandoned during a terrible battle a ‘hard time’, I don’t know what is.”

“But you hate me.”

“I don’t hate you, Starscream. I’m sure there’s plenty of Autobots that do, but I don’t. I never would have made it this far without you and, while I with it was under different circumstances,” Bumblebee gestured to their attached servos, “I still appreciate your help. Also, I can definitely think of worse conversation partners to be cuffed to. Now: what flavor do you want?”

Starscream stared at the box of rust sticks extended towards him, “…bismuth.”

“Perfect! Those are too sour for me so you can have all of them.”

The sinking feeling Starscream felt when he’d threatened Bumblebee before was coming back. He wasn’t sure what it was, but it was getting worse. Scanning his HUD Starscream confirmed no malfunctions or viruses were detected, but he definitely felt sick. Starscream took a rust stick and rolled it between his fingers, staring thoughtfully. Perhaps… Starscream didn’t like being in other people’s debt. Bumblebee claimed he was kind to Starscream just because he wanted to, but no one ever did something for nothing. Maybe he’d feel better if he just did something for Bumblebee, but the only thing he wanted was Optimus Prime back, and Starscream was going to kill Optimus, so that wasn’t an option. Of course, Bumblebee had been asking about one other thing.

“After I lost Skyfire here on Earth I searched half the planet for him, but when I couldn’t find him I had to return to Cybertron. I was starting to run low on fuel and if I stayed any longer I wouldn’t make the return trip. Then we’d both be stuck.” Bumblebee looked at him with rapt attention, but didn’t interrupt. Starscream was glad; If Bumblebee did, he’d probably lose his nerve. He’d gone over the story hundreds of times in his own head but never told it to anybody. “The first thing I did when I returned was go to the Science Academy board and request permission to lead a search and rescue operation to recover Skyfire. The board responded by having me arrested. I didn’t even know why until the trial. They were all there, testifying before the senate about how, like all seekers, I was violent and impulsive, and how they gave me a chance to prove I could ‘overcome my base coding’ and I had repaid them by murdering my lab partner.

“I was stupid not to see it before. We were a threat to them. After all if two fliers could become successful scientists anyone could! And they certainly didn’t want that. So the school board sent us on a dangerous mission to a remote hostile world completely unprepared. I ruined their plan by coming back alive so they had to find some other way to get rid of me, and I suppose blaming me for Skyfire’s disappearance was easy enough. I got luck in a way; without proof of Skyfire’s death they couldn’t convict me of his murder, but the damage was already done. The board had enough reason to fire me, rescind all my credentials, and ensure I would never work as a scientist again, or anywhere else, for that matter. I lost everything. I didn’t even have enough Shanix to my name to make it home to Vos, so I was stuck living on the streets of Iacon, living off of scraps and whatever I could scam off of unsuspecting mechs. That’s where Megatron found me.”

Starscream could still remember it like it was yesterday. The gladiator mech had towered over him as he’d cowered in an alley, his body weak from lack of energon. He’d been terrified of Megatron. He still was.

“He offered me a deal. If I agreed to join the Decepticons and help him destroy the senate then he’d help me get revenge and burn the academy to the ground. It’s probably why I never really bought into ‘the cause’ or worshiped him the way the rest of those idiots do. Our relationship was purely transactional. I helped him accomplish and recruit other seekers for his little cult, and in return I got to kill everyone who wronged me. So… I suppose that’s what I’d consider ‘a hard time.’”

Starscream waited for Bumblebee’s response, expecting a lecture about how revenge was bad and wrong and a bunch of other useless Autobot platitudes, or maybe about how what he’d done had only proved the functionists were right about him. Instead, Bumblebee just shifted to Starscream’s other side and put his uncuffed arm around him. Starcream tensed but didn’t pull away, letting their joined servos rest on his lap.

“I’m sorry that happened to you. And I’m really sorry no one was kind to you.”

He wanted to scoff at that. Call Bumblebee ridiculous or pathetic, but no words would come. He expected to immediately regret his moment of vulnerability, but it felt… good. It still hurt and the sinking pit in his tank didn’t go away, but sitting with Bumblebee’s arm around him, a bot he’d tried to kill just days ago, he still felt better than he had in centuries. He also felt the hurt more than he had in centuries.

Starscream felt coolant begin to build in his optics and turned away from Bumblebee as he wiped it away. He couldn’t cry in front of the Autobot, the humiliation might actually kill him. As though sensing his discomfort Bumblebee let go of Starscream and moved back to his other side, which gave the jet a moment to collect himself,

“Okay, no more sappy stuff, Bumblebug,” Starscream said, still sounding more watery than he’d like, “Let’s talk infiltration.”

“Yeah, this is my wheelhouse now! Okay so there’s at least three entrances that can fit us. Once we get in we’ll need to…”

As Bumblebee sketched a rough layout of the outside of the warehouse into the dirt and marked the entrances, Starscream could still feel the plating on his back crawl. Despite this he still found himself wishing Bee had hung on just a little longer.

Chapter Text

Their infiltration plan went extremely well for about five minutes. Then Starscream got stuck in a doorway.

“Just tuck your wings in a little more.”

“Ow—excellent plan you came up with.”

“Look I can fit into most human spaces, I wasn’t thinking about how big you are. Can you fold your head in? That might help.”

“No, I can’t. my cockpit goes over my head I don’t fold it in.”

“Okay maybe if you bring your pedes in a little bit and I pull here—”

“OW OW OW WATCH THE WINGS—” With a horrible grinding screech of metal on metal Starscream came free from the doorway and landed directly on top of Bumblebee with a loud clatter.

Bumblebee groaned from underneath Starscream, “Any chance nobody heard that?” As though in response, an alarm began to blare through the building.

“I wouldn’t bet on it. Com on lets hurry,” Starscream lifted Bumblebee to his feet and the two set off down the corridor before them. It was a large hallway but not large enough for the two to walk side by side, or for Starscream to stand straight, forcing the two to awkwardly clamber down the hall, peeking into windows as they pass. After passing several doors Bumblebee stopped short, “Here, this is the server room.”

Starscream looked apprehensively at the human sized door, “There’s no way I’ll fit through there.”

Bumblebee sighed, “Well, if they already know we’re here…” With that, he kicked the door, sending it flying back into the room. He then began pulling at the doorframe and tearing away metal to create a larger doorway. Strascream joined and soon they had made a seeker sized hole in the wall.

Inside the server room, Bumblebee stopped once more and pulled out a cable. He gestured for Starscream to give him his wrist port.

“What are you doing?” Starscream asked, but he still opened his access ports. Even if he didn’t really want to, he recognized now was not the time to argue. Plus Bumblebee hadn’t done anything before, why would he now?”

“Since stealth is kinda out the window I’m improvising a little. I need you to cover me while I download as much as I can.” Just then a notification appeared on Starscream’s HUD.

//System Override Disengaged//

//Weapon Systems: Online//

“Are you sure?” Starscream mentally cursed himself. He shouldn’t be making Bumblebee second guess a decision that gave him a tactical advantage, but he’d been so shocked the question slipped out.

“Honestly? Not really, but we’re in a tight spot so I’m going to trust you. Please don’t shoot me in the back, as a reminder you do have to drag my corpse around if you do.” Bumblebee turned back toward the server towers, away from Starscream who just had his weapons reactivated, and plugged into the nearest server. The Autobot’s eyes dulled as he connected to MECH’s systems, leaving Starscream to process this new development. He didn’t have a lot of time to do so, because shouting voices began to echo down the hall, and they were rapidly growing closer. Starsccream grabbed the nearest piece of furniture he could reach (a desk) and threw a few of them in front of the giant hole that used to be a door. That would at least slow them down, but there was little cover in the room. Starscream hoped the humans would be at least a little hesitant to damage their own computers by firing on them.

A few human faces popped over the thrown desk and began firing at Starscream. Of course, their primitive weapons barely even dented his plating, but just to be safe Starscream sent a missile at them anyway. The wall behind the makeshift barricade was blasted away, and yelling broke out amongst the humans.

“What the hell?! It’s the freaking robots! Two of them!”

“Live ones?”

“It just blew up the wall Jeff, what do you think!?”

Starscream shot at them again for good measure.

“Shit! Someone get the big guns!”

Starscream did not like the sound of that. He turned back to Bumblebee, “Do you have it yet?”

“Just a little longer! Their encryption is really good. I’ve found records of everyone they’ve taken, but I can’t find where they’re keeping them.”

“Well hurry up!” Starscream turned back to the doorway just in time to see one of the humans aiming a very large, very Cybertronian looking cannon at them. “Oh slag.” Starscream grabbed the top of Bumblebee’s helm and pushed him down as far as the still connected cable would allow, just in time for the cannon to blast a hole in the server right where his helm had been. “Bumblebee!” Starscream called over the noise of blaster fire.

“Almost…almost…I got it!” Starscream yanked Bumblebee off of the terminal at the same time he launched a rocket at the ceiling creating a nice little exit. With one arm still wrapped around Bumblebee he ignited his thrusters and launched through the hole in the roof. Unable to transform, he wasn’t able to get far on just his heel thrusters, so after about a minute of flying they hit the ground hard.

The two laid collapsed in a heap on the desert floor for a few minutes before Bumblebee broke the silence, “High command is gonna be so slagged off.”

Starscream almost snorted, “Are you just realizing that now?”

“Well… even more slagged off, I guess.” Bumblbee groaned as he moved to get up, “Alright, we gotta keep moving.”

“I would prefer to keep lying here for a while.”

“Normally I’d be fine with leaving you to lie here while MECH hunts us down, but since we’re still stuck together and I’d rather not end up a pile of scrap metal…”

Starscream groaned even louder than Bumblebee, but he still got up to trail after Bumblebee. “Once we find a safe spot to hole up, I’ll go over everything I downloaded, and we can figure out our next step.”

Starscream didn’t respond, instead he thought of how disastrous and nearly fatal their little excursion into MECH territory was. And how it was the most fun he’d had on a mission in over a million years.

Bumblebee actually made two promises to himself before breaking Starscream out of his holding cell.

One: That he wouldn’t return without Optimus Prime. Dead or Alive.

Two: That he would not, under any circumstances, trust Starscream.

He was warned up and down by almost all the commanders, seen Starscream’s capacity for violence and treachery firsthand, and knew Starscream lied as easily as venting. He told himself if he gave Starscream any leeway, any room to move; best case scenario he ends up looking like a fool. Worst case scenario he ends up a pile of scrap. Now, hiding in a ravine in the middle of nowhere with a fully armed Decepticon killing machine, he couldn’t help but wonder exactly when that resolution had completely fallen apart, and—more importantly—why Starscream hadn’t killed him yet. Bumblebee liked to consider himself optimistic rather than naïve, but he was running out of rational explanations for both his behavior and Starscream’s.

Lately Starscream had been remarkably cooperative, which had circled back around as suspicious in Bumblebee’s processor. Starscream now knew Bumblebee had previously been bluffing about contacting Autobot high command, not to mention this far out they’d never arrive to help him in time. And now Starscream had a fully active weapons system. Escape would never be easier, and Starscream had nothing to gain by staying. So why was Starscream still here? He didn’t want to distrust the seeker but the odds of Starscream plotting something sinister versus having a sudden change of spark… Bumblebee doubted even Smokescreen would bet on the latter. This left Bumblebee at a bit of a crossroads. It occurred to him he didn’t really need Starscream anymore. They’d found Optimus Prime, so technically Starscream had completed their deal. He could let Starscream go home, head back to HQ for backup, and rescue Optimus Prime. Everybody gets what they want.

And then they could go back to shooting at each other for the next million years.

But if there was even a chance he was connecting with Starscream, even a little, didn’t he have a duty to see it through? But it was risky. If Starscream really as plotting something, Bumblebee doubted there was anything he could do to stop him.

Think Bumblebee, he told himself What would Optimus do?

But when he thought of it that way it seemed obvious what he should do.

“So? Did you find anything, or did we almost get blasted into smithereens for nothing?”

“Did I find anything?” Bumblebee repeated sarcastically, “How about this?” He projected a schematic for Starscream to see. “A low flying satellite above the planet, most likely made with our antigravity tech. It’s why Teletraan 1 kept saying Optimus Prime wasn’t on Earth, because he’s on this satellite!”

“You know that for certain?”

“I will if you give me a second to look through the files I downloaded.” Bumblebee had grabbed a big block of files each labeled with only “test subject” and a number. He flipped through the files looking for any sign of Optimus but faltered almost immediately. Even after every terrible thing he’d seen during the war, the contents of the file still sickened him. Vivisections, dismemberment, and a variety of mutilations one right after the other. No bots Bumblebee recognized so far, and he was beginning to hope MECH didn’t have Optimus, even if that would mean he was still missing. Opening the last file labeled “Test Subject 09” Bumblebee was met with a familiar set of schematics. His spark leapt as he took in the rest of the file. MECH definitely had Optimus on the satellite but…

Unknown item located inside chest compartment of subject 09. Possibly a weapon or power source. Scheduled for extraction and examination.

That was bad. That was really really bad.

“If you’re about to purge your tanks, don’t you dare do it on me.” Bumblebee looked up at Starcream. “What is it? Don’t tell me this was all a waste of time.”

“They do have Optimus but… well… I think you should see this.” Bumblebee began sending Starscream a copy of the files. Small documents like these could easily be sent through close range comms. “I didn’t recognize anybody other than Optimus, but you might.” As Starscream uploaded the files his reaction wasn’t at all what Bumblebee expected. Not disgusted horror or sadistic delight, but instead an overwhelming sense of tiredness, like he’d seen the contents a hundred times before.

“Well, they’re creative little things, I’ll give the humans that. I do recognize them; they’re all Decepticons who are considered missing in action or deserted. 03 is Crackbank: a space bridge technician we all thought deserted. He’s on Tarn’s list and everything, so in that regard I guess he got lucky.”

“Do you think they made him build the scrappy space bridge before… uh…”

“Before pulling out his optics and dentae, yes something like that. But if the makeshift space bridge is how they’re travelling to this satellite how are we getting up there?”

“Right, well um…” Bumblebee wasn’t sure why he was so nervous all of a sudden, “I mean, we’ve found Optimus Prime so… we’re done with our deal, even if it wasn’t really a deal cause I forced it on you—sorry that’s not important—It’s just if you want to go, you should go, but also I could use some help so…” Bumblebee trailed off. Why is this so hard? He thought.

Starscream just stared, “What in Primus’s name are you trying to say?”

Bee took a steadying vent, “I’m asking what you want to do Starscream. If you want to leave and go back to the Decepticons right now you can do that. But… if you’re willing to help me just a little longer, I’d really appreciate it.” Because it should be Starscream’s choice, shouldn’t it? Bumblebee wasn’t sure what, if anything, a few more minutes with Starscream might change. Maybe nothing. But either way it should be Starscream’s decision, not Bumblebee’s.

Starscream just looked lost. Like the idea of him picking the next course of action was a totally foreign concept. When he spoke it was very slowly, almost like the words weren’t his, “So…if I left right now…what would you do?”

Bumblebee had already thought this through, “I’ll head back to Autobot HQ immediately and tell command everything I know. They’ll assemble a team to retrieve Optimus, probably the aerialbots since they can actually reach the satellite, and… that’s it I guess.”

“…And… if I stayed?”

“Well, I can’t exactly reach the satellite on my own.”

“So you want a ride?”

Bumblebee nodded enthusiastically, “And that’s all. Just drop me off and you can leave, I’ll find my own way down.”

“One small problem with both plans,” Some of Starscream’s trademark contempt came back as he lifted their joined servos, “You’ve done a very thorough job of making sure I can’t leave or transform.”

Wordlessly, Bumblebee reached into his subspace and pulled out the key to their cuffs. Starscream looked completely gobsmacked, “Wha—you’ve had that this entire time?! You said you left it at the Ark!”

“Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you’re the only one allowed to lie to other people.” Starscream’s vents stalled for a moment before he burst into laughter. Not his usual snide mocking laughter, but a real genuine laugh; the first time Bumblebee ever heard him laugh like that. He couldn’t help but wonder if Starscream had laughed like that since the war started.

As his laughter slowed, Starscream smiled at Bee, “Alright, fine Bumblebug. One last little adventure.”

Bumblebee grinned as he unlocked the cuffs. They clattered to the ground, echoing around the ravine floor. Neither mech bothered to pick them back up.

Chapter Text

When Bumblebee asked Starscream if he would take him to the satellite base, the answer was obviously no. There was simply no benefit anymore. He no longer needed Bumblebee to guide him to Optimus, he knew exactly where the Prime was and could likely reach him before the Autobots could. His plan to kill Optimus Prime and finally end this eternal war was laid out perfectly before him if he just said no.

So why the frag did he say yes?

The only conceivable answer his processor could come up with was that, or some inconceivable reason, he hadn’t wanted to disappoint the smaller bot. That was unfortunate since killing the Prime would definitely disappoint Bumblebee, to put it mildly. Before he’d have had plausible deniability in MECH, but not anymore if Bumblebee was there. Starscream’s tanks churned with the realization that if he wanted to go through with his plan now, he would have to kill Optimus Prime in front of Bumblebee. He wasn’t sure if he could.

He had to straighten his processor out, something had to of been knocked out of alignment during the fight earlier. Fortunately, he had plenty of time to run diagnostics while he flew.

“You’re lucky you’re small, I’m not built for this kind of thing.” Bumblebee didn’t respond, just clung to the back of Starscream’s alt a little tighter. “You’re still alive back there, right? I’m not flying all this way for nothing.”

“Haven’t fallen to my death yet. Please tell me we’re almost there.”

“Quit being so dramatic. The real danger is when you get there anyway.”

“Yeah, in hindsight I should have asked Jazz to bring me a replacement gun too.”

Starscream hesitated, “You don’t have anything?”

“No, but I’m sure I’ll be able to pick something up there. They’re weapons dealers, right? Bound to have some weapons lying around.” They spent the rest of the flight in silence, until with a burst of effort Starscream broke through the last layer of cloud cover, only for the clouds to start flickering the moment he touched them.

“That’s one shoddy hologram. These humans can’t even steal properly.” Starscream remarked. Passing through the hologram revealed their target. The satellite wasn’t anything particularly impressive, it looked more like a large platform with some human buildings on it more than anything else; nothing like the gorgeous floating towers of Vos. Of course, those were gone now, another casualty of the war. One that Starscream hadn’t thought about in a long time, and one that he missed more than he thought he did.

Starscream came in for a landing on an empty platform without transforming. Bumblebee clambered off Starscream and onto the floor, venting like he’d just driven cross country. “I don’t know why you’re venting like that,” Starscream spoke as he transformed, “I was the one doing all the work.”

Bumblebee groaned, “Ugh, I’m never leaving the ground again.”

“Well that sounds miserable, if you ask me.”

Starscream took in their surroundings while Bumblebee collected himself. He didn’t see any guards around and no defensive weapons on the satellite’s exterior. Evidently the humans believed height the lonely defense they needed. Idiots.

“I guess this is where we part ways then?”

Starscream turned as Bumblebee spoke. He almost agreed without thinking but paused. He could still do it. He could insist on accompanying Bumblebee, even if it might be suspicious. For some reason Starscream couldn’t understand, Bumblebee trusted him, so he could probably convince him to let Starscream come along this final leg of the quest. He could kill the Prime, ensure Decepticon victory, and then… and then what? He’d never given much thought to what he’d do after the war. Like he’d told Bumblebee before, he didn’t really care about the Decepticon cause. Plus, anyone with half a processor could see they’d left that behind long ago. So what exactly did he have to look forward to? Spending another few million years under Megatron’s pedes? Assuming Megatron didn’t offline him immediately for killing his nemesis. Bumblebee was still looking expectantly at Starscream, servo extended towards him.

Starscream took it, “I suppose it is. Reactivate my comms and I’ll be my way. And… best of luck to you Bumblebee.”

“Ah! You got my name right! No take backs!” Bumblebee connected to Starscream one last time to remove all remaining system blocks. Then with a smile, he turned away and began to head towards the base.

“Wait!” Starscream wasn’t sure what had possessed him, but when Bumblebee turned back to him, he detached one of his null rays and held it out, “It won’t actually do anything to organics, but they don’t know that. Try not to get your helm blown off, or whatever.”

Bumblebee gently took the weapon, “Thank you Starscream. You stay safe too.”

And then, with a leap off the side of the satellite, Starscream was gone.

Bumblebee would be lying if he said he wasn’t hoping Starscream would stick around a little longer, but he understood. Committing high treason against the Decepticons was still a big ask, even if Starscream seemed to do it as a hobby. Still, it wouldn’t have hurt to have someone at his back while sneaking through an enemy stronghold, but at least he wasn’t totally unarmed anymore. Once Bumblebee found a spot to sneak in—an open loading dock that was left unattended for a bit too long—he hadn’t had much trouble moving around. The hallways were all built Cybertronian sized, most likely so MECH could transport their victims easier, but it meant Bumblebee had no difficulty navigating the halls. Avoiding the humans was a bit more difficult. Every time he ducked through a doorway to dodge incoming footsteps, he knew he risked running right into a room full of MECH agents. Said doorways varied in size, most of them being ordinary human doors but with a handful of garage doors that could easily fit a Cybertronian. This did help Bumblebee narrow down his search considerably; after all Optimus Prime had to be behind an Optimus Prime sized door.

As the Autobot turned a corner he came across another door, one that reached nearly floor to ceiling. “That’s a prime sized door if I’ve ever seen one.” Bumblebee whispered to himself. He pressed an audial to the door but didn’t hear anything other than the whirring of machinery. Gently as he possibly could, Bumblebee grabbed the bottom of the door and lifted it just a few inches off the ground. Peeking underneath he couldn’t spot anyone moving around, so he lifted the door a little further and crawled underneath. Inside, Bumblebee found himself at the base of a large platform. As he crouched in the shadow of the platform, he chanced a glance over the edge. On the platform a handful of humans, thankfully all busy enough that they hadn’t spotted Bumblebee, were working around a large metal apparatus. Despite being a mismatched jumble of loose cables and poorly cut plating, the apparatus was unmistakably a space bridge. Bumblebee’s first thought was relief; both that he wasn’t spotted by any of the humans milling about, and that he had apparently discovered his way back to the ground. He would just have to find Optimus and bring him here, and then the two could teleport straight home. But Bumblebee’s spark sank when he realized this plan would leave the space bridge intact, meaning MECH would be free to give chase… and to continue abducting other Cybertronians. Starscream might have known a way to rig the bridge to explode on a delay, but Starscream was gone, and Bumblebee didn’t have his technical knowledge. He would have to destroy it before he could leave.

Resolving to come back to this conundrum, Bumblebee exited the room the same way he entered and continued down the corridor. As time passed Bumblebee started to worry he was going in circles through the winding corridors before finally coming across another large door, this one labeled ‘Machine storage’. Bumblebee cringed at the terminology but thought there was still a chance Optimus might be in there. As he lifted the door from the bottom, the first thing to hit him was the smell. Rust, burnt rubber, and oil wafted out from the crack in the door. He gagged but managed to keep from purging as he continued, crawling underneath the garage door. Now inside the dark room, the smell was even worse, and Bumblebee was forced to stumble around looking for a light source, before getting lucky and flipping a switch on the wall. The dim lights illuminated the source of the stench: a pile of Cybertronian remains unceremoniously discarded in a closet. The stack of disconnected arms, wings, engines, and more nearly reached the ceiling, and a pool of oil and coolant collected around the base. This time Bumblebee did purge his fuel tank.

He bolted from the room and down the hall, throwing caution to the wind. He had to find Optimus and fast. If Bumblebee didn’t find him soon, Optimus Prime might end up joining a pile of bodies in a closet somewhere.

Silas had been in the weapons business for a long time, so he knew a good investment when he saw one. And literal alien technology? Youd have to be stupid not to get in on that early. It was dangerous, of course. The things were big and destructive, but after they’d bagged the first one, it had only gotten easier from there. As long as you didn’t mind the screaming.

But being in the weapons business this long had also taught Silas to be very through, especially if you were dealing with twenty foot tall robots. So when he got the call that one of their warehouses had been attacked by two of the things, he decided a personal inspection of headquarters was in order.

“Sir, I appreciate your concern, but I don’t see any way someone could have entered undetected. The biometric scanners—”

“Wouldn’t pick up on the robots. And, in case you forgot doctor, some of them can fly!” The scientist launched into another tirade about how improbable any sort of infiltration was, especially by titanic war machine. This was why Silas hated the brainy types: they always thought they knew everything. Unfortunately, they were necessary for the operation. The team of scientists here at headquarters were finally close to figuring out whatever disguise technology the things use. Being able to perfectly disguise deadly weaponry as innocuous everyday items would completely change the weapons game, which was exactly why Silas couldn’t afford to take any chances.

Something caught Silas’ eye as the pair walked, and he held out an arm stopping the scientist in his tracks. He gestured at a sliver of light peeking out under the door to one of the parts storage units. “Have you sent anyone in here lately?”

“Well, no… but I don’t know everything that happens on base.”

“You should.” Silas activated the door which rose to reveal the storage room. It was rarely used since most of the robots in there had long since been stripped of their important parts. This meant anything out of place stuck out considerably, including the puddle of bright pink fuel on the ground. All of the parts in storage had been drained long before they arrived so the puddle, which Silas felt was slightly warm, was not from any of them.

“I want this entire facility locked down now! No one gets in or out!”

Chapter Text

Starscream waited until he was several miles from the MECH satellite to open a call to Soundwave. The last thing he needed was anyone finding out he’d voluntarily helped an Autobot. Better to get some distance from the scene of the crime (and keep any incoming Decepticons from running into Bumblebee and Prime during their escape, but that wasn’t the important part, of course). Once he was satisfied that no incoming Decepticons might find the satellite, Starscream sent a transmission without bothering to land first.

::Starscream to Soundwave. Starscream to Soundwave.::

No response.

::Soundwave you pile of rust, I know you’re listening. Pick up.::

Another pause, and then…

::Acknowledged.::

::Finally. I’ve just escaped Autobot custody, I’m in need of immediate retrieval.::

::Starscream: Unable to reach the nemesis unassisted?::

::Didn’t you hear me? I said I just escaped Autobot custody!::

::Irrelevant. Starscream: Not currently a priority. Repeat: Starscream unable to reach the nemesis unassisted?::

Starscream almost growled. He’d been gone for almost a week now, for all Soundwave knew he could have been deactivated. But it was still apparently too much trouble just to send an escort to pick him up. I don’t know what I expected. They were the ones to abandon me in the first place. Starscream thought. The Autobots would have sent someone. He forced down that thought the moment it appeared. Still, it was hard not to make comparisons with Bumblebee currently risking his life to try and save Optimus Prime, while he had been labeled “not a priority.” Starscream had the chilling realization that if MECH had taken him instead of leaving him under the rubble that day, no one would have known what happened to him. Except Bumblebee. Because Bumblebee had looked.

::As I matter of fact, I do need assistance. I’m running on low fuel and recharge, and I’ve sustained several minor injuries.::

All of that was true, he and Bumblebee hadn’t exactly stopped to rest much, and flying so far with a bot on his back had burned through most of his fuel.

::Acknowledged: Transmit coordinates for retrieval.::

Starscream found his current coordinates but faltered before transmitting. He knew he should stop hesitating and just send Soundwave the coordinates. He should ignore the burning in the back of his processor, return to the nemesis, and just let everything go back to normal.

But when had Starscream ever done what he ‘should.’

::Soundwave, you have records on the assault on Tyger Pax, right? What was the purpose of the attack?::

::Query: Relevance?::

::Just answer the question and I’ll send you my coordinates.::

::Improved supply lines: Necessary for assault on Iacon. Tyger Pax: Inconveniently placed.::

So that was it. An entire city wiped from existence because it was ‘inconveniently placed.’ Starscream wiped it from existence. Just because Megatron told him to.

When did he start doing things just because Megatron told him to? Was that what he’d been doing all along?

“Oh, slag this.”

::Starscream: Transmit coordi—::

Starscream cut the comm connection and turned around, flying back the way he came.

After a few more unsuccessful door searches, Bumblebee was starting to panic. The humans could discover him any second, and he still hasn’t found Optimus Prime. Once he found Optimus, who might be incapacitated or badly injured, he not only had to get the Prime out of here; he also had to find a way to destroy the space bridge, all without getting both of them killed. Oh and he still doesn’t know how they’re getting off the satellite. Bumblebee hadn’t realized before how much of his plan (if you could even call it that) relied on finding Optimus alive and Operational. He assumed as soon as he found Optimus, the Prime would know exactly what to do, like he always did. But finding that pile of bodies had shaken him, and he had to face the possibility he may not find Optimus in one piece. Pushing that scenario to the back of his processor, Bumblebee did his best to focus on the task at hand. He’d find Optimus and figure things out from there. When he came across another large garage door, Bumblebee abandoned all pretense of stealthiness and threw it open. As the door crashed open. Bumblebee came face to face with five startled humans, all wearing lab coats stained with energon. Behind them, on what looked like a medberth, laid Optimus Prime.

Bumblebee lifted Starscream’s null-ray and did his best to sound intimidating, “Nobody move!” The scientists all froze, except one who started inching towards some kind of control panel. “I SAID DON’T MOVE!” Bumblebee blasted the control panel and it erupted in a shower of sparks. The scientist stopped moving. Bumblebee scanned the room, optics darting back and forth until they landed on an open supply closet, full of tools rather than bodies. “All of you, get back! Go! Move!” Once he managed to herd all of the humans into the closet, Bumblebee closed the door and slid the heaviest piece of furniture he could find in front of it. He had never killed any humans his entire time on earth, and he wasn’t going to start now if he could avoid it. Even if these ones maybe deserved it. Even if he kind of wanted to.

Maybe he understood Starscream more than he thought.

Bumblebee moved over to the operating table. His hands hovered over Optimus’s motionless body as he took in the damage. One arm was completely gone, but other than that the Prime seemed mostly in one piece. MECH had clearly been in the process of trying to access the matrix, with deep cuts scored into the metal around Optimus’s windshield.

“Optimus?” Bumblebee whispered, then louder, “Prime? Can you hear me?”

Silence. Then a groan, “Bumblebee?”

Bumblebee felt coolant well up in his optics, “Oh Primus, I thought you might have— Oh thank Primus.”

“It’s alright Bumblebee, I’m here.” Optimus said, taking control in his gentle way, just like Bumblebee knew he would. “Thank you for coming to save me. Who else is with you?”

Bumblebee shook his head, “No one. I came alone. And uh… I have no idea how we’re getting out of here.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out. For now, get these restraints off me and help me up.” Bumblebee did so, letting Optimus lean against him as he found his footing. “I’m afraid I haven’t seen much of this place. Do you know what their defenses are like? Or perhaps where the nearest exit is?”

“No build in defenses, but there’s a lot of humans with access to Cybertronian weapons. I can lead us to where I entered but… Prime, we’re on a satellite. Suspended in the lower atmosphere by antigrav engines. The only way down I’ve found is the space bridge that brought you here.  But if we leave the space bridge intact…”

“…It will leave these humans free to escape, and continue their evil ways. You’re right, we must destroy it.”

“I’ll take you there now. Can you walk?”

“I believe so. Lead the way old friend.”

When the satellite base was commissioned there were a number of security features that were deemed unnecessary. After all, the idea of anybody, man or machine, finding their sanctuary a few thousand feet in the air, let alone landing and sneaking in undetected, was inconceivable. Thus, it made perfect sense to omit internal security cameras to cut costs. Silas was regretting that decision now.

He knew there was at least one of the robots loose in his facility, but with no idea where or how many there were, he was forced to sweep the entire base, spreading his men dangerously thin while he coordinated from a control room.

A voice crackled from the radio on Silas’ belt, “Bravo team to leader we have contact!”

Silas picked up the radio, “Bravo team, report!”

“Subject 09 and an unknown yellow class 4 bot in sector 7. They’re headed west towards sector 5!” Sector 5 held their teleportation device: the only way on or off this base without a chopper. They had to be trying to use it to escape. An idea began to form in Silas’ head.

“All units in Sector 5, fall back! I repeat, do not engage! Regroup in Sector 6 with all nearby units.”

The lead scientist looked up at him from where he was seated in front of a monitor, “But sir, they’ll escape!”

“Not if you shut down all power to sector 5.” Silas spoke coolly as he loaded an augmented rifle and left the control room.

Bumblebee hoped they might have a little longer before being discovered, but only halfway to their destination they encountered a group of armed guards. Fortunately, an injured, exhausted, and unarmed Optimus Prime was still Optimus Prime, so it didn’t take long to chase them off. One had gotten a lucky shot at Bumblebee’s shoulder, but other than that the pair got away clean, and hadn’t run into anyone else yet.

“This way! The bridge is right over—” Bumblebee was cut off by darkness. All of the corridor lights went out at once and were replaced by low red emergency lights. “Oh slag.”

Optimus hummed, “They know we’re here Bumblebee. This is likely a trap, we should split up. I’ll continue on to the space bridge, you must look for other means of escape.”

“No way!” Bumblebee almost snaped, “I just found you, and I’m not leaving your side until we’re home safe! Not to mention you can barely walk on your own, how do you expect to destroy a whole space bridge! Don’t be stupid!”

Optimus looked taken aback at Bumblebee’s outburst, but only for a moment before his usual cool expression returned, “I suppose you make a fair point. Come on, lets finish this.”

The pair arrived at the bridge door without meeting any more resistance, another obvious sign of a trap. Optimus Prime took hold of the door while Bumblebee stood ready with his weapon. With his only hand, Optimus ripped the entire door off the wall. To Bumblebee’s surprise, the room within was empty, save the deactivated space bridge. They moved into the room, Optimus placing the mangled door behind them as makeshift barricade as they did.

“It’s completely dead.” Bumblebee banged a fist against an unresponsive control panel. “I thought maybe we could find some way to overload it, but there’s nothing!” He looked helplessly at the room full of machinery, “We could just start smashing things?”

“We don’t have that kind of time, Bumblebee. Keep looking, I’m sure there’s something here we can use to create an explosion.”

Bumblebee set the null-ray he carried on a console to continue his search, but his gaze was drawn back to it. He picked the gun back up and gently pried away one of the side panels. The exact components were different, but the internal layout was familiar. Though from opposite sides of the war, Starscream’s null-ray and Bumblebee’s blaster were remarkably similar on the inside.

“I’ve got an idea,” Bumblebee reached into the ray and began rewiring internals, “but I need time and I have no idea if it will work.” Optimus moved towards Bumblebee, looking on with curiosity. Bumblebee elaborated, “I might be able to rig this to explode, if I can just remember exactly how.”

When the Prime’s gaze fell on the null-ray, he seemed to be processing its existence for the first time. “Bumblebee, where did you get that? And where did you learn to rig a gun into an explosive for that matter? Has Wheeljack been giving you lessons without telling me?”

“It’s a really really long story, but I promise I’ll tell you the whole thing once we’re home.” Bumblebee desperately tried to recall what exactly Starscream had done to his blaster in the cave. He’d been watching, so the memory was in his systems somewhere, he just had to find it.

“Well, you’ve certainly been busy. I look forward to hearing this ‘long story’ later.” Optimus left Bumblebee to work in silence and returned to examining the space bridge. Bumblebee’s servos shook as he tried to recall every detail of that time in the caves. Which wire went where? How were the guns different? Would the explosion be big enough? Every moment he wasted with a mistake was another second closer to a possible ambush.

But the ambush never came. Even after several minutes working on the makeshift bomb, there was no attempt to attack. Seeing Bumblebee close up the null-ray, Optimus moved from where he’d taken up guarding the door to Bumblebee’s side, “Are you ready?”

Bumblebee looked apprehensively at what he hoped was now a bomb. The creping sensation that this was all a mistake was growing. That in his haste he’d doomed both Optimus and himself.

“I have no idea if this will even work.”

Optimus put his servo on Bumblebee’s shoulder, “It will. Then we’ll make it home. I promise.” He moved to lift a panel off the side of the space bridge. “Put it here. This spot is close to both the control system and the central power conduit. It should do the most damage.”

“Well now who’s full of surprises? When did you learn so much about space bridges?”

“Oh, a long time ago. There was one at the Iacon dockyards for off planet deliveries.” Optimus’s tone lightened briefly before returning to his usual demeanor, “Now, how long will we have until this blows?”

“Ten nanocycles once I pull the trigger… if I’ve done it right anyway.”

Optimus nodded, “Then we’ll have to be fast. Make for the exit immediately, we’ll get as far as we can from the blast.”

Bumblebee took a long deep vent, “Okay… one… two… three!” He pulled the trigger and dropped the null-ray into the space bridge’s internals. The two bolted, making straight for the barricaded door. Optimus grabbed the disconnected door and ripped it away, which brought the bots face to face with a hallway full of humans, all pointing very large guns at the two of them.

“About time,” A tall human with very short gray hair and a sccarred face spoke, “I knew you’d realize there was no way out eventually.”

Bumblebee cursed. A bomb was going to explode behind them in five nanocycles, they didn’t have time to fight their way out. It reminded him of that human expression: ‘between a rock and a hard place’.

Optimus wasn’t thinking about human expressions, he was moving. With his whole body he pushed Bumblebee over, pinning both of them to the floor below the platform the space bridge sat on. The door, still held firmly in Optimus’s servo, was pulled up to cover both bots completely. Shielded underneath Optimus, Bumblebee could do nothing but count. Three nanocycles… two nanocycles… nothing. No explosion, not even a rumble. Bumblebee failed, and now it was over.

The human who had spoken earlier scoffed, “Seriously? You can’t hi—”

Then the room shattered.

Maybe it was the different kind of gun, or a chain reaction with the space bridge, but the explosion was much larger than the one in the caves. Bumblebee couldn’t see it but he could feel it reverberate through the floor, could hear the tearing metal and thudding shrapnel.

Then silence. With a heave of effort Optimus managed to free both of them from the wreckage that had fallen atop their makeshift shelter. He was now even worse for wear than before, and Bumblebee didn’t like their odds if they had to fight their way out. The humans were gone, possibly retreating or regrouping, but Bumblebee knew if they didn’t act fast they might return. How would they make it off the satellite?

Then an unfamiliar comm signal cut through the quiet.

::You need a hand Bumblebug?::

Relief coursed through Bumblebee, so strong his legs nearly gave out. Optimus rushed forward to steady him, “Bumblebee! Are you alright?”

Bumblebee grinned, “Of course I am, we’re getting out of here!” His relief was cut short by the sound of human feet fast approaching. The humans had regrouped and were returning to finish the job. Bumblebee responded to Starscream.

::Yes! We’re in a tight spot.::

::I guessed as much from the explosion.::

::We’re trapped with hostiles moving in fast!::

::Can you jump?::

Bumblebee didn’t think Starscream could carry both of them, but he didn’t have time to argue. He examined a massive fissure created by the explosion that opened directly to the open air below. It looked just big enough.

::Yes::

::Then jump on my signal. I’ll take care of the rest.::

Bumblebee turned to Optimus, “Do you trust me?”

The answer was immediate, “Of course.”

“Then we’re going to jump.”

“Jump?”

::Jump!::

“Jump! Now!” Bumblebee cried and leapt for the fissure. After a moments hesitation, Optimus Prime followed, and then they were both in free fall.

As the two flightless Cybertronians careened towards the Earth, Bumblebee did his best to look around for Starscream, but the only red and blue mech he could spot was Optimus Prime.

“I certainly hope you have a plan, Bumblebee!”

“I’m hoping someone does!” Optimus did not look comforted by Bumblebee’s response. After a few more moments of falling and no sign of Starscream, Bumblebee started to worry. Would Starscream just let them fall to their deaths? It had been so easy to forget Starscream was still a Decepticon, could his message have been a trick? Bumblebee couldn’t believe that, but the ground was still getting uncomfortably close.

::Starscream?:: He sent, ::Are you there?::

A servo grabbed Bumblebee’s arm, “Of course I am. Never doubt me.” The jet was as smug as usual.

“Starscream?!” Optimus did his best to turn towards them, clearly readying himself for an airborne fight.

“No it’s okay!” Bumblebee yelled, “He’s here to help!”

“Yeah, and stop flailing around like that! It’s hard enough to catch things midair as it is.”

“The really really long story I was gonna tell you? It sorta has to do with this.” Optimus did not look any less baffled, but did as Starscream asked and let the seeker grab him; however, Starscream didn’t make any move to slow their fall.

“Uhh… Starscream? Ground’s getting awfully close!”

“Didn’t I just tell you not to doubt me? I can’t fly with both of you so our best bet is to slow our fall enough we don’t die on impact. If I burn too early, my thrusters will give out and we’ll go splat anyway.”

“But if you start too late, we won’t slow down enough?”

“Exactly, so shut up and let me calculate our terminal velocity before we all die!” Optimus watched Bumblebee and Starscream converse, still clearly mystified.

Time seemed to slow as the trio tumbled through the air. Bumblebee couldn’t tell if several minutes or just a few seconds had passed before Starscream called out, “Brace!” and his heel thrusters kicked on. Pain ripped through Bumblebee’s arm, the force of the stop tearing some of the plating and wiring. The thrusters burning next to his audials slowed their fall considerably, but the ground was still fast approaching. Starscreams plating shook with the strain, and Bumblebee could feel his frame heat up exponentially. Then his left thruster sputtered and gave out, and they were back to tumbling uncontrollably.

“Let go of me!” Optimus called out, “The two of you can land safely without me!”

Before Bumblebee could protest Starscream snapped back with unexpected venom, “Don’t give me fragging orders Prime! I can do this, so shut up and hold on!” He roared with effort and the thruster sputtered back to life, but now they were so close to the ground and still moving too fast. Bumblebee shut down his optics and curled into himself, bracing for the inevitable impact. When it came it felt pretty similar to the space bridge explosion. All tearing and screeching metal, but this time it was his own body impacting with the ground before everything went dark.

.

.

.

The Well of All Sparks was not at all what Bumblebee imagined. He was pretty certain he was dead, but—though it might be a cliché—he really thought he wouldn’t be in pain in the afterlife. And he was in a lot of pain: broken struts, twisted plating, and most annoyingly, dirt and dust digging into all his wounds. But there wouldn’t be dirt in the All Spark, would there? There was only dirt on Earth. And Bumblebee was on Earth too, with Starscream and Optimus. He forced himself to online his optics and, despite the pain, managed to roll towards the other two crumpled figures in the crater they created.

“Optimus? Starscream? Please tell me you’re alive.”

A weak high pitched voice responded, “Told you… I could do it.”

Then, deep rumbling laughter came from the other, “Bumblebee, I would very much like to hear that really really long story now.”

Starscream groaned, “Maybe call a medic first?”

Bumblebee smiled, “That sounds good to me.”