"Sometimes sacrifices are needed."

“Of all the scrap-brained ideas,” Ratchet scowled as he looked at a certain guilty green mech, “Taking Bumblebee into a potential chase scenario when he no longer has the ability to access his wheels?!”

“He improvised,” Bulkhead tried to defend himself, and Bumblebee.

“Hey, Bee's waking up,” Raf announced to the ‘bots.

Ratchet turned on the scout next, “You've already lost your voice box and your T-cog. Were you really trying to add your Spark to the list?”

“Why not?” Bumblebee grumbled, “I’m already useless anyway.”

“Don't say that, Bumblebee,” Raf said from beside Pan who frowned at the young bot, “You're not useless.”

“Look, I hate to break up the pity party,” Arcee cut in, “But the 'Cons just added unknown Iacon payday number two to their armory.”

“Neither blame nor praise will modify past events, but we cannot afford to take further unnecessary risks,” Optimus said from behind the ‘bots, making them turn around to look at the Prime, “Bumblebee, you are not to leave our base, not until we can retrieve your missing biomechanism.”

Bumblebee’s face plates fell and he looked down at Pan and Raf.

The younger of the two gave the sympathetic look as the older held a guilty look in her eyes that confused the yellow scot.

🌟

“Bumblebee is right to be less than hopeful, but you and I both know there exists a way to make him whole again,” Ratchet said to Optimus.

“A transplant,” Optimus nodded, “But that would require a donor.”

“You need look no further than the Autobot standing before you,” Ratchet told him.

“A generous offer, old friend, but your solution would merely trade one Autobot's handicap for another's.”

“I don't rely upon my T-cog,” Optimus gave his friend a look at that.

“Not even for Panacea?” Optimus asked softly.

Ratchet's shoulders sagged as he glanced back at his charge, "She'll- Pan will understand," he said softly.

🌟

"Prime! Breaking news," Fowler's voice shouted, only to be met with an empty base, "Huh? Where's Prime?"

"He went out," Bumblebee told the human.

"Look, let him know, I just received access to satellite imagery which I believe pinpoints the center of operations of MECH," Fowler told him

"What? Really?!" Bumblebee asked hopefully.

"Oh, for the love of  get me someone who speaks  something other than "bleep"!"

"I can help," Raf said

"What? Do I hear a fuzor in need of voice-box repair?" Ratchet said suddenly "sleepwalking" before falling unconscious again.

"What's a fuzor?! What's going on over there?"

"Come on, guys," Bumblebee almost begged Raf and Pan, "Please let me go."

"But, Bee, you heard what Optimus said about leaving the base," Raf protested.

Pan and Jack shared a look, "Send the coordinates, agent Fowler. We'll make sure Optimus gets them," Jack said finally.

🌟

"Ratchet, how are you feeling?" Pan's phone asked when she noticed that her guardian awoke.

"Fine. In fact, I feel as though nothing's changed."

The humans shared awkward looks at that.

"Prime!" Fowler shouted again.

"What is it, agent Fowler?" Ratchet said, moving to the computer.

"Has Prime reached the coordinates?"

"Coordinates?" Ratchet echoed, confused as slag.

"Possible MECH location! I sent them a half-hour ago!"

"Uh, don't worry, agent Fowler. It's taken care of," Jack started.

Miko added, "Optimus had to go lock fenders with some 'Cons."

"So, Bumblebee went instead," Raf finished.

"What?!" Ratchet's optics widened, "Bumblebee can't do that! He's recovering from surgery!"

Pan and the other teens shared looks, then Pan shifted on her feet nervously, typing a response for her guardian who's optics narrowed in on her, "About that-"

🌟

"Optimus, we have reason to believe we have located MECH's center of operations. Bumblebee is already there," Ratchet called Optimus over the comms. His voice panicking slightly.

Pan winced again.

🌟

:[Ratchet, reopen the ground bridge and prepare for surgery]:

Ratchet's optics widened as he did so.

"Say what now?" Miko tilted her head.

🌟

"Thanks to me, Megatron has the forge," Bulkhead groaned.

An amused twinkle appeared in Optimus's optics, "While we would've put the forge of Solus Prime to valuable use, I do not believe we have reason to fear Megatron's possession of it."

Only one being understood why the Prime found it amusing, after all, she did have twelve more in the back of her head.

Who were laughing as well. One of which was the creator of the forge.

🌟

"Hmm. It doesn't look like a fortress-maximus grade nucleon shock cannon," Knockout hummed thoughtfully after watching the Warlord attempted to create something with the forge.

"It is as I suspected," Megatron sighed lightly, "Without the power of a Prime to activate it, the forge is merely another addition to our tool chest."

The red opticed, silver mech scowled, "One we must nonetheless keep as far as possible from the reach of a Prime."

🌟

"I did what I could," Ratchet said when the surgery was over.

"Our scout could not have been in better servos, old friend," Optimus smiled kindly.

"And we didn't stick with plan "A" and let Ratchet donate his Cog why?" Miko asked, confused by everything.

Raf held a fond smile as he spoke about his guardian, "Bumblebee wouldn't accept it."

The Autobot of the hour was finally awake.

"Bumblebee! Easy. Please. Recovery takes time. The damage was severe."

Bumblebee focused hard as he tried a third time….. this time he transformed.

Whoops of excitement came from Miko as the scout did some donuts around the base.

"Where to?" Bumblebee asked his charge who laughed.

"Anywhere," Raf told him, jumping in, "Just drive."

Bumblebee laughed as he followed his charge's commands.

"Go easy!" Ratchet shouted after the scout, "Adhere to standard break-in procedure!"

"Bee's T-cog looked like it was ready for the scrapyard," Arcee said, "Hard to believe the Doc repaired it."

Optimus smiled despite himself, "That is not all that Ratchet repaired today."

Here's Chapter Seven.

Idrk what's happening here.

I'm going to go back to my "original" plot next chapter. So, sorry for those who'd rather see more of the TFP episodes.

I'm a wuss who wants to update three chapters to line up this book with CotW, so guess what?
Three updates today!

Hope you enjoyed!
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