Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

[EXPLOSION]
[STATIC]
"—what was that—?" 
[STATIC] 
"Where is he going—?!" 
"DON-0N'T—[STATIC]—FÛCK-KI-1Ng T0UCH M3-ME-E—[STATIC]—1-I'LL rIP YOuR D4MN H3ÆD ØfF—[STATIC]—LE@V3 ME-E ÆL0nĘ—[STATIC]—!!"

"Where's Bee?" Raf asked, running up to Smokescreen, Bulkhead and Arcee as they came in through the groundbridge. 

"Ask Smokescreen," Arcee said calmly, but concern slipped into her voice. "He and Bee partnered up for that mission."

Loud footsteps echoed across the hangar and Optimus came over. "Smokescreen, report. What happened and  where is Bee?"

"I—I dunno," Smokescreen shrugged casually, but failed to hide his worry. "One second he was there, all normal, then something must've went wrong with the Cons' groundbridging and spacebridging stuff because there was a real bright flash then Bee was gone, or turned into this blur of black and yellow? Never got a good look, and when I went to grab the blurs—or Bee's, I guess? Maybe?—arm, a really staticy voice screamed 'stay away' and 'I'll rip your head off' and then the blur was gone. The voice sounded really pained and was full of static and kinda sounded like they were choking on some liquid or something in their throat." 

"I think I know what may have happened," Ratchet said, typing on the main computer console. "I think the machinery that projects the bridge portals on the Cons' ship malfunctioned, and Bumblebee was the only one within the blast radius."

"Well then what'd the blast do?" Miko asked. 

"I believe it de-aged him to when he was a bit younger, specifically a teen," Ratchet said without looking away from the screen of his computer console.

"So, Bee is like a kid now?" Jack asked. "Don't we need to find him then?"

"Yeah! Let's go get him!" Smokescreen agreed, already moving towards the groundbridge.

"No, that won't work. Just walking around 'til you find him?" Ratchet snapped. "Besides, Bee was our best scout. If my calculations are correct, he'd be right around when he was a Calvalry Scout. And he looked different, so you might not even recognize him." 

"Well what's he look like?" Miko asked. Despite the current issue, she seemed excited to see Bee's old—or current?—look.

Ratchet just sighed in exasperasion and pulled up a series of old files. He started to click through them.

[SPEC OPS] → [JAZZ'S DIRECT COMMAND] → [SCOUTS] → [BUMBLEBEE]

Bee's old file showed up, enlarging on the screen when Ratchet clicked into the tab.

Miko squinted at the letters as the file started to automatically translate into English.

Suddenly the screen flashed to red and read:

[ERROR. FILE LOCKED. ONLY JAZZ [HEAD OF SPEC OPS] AND [DESIGNATION:] BUMBLEBEE CAN VIEW THIS FILE. BASIC INFORMATION ON [DESIGNATION:] BUMBLEBEE MAY BE VIEWED HERE.]

Ratchet huffed in frustration. "Ugh, we need Bee here if we want to even see his file," he complained.

"What about the link?" Jack asked.

"Yeah! Try it!" Miko agreed, hopping up and down. Despite the situation the Japanese girl was excited as ever. 

Ratchet sighed and clicked the link. A new tab popped up on the screen, changing it from red to white. Miko looked up at the black letters as they quickly shifted from Cybertronian to English as the computer console's embedded translator got to work.

[BASIC INFORMATION ABOUT SCOUT DESIGNATION: BUMBLEBEE]

[OCCUPATION: SCOUT. COMMANDER: JAZZ. AGE: JUVENILE.]

Rachet scrolled down to a heading named STATS.

[STATS.

LETHALITY: HIGH. 

KILL COUNT: UNKNOWN. 

MISSION COUNT: UNKNOWN. 

DURABILITY: HIGH. 

NOTES:

>DO NOT ENGAGE IN COMBAT. 

>USE CAUTION. WATCH OUT FOR CANINE TEETH, DAGGERS, & SHARPENED VERTEBRAE.

>ADD MORE HERE_ ] 

"Hmm," Ratchet hummed under his breath. 

"What is it?" Raf asked. 

"Ooh," Miko said. She was still staring at the screen, specifically the words kill count and lethality. 

Ratchet began typing again and the file of Bee's basic information and stats vanished, replaced by another different tab.

This tab was an article, which's heading read "JAZZ'S SCOUTS" and had several tabs below. 

Ratchet selected the ALLIEGENCES tab and a large chart popped up. The top read " DESIGNATION | ROLE | COMM LINK ". There were eleven rows. Ratchet tapped on the chart to zoom in and scrolled down and Miko quickly fished her phone out of her pocket and snapped a bunch of photos of the screen as Ratchet quickly moved down to the row with Bee's information. 

" Bumblebee | Scout | B127-0604 " it read. 

"So, we're gonna call his COMM link?" Arcee asked. 

"We're going to try," Ratchet said. The medic turned to Optimus. "You do the talking. Bee never met any of us until after Tyger Pax, but chances are he would at least listen to you."

"Alright, old friend," Optimus agreed. Everyone went quiet and Optimus clicked on the COMM link address and selected 'call'. 

There was a long moment of silence, before the COMM line opened. 

"Bumblebee, this is Optimus Prime," Optimus said. 

"I r3port—[STATIC]—to J@zz and JáZz—alønê,"  A voice replied. It was staticy and slightly choked, like some liquid was seeping from a throat wound. "Yoü—[STATIC]—c@n g0 fuçk—youRseLf, Dec3ptïcûnt."

Miko's mouth dropped open. Oh yeah. This Bee would be fun, if this COMM call worked anyway. 

"I am not a Decepticon," Optimus said. "I am Optimus Prime. Bumblebee, you are currently on an organic planet known as Earth. Are you wounded?"

"Nø-o," Bee snarled over the COMM. "I-1'm fïnê—" Bee's voice choked, breaking off into static. 

"Bumblebee, please ping us your coordinates," Optimus said calmly. "What is the status of your injuries?"

"Ùm—m, I gøt ïntô æ cœup13 ôF fiGhts ëárliēR," Bee hissed. "Bùt mä1nly mY tHrô@t's àl1—[STATIC]—füCk3d ūp. RësT øf mê ís fĪn3."

A small beep sounded from the computer console, and notification popped up, reading " B127-0604 sent: 41.4017° N, 124.0417° W. "

"Keep him talking," Ratchet whispered, voice too low for Bee to hear over the COMM link. He quietly booted up the groundbridge, entering the coordinates Bee had sent. "Ask what he remembers."

"What memories are clear for you?" Optimus asked. "What's the last thing you remember before being on Earth?"

"Úh—[STATIC]—h, I Rem3mBēr—b3inG ïnTerig@têd by—[STATIC]—M3g@trøN @t Tyg3r P@X—tHen eVeryThïnG ís fùzZy—[STATIC]—mY tHrøãT hüRts." Bee's voice sounded forced by the last word, and now there were more breaks of static and barely audible choking noises.  

"Okay, we are sending help now," Optimus said. "Are you able to move?"

"Ye—[STATIC]—e—ès, jüsT my-y thRøáT—[STATIC]—" Bee choked out. "—[STATIC]—"

"Bumblebee?" Optimus asked. 

"ThRØ@t—b133dïnG—[STATIC]—h@rd tø bRëáth3 @nd tålK—1'm øk@y—[STATIC]—hûh-?—[STATIC]—ØH FŪCK—!!"

Bee's COMM cut out.

"Go. Go through the bridge and find him!" Ratchet snapped after a minute. "Right now. Before the blood-energon from his throat wound suffocates him!"

Smokescreen immediately transformed and took off, speeding through the groundbridge. 

Arcee transformed, but before she or anyone else could go through the groundbridge it flickered and sputtered out, the keyboard sparked, and the console screens all went black. 

"What happened?!" Bulkhead turned to Ratchet. "Bring back the bridge!"

"I can't!" Ratchet snapped. "The entire system's down!"

"So Bee and Smokey are on their own?" Miko's voice lacked its usual excitement. 

"Yes," Optimus said. "For the time being we won't be able to contact Bumblebee and Smokescreen."

Smokescreen knew something was wrong the second the groundbridge sputtered out behind him. Some tech thing must've broke, because now the groundbridge was gone and no one else was here.

"Hey, you guys there?" He tried his COMM.

No response.

Smokescreen was going to give his COMM a second try, but before he could, something bright blue gleaming in his peripheral vision caught his eye. 

It was blood-energon. Small droplets of the stuff were scattered around the forest floor. 

Smokescreen blinked, quickly realizing he should scan his surroundings.

He was in a forest of some sort, with really tall trees with reddish bark and dark green fir. What were those called? Redwoods? Yeah, those are redwoods—Come on, Smokescreen, focus—And there was green moss covering the forest floor. High above, the full moon glowed in the sky as it slowly rose. A ring of light seemed to hang around it. Smokescreen remembered someone calling it a lunar halo once. Was that what a rainbow around Earth's moon was called? Probably. He wouldn't know.

"Wait a minute," Smokescreen realized out loud. "If we COMMed Bee, then his COMMs and our COMMs should still be on. Smokescreen quickly opened his COMM line and tried to call the Autobot base.

"Uh, guys? You there?" Smokescreen asked. 

No reply.

"Okay, guess whatever broke the groundbridge stuff also brought down the COMM network," Smokescreen guessed. Well, he might as well try to call Bee. What was his COMM link again? B172-6040? No, that wasn't it. B271-6400? No. B721-0406? Nope. B127-0604? No— wait. Yep, that sounded right.

"Uh, Bumblebee?" Smokescreen COMMed the line. "Do ya read?"

"FūcK øfF—[STATIC]—LèæVe më-e al0nE," The voice Smokescreen recognized as Bee's came through. 

"Hey, it's okay," Smokescreen said. "I'm an Autobot. It's alright."

"I-I d0n't—[STATIC]—bêlïeVe yø-yœü," Bumblebee hissed back. 

"I am an Autobot," Smokescreen confirmed. "My name's Smokescreen. I was an Elite Guard trainee, from the last generation during the war. You can trust me, promise."

"…L@st gêneRätión b3f0re th3 w@r? Yœu'Re fr0m GēnEr@tioN D@unTlësS tøØ?" Bee asked over the COMM.

Generation Dauntless? Oh yeah, Smokescreen remembered that. Generation or "Gen" Dauntless was the nickname for the last generation out of the Well of Allsparks before the Allspark itself stopped producing new Cybertronians and was ejected into space to keep it out of the Decepticons' reach. 

Smokescreen had never actually met another bot from Gen Dauntless. He'd heard that all the others went into Spec Ops and served under Jazz's command, but he never actually met one. And Smokescreen always assumed Bee was older than him, he had to be older than Smokescreen. Bee was more responsible and experienced and skilled than Smokescreen was. 

But nope. Bee was the same age as Smokescreen. 

"Yeah, yeah I'm from Gen Dauntless," Smokescreen replied. 

"O-0h, I—[STATIC]—dïdN't tHinK th3re wèRe—[STATIC]—@ny møRe ôf ùS," Bumblebee said. "—[STATIC]—HølD ön—"

Smokescreen could hear crashing in the distance, a struggle, then a scream being cut off. 

"Uh, Bee? You okay?" Smokescreen asked. Come on, pick up.

"Yæh—[STATIC]—I-1'm ok@y-äY," Bumblebee said back. "JûsT—[STATIC]—@ Déc3Ptîcøn—[STATIC]—"

"Bee?" Smokescreen asked. "Bee?! You okay?!"

Static crackled over the COMM line before suddenly Bee's voice came back in.

"My-Y—[STATIC]—tHrø@t—[STATIC]—" Bumblebee's voice had become something Smokescreen could only identify as a hiss. "—b133dïnG—[STATIC]—"

"Okay, that's it. Where are you? I'm coming to help." Smokescreen had been trying to get Bee to trust him, but now something was definently wrong.

Bee didn't respond, but he pinged him a set of coordinates. Smokescreen quickly transformed and carefully drived as fast as he could through the redwoods.

The new set of coordinents led Smokescreen to a mossy clearing. On the ground next to one of the tall fir trees a vehicon laid dead. Smokescreen quickly looked away, realizing the vehicon had looked like its innards had been removed disembowelment-style. 

Looking up, Smokescreen realized there were droplets of bright blue liquid clunging to the red bark of the tree. There were also small, hardly noticable scratches in the reddish wood.

"Bee? You here?" Smokescreen called out. 

"Up-p—[STATIC]—p hèR3," Bee's voice replied. 

Smokescreen realized two things. One, based on where the voice was coming from, Bee was high in the tree's branches. Two, Bee was actually making the static noises, like the static was coming from his throat and vocalizer; it wasn't just from interference of the radio waves. 

"I'm coming up, okay?" Smokescreen said, avoiding looking at the dead vehicon. If Bee did that, then what could he do to someone less armored like Smokescreen when he was spooked. 

"O-0k@y," Bee hissed softly. 

Smokescreen started to climb. As he did, he noticed the droplets of blood-energon stuck to the redwood's bark were getting bigger and slightly more frequent. What did Ratchet say to do when someone was bleeding? Keep them talking? Yeah, he'll try that.  

"So, Bee," Smokescreen said. "You see the moon? Pretty, ain't it?"

"Ye-3s, I-1—[STATIC]—gûésS ït ís," Bumblebee said back. "Do-0 yøü h@v3 a b1âsTer?"

"Yeah." Smokescreen caught a gleam of yellow above him through the green needles of the tree, the light from the full moon causing the metal to reflect and catch Smokescreen's attention. 

Smokescreen pulled himself up onto the tree branch, trying to not look down at the ground far below them. Bee shifted slightly to the side, letting Smokescreen settle and balance himself on the branch. Smokescreen finally got a good look at Bee.

This Bumblebee was leaner and had an overall thinner build than the Bumblebee Smokescreen was used to. This Bee was mostly black with yellow racing stripes across his door-wings and chest. His eyes were still a cyan blue color, but were more expressive in a way and had white pupils. He had a mouth too, strangely making Bee look more normal than Smokescreen knew his older version looked like.  His lips were slightly parted, and Smokescreen noticed Bee had sharp white canine teeth. 

Bee shifted, and Smokescreen realized what that note about sharpened vertebrae in Bee's basic info file was about. 

Each vertebrae that made up Bee's spine was carefully sharpened into averagely sharp points, each one jutting out from Bee's back to make his silhouette look more dangerous. The sharpness of each vertebrae varied, like some were dulled by use more or each one was sharpened slightly differently.

That was very cool, in Smokescreen's expert-in-coolness opinion if he did say so himself. 

"B1@sTër?" Bee asked. He was holding his throat, drawing all Smokescreen's attention to the wound. Blood-energon seeped from between his fingers and based on Bee's irregular breaths he was struggling to breathe around the bleeding in his windpipe. 

"Um, sure?" Smokescreen handed Bee the blaster he often carried just in case he ever got captured and his t-cog was disabled to stop him from transforming out his built-in weapons. He'd learned his lesson after a mission went wrong. Never again. 

Bee took the blaster and fired it down at the forest floor far below, the end of the barrel growing burning hot as the plasma fired. Then, Bee quickly pressed the hot barrel against him throat wound. 

"Dude, what the fuck?" Smokescreen said in surprise. 

"Wh@t? I cãutErizëd ít," Bee hissed, pulling the blaster away from the wound. Now the living metal was cooling back to a dark gray, still covered in blood-energon but no longer bleeding. 

"Oh, oh okay," Smokescreen said. "I guess that works… Does your throat feel a bit better?"

"KïnD@," Bee said, swallowing repeatedly. "Thêr3's nøt b1o0d cHôkïnG mè @nYmør3." 

Bee suddenly tensed, eyes locked on something below them. 

Smokescreen followed his gaze and saw what the scout was looking at. There was a small patrol of vehicons walking below them, blasters out and scanning the area. 

Bee silently engaged a battle mask, the black metal sliding forward to protect him face. His hands moved to the rims of his tires, which fit in as part of his ankles, and a black disk slipped out of the center of each rim. The black disks were spiked and had openings to easily be held. Smokescreen realized they were ninja stars. 

Bumblebee turned to Smokescreen. 

"T@kê th3m øüt?" He whispered. 

"No," Smokescreen whispered back, outstretching a hand to lay on Bee's shoulder. His fingertips brushed the tips of Bee's sharpened vertebrae and reminded him hey, this bot is dangerous. "Once they see the body they'll want to bring it back to the Nemesis to figure out what killed it. We should be fine."

"Øk@y," Bumblebee whispered, disengaging the battle mask. It slid away just as silently as it engaged. He also returned his ninja stars to their place hidden in his tire rims. 

"So, what's up?" Smokescreen asked, attempting at small talk.

"Ùh, tHë skY?" Bee said with a shrug. "Th@t's ùsü@lly wHât I s@y."

"Ha, nice." Smokescreen looked back at Bee. This Bumblebee was different, but honestly? He could see how the scout in front of him earned their generation the name Dauntless. Bee didn't hesitate and wasn't at all intimidated by the vehicon patrol below that was now carrying the body of their fallen comrade away. 

"Did any others of our Gen scout with you?" Smokescreen asked. "If it's not overstepping."

"Ūh, yê@h," Bee replied. "Äll øf ùs wērē ìn Sp3c Øps ūndër J@zZ's cøMm@nD. Théré wêrë ēlEvèN øf ùs ïn tøt@l. Më, Aír@z0r, ArtëmïS, B@yøÑèt, Ch33tør, FïrSt Aìd, Mír@Gë, TrïCkshøT, SìdēswïPê, SùNstRê@kèr, @nd Sw@ñ." 

"…That's cool. Knowing everyone," Smokescreen said. He opened his mouth to say something else, but he was cut off by a soft static-filled yawn from a certain yellow scout. 

"Heh, tired?" Smokescreen teased. "I can keep watch, if you want to pass out."

"FüCk īt," Bee answered, leaning to the side to rest against the tree's trunk. "1f I f@ll øût yóū'll õw3 më fīfTèén gHøst dõll@Rs ïn th3 @fTèrlīFe."

Smokescreen laughed under his breath and kept quiet as he waited for Bee to fall asleep. Bee's breathing became deep and slow and his body slowly relaxed. 

Smokescreen started to reflect on the day's events, to process it.

First he and Bumblebee had been sent to mess up and destroy a Decepticon groundbridge. Something went wrong, and it exploded. The blast turned Bee into a younger teen version of himself, which promptly screamed 'fuck off' and vanished into the night. Then Smokescreen regrouped with Arcee and Bulkhead, trying to act normal, and went home to base hoping Bee had just called for a bridge after leaving the situation and calming down. Bee wasn't there, and next thing Smokescreen knew they were all looking at Bee's old files and then calling him. Then Smokescreen went through the groundbridge and something went wrong again because the groundbridge went off and the COMM wasn't working. 

Now, Bee was asleep in a redwood tree, Smokescreen was in that same tree, and if he let Bee fall out he'd owe Bee money. 

A notification popped up in Smokescreen's HUD. 

>Incoming COMM from Autobot Base: Omega_One. [ACCEPT] / [DECLINE] ?

Smokescreen quickly selected ACCEPT and opened his COMM line. 

"Hey, you guys there?" Smokescreen asked, keeping his voice low to not wake Bee. The scout was probably really tired, after all that happened today.

"Yes, We're here," Arcee's voice responded. "Have you found Bee yet?"

"Yeah, I found him," Smokescreen said. 

"Where is he? Can you put him on the line?" Miko's voice came in a rush, like she was trying to be heard before someone pushed her away from the COMM. 

"Nah, he's asleep. We're in a redwood tree. He threatened that I'd owe him fifteen ghost dollars in the afterlife if I let him fall out," Smokescreen grinned. 

"Ping us your coordinates then!" Bulkhead said, his voice slightly farther away from his end of the call than Arcee's had been. He probably was standing behind her. 

"Alright, alright. I'm doing it," Smokescreen complained, but he was still smiling. "Jeez, man."

Smokescreen glanced up at the full moon again. 

He might've made a new friend with a friend he already knew today, somehow.

Chapter Text

Miko quickly bolted after Bulkhead, Arcee, and Optimus as they walked through the ground bridge. Ratchet, after rewiring like half of the software in the main console, had finally gotten the system back up and after a quick COMM with Smokey, Team Prime was now going to get their two missing members.

"No! Don't—" Jack's complaint at Miko's—once again—decision to follow the bots was cut off when the groundbridge closed behind her.

They were in a redwood forest, the ground covered in green moss and a full moon glowing high in the sky. Optimus, Arcee and Bulk had kept on ahead and were now spreading out to find Smokescreen and Bumblebee.

Miko started to look too, wandering around between the massive trees and balancing on their huge roots.

She eventually came across a spot near the roots of one tree where the ground was stained with a shade of bright blue Miko recognized as blood-energon. She looked up, following a trail of droplets with her eyes until…

"Hey Bulk, I think I found them," Miko called over to Bulkhead.

"Miko, why are you here—?" Bulkhead came over and looked up. "—and they are here. Good job, but still why are you here—"

"Don't yell," Optimus said and he walked over. "You could spook Bee."

Arcee was tired of waiting. She ran up to the tree and quickly began climbing. After a minute or two, she reached the branch where Smokescreen and Bumblebee were perched.

Smokescreen was sitting normally and smiled at her what she'd managed to pull herself up onto the branch. On Smokescreen's other side, between him and the tree trunk, was Bee.

He was slumped against the tree trunk, eyes closed. He was obviously asleep, and the metal of his throat had a blue sheen of blood-energon on it and the metal was slightly warped, almost like Bee had c— no, Bee did, in fact, cauterize the wound.

The rest of Bee looked different too, leaner and obviously built for agility and speed over any form of much strength. He was mostly jet black with yellow stripes on his door-wings and chest.

Suddenly, Bee wasn't sitting still anymore.

Next thing Arcee knew she was pinned to the forest floor, a dagger against her neck.

Bee had a battle mask covering his face and twin daggers in each hand. One dagger was against Arcee's throat, the other carefully threaded into the transformation seam at the back of her head, right above her first vertebrae. The perfect position to slice all her trachea, esophagus, and her spinal cord.

"Woah! Bee chill!" Miko yelled.

Immediately Bumblebee jumped back, dropping into a crouch with his daggers brandished, one in forward grip and the other in reverse grip.

"Bumblebee, Arcee is not a Decepticon," Optimus said calmly. "All of us here are allies, not your enemies."

Bee froze and slowly drew up to his full height. He was the roughly same height as older Bee, the one Arcee knew, only maybe a tiny bit shorter. Arcee rolled to her feet, much more comfortable now that there wasn't a blade against her neck.

Bee slid the daggers away into sheaths hidden in his plating. He disengaged his battle mask and rubbed his face, like he was trying to fully wake up.

Oh. Shit, Arcee must've spooked him. Just like Optimus said not to do, not even ten minutes ago!

"SørRy," Bee said quietly. "JùsT sÇ@r3d më."

Bee awkwardly hugged his middle while keeping his posture straight. He seemingly didn't know what to do now.

Arcee blinked. This definitely wasn't the Bumblebee she knew. The Bumblebee she knew would've said sorry at least twenty times and looked really sad. This one, he didn't.

That's weird.

Bee didn't know what was happening.

One second, he had been at Tyger Pax with Megatron. Now suddenly he was in 'the future' on some new planet with a new team and fighting different Decepticons. Bee wasn't used to fighting multi-legged creeps like Airachnid or vain medical officers like Knockout or cowardly flyers like Starscream. He was used to fighting Decepticon scouts with kukri boomerang-shaped knives like Joyride or huge lumbering idiots like Lugnut or psychos with three personalities like Blitzwing.

Earlier Ratchet had insisted on taking a look at Bee's throat and now there was a strange bit of tech connected to his half-shredded vocal cords. It stopped them from moving, protecting them from further damage, but now Bee couldn't speak. The tech let him beep though. It let him convey words through a sort of morse code-like complex beeping system.

That'd have to be good enough.

Bee was currently in the rafters of the Autobot base's main hangar. When everyone else was distracted he'd quickly pulled himself up there and was now keeping deathly quiet, hoping no one saw him. If someone so much as looked up for too long then the others would look up to see what they were looking at and then Bee's hiding place would be compromised.

It was really easy to eavesdrop from the ceiling. Even without the ceiling Bee was a good eavedropper, it was something he did as a scout. He did a lot as a scout…

"Bee! Where are you?" Smokescreen was walking around the hangar, randomly throwing doors open.

Alone time was over.

Bee carefully slipped down from the rafters, silently and quickly. No one saw him climb down. Good. That meant he could use this hiding spot again.

"Hey Bee!" the girl human—Miko? Yeah it was Miko—was jumping up and down. "Now that you're here we can finally see whats on your file!"

Great. It wasnt like they'd been talking about him like he wasn't there to his face all day already.

He walked over to the main computer console where everyone was gathering. The screen was red and said " [ERROR. PASSWORD:_] "

Bee quickly typed in the password Jazz gave to him in training for the file: "supriseadopted".

Because when Jazz took him in, it hadn't been the normal way. It was the "found this child in the trash, child is starving. its mine now" way.

When Jazz picked him up Bee had asked, "Uh, am I being kidnapped?"

And Jazz had replied, "No, you're being surprise adopted."

And that was how Bee ended up as Jazz's scout. And then another scout joined. And another. And another.

"Ooh, it loaded," Smokescreen said, pulling Bee back to the present.

Bee didn't need to see what was on the screen, he knew. Jazz could easily just done paperwork, but no. Jazz was lazy and decided to just do a video. A video Bee had long since memorized and a video First Aid got mad at and made a paperwork version of.

And then First Aid put it behind the video so you couldn't skip it.

Bitch.

Smokescreen didn't know why Bee sighed after putting in the password or why no words appeared on the screen. The screen just was red and said " [PASSWORD: •••••••••••••_] ", then it turned green and read " [PASSWORD ACCEPTED] ".

The screen suddenly turned black and a grey rectangle with a red circle in it appeared on the surface. Inside the red circle there was a white triangle.

Oh. Smokescreen knew what that was. Its a play button, which meant for some reason there's a video.

Ratchet clicked the play button.

"'Sup, to spite everyone who has to put up with this I have decided to make a video!" Jazz appeared on the screen, doing what might've been his namesake, jazz hands. "Also I'm tired of paperwork."

"JAZZ! BAY IS STILL HITTING ME WITH A METAL FOLDING CHAIR!" A male voice came from off screen.

"SHUT IT, MIRAGE! SNITCHES GET STITCHES!" A female voice yelled back.

"Bayonet, stop bulling Mirage. You know you're stronger than him!" Jazz shouted.

"MEH!" Bayonet, apparently, complained, but based on the now lack of metallic banging noises she'd stopped hitting Mirage.

"Hey, anybody seen Swan?"

Jazz turned around, which made the camera pan and it revealed three people: A silver and blueish mech who was sprawled on his back on the floor. An orange femme sitting on top of him, a metal folding chair in her hands, and a purple femme with a bow at her hip near the door.

Mirage, Bayonet, and Artemis.

"Your girlfriend's in the med bay right now, I think." Bumblebee walked in on the opposite side of the room. He was covered in scratches and dried blood-energon, but had a grin plastered on his face. "I think she's hiding from First Aid."

"Bee, no," Jazz whipped towards the yellow scout and spritzed a squirt bottle at him. "No violence unless I say so, ya lil' bastard."

"Fuck—" Bee ducked and Jazz dropped the camera and ran after him.

"DON'T SAY FUCK!"

"BUT YOU SAY FUCK!"

"DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO!"

"YOURE SAYING FUCK THOUGH—!"

"YOU KNOW WHAT I MEANT—!"

And with that Bee was gone, having been chased by Jazz out of the room, crashing noises still coming from beyond the doorway they'd run out of. Several echoes of "HYPOCRITE", "HEY", "I'M NOT YOUR KID" and "I NEVER SAID YOU COULD COMMIT WAR CRIMES, YOU LITTLE ARSONIST".

The last one really confused Smokescreen, but he decided to ignore it and keep watching:

"And…" Bayonet drawled out.

"And? And what?" Mirage whipped his head towards the orange femme. He was still pinned under her, and was staring as she slowly raised her hands, in which she still held the folding chair.

"And. YOU. A. SNITCH." With that, Bayonet gave Mirage, who quickly threw his arms over his face, yet another lovetap with the folding chair. "BOOP."

The camera, which at some point in Bee and Jazz's chaotic dash out the door, was now laying sideways on the floor. The camera feed flickered and went black before flickering back on.

"Whew, anyway," Jazz said as he reappeared on the screen. "This is gonna take a few hours of boring talking. Yay~!"

Chapter Text

Jazz was right. It was a lot of boring talking.

So much that only Optimus and Ratchet ended up watching it.

Everyone else was currently sitting around the main hangar. It was about 3 or 4 AM now, and Jack was sitting quietly on the couch. Miko was sprawled on the other cushion, but Jack couldn't tell if she was dozing off or just spacing out due to boredom. Raf was sleeping in the chair.

Smokescreen had sat down on the floor and leaned back against the wall, eyes closed.

Was he sleeping? Could Cybertronians even sleep?

Jack turned his attention from Smokescreen to Arcee, who was following Bulkhead out the door for a late night patrol.

Hmm. Where was Bee?

One quick glance around the room revealed an obvious fact to Jack.

Bumblebee was in the rafters.

The black and yellow scout was sitting high up on the beams in the ceiling, carefully hidden as much of him as he could in the shadows. His eyes were half closed, and for once he didn't have a dagger in one hand. He looked comfortable; relaxed on one end of one of the beams and leaning against the wall.

Jack squinted at Bee. Was he dozing or something? He couldn't tell if Bee was just not acting hostile or if Bee was sleepy.

Whatever it was it quickly ended when Ratchet tossed a tool aside, likely in reaction to something Jazz had said on the video, and the tool hit the wall and fell to the floor with a metallic clang.

Bee jerked up, coiling forward into a crouch, a dagger appearing in one hand and his battle mask silently sliding forward to protect his face. He froze for a moment, glancing around, then begrudgingly sat back. But he didn't relax again and kept his battle mask engaged.

"Wow, he's really on edge," Miko yawned.

"I thought you were asleep," Jack accused.

"How dare you," Miko said with mock hurt. "You insult me."

"Oh shut it," Jack snapped back playfully.

"Jack, Miko," Optimus said as he walked over. Behind him, Ratchet stood beside the console. The screen was black, likely due to the video ending.

"Finally! I thought that video would last forever!" Miko complained.

"That wouldn't be possible!" Ratchet said from over by the console. "Physically the video would have to—"

"It's time for you humans to get some sleep," Optimus said, ignoring Ratchet. "It's already late."

"Ugh," Miko complained, flopping over on the couch. "You're like a dad, jeez."

"Okay," Jack said, ignoring Miko.

He was tired, and honestly Optimus would definitely win an argument if he even tried to fight back. Jack just laid back on the couch and squinted through the new dim environment after the lights were turned off.

Bee had disengaged his battle mask and put away the dagger. He'd mostly relaxed again, leaning against the wall. But Jack knew Bee wasn't likely to sleep tonight.

Bumblebee hated this mission. He drove in his Alt mode after Arcee and Bulkhead to go "scout out something". They were not scouting.

To them, scouting meant going and surveying an area and coming back with the information.

To Bee, scouting meant going behind enemy lines and doing one of several things: stealing shit, assassinating people, breaking decepticon shit, destracting people, suicide missions, and usually ragebaiting at the same time. It meant doing stupid things for stupid reasons and loving the adrenaline rush because the scouts were all stupid. It was unpredictable and dangerous, making it perfectly fun in the scouts' opinions. And coming back from a mission where you'd walked straight to what should've been your death to see everyone surprised faces was always a plus.

"Hey Bumblebee, take the right," Acree commanded as they pulled up to an old human-made warehouse.

Bee obliged, transforming and quickly ducking into the warehouse's right garage door.

He didn't like Arcee. She was too structured, too lawful, too tame. She ordered him around, and he hated that. He obeyed Jazz, and that's it. And First Aid when Bee was too hurt to run from the medic's wrath. But that wasn't relevant.

Bulkhead wasn't Bee's rhythym either. He was Wrecker, expected to be more wild, but nope. The green mech was just as obedient and law-obeying as Arcee.

Smokescreen would be fun, if he wasn't so much of a people-pleaser. All the rookie did was try to please upper command. bee didn't blame him; after all the more people you please then the more people who don't hate you. He just wasn't the kind of person Bee usually befriended.

Ratchet sucked. The medic was skilled, but he was mean and usually grouchy. He constantly seemed to have one eye on Bee, but it wasn't like he didn't trust Bee. It was more like the medic wanted to know what was going on in his head, and Bee hated people like that. His head was his head; that's that.

Optimus was okay. Bee usually used his old strategy of "put on a fake personality and do whatever is needed to get away from authority's eye sight". Bee usually hated authority. They always told him what to do, how to do it, what he has to think, what he has to say, when he was allowed to talk. That's why Bee only obeyed Jazz. Jazz never told him how he had to do anything. Jazz let him fight the way that worked for him. Bee was never the best at following orders or fighting with someone talking in his ear, but he was good at being quick and agile and being a smartass.

Then there were the humans.

Jack was okay. He didn't piss Bee off, Bee didn't piss Jack off. Pretty neutral, but there were a few times he'd noticed Jack watching him.

Miko was… a lot. She often baraded him with questions like "what was being a child soldier like?" and "why are you mostly black instead of yellow?" and "why do you cuss all the time?" It honestly was tiring to be stuck in a conversation with the girl.

Raf was nice. He didn't push Bee's boundaries, never told him what to do, and never judged Bee for not knowing what "future stuff " everyone was talking about.

The "future stuff" was really annoying too. Bee didn't know any of the places or past events any of them were referencing and it was FUCKING ANNOYING. Arcee always glanced over with pity and whenever she explained anything she genuinely talked down to him. That pissed him off. Everyone always pitied him like 'oh no, the little innocent child knows nothing!' and that was bullshit.

Bee also hated the stupid tech Ratchet put in his throat. Yeah sure, it protected his vocal cords, but Bee had really grown to hate beeping if he had anthing to say. The humans couldn't understand his beeps—except Raf, for some reason—and most of the time people talked over him like he was nothing more than machinery beeping in the background of their lives. If Bee had the choice, he'd rip the tech out himself even if it took his vocal cords, trachea and everything else out with it.

Bee hated a lot of things.

"Woah, the yellow bug's trying to be edgy," A voice snapped from behind him.

":Fuck do you want?:" Bee snapped without turning around, silently engaging his battle mask. The stranger's footsteps were only about five or so paces away.

If Bee jumped back and… Or if he… Or maybe it's be better if… Or what if he…

Fuck it. Bee was never great at planning. His battle stratigy was always just "wing it and fuck everyone and everything up" and he had zero intention of changing it now.

The stranger yelped in surprise as Bee tackled him to the floor. It was a red mech with gold accents and a white face. Bee didn't recognize him, but he quickly registered the stranger wore no insignia—autobot or decepticon.

":The fuck are you?:" Bee questioned.

"Knockout, friend," The red stranger answered. "Ya know, if you want we can—"

":Hell no:" Bee placed a second dagger at Knockout's throat. ":None of that flirty bullshit:"

"Are you sure? Because I can be very convincing~" Knockout tried again.

":You choose your next words very carefully, or I swear you won't have an esophagus anymore:"

"That sounds~" Knockout was cut off when Bee promptly shoved his face at the ground and got off, sheathing his knives.

"Aww, the knives were kinda hot," Knockout complained, still laying on the floor where Bee had thrown him.

":I will fucking—Nevermind:" Bee pulled out a gun—not a blaster built into his body, but a cybertronian pistol, one of many he kept on him. He aimed it at Knockout, shaking it a couple times to feel whether the magazine held the weight of bullets in it, which it did.

":What faction are you?:" Bee asked.

"Oh, that doesn't matter," Knockout said. "'Sides, you don't seem so much of the role model of the insignia you wear."

":That's cause I don't give two shits:" Bee snapped, cocking the gun. There was a loud click as a bullet entered the chamber. Bee's finger moved to the trigger, but he didn't shoot. Not yet, anyway.

Knockout was very confused. What was up with this Bumblebee? He was all pointy and dark and skinny and cuss-word-y. He actually replied to Knockout's flirty remarks and he carried an extra gun. Knockout wasn't sure what to say, usually his remarks came naturally but right now it seemed like confusion had completely broken Knockout's usual ablily to make people uncomfortable with a couple flirty words.

That didn't matter. If Knockout played his cards right, he'd be home in time to get all his medic work done with time to spare for some illegal street racing.

"After all," Knockout said. "All of us Cybertronians all bled the same color~"

The red mech jabbed at Bee with his electric rod. The yellow scout ducked below the rod and slashed a long clean cut to Knockout's leg and then pounced on his shoulders, pulling a knife and struggling to hold it against Knockout's throat as the red mech tried to shake him off.

Knockout realized something: This Bee was just a kid. The scrawnier frame, younger voice, shorter height.

Knockout also realized that this was his only chance. Bee fought wildly and ferally. He moved fast and unpredictably.

Until Knockout flipped Bee forward, causing the Scout to crash to the floor. Knockout quickly pulled out a siringe of sedatives and stuck the needle into the side of Bee's neck. The scout tensed for a moment, before shoving Knockout away and rolling to his feet.

Knockout sighed under his breath. Of course Bee would have to have a high poison, alcohol and sedative tolerance.

But Bee's tolerance didn't make him completely unaffected. The scout stood still for just too long and took a slightly unbalanced step towards Knockout. Bee's movements were slower and less erratic now. Good.

When Bee attacked, Knockout used the scout's own momentum to throw him to the floor, quickly bringing out another pre-prepped siringe of sedatives, these ones the heaviest Knockout had on him. Sometimes it was easier to sedate one's enemies than fight them.

When the siringe's needle poked into Bee's side he froze. The scout obviously knew something was wrong. He raised a dagger again, but the knife fell from his fingers as Bee went limp and collapsed unconscious to the floor.

Chapter Text

"Ratchet, ground bridge." Acree said firmly over the COMMs.

"Why? What's wrong?" Ratchet's voice replied.

"Bee's gone."

And so when Arcee and Bulkhead got back to base, chaos erupted.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S GONE?!" Miko yelled, making her voice as loud as possible to be heard by the far larger Autobots. "HOW'D YOU EVEN LOSE HIM?"

"We split up, all in different directions, then we couldn't find him," Bulkhead explained.

"We need to go back and look for clues of where Bee may have gone," Optimus said. "Ratchet, come with us. Bee may be injured if we find him."

Then the humans and Smokescreen were left alone at base as the rest of Team Prime drove off through the groundbridge, vanishing as the green portal closed.

"Ugh! I need to help them," Smokescreen complained. He had found Bee, Bee had trusted him to not let Bee fall while the scout slept, and Bee was so far more willing to talk to him.

Suddenly, Raf shot upright.

"The COMM! We could use it to find Bee!"

"Duh!" Smokescreen said. He quickly typed in Bee's COMM link, B127-0604.

It rang.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

Bee wasn't answering.

Bee was tired.

He knew it was just from the sedatives that stupid red mech got him with, but that didn't make the feeling go away.

But beyond that Bee was pissed.

Knockout was smug. And Bee loathed that. Knockout thought he was so good for managing to get a juvenile cybertronian with a needle. Knockout was actually a piece of shit, in Bee's opinion.

Bee honestly wasn't too embarrassed or ashamed or whatever. He got caught, and now he was going to un-caught himself. Easy.

Bee waited for the guard to walk past. He'd been disarmed of all his weapons, but he still had sharp teeth and the ability to not feel shame—meaning Bee didn't mind destroying his dignity to get what he wanted.

Bee carefully laid on his side in the back, face away from the door. He let out a pathetic whining noise mixed with rasping breathing, to make it sounds like he was struggling to breathe.

Bee put on his 'no, don't hurt me. I'm not even an adult. What harm could I ever do to you?' face.

The vehicon guard bought it and opened the cell.

Bee jumped up and slammed into the guard, teeth locking around the vehicon's throat. Bee didn't have time to be gore-y and violent with this if he wanted to, so as soon as the Vehicon was no longer breathing Bee released the guard. He lifted a hand to wipe blood-energon from his mouth.

He resisted the urge to laugh at himself. He probably looked like some cannibalistic psychotic sociopath right now, especially with the fact blood-energon was still smeared on his teeth.

Bee walked over to a vent, removed the grate, and slipped inside. He carefully crept forward through the dark vent. He was just small enough to be able to move comfortably in the vent shafts.

Soon, he heard voices below him.

"And why are some of our energon mines left unguarded? Huh, Starscream?!" Megatron snarled at the silver seeker.

"Because we're running low on soldiers at the moment, my lord," Starscream quickly said. The seeker looked like he just wanted to get away from Megatron—a valid want in Bee's opinion.

Bee quickly shifted to the side and memorized the coordinates of a couple of the mines Megatron was referring to on the screen. Bee had a good memory. But he also had what humans called ADHD. His memory was fine, he just wasn't very good at recalling those memories when he actually needed them.

Anyway, time to do some of the many things Jazz taught him: arson, violence, and breaking Decepticon shit.

It's been around a couple hours since Bee escaped and he was feeling great.

Yeah, sure, his shoulder and one door-wing was on fire and he had a large gash in his side that seeped blood-energon and he was covered in dirt and ash and decepticon blood.

BUT he did get to set lots of things on fire, kill some 'Cons, and he'd managed to smash most of the Nemesis's groundbridging consoles and most of the controls.

Bee bolted towards the med bay of the warship. He had not forgotten Knockout's little trick, and Bee was a petty person.

":'SUP FUCKER. REMEMBER ME?" Bee shouted, throwing open the med bay doors.

"HOLY SHIT—" Knockout jumped. He immediately looked Bee up and down, from the scout's weaponless but still bloody hands to the scout's shit-eating grin. Yep. Bee was pissed.

"I'm sorry," Knockout muttered quietly, hands up in surrender.

Bee didn't accept surrenders.

Five minutes later, Knockout was unconscious and tied to one of the rafters with nothing but duct tape. Lots of duct tape.

Bee ducked out of the med bay. Alright, where to next—?

His COMM rang. It was from Smokescreen. Wincing, Bee opened the line.

"Oh, I think—BEE! ARE YOU OKAY?!" Smokescreen shouted over the COMMs.

":Hey Smokescreen:" Bee said. He started walking down the hallway.

He'd done this type of stuff multiple times. If you stopped then the adrenaline would start to stop. Then the pain and exhaustion would start. And the blood loss would catch up. And then you'd crash to the floor.

Then you'd be caught and slaughtered by the enemy.

"Where are you? What happened?" Smokescreen asked.

":Ran into that red and gold bitch—Knockout—in the warehouse. I was gonna kick his ass but he got me with a syringe of sedatives," Bee explained.

He pounced on and beat a vehicon unconscious. Come on, gotta keep moving. Keep the adrenaline coming.

"And where are you now?" Smokescreen demanded.

":Nemesis:"

"Can you tell where the Nem—" Bee's COMM cut out. It probably got fucked up when Bee got thrown at a wall earlier.

Bee froze as he came around the corner, and saw a very tall, very skinny, and very faceless communications officer. Soundwave.

":Fuckin' Slenderman—:" Bee hissed under his breath.

Soundwave whipped towards him. Bee immediately registered that something was different. Soundwave was missing his minicons. Jazz had trained his scouts to be ready to handle anything, and Bee himself has had a few very close calls with the Decepticon officer and his little attack dogs.

The only minicon Soundwave had was Lazerbeak.

Where was Rumble, Frenzy and Ravage? Usually Ravage's claws were swinging towards Bee's face by now.

Bee dodged one of Soundwave's tentacles and ducked under another before jumping over Soundwave's head. As soon as Bee's feet hit the floor he did the first thing that came to his mind.

He fucking ran.

There was no way in hell Bee was gonna let a shock from Soundwave's tentacles lead to his recapture.

Bee kept his footsteps as quiet as he could while sprinting down hallway after hallway.

Then

Bee promptly crashed into Starscream.

They both tumbled to the floor with a painfully loud crash. Thankfully, Bee wasn't pinned under the seeker's weight. He could still run and fight.

"Get off me, autobot scum!" The seeker shrieked. The seeker reached to grab Bee by the back of the neck before pulling his hand away with a yelp. He'd cut himself on Bee's vertebrae.

Bee did, kicking Starscream in the side of the head as he rolled back to his feet. Bee darted away, hoping that, if Soundwave was following, that the silent mech would trip over Starscream.

Bee ducked through one last doorway and out onto the deck of the warship. Vehicons started shooting, but honestly they were horrible marksmen and Bee wasn't at all worried. Bee remembered what trick Jazz taught them. One that just might work.

Bee ran to the edge of the ship.

"GET THE SCOUT," Megatron thundered.

Bee froze at the edge of the deck.

He turned, grinned, held up two middle fingers at the warlord.

And then he leaned back and fell.

Right.

Off.

The Nemesis.

"What happened? Why can't we talk to Bee anymore?" Miko asked.

"I don't know," Raf admitted. "The signal just cut out and our connection broke."

"Call Optimus. Tell him we know what happened to Bee," Jack said.

"Okay," Smokescreen said, quickly punching in the code for the Prime's COMM link.

"What is it, Smokescreen?" Optimus asked.

"Bee's on the Nemesis," Smokescreen said. "We were able to COMM him, but the connection was severed after a few minutes. Apparently he got captured, I think he might need help."

"We are on our way back," Optimus decided. "Prepare the groundbridge."

Bee barely managed to tuck and roll at the last second before slamming into the ground. He tumbled down a slope before crashing into a ditch.

":Oww…:" Bee groaned. No matter how many times he did that he'd never get used to how hard the crash was.

Jazz had taught him that one. Apparently tucking at the last second of the fall helped the kinetic energy not kill him or something. He just knew that this trick hadn't failed him yet.

Bee realized something and burst out laughing.

His shoulder and door-wing were still on fire somehow.

"Bee? Do you read?" Optimus's voice came over Bee's COMM.

Right. He never closed his line.

":Yeah…:" Bee sighed, sitting up. He quickly looked himself over.

Shoulder and door-wing? Still on fire. Side? Still sleeping blood-energon from the gash. Paint job? Scratched and dirty, but he didn't really care. Face? New bullet hole from a bullet right next to his eye, the blood-energon probably making it look like he was crying blood. A couple of the sharpened vertebrae on his back were dull from being thrown at walls and from Starscream's attempt to grab him.

He flopped back down into the grass.

"Please ping us your coordinates," Optimus said.

Bee just responded by sharing his location, not even bothering to read his own coordinates.

That last fight was great. But now Bee has stopped moving. And the adrenaline crash was coming.

Bee looked up at the sky. The sun was setting and the atmosphere was now painted orange and pink with streaks of white clouds. Wind rustled the grass on the land around him.

Bee was laying in a wide ravine in a prairie-like area. One side, the side Bee fell down, was steep, but the other was more flat and less of an angle. Little purple flowers struck up among the soft grass.

Overall, today wasn't so bad.

Bee got a real scouting-type situation, he got to light stuff on fire and kill things, and no one tried to disembowel him this time. Fuck you Blitzwing, you know what you did, Bitch.

Bee heard the groundbridge nearby and sighed. Hopefully Ratchet didn't have the same righteous rage at Bee getting himself injured as First Aid did.