A/N: Hello all! It's been quite some time since I posted the last chapter *quickly shoves away the fact that it has been 8 months* but I am here now! I wanted to wait until the show ended in order to continue this future-esque story but school and my new job got in the way. Also I've been spending the majority of my online time in my Rescue Bots Academy Nerds Community on Amino (we're so close to 350 members!). Anyway, I apologize for the wait. I will do my best to upload the chapters more frequently so that we can get to the good stuff! I hope you enjoy this chapter as I am completely going into it underprepared and improvising as I go.

Wedge grew quite weary as he brought his secret lover down into the bunker. He knew his lover and his team's medic had quite the rough history together before the Academy days.

Though what actually happened between them still remains unknown to the orange bulldozer.

"What actually happened between you two?", Wedge said, turning to his lover.

"I....", was all Scorch could say before he spotted the familiar red and white mech in the background.

Medix was turned away as he cuddled his family in front of the small heater.

As soon as the lift made it to the solid floor, Scorch immediately tried to make a run for the conrols. His plan was immediately haulted when his lover grabbed him and prohibited him from making it to the controls. The yelling and the screaming that occurred afterward made the small medic look toward the source of the sound, making a puzzled expression when seeing his teammate wrestle with something.

"Wedge? Is something wrong?? What do you have?", Medix said as he stood up.

"A visitor!", Wedge said as he turned around, showing that he was holding.... nothing.

"Is.... Is this some kind of joke-", Medix managed to get out before gasping at a yellow blur that made its way straight for the groundbridge, "WHAT IN PRIMUS' NAME WAS THAT?!"

Hotshot immediately scooped up their sleeping daughter as he stood up, making sure to keep his family protected from whatever harm was about to come before them, "Wedge, what in the Primes did you bring here??? Is it dangerous???"

Wedge let out an exasperated sigh as he headed straight for the groundbridge, "No, he's not dangerous-"

"HE??", Medix interrupted, "WHO IS HE????"

"What's going on in here?", Whirl said as she exited her living quarters, "What's with all the yelling?"

"I'm trying to show all of you our guest', Wedge said as he started griping with Scorch in the groundbridge area.

Medix's optics widened in pure horror the second he recognised who the voice belonged to.

Hotshot got a panicked bond from his mate, "Babe? What's wrong-"

Suddenly, Wedge managed to pull out the yellow and red sports bot after enduring a heated argument.

An awkward silence fell amongst the entire group of bots. Scorch stood there with slight panic and horror in his face.

Before he could speak up, a deep and angry voice suddenly escaped the dermas of the small medic.

"Get the fuck out of my house."

-------------------------

After a seemingly heated debate between Wedge and a very angry Medix, Hotshot felt like he was missing out on some really important information.

"Uh sorry to interrupt", Hotshot interrupted after returning from putting his daughter down for recharge, "but what happened bewteen my mate and Scorch."

Hoist, a bot who was very close friends with Medix long before the days of the Academy, spoke up, "Scorch is a monster who almost took everything from Medix."

"Wait what?", Wedge said as he looked as his teammate, "What do you mean by that?"

"Oh, he hasn't told you?", Medix sneered at the sports bot at large.

Scorch only sank deeper into his seat.

"He hasn't told me much aside from the fact that you two had a rough history before the Academy", Wedge admitted, "he wouldn't elaborate further after I asked for more information."

"Well", Hoist began, knowing high and well that Medix would prefer him telling the story, "Scorch and Medix used to date. Long story short, Scorch was a horrible mechfriend. So horrible that other bots believed he got into relationships just to have someone he can chastise to his spark's content! Anyway, Scorch decided one night that Medix needed his life to be completely ruined."

Scorch tried to interrupt, "That's not-"

Medix immediately tried to swing at him but was held back by Hoist at the very last second. As Hoist gave him a reassurance look, Medix huffed and took a seat next to his mate.

"As I was saying", Hoist said when he sat down again, "Scorch decided that the "birds and the bees" needed to be put into practice. Unfortunately, Medix was not a willing participant and had to fight his way out of that situation."

Medix teared up at the memory and broke down almost instantly, "I still have PTSD from that! I almost gave up dating any other bot because of that! The humiliation! The pain! The fragging scars you left on me kept reminding me of that night! You're a monster! You shouldn't even be here! I don't care if it happened all those years ago! You cause everyone to feel ashamed of themselves by just being present in the room!"

As Medix sobbed, Wedge looked at his lover in disbelief, "Is... Is this all true?"

Scorch couldn't even begin to get the words out of his dermas. All he could do was just sit there with tears pooling out of his optics.

Hotshot sat there in silence as he comforted his sobbing mate, trying to take in all that just happened. Hearing how one of his friends was an abuser to his mate took a toll on his spark. What was he supposed to say? What was he supposed to do?

After a few minutes, Scorch got up and went straight for the groundbridge.

Wedge immediately got up and stopped him, "Where are you going?"

"Back home", Scorch stated without looking at his lover.

"Please don't. You need to stay", Wedge pleaded.

"And what? Make everyone's lives miserable? That's all I seem to be good at now", Scorch said as he tried to walk away again.

Wedge didn't let him go, "You haven't made mine miserable."

Scorch snorted as tears began to fall, "What does it even matter? You had to date me in secret because I did something incredibly stupid in the past-"

"Uh, beyond incredibly stupid", Hoist corrected.

Wedge side glared at Hoist as he went back to talking to his lover, "Please, you need to right these wrongs. You can't keep running away from the truth forever. You need to take what you did with a grain of salt."

"A grain of what?", Scorch asked.

"Just- Don't leave until you figure out a way to apologize to Medix. You need to prove to him that the you from the past is staying in the past, and that the present you is a bot who has completely changed", Wedge said softly.

Scorch finally turned to face him, tears staining his faceplates as he spoke, "I... don't know where to begin...."

"You can start by cutting the dramatic act from whatever rom-com you two are going through and actually come and speak to Medix like an adult", Hotshot pointed out in a stern tone.

Scorch looked over and whispered in a hushed tone, "But she's gonna tear me apart."

"You pretty much deserve it after all the scrap you pulled", Hoist said with confidence.

"That's... fair", Scorch said in defeat. He then wiped up his tears and slowly made his way over to the small, yet actively aggressive medic. "H-Hey Medix."

Medix simply stared daggers into his optics.

Scorch gulped as he began entering 'No Mans Land', "I know you don't want to hear a half-assed "sorry" for all the stuff I did to you in the past-"

"You mean all the fragged up scrap you did to me in the past", Medix snapped.

"Yeah... that", Scorch hesitated, "Look, I know all the scrap I pulled on you in the past was the most idiotic and most fragged up thing I have ever done to any other bot in my life... but I want to prove to you that I've changed."

Medix raised an optic ridge.

Scorch sighed, "I'll be honest, I actually got thrown into prison not long after you all became Rescue Bots. I was at my all time low at that point. I stole, I did drugs, I used fake identities, hell I've done it all. Except kill someone. I pomise I've never done that."

Medix slowly began to sit up to get a better view of him.

"But", Scorch continued, "being in prison became my wake up call. I got beat up almost every single day because of my behavior. That probably lasted a few weeks before I realised what my problem was. At around the same time is when Wedge started visiting me. He's the reason I was able to help myself get clean and shorten my sentence from five years to six months. From that point forward he helped me become a different but better bot."

Medix interrupted him as he looked over at Wedge, "Wedge, is this true?"

"It is", Wedge said proudly, "he's been working very hard. That's why I brought him here. It was the biggest things on his list of bots that he needs to make amends with."

Medix had nothing else to say as he looked back at Scorch.

Scorch chuckled nervously as he cleared his throat, "I know you don't want me rambling about myself so just do whatever you need to do to make things right. I don't care what it is. I don't care what I have to do. I just want this to be put behind us permanently."

Medix slowly began to stand up. He then began to approach the yellow and red sports bot.

Scorch immediately closed his optics in preparation for what was about to come.

"Open your optics, dimspark", Medix groaned.

Scorch opened his optics to see Medix's outstretched servo, waiting for him to shake it.

"Wha-?"

"I accept this challenge of you proving to me that you have changed. But everything must be done my way. We will go in the order of steps that need to be taken. Agree?", Medix stated.

Scorch paused for a moment but then shook the small medic's servo, "Agreed. Thank you for letting me have the chance. I won't let you down."

"Well in that case, we shall began right now."

"Wait right now-aaHHHOLY FRIJOLES-", Scorch said in a higher octave.

After delivering a swift kick to Scorch's land down under, Medix smirked as he leaned down to the writhing yellow and red sports bot on the floor.

"Step One complete!"