The Mech of Notre Dame

In the city of Paris, France, whether you are up in the sky or on the ground at a far away distance, you can still see and hear the large cathedral that is Notre Dame. Just outside the cathedral in a small cart was a mech known as Starscream. He was singing about the bells of Notre Dame and how everything around Paris had to do with them. As he continued to sing, he started to attach a group of young bots around his cart.

"Listen, they are beautiful, no?" He asked "So many colors of sounds, so many changing moods." The young mechs and femmes looked at him curiously as he continued "Because you know, they don't ring all by themselves."

To add a bit of humor, he pulled out a small puppet of himself and made it sound like it was talking by asking in a squeaky voice "They don't?"

"No, you silly mech." Starscream answered the puppet before pulling back one of the curtains of his cart "Up there, high, high in the dark bell tower… is the myserterious bell ringer."

The next few questions involved Starscream asking the children while the puppet sort of repeated his questions back to him.

"Who is the creature?"

"Who?"

"What is he?"

"What?"

"How did he come to be there?"

"How?"

"Hush," Starscream hit the puppet on the head causing the children to laugh "I'll tell you." Starscream dropped his voice to a darker tone "It is the tale of a mech and a monster."

…

Over 25,000 Stellar Cycles ago…

On a dark and cold winter night near the tower of Notre Dame, three gypsies, two mechs and a femme carrying a sparkling were riding a boat down the river.

"Shut it up will you!" Said the first mech to the femme when the sparkling started to cry

"We'll be spotted!" added the second mech

"Hush, little one." The femme said to the sparkling calmly

As they came to dock, they got off, the boat rower turned to them "Four credits for safe passage to the palace."

But suddenly an arrow was shot and landed right on the pole the rower used to row the boat. They all turned to see guards coming towards them, making them realize that they had fallen into a trap. The guards surrounded them, preventing all manner of escape. Just then a figure riding on a cyber-horse stepped out of his place in the shadows. The three gypsies looked at him in horror.

"Judge Megatron." The first mech said in fear

Anyone who knew Megatron knew that his life's goal was to purge the entire world of monsters and sin. And the kind of people he hated the most were the gypsies, he saw them as the devil's helpers. He saw corruption everywhere expect he never bothered to look within someone.

The femme stayed close towards the mech who appeared to be her mate until one the guards grabbed him along with the second mech and the boat rower and chained them together.

"Bring these gypsy vermin to the Palace of Justice." Megatron ordered

The femme watched as her mate was dragged away, but continued to hold her sparkling until one of the guards grabbed her "You there, what are you hiding?"

"Stolen goods, no doubt." Megatron accused "Take them from her."

The femme managed to pull out of the guards grip and then proceeded to try and get away. Megatron ordered his men to take the prisoners to the palace while he set off to chase after the femme. The femme ran down the empty streets of Paris, she looked behind her to see Megatron coming after her. She quickly made a sharp turn up some stairs, but it only caused Megatron to pause for a moment before following her once more. She could still hear the sounds of the cyber-horse's hoofs getting closer to her, so she pushed herself harder then ever.

The femme saw a fence and quickly hopped over it. Megatron stopped, knowing his horse couldn't jump over the fence so he simply took a different route. The femme ran until she came upon Notre Dame itself. She ran up the stairs and pounded her fist on the door while pleading "Sanctuary, please give us sanctuary!"

She gasped as she turn to see Megatron heading her way again, she tried to run, but this time Megatron caught a hold of the cloth that covered the sparkling and started to pull it away from her. The femme clutched her sparkling for dear life, but Megatron kicked her hard enough to make let go causing the femme to hit her head against the stairs and die. Megatron noticed that the thing he was holding was starting to cry "A sparkling?" He pulled back a bit of the cloth to look more closely at the sparkling, he gasped and his optics widened "A monster!"

Megatron covered its face again and looked around until he noticed a well not too far from him. He made his horse walk over to it and held the cloth with the sparkling in it, ready to drop it into the water till-

"Stop!" Megatron turned to see it was the preacher known as Ultra Magnus

"This is a holy demon." Megatron explained "I'm sending it back to the pit where it belongs."

Ultra Magnus carefully picked up the dead femme on the stair and placed her on his lap "Don't you see the innocent blood you have spilt on the steps of Notre Dame?"

Megaton huffed as he pulled the sparkling away from the well and rode up to Ultra Magnus "I am guiltless, she ran, I pursued."

"Now you're only adding this trail of blood to your guilt on the steps of Notre Dame."

Megatron glared at Ultra Magnus "My conscience is clear-."

"You may be able to lie to yourself and your minions, you can continue to claim that you haven't done anything at all," Ultra Magnus interrupted "But you'll never be able to run or hide what you done from the eyes…the eyes of Notre Dame."

Megatron looked to see that Ultra Magnus was pointing to all the statues that surrounded the large cathedral, he felt his blood run cold as no matter where he looked it seemed as through the statues were all looking at him, like they all saw what he did. The one that frightened him the most was the statue of Primus. It was so unnerving, he couldn't stand it.

"What can I do?" Megatron asked somewhat desperately

Ultra Magnus had gotten up along with the dead femme in his arms "Care for the child and raise it as your own."

"What!" Megatron protested, his voice full of disgust "I'm to care for this horrific" He sighed in defeat "Very well…but let him live with you in your church."

"Live here? Where?"

"Anywhere…" Megatron looked up at the tallest towers of Notre Dame, they could the perfect place to hide the child, and somewhere no one would look for him "The bell tower perhaps and who knows Primus works in mysterious ways." Megatron looked at the sparkling again "Even this foul creature may yet prove one day to be…of use to me."

…

The children gasped as Starscream appeared under a dark cloak "And Megatron named the sparkling, Bulkhead and over the last 25,000 Stellar cycles, he took care of him. Keeping him up in the bell tower from a world that doesn't understand him and a way for Megatron to hide his shame." Starscream paused before continuing "But the real question…is that between the two mechs…which one is the mech and which one is the monster?"

…

Over the last 25,000 stellar cycles, the mech known as Bulkhead remained in the tower for reasons his master, Megatron never really told him, but he didn't mind. Bulkhead had grown into a very tall and large mech with green armor and bright blue optics. Thought some could consider him to look somewhat menacing, he was really gentle giant and despite his large size, he could move quite quickly throughout the towers of Notre Dame, which was a good thing considering how many bells he had to ring each day.

Today was no different; he had already finished ringing the bells so he decided to head out towards the balcony. He turned to where a bird had formed its nest into the mouth of one of the gargoyle statues that sat on the railing of the balcony. Inside the next was a small baby bird.

"Good, morning." Bulkhead said cheerfully to the bird. The little bird poked its head out and chirped a 'Good morning' as well. "So want do you think little buddy, you ready to fly?" The bird gave a chirp as if saying "I don't know." Bulkhead tried to encourage the bird "You sure? It's a good day to try." Bulkhead picked the bird carefully up into his large servos "If I picked a day to fly, this would be it, the festival of fools." He lowered the bird a bit to show him the view below, but it only gulped as it saw it was a long way down from where it was. It looked at Bulkhead with uncertainty as Bulkhead explained what happened during the festival "It will be fun with jugglers and music and dancing."

As he was talking the bird started to flap its wings and lift itself off of his servos. Bulkhead then pulled his servos away and showed the bird it was flying on its own. The bird let itself drop back into it servos just as some more birds flew past them. The little bird chirped excitedly at them, Bulkhead lightly petted its head "Go on little buddy. No bot wants to stay cooped up here forever." The bird chirped again as to say "Thank you." And then flew out of his servo as Bulkhead watched somewhat sadly until-

"Yuck, ugh…finally, I thought it never leave! I'll be spitting out feathers for a week." Bulkhead turned to see it was Ironhide, one of the gargoyles talking. Not many people knew that Ironhide along with two other gargoyles could talk and move when they wanted to, but they usually kept it a secret unless it was someone they could trust.

"Well, that what you get for recharging with your mouth open." The second gargoyle named Rodimus Prime says

"So Bulky, what's going on down there?" Ironhide asked as he scooted closer to the green mech

"It's the festival of fools, Ironhide. What else would it be?" Rodimus says annoyed before commenting "It's nice to watch the townsfolk during this time of year."

"Yeah, watching." Bulkhead replies sadly before walking away

"Hey, what wrong, Bulkhead? Don't you want to watch the festival with us?" Ironhide asks. Bulkhead doesn't answer, he just walks away. "What's wrong with him?"

"Maybe he's not feeling well." Rodimus suggested

"Oh, please." A much more feminine voice comment, the two mech gargoyles turn to see the final gargoyle, a femme named Red Alert, coming towards them "If 25,000 Stellar cycles with you two hasn't made him sick, then nothing will."

"But watching the festival of fools has always been the highlight for Bulkhead." Rodimus points out

Red Alert rolls her optics at them while shaking off the pigeons that had landed on her overnight "What good is watching the party, if you never get to go to it?" With that the three gargoyles go back inside and follow after their friend.

…

Bulkhead climbed up the steps to his own private work area. On a large table, he had made an entire miniature scale of Notre Dame and the village around it. He had also made some small metal figurines of the people he had seen while looking down at the town. He sat down in his chair and sighed sadly. The three gargoyles looked at their friend with concern till Red Alert came up to him.

"Bulkhead, what's wrong?" She asked, placing a hand on his shoulder "You know you can tell me anything."

Bulkhead shrugged "I…I just don't feel like watching the festival."

Red Alert examined one of the small figurines "Well…did you ever think about going there instead?"

Bulkhead nodded "Yeah, but…I just wouldn't fit in there. I'm not…normal."

"Come on, Bulkhead." Ironhide picks up the metal figurine that looks like him "I'm sure there some way we could get you in there."

"Besides as your friends and guardians," Rodimus says proudly "We insist you attend the festival."

"It will be a good experience for you to get out there and look around." Red Alert adds

"Guys," Bulkhead interrupts "I really appreciate what you're trying to do, but you're forgetting one thing."

"What?" The three gargoyles ask in unison

Bulkhead picks up a black and grey figurine behind him "My master, Megatron."

The three gargoyles faces fell as they were suddenly reminded of something they forgot.

"Well, when he said you're forbidden to leave the bell tower…does he mean like ever, ever?" asked Rodimus

"Never, ever and he hates the festival of fools." Replies Bulkhead "He would be really upset if I asked him to go."

Ironhide smiles devilishly "Who says you got to ask?'

Bulkhead immediately understood what he meant "Oh, no I couldn't do that."

"Oh, come on it's simple you just sneak out and then sneak right back in."

"Besides it just for one afternoon and he'll never even know that you're gone." Red Alert encourages

"But what if I get caught?"

"So wear a disguise," Rodimus pulls out a very large cloak, big enough that it would hide Bulkhead's form "What Megatron doesn't know can't hurt you."

Red Alert then adds "Besides it's like you said, no bot wants to stay cooped up here forever."

Bulkhead started to feel a bit more confident, maybe, just maybe he really could pull this off without his master knowing "You guys are right, I'll go. I'll clean myself up, go down the stairs, march through those doors and-."

"Good, morning Bulkhead." The green mech jumped as he was now staring at the face of his master, Megatron.

"Uh…good, morning, master." He stammered

"My dear mech, who in Primus name were you talking to?" Megatron asked

Bulkhead wasn't sure how to answer so he lowers his head and simply said "My…uh…friends."

Megatron eyed him carefully, the only thing that was in the room before he entered were three gargoyle statues. Megatron taps his finger on Rodimus's stone head "And what are your friends made of Bulkhead?"

"…Stone."

Megatron lifts Bulkhead's chin to make him look at his face "Can stone talk?"

"No it can't." came a soft reply from the green mech

"That right, you're a very smart mech." Megatron came closer and sat down at the small table "Now, why don't we have some lunch?" Bulkhead went to the other side of the room and got some cups and plates and then set them of the table. "Shall we review your alphabet today?"

"Yes, master, I would like that very much." Bulkhead said in a polite tone

"Very well then." Megatron starts to pour some energon into their cups "A." They continued for a little bit and for a while Bulkhead was doing well at least till after the letter "E" and then-

"Good, 'F'." Megatron starts to take a sip of his energon

Without thinking Bulkhead replies "Festival."

Bulkhead jumps as he hears Megatron cough as he nearly choked on his drink "Excuse, me?"

Bulkhead quickly tries to correct his error "Uh…I meant forgiveness."

"You said festival."

"No!" Bulkhead tries to hide his face from his mistake

"You're thinking about going to the festival." Megatron gets up off his seat and starts to head back towards the stairs

Bulkhead follows him while trying to explain himself "It just…that you go every year-."

"I am a public official, I must go." Megatron interrupts "But I don't enjoy a moment of it."

As they head outside, Bulkhead apologizes "I'm sorry, master. I didn't mean to upset you."

"Just try to understand," Megatron started "When your sparkless mother abandoned you as a sparkling…anyone else would have gotten rid of you." He watches in satfication as Bulkhead's head dropped as he brought his lie "This is the thanks I get for taking you in and raising you as my son?"

Bulkhead keeps his head down "I'm sorry, sir."

"My dear, Bulkhead…" Megatron places a servo on his shoulder "You don't know what's it's like out there…the world is cold and cruel, I am your only true friend, but I can't protect you unless you stay here in the bell tower."

They went back inside and Megatron placed a basket of food on Bulkhead's scale of the city.

"You're very good for me, master…I'm sorry."

Megatron headed towards the stairs "You are forgiven. But remember, Bulkhead…this is your sanctuary."

With that Megatron takes his leave, leaving Bulkhead to his thoughts. He knew his master was right, as long as he stay in the bell tower he would be safe. But still he wanted more then that. Everyday he would watch the people down below, secretly wishing that they would let him join them in their conversations. He wished just for one day, he wouldn't have to live his life above them, but down below and a part of them. Only then would he feel truly content with himself.