Chapter Text
Witwicky was warm, but it didn’t seem to get hot.
Twitch wiped another streak of dust off of her energy blade, shifting her position.
Mo and Thrash were out in the pasture somewhere, probably building a hay castle. Nightshade and Jawbreaker were… somewhere, and across from Twitch’s little perch, Hashtag was quietly giggling to herself as she hummed a little song from whatever she was watching through the warmth in the air. Robbie was… somewhere- Twitch hadn’t actually seen him yet.
Maybe he was sleeping in? It was the first day of summer break, and if Mo’s excited rambling had said anything, it meant there wasn’t school.
Twitch had no clue why Robbie was excited. He talked about doing absolutely nothing, but… was doing nothing really all that exciting? It was, like… you could only do nothing for so long before it got boring, and she’d already been basically doing nothing for months. It really, really sucked to not have a teacher-
No.
Twitch shut her optics, taking a deep breath as she tightened her grip on the hilt of her sword. She’d promised to stop thinking about hi- it that much, she wasn’t blind. She could see how her own mood was affecting the others- how could she let that happen?
What would Bee think of her letting her own emotions affect her siblings?
“Hey, guys!”
Twitch blinked the thoughts away, looking up to the stairs out of the dugout even as something ugly wrapped around her spark.
Robbie jogged into the main section of the dugout, excitement clear through the sleeve. There was something under his arm, a folded up… something that he kept tucked close against him.
She shoved the ugly snarl in her chassis down, forced it away to let Robbie’s happy excitement fill the void. It was warm and comforting, even over the odd hollowness that punctuated emotions not-her-own, and Twitch wrapped it around her spark like a blanket as she pushed herself upright, popped her sword back into place and put on a smile.
“Hey, Robbie!” He barely acknowledged her, shooting her a distracted grin as he skidded to a stop just in front of her.
“I…” Robbie paused, dropping dramatically to his knees and flourishing the folded up thing, “have a plan!”
The sound of paper unfolding filled the air, and Twitch couldn’t help how her audials perked up as she leaned forward, peeking over Robbie’s shoulder to look at what he’d rolled out.
“Is that-”
“Ooh- a map!!” Hashtag cut her off with a loud squeal, dropping to her knees and crouching down to get a closer look. “I didn’t know these things came offline!”
“I- of course they come offline!” Robbie snarked back, but Twitch could tell he didn’t mean anything by it. He never did. Her brother leaned forward, flattening the map out over the floor of the dugout and hunching down over it.
“What are all of those lines,” Hashtag muttered to herself, leaning down further. “And- what is it for? Are you going somewhere?”
“Yes, I am,” Robbie huffed, but it was a show- she could feel his excitement and pride brewing under the briskness. “But not just me- JB, ‘shade, get over here!”
“Huh?” Jawbreaker’s helm turned from where he’d been watching Nightshade tinker, a little rubber dinosaur toy sitting on the ground between them. Nightshade looked up at the same time, tilting their helm as they straightened.
“Robbie? Do you need something?”
Twitch could only watch as, unnoticed by either of them, the dinosaur toy jolted, shot a pathetic puff of smoke out of its mouth, and deflated.
“Yeah, c’m’over!” He waved them over, still looking down at his map- he lightly pushed Hashtag out of the way, rolling a stubborn corner down and frowning at it thoughtfully.
“What’s it a map to?” Hashtag asked, moving to pin the corner down. Robbie shot a grin at her before looking back down, tracing a thick red line.
“This, my siblings,” he dramatically started, “is a map of the state of Pennsylvania!”
“Ooh,” Jawbreaker ooh’ed, right on schedule, and Twitch felt her smile stretch into something just a little more real.
Robbie beamed up at his brother, before looking back down and tapping a spot on the map.
“This is us,” he explained, tracing a thinner red line surrounding a green spot- if Twitch squinted, she could read the word ‘Witwicky’ on the map, overlaying a grid pattern. “And if you follow this red line- that’s a highway, see? It takes us to…”
He traced the line down the paper and Twitch moved to follow, feeling her audials perk up a bit.
Robbie’s finger came to a stop over a word, and he looked up at Twitch, grinning widely.
“...Philadelpha.”
A-
Twitch straightened up a bit, opening her intake, but Hashtag beat her to the punch.
“You found a map to Philly?”
“Mom gave it to me!” he said, tracing the letters in the word. “And we’re gonna use it!”
“Use it?” Jawbreaker softly asked, and Twitch couldn’t help how her intake shifted into a frown.
“Robbie, are you-”
He looked up, turning to look at all of them, and the anticipation over the sleeve said all that she needed to hear.
“We are all gonna go to Philly! Together!”
It was silent for a long moment. Twitch glanced to the side- Hashtag’s optics were wide behind her visor, and when she looked the other way, Jawbreaker had frozen with his digits tangled together in front of his chassis.
Robbie’s smile slowly faded the longer the silence went, and Twitch shifted in place, opening her intake.
“We-”
“Mom said we aren’t allowed to go to Philly,” Nightshade interrupted her, shooting her an apologetic look even as they stood up straighter, turning their helm to look at the map. “Which is a shame, I’ve heard that big cities have interesting technology and wonderful examples of architecture! It would be fascinating…”
“That’s why,” Robbie said, shifting on his knees, “we’re gonna go by ourselves. Who says Mom needs to know?”
Who-
Twitch felt something cold settle in her spark.
“I mean- look! Mo and I just got out of school, you guys have been going stir-crazy without your normal lessons, it’s a win-win!” Robbie spread his hands out, looking up and around at them with a wide grin on his face. “Plus, you get to see where we grew up!”
She had- Twitch had never lied to Mom before.
“Won’t we get in trouble?” Jawbreaker was next to speak, glancing nervously back at the dugout stairs as if Mom would just- materialize next to them. “When they find out?”
Bee had told them to stay put.
“If she finds out,” Robbie scoffed. “C’mon, JB! Don’t you wanna go on an adventure?”
How would they even- get to Philly? It was over an hour away, according to Mom and Dad.
“...I mean, I guess,” her little brother mumbled, and Twitch-
“Bee told us not to leave Witwicky,” she said, almost on autopilot.
Just like that, the dugout went silent.
Hashtag paused, slowly closing her intake, before glancing down at the map on the floor.
“He… did, didn’t he,” her little sister mumbled quietly. Twitch could see Nightshade’s plating flex a bit, clamping down as they blinked and turned back to Robbie.
“He did say that,” Jawbreaker broke in, a note of uncertainty in his voice. “We should probably listen.”
Robbie scoffed, looking up at them.
“C’mon, guys! That was before you all got trained on how to be sneaky and fight and stuff! Besides, all the Decepticons are either with G.H.O.S.T or hiding- what danger could there be in Philadelphia?”
“Falling debris,” Nightshade cut in, counting off on their digits, “broken concrete creating a tripping hazard, things collapsing under our weight, a manhole cover flipping around under our weight and dropping us into the sewers, mutated rats, crocodiles-”
“That stuff only happens in cartoons!” Robbie interrupted. “None of that is gonna happen! Besides, you know how to work around that now!”
“It is still a danger-”
Twitch let her siblings’ bickering wash over her, wrap around her spark. It-
Bee had told them not to leave. That was one of the big Lessons he’d taught- stay close to home until they were strong, stay close until they could defend themselves. Stay close until it was safe.
And Twitch wasn’t strong, not strong enough. She couldn’t even defend Bee- how was she supposed to defend the rest of her siblings? Philly was- exciting, yeah, and she’d heard so many stories, and she saw how Robbie got sad sometimes when thinking about not being able to go back, and…
She blinked, looked back at Robbie. The excitement was gone, replaced with defensiveness, and if she really felt she could feel ribbons of unsurety coloring the happiness that had been running through the bond from his end.
“There is merit to field experience,” Nightshade said thoughtfully, tilting their helm as they clicked their claws against each other. “It would give us experience in a new area…”
“But Bee said not to,” Hashtag said, but she sounded unsure about her own words. “I mean, I know he isn’t here, but…”
“We should still listen,” Jawbreaker quietly said, but Twitch didn’t miss the look his crystal optics had when they flicked to the map on the floor. “He wanted us to stay safe-”
“Philly is safe!” Robbie snapped, and it didn’t sound like his regular joking-angry. “There’s nothing there that’s dangerous!”
“I… kinda wanna go,” Hashtag cut back in, visor flickering as her optics zoned out. “I mean, there’s this really cool looking amusement park, and something called donuts, and apparently there’s a super old bridge that goes to New Jersey-”
“The Ben Frank bridge,” Robbie cut in, tapping the map. “That’s in Philadelphia, don’t any of you want to see it?”
There was- hurt, in his bond, echoing through to her.
Twitch wasn’t strong enough to protect them, couldn’t protect them, but if they stayed here Robbie would be hurt, and Hashtag would be hurt, and…
“I would love to see that architecture,” Nightshade hummed, tilting their helm right back. “But Bee did-”
“Bee isn’t here!” Robbie interrupted, something sharp flaring through the bond from his end.
Twitch couldn’t help the flinch and hiccup in her own field at the reminder.
Because Bee… wasn’t here.
“He still told us to stay here-”
“Yeah, but he isn’t here! It’s just like Mom and Dad, he doesn’t need to know!”
Bee wasn’t here. They’d been told to stay, but she was supposed to protect them, and not going to Philly was hurting her siblings, and Robbie had said there was nothing dangerous in Philly anyways…
Bee had told them to stay. But…
Twitch closed her optics, took a deep breath. There was something clawing into her insides, howling and setting her armor on edge.
She couldn’t hurt her siblings. If she couldn’t protect them, she could at least not hurt them.
“We should go.”
Robbie’s head snapped to her, eyes wide and confused. Twitch paused a bit as four pairs of eyes and optics focused on her, but she forced the unease crawling through her plating away as she straightened, lifted up until her pedes were just barely brushing the ground under her.
“We- you think so?” Nightshade said, helm turning between her and Robbie. Her older brother’s eyes were almost sparkling, grinning up at her as he tapped on the map on the ground.
Twitch smiled, shoved the cold choking thing in her spark down and away, ignored the voice hissing that this wasn’t a good idea.
“I think it’ll be fun!” she chirped past it, tugged the excitement ringing through the bond closer to her own spark and wrapping herself in its warmth. “I mean- when’s the last time we got out of Witwicky?”
“I don’t think we’ve ever left,” Hashtag broke in, optics sparkling and how could Twitch stop that-!? “At least not for long!”
“Exactly!” Robbie snapped his fingers, pointing at Hashtag. “It’s summer break for all of us! All of us can go have some fun!”
It would be fun, Twitch told herself, stamping down on that heavy apprehension further. It would be fun! They would explore, and when Bee came back they would have a story to tell him!
“It will be fun!” She grinned as she said it, forced herself to believe it.
“I’ll go tell Mo and Thrash!” Hashtag cheered, pushing herself upright. “When are we leaving?”
“Dad has finals tomorrow with his students, he’s gonna go to bed early. Sunset should work!”
“Got it!” her little sister called back, bounding out of the dugout.
“This will be interesting!” Nightshade chirped, clapping their servos together like Mom always did when she was excited. “The technological advances in the big city will be fascinating to look at and study- ooh, perhaps I can replicate them in the dugout-?”
“I’ll go pack some stuff in my backpack!” Robbie grinned, looking up at her as he rolled the map up. “This is gonna be the best summer trip ever!”
The best summer trip ever.
Bee had always told her to trust her instincts, to listen to her gut and follow what it told her. Bee had always told her to think before jumping.
Twitch pushed a smile on her face, made out of the excitement of everyone else around her.
Going to Philadelphia… she’d heard stories, knew how sometimes Robbie would daydream of something called a skate park and Mo would draw a pretzel cart she said was really good to eat at with the best cheese sauce ever, even if Twitch wasn’t allowed to have pretzels or cheese or sauce. She’d heard about how big it was, about how many people were all living together and it was different than Witwicky, but still good.
“The best summer trip ever,” she echoed, her grin growing. Bee had told her to trust her gut… but her gut had been giving her a lot of red flags recently, ones that just didn’t make sense.
She didn’t have a reason to be uneasy in the dark. She didn’t need to be uneasy about the woods, where only Cybertronians or Mom and Dad or her siblings were.
…What would it hurt to jump for once? Before the doubt set in?
That dark, vent-seizing feeling ripped into her spark chamber. Without thinking, Twitch grabbed it, shoved it down until it disappeared.
“It’s gonna be great, Robbie.”
And it would be, she told herself. It would be.
“What’s up, baby?”
Alex didn’t even flinch as Dot settled onto the bed next to him, reaching up to close the blinds. There was still a little light outside- she knew that Alex slept better in total darkness.
“Nothing,” her husband hummed, pulling his arm out of the blankets and resting it over his chest. There was something in his voice that made her pause, and she slowly lay down, shuffled the blanket up as she settled into her side of the bed. “Just… thinking.”
“About Bee?”
Alex hummed, tilting his head back to stare at the small glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling.
“I- Well. Yes. Have you heard anything about him from Megatron since…”
Dot couldn’t help the soft, wry smile even as she shook her head.
“No, I haven’t. All Megatron’s said is that he’s on a mission, but apparently OP is the only one who knows just what that mission is.”
Her husband hummed, shifting next to her. Dot moved in turn, shifting to lay on her side- the silk pillowcase was smooth and cool against her cheek as she settled in, staring at Alex’s side profile.
“Are you worried?”
Dot knew her husband well enough to know that the soft look in his eyes was all the answer that she needed. Still, he sighed, head tilting over to meet her gaze.
“Aren’t you?”
She laughed, a soft sound in the silence of the dark room.
“Of course I am, baby. You’ve seen how it impacted the Terrans to have him leave.”
Because- it had, in such a painfully obvious way Dot could still feel the aching of that first week or so with radio silence. Twitch had been… trying. She was smiling more, joking around and flitting around just like she used to. But Dot wasn’t blind, as much as it hurt to see her baby hurting. She was being brave for her siblings.
She had had the worst of it- Dot had gotten used to finding a small Cybertronian drone sitting hidden under the kitchen table in the gray light just before the dawn, plating trembling even as she leaned into her mom’s ankles. When she wasn’t hiding away or being cheerful in a way that didn’t fully reach her optics, she was training, driving herself through sword training and destroying more than one bale of hay before she’d tired herself out.
It was… worrying, just how hard she’d taken it. Dot was no stranger to how strongly the Terrans felt, but none of them seemed to struggle as much as Twitch had in the aftermath. Even now, two months and change from Bee’s disappearance, she hadn’t quite settled back into her usual personality. All of the Terrans had been impacted, and the bond had even reached over to Robbie and Mo.
She still remembered the worried calls from teachers, asking if everything was quite alright at home and if Robbie or Mo were alright.
And through it all, not even a shred of yellow armor had been sighted in Witwicky since.
“I still wonder if we could have done anything.”
Her husband’s soft voice broke through her thoughts, and Dot blinked, focusing back on him. He was looking back up at the stars, starting to lose their pale green light.
“To keep Bee on the down-low,” he clarified, shifting to bring one arm up behind his head and prop it up.
Dot sighed, shifting to make herself more comfortable. This was a familiar conversation, at this point.
“Hon, Bee is a grown mech. He got himself caught racing- we couldn’t have done anything about that.”
“We could have been in his cab when he went to the racetrack,” Alex countered, eyes jumping between stars and tracing a constellation Dot could never remember the name of.
“Or he could have remembered not to use an energon boost this close to a G.H.O.S.T hotspot,” Dot shot right back, shrugging against the mattress. “He knew he was in hiding-”
“He could have asked for help,” Alex murmured, soft as he turned his head to look at her. “We would have helped him.”
She caught the sigh before it burst free, throttling it in her chest.
There it was, the crux of the issue.
“We could have,” Dot hummed. “We could. But Bee didn’t ask us to help, hon.”
Alex made a noise at that, face creasing as he looked back up at the glow in the dark stars on the ceiling.
“...We would have helped him,” he repeated, soft and worried. “We would have.”
“We would have,” she agreed, reaching a hand up to rest against his shoulder. “We didn’t know he needed help.”
“We- could we have seen it?” The question was metaphorical more than anything. Dot and Alex had run through this before, picking apart every interaction they’d had with Bee to see if they could find where he had shifted from larger than life to secretive.
“You know we couldn’t have, hon,” she hummed, squeezing his shoulder. “Bee is a scout. He knows how to hide things.”
“He shouldn’t feel the need to hide from us,” Alex whispered, blinking once or twice. “He’s basically family, mahal. Why did he hide things from us?”
Dot squeezed his shoulder, pressing her lips together.
“...I don’t know, baby,” she murmured, looking up at the fading stars on the ceiling. “I don’t know.”