"Lord Starscream, I've discovered something that might please you," a smooth voice drawled across the room.

The skinny mech turned from his communications officer and the monitors and asked, "What makes you think that, doctor?"

The shiny red medic's smile cocked to the side a little. "I just hacked into an Autobot sparkling's mind."

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

"Owie," Bumblebee whispered. His mismatched optics were both flickering now. The red one was an ominous human-blood red and was no longer flickering. The blue one seemed to be tinted a little red now, but had begun to flicker madly.

Ratchet had laid him on the medical berth and was plugging him into every one of his scanning devices. The little mech looked so small on the full-grown-Cybertronian-sized berth. He heard Bumblebee's quiet cry of pain when he put an IV into his main energon line. He pumped in an extremely powerful sedative and the sparkling's mismatched optics slowly shut down. The medic began working immediately.

"Aren't you going to tell me to get out?" Arcee asked the medic a question she usually knew the answer to (Yes. Get out.), head cocked in confusion. Ratchet liked to have silence and be alone while performing medical duties, ever since the motorcycle could remember.

"No."

"Hmm."

Arcee sat down in a chair next to the berth. Ratchet usually used this chair to sleep in while a patient needed to stay the night. She watched Ratchet connect a device to Bumblebee's helm. It began to project images from the sparkling's mind onto a nearby wall. He had programmed the device to play scenes from the past 24 hours in order.

A few made Arcee smile, like Optimus's smile from the sparkling's point of view when picked up, and a tickle fight with Bulkhead. Some others made her gasp, like seeing a little yellow hand throwing knives at a rock, and a certain Italian-colored wrecker teaching the best way to throw them.

"I will be having a conversation with Wheeljack after this, involving his helm and every wrench in my possession," Ratchet growled. Arcee saw him fiddling with a particularly large wrench at that moment. She thought of warning Wheeljack before it was too late for him, but she changed her mind as she realized that the event would be quite amusing to watch.

After a few more memories, the scene went dark, indicating that the sparkling had fallen asleep- last night. However, there were slightly blurred images showing now.

"A dream?" Arcee asked. Ratchet nodded in the affirmative.

There were a few cute scenes, like Optimus with cyber-cat ears and the entire Team Prime (including Agent Fowler and Nurse Darby) dancing. A scene where Raf was hugging sparkling Bumblebee actually made her say 'aww' because it was so simply adorable. The motorcycle couldn't hold in her laughter as she saw Ratchet dancing in a hula skirt in front of the human children. However, things suddenly turned for the worst.

The shimmering, blurry image of dancing Ratchet suddenly switched to one of Knockout. The medic had the usual smirk on his faceplate, and was buffing his finish. Fortunately, the self-obsessed medic hadn't noticed the scout's presence yet, and continued shining himself up.

Bumblebee (in the dream) seemed to be realizing that he was self-conscious. The projected image was moving back and forth, indicating a moving helm and darting optics. There was no clear doorway.

"Uh-oh."

Ratchet and Arcee heard the little mech's voice as he noticed the same unfortunate lack of an exit. Apparently, so did Knockout.

The medic looked over to the screen, and if it was even possible, his smirk deepened. He reluctantly set down his buffer and strutted over.

"Ah, the Autobot bug. What a surprise," Knockout seemed amused. "Well, for you, at least..."

"What do you want?" Bumblebee asked.

Knockout's smooth, deep laugh vibrated the room they were in. "Me? Nothing. But my leader has a few words to say."

Suddenly, Starscream could be seen striding into the room. Bumblebee backed up so fast, he fell onto his backside, but still he continued scooting to the wall behind him.

"So we meet again, Bug. I see your voice box has been repaired since our last encounter, when you robbed the spark of my former master."

Bumblebee's frame started shaking as the Decepticon seeker began to advance. His doorwings hit the wall behind him, making a clanking sound, and preventing him from backing up any farther. Starscream continued walking. He reached down and picked up Bumblebee by the neck, squeezing the sensitive cables.

"Oh, no," Ratchet muttered.

"What is it?" Arcee asked.

"This is almost exactly what happened in Tyger Pax, except this time with Starscream. It may cause his mentality to become unstable, remembering an event like that, especially at this age. He's younger than when it happened, and it's not Megatron, but the results are just as devastating."

"You are so much easier to break at this age. Makes my job cleaner."

"P-please, you're ch-choking me..."

"You are Decepticon."

"Wh-what?"

"You are Decepticon."

"No, I'm n-not!"

"You are Decepticon! Repeat after me. You are Decepticon!" Knockout advanced, wielding a branding tool that looked suspiciously like the accursed Decepticon insignia.

"Never! I'm an Autobot!"

Ratchet gasped. "Starscream is trying- no, tried to corrupt Bumblebee's mind!"

"You WILL answer me!" With that, he tore off one of Bumblebee's tiny yellow doorwings. Error messages popped up in such a quantity that Starscream's faceplate could barely be seen, but his smile had all but grown larger.

"Ne-evver-r!" Vision was blurry with tears.

"YOU! ARE! DECEPTICON!" Starscream reached forward and a ripping sound could be heard: ripping metal. A small yellow arm was revealed, dangling loosely in Starscream's arm. Knockout pressed the scalding branding tool onto Bumblebee's still-attached hand. Bumblebee could no longer focus on anything, and his nervous system seemed to be overloading with pain that he could not begin to comprehend.

Bumblebee's optics slowly darkened. "I... I am Decepticon."