Livia woke up the next morning feel absolutely great and refreshed. Ratchet had finally figured out that she needed energon, but he told her not to tell the other humans.
She agreed, although Livia was slightly confused, now that she thought about it. The thought never struck Livia before, but she never needed energon before she met Olivebranch.
She stole normal, human foods, but the need for those now had completely evaded her. As well as the need for water.
Other than her slight confusion, Livia was in a great mood. Raf and her planned to go racing today with Bumblebee and she could barely contain her excitement.
Of course, Livia was entirely sure what racing was, but she was bound to like it. Raf was probably her favorite of all the kids, despite her initial connection to Miko.
Jack seemed nice, but he hadn't attained her interest quite yet.
Right now, it was just the four of them sitting on the couch as Raf looked over the internet for Autobot sightings. The older three kids watched him happily.
Livia didn't really understand what these images were that Raf was using to replace the bots with, but she found them immensely amusing.
"Look, there's another!" Miko pointed to a picture of Bumblebee's alternative mode where the caption highlighted the fact that he had no driver.
"The camera sure loves Bee." Jack smiled.
"What can you do?" Miko asked. "When you're a superstar, you're paparazzi bait!"
Ratchet looked over at them. "Wait, is that Bumblebee?"
"On a conspiracy website, where users post evidence of close encounters. But we have it under control, Ratchet." Raf assured him, turning his computer so the older Autobot could see. "Just scrub the image and replace it with..."
He trailed off as he put a new image on, of a cat talking.
"Mars cat says: take me to your feeder!" It sang.
Ratchet laughed, but it was cut short immediately when he caught sight of the three surprised faces looking at him. Livia had no idea Ratchet wasn't a laugher, so she was left out of the loop.
"Ratchet actually laughed?" Miko asked in surprise.
An idea suddenly formed in Jack's head and he grinned.
"Hey, Optimus, want to see something funny?" He called out to the Prime.
"No." Optimus replied, continuing his research from afar.
Livia let loose a small laugh. Something about the whole situation just seemed funny to her.
"Don't take it personally." Arcee said as the three bots walked over. "Primes are built that way."
"I've never seen Optimus laugh, cry, or loose his cool. Closest thing we get is him being angry every once in a while and even that is a delayed reaction." Bulkhead told them.
"And while Optimus certainly keeps his emotions in check, I've known him far longer than any of you have." Ratchet said, looking up from his work toward the Prime. "And he was different before he was made a Prime."
"Optimus wasn't always a Prime?" Raf questioned.
"On Cybertron, one isn't born into greatness, one must earn it." Ratchet answered.
"So different, how? We talking party animal?" Miko questioned.
"No." Ratchet said quickly. "He was more like... Jack."
"What?" Jack asked, completely caught off guard. He ran a hand through his hair bashfully. "I'm nothing like Optimus."
Raf looked at the time. "Hey, Livia, Bee! It's time to go racing."
Bee walked over. "Are you both ready?"
They nodded and Bee looked over at Optimus. "Optimus, permission to take Raf and Livia to go racing?"
Optimus nodded. "We will comm you if there is any activity."
Bumblebee nodded and grabbed the two children before transforming and driving off.
They made sure to drive far away from the base, just in case they were seen. Bumblebee didn't want all of his sightings to be around the base and draw unwanted attention to the area.
As they drove, Raf immediately began to start up a conversation with Bumblebee and Livia. Livia learned that not many humans were capable of understanding Bumblebee, so they was happy to know that she could.
Raf's assertiveness surprised her, considering he was always so quiet at base. It seemed that he was a little social butterfly once he was around people he liked and was comfortable with. Livia was glad she was one of those people.
Of course, he talked plenty to Miko and Jack, but he had far more things to talk about to Bumblebee. Livia was grateful for all the things Olivebranch taught her about cybertronians, or else she would have been lost in their conversation.
"Almost there." Raf announced, picking up his little toy car.
"Is that it?" Livia questioned.
"Yup!" He said proudly, showing her that it looked just like Bumblebee.
"He built it himself, you know? And it's really fast!" Bee told Livia, trying to get in all the praise for Raf that he could.
"Wow, you it yourself?" Livia exclaimed in surprise.
Raf grinned.
Suddenly, Ratchet's voice came over the radio.
"Bumblebee! The team requires backup, they're three clicks north of your current position, just off the highway." Ratchet told him. "If you drop the children off at the exit ramp, I can bridge them back to base from there."
"On my way." Bumblebee replied.
Raf looked down sadly.
"I'm sorry, guys." Bumblebee apologized.
"It's okay, Bee. We'll go racing another time." Raf smiled, patting the seat in front of him.
Out of nowhere, bright purple blasts began to hit the ground behind them and Bumblebee started swerving to avoid being hit. Livia and Raf looked out the back window at the silver bot chasing them.
"It's Megatron!"
One of the blasts hit the car and the dark energon sizzled across the vechicle. Raf passed out as Bumblebee slammed on his breaks and Livia let out a pained cry.
Suddenly, Megatron's jet dipped and he roared as if he had shot himself. Then he righted himself and sped away from the scout toward the battle.
Bumblebee transformed and looked at the two humans worriedly. Livia coughed, but ignored her pain as she crawled across Bumblebee's hands to Raf. She pulled him into her lap and looked over him.
Bumblebee began to run to Optimus and the others.
When he got there, Megatron was taunting the Autobots and waiting for the Nemesis to arrive. Everyone turned to look at them as Bee neared.
"Ah, it seems I've swatted at a bee and squashed a bug." Megatron smirked.
Livia's head shot up and she looked at Megatron fiercely. "You slagging son of a tailpipe-"
"Ratchet, open a groundbridge now." Optimus ordered. "Arcee, tend to them."
He stepped between Megatron and the others, but Megatron's attention had fallen upon the female child. She was hit with dark energon. She should not be okay.
Something in his spark squeezed and Megatron took a step away, his eyes flickering to Optimus's in confusion.
"What is this?" He demanded.
Optimus's stare hardened and he stepped back as the other retreated through the groundbridge. "You, Megatron. It is the result of your heartlessness."
The groundbridge shut behind him and Megatron brought his hand up to his chest.
"Lifestar?"
Optimus marched into the base, his eyes on the two humans. Ratchet tried to get Livia on a medical cot, but she ignored him, looking over Raf worriedly. Jack was pacing in the background, talking to his mother over the phone urgently.
There was nothing that Optimus would be able to do for Rafael, so he went over to the groundbridge and changed the coordinates to that of the Nemesis, which was flying over the military base they were just at.
"Bulkhead, come with me." He ordered.
Bumblebee was tol emotional unstable, Arcee had the best hands to handle the humans, and bringing Ratchet wasn't even an option, so Optimus and Bulkhead snuck aboard the Nemesis alone.
They quickly found the powercore the Decepticons stole and Bulkhead grabbed it.
"Return to base and close the bridge, Bulkhead." Optimus ordered.
"Uh, you're serious?" Bulkhead questioned.
"History has proven the same thing, again and again. That Autobots and Decepticons can never mend their relationship. I have been a fool to hope for a diplomatic solution to this perpetual conflict. I must not allow any more darkness to fall upon this, or any other planet." Optimus explained, his battlemask sliding into place. "Megatron must be destroyed."
Back at base, everyone was panicking.
"How could I not have seen this sooner!?" Ratchet demanded. "Rafael has been affected with dark energon!"
Everyone in the base looked over in shock. Except Nurse Darby, who didn't know what the difference was.
"Then there was only one way to expel it." Ratchet determined. "I need energon."
"Wait, I thought you said energon was devastating to humans." Nurse Darby frowned.
"Under normal circumstances." Ratchet agreed. "But I am relying on the dark energon currently invading Rafael's body to meet it head on. The two opposing substances should destroy each other and leave Raf as he was before."
Bumblebee stepped forward. "Take mine."
Ratchet nodded and began the procedure.