A Long Journey

Aftermath (Part #7)

Bumblebee's POV

I didn't expect it. I kept telling myself that she would be fine. I was just driving towards the relic on the radar, listening to some tunes that played on my radio...

...until a gigantic explosion occurred back where Arcee was. I didn't hesitate, I didn't think - I just knew something bad happened to her. I could sense it. I called Ratchet to get here immediately, and he arrived almost instantly.

He noticed the explosion and quickly started following me. Ratchet probably thought that I was just going to investigate the source of the explosion. As much as I wanted to know what happened, there was a much bigger and more important concern at the moment.

We approached a blue figure in the distance. They were lying on the floor, not making much of an effort to get up.

"Arcee..." I flinched. I had never seen her so torn up. Black scratches could be seen all over her body and several holes could be located everywhere. I transformed to Robot Mode once I was close enough and held her head up. Her optics were consumed of life in them.

"Is she dead?" I asked Ratchet, who had already started scanning her. After his scan was complete, he had a concerned facial expression. I was about to assume the worst happened before he spoke.

"Vital parts are damaged, but it'll be easy to fix." Ratchet had me scared for a moment, before I started to get confused as to why he looked concerned.

"What's the bad news then?" I questioned. Ratchet looked over at me, blinking his optics for a moment.

"The fact that she's in stasis is the real problem here. If it were medically inflicted stasis, I could control when she comes out of stasis. Because it isn't, I don't have much control over it."

I grew a little more worried but then re-assured myself. My curiosity couldn't keep me from asking one more question though. "When will she wake up from stasis then?"

"Unfortunately, that's one of the things I don't have control over. It depends on Arcee's abilities."

I was going to ask 'how does it depend on her abilities?' but I kept it to myself for now. I didn't want to take up any more moments when we could be repairing Arcee.

It was only at this point that I realised the relic has disappeared from the radar. It didn't affect me though. I lifted Arcee's unmoving body into my hands and carried her through the groundbridge.

When Ratchet wasn't looking, I would look down at Arcee's face. It reminded me of all the other times that poor bot was traumatised. I placed her on the berth, so that Ratchet could begin medical procedures.

I couldn't bear seeing Arcee like this any longer and went outside and on top of the base. I hated it whenever our allies were badly damaged. Bulkhead, Ratchet, Arcee, and even Optimus could be hurt, and I always blamed myself.

I looked over at Cliffjumper's tomb. That day when he became one with the AllSpark was a very sad day. No-one was close enough to base to groundbridge to him. I kept blaming myself for not volunteering to be on groundbridge duty.

I sat there, daydreaming for a few minutes, before a red figure sat down next to me. "So, been a tough day, huh?"

Cliffjumper. He appears frequently whenever I sit up here, and seems like a ghost figure. I could see through him slightly, and I always welcomed his presence, though I wasn't convinced that he was truly a ghost for a while, because I thought I was hallucinating.

He always knew the latest news about Team Prime, and the aftermath of some of our adventures. He looked at me, giving a re-assuring smile. I still couldn't help but think that he is just a figment of my imagination.

"Bee, all you can do right now is hope for the best. Don't go thinking about going on a quest of vengeance, old buddy." Cliffjumper patted me on the back. I felt a warm hand.

"You're always talkative, even after death, aren't you Cliff?" I remarked, which got a smirk out of him. He looked up at the sky and sighed. Whether or not he was really the spirit of Cliff, he made me miss Cliffjumper more...

To be continued...