Transformers Prime: A New Beginning

Chapter 56: Spark's Vow: Part 1: Locks and Keys

Normal Perspective:

It had been three days since the Omega Key hunt first began. The Autobots were still grieving over Michael's loss, with Bumblebee taking it the hardest out of all of them. Jack, Miko, and Vince had arrived the morning after Smokescreen and Optimus had retrieved the first Key, and had been told everything that had happened in their absence. They were amazed and horrified by the revelations, and their hearts broke when they found out about Michael.

There had been no Decepticon activity during those three days, and Optimus had remained on task with decoding the next set of coordinates, but he and Ratchet couldn't ignore the fact that they had lost one of their own once again, or the effect it was having on their young scout.

The scout had taken to locking himself in his room, wanting to be left alone, which concerned the others greatly. He would just remain in his room, crying by himself. The humans tried talking to him, but without Raf there, it was hard. The fact that the young boy still wasn't back at the base yet only made Bumblebee feel even worse.

He was struggling.

In the afternoon of the fourth day, Optimus was at the console as usual when Ratchet walked up to him.

"Optimus, I tried getting Bumblebee to come out of his room again."

"Have you had any luck?" The Prime asked, turning to face him.

"No." The CMO admitted. "I even left a cube by his door for him to refuel if he needed to a few hours ago, but when I went to go check on him again, the cube was still there, untouched."

Optimus didn't reply for a moment, but just glanced down, then he spoke again.

"I know how Bumblebee is feeling." He said sadly. "I know what it is like to lose the one you loved. Ever since..." He trailed off, and fell silent.

He didn't need to say any more for Ratchet to know what he was talking about.

"Optimus, you know full well that Elita's death wasn't your fault." The medic argued, knowing the look in the Prime's optics. "We both know that."

Optimus said nothing, and instead glanced at him knowingly.

Ratchet felt like slapping himself, if he could do such, for he remembered when he had been the one to blame Optimus for her demise when he had been under the effects of the Synthetic Energon, and knew that he was, in a way, contradicting himself.

The medic just sighed, and looked down.

"I just... I wish we could do more for our scout... given everything he had lost in his young life..."

Optimus put a servo on his shoulder-plate, making the CMO look up at him.

"There is nothing we can do, Old Friend, except to give our scout time to heal." Optimus said.

Ratchet could only sigh, and the two went back to working on their own tasks, but neither of them could shake the guilt that plagued them.

-----

Michael awoke in a dark room, finding himself restrained by Energon cuffs in a prison cell on the Nemesis. He tried to pull himself free from the cuffs, but he couldn't. Thinking for a moment, he tried to contact Bumblebee through their bond, but with the Nemesis's shielding and Bumblebee's judgment being clouded by his supposed death, thus blocking their connection out, the scout couldn't respond.

Michael looked up as the door to the room opened, and in stepped the Dark Lord himself.

Megatron.

Michael's optics, which had gone a stormy gray color the moment his Keyblade had been destroyed, turned to a mixture between such and blazing red upon seeing him, creating a maroon-color.