Chapter 3 - The Missing Bee

On the Decepticon ship...

Groaning, Bumblebee awoke from stasis to find that he was inside a prison cell on the Decepticons' ship. He was still sore from the pounding that he received by the Decepticons earlier. He tried to stand up, when he got a jolt of pain from his left leg, causing him to fall. He struggled into a sitting position and leaned against the wall of the cell that he was in. "Slagging 'cons." he cursed as he looked at the damage. His leg armor had a gash in it, exposing fragile circuitry and he had dents all over his frame. Trying to fight the pain he was feeling, he thought about his friends and fight that ended with his capture.

Flashback...

Bumblebee and Sari were following Optimus and the others to the escape pod. When they got there, the pod was gone; all that was left was a pile of rusted metal.

"This doesn't bode well." said Prowl. "Right you are autobots." said a voice behind them. They turned around and saw a group of Decepticons. "Slag, that's Team Chaar." said Ratchet. "Yep were slagged." Bee said while charging his stingers. The others also got ready to battle.

The leader of the team chuckled, "It seems our reputation precedes us. But, we'll make you a deal." said Strika. "Hand over the map and the mini-bot and we'll leave you intact."

Upon hearing this, the autobots felt unsettled. Then Sari yelled, "We will never give our friend to you!" To make her point, she threw an energy ball at Strika's faceplate, making the 'con mad.

"I gave you a chance to survive but now we will take them by force." She signaled for her team to attack and sent a few missiles to the autobots.

They dodged the missiles, but left themselves open to attack from the other Decepticons. Optimus and Ratchet faced Oilslick, Bulkhead took on Blackout, Prowl took on Spittor, and Bumblebee and Sari took on Strika, though not by choice.

Oilslick was throwing vials of his cosmic rust while Ratchet used his magnetic powers to keep them away. Every vial that bounced off of Ratchet's shield hit the walls and floor, making the area unstable and hard to maneuver around. Optimus, while dodging a vial, backed into a wall covered in rust. Some of it spread to him, but not enough to be life threatening.

Ratchet was not so lucky. His leg got hit by a vial and rusted, making it impossible to maneuver with.

Bulkhead wasn't having much luck either having been hit by Blackout's fist right in the faceplate knocking him out fairly quick. Blackout then went to help Strika with Bumblebee and Sari.

Prowl dodged Spittor's tongue the best he could, while throwing shuriken after shuriken at the frog like bot. Each one was caught and spat back at him in an orange explosive goop. While running, Prowl got hit by an explosion and was hurled into a wall. Before he could recover, he was caught and gobbled up by Spittor; he was spat out with the goop all over him and impacted with Optimus and Ratchet. The resulting explosion sent them flying.

With the others unable to help, Team Chaar went after Bumblebee and Sari.

Sari kept throwing energy balls at Strika and Bumblebee used his stingers. Strika paid little attention to the techno-organic's weak attacks.

She focused her attacks on Bumblebee sending missiles in his direction. He was able to dodge them all, much to the Decepticon's surprise.

When the other autobots fell, Oilslick fought Sari while the others ganged up on Bumblebee.

Blackout punched Bee in the chest and he went flying into a wall. Strika sent a round of missiles at him as he tried to get up. He barely dodged in time to escape damage. He couldn't get up, his leg wouldn't allow it.

"Bumblebee!" yelled Sari, while trying to get to her friend. Bumblebee was picked up by Spittor's tongue and handed to Strika.

"We have what we came for. Let's go." said Strika. "No, let me go!" yelled the struggling Bumblebee. Strika had enough and hit Bee in the back of the head, knocking him out.

End of flashback...

Bee sat in his cell, looking around for a means to escape. He found none and even if he did, he knew he was in no condition to move let alone fighting a ship full of 'cons. He sighed, 'I hope my friends find me soon.' He closed his optics and fell into an uneasy recharge.

On the autobot ship...

The autobots were being repaired by Ratchet, Sari, and First Aid, from Team Athenia. Team Athenia happened to be tracking Team Chaar when they came across the damaged autobot ship.

Rodimus Prime, the leader of the new team, was talking to his old pals Sentinel and Optimus after speaking with Ultra Magnus. Bulkhead, Jazz, and Prowl tried to fix the ship's computer enough to get a copy of the coordinates to the Ark so they could use Team Athenia's ship.

Hot Shot, Ironhide, and Brawn helped with getting what supplies they could salvage onto their ship.

With everyone patched up and the coordinates downloaded, they boarded the other ship. They were all in the ship's command center, being updated on the events of the past few days.

"So are we going after the Decepticons or the Ark?" asked Rodimus. "Both, the decepticons are going to the Ark. We need to catch up to them before they get access to the vault." Ultra Magnus said.

"What is so important about it? I mean, what is in this vault that you are so worried about?" asked Hot Shot, earning him a glare from Sentinel. "What?"

Ultra Magnus replied, "The vault that is located on the Ark is not an ordinary vault. It contains powerful weapons used during the fight with Unicron-"

"We thought he is to being myth." said the jet twins. Ultra Magnus shook his head, "No he was very real until the original thirteen Primes were able to defeat him." "Oh."

"As I was saying, the Ark was built to protect these weapons and to keep them available for Unicron's return." finished the Magnus. "Wait, he's going to come back?" asked Hot Shot

"Defeated does not necessarily mean dead." said Brawn. "Correct, Unicron is an entity that, as far as we know, cannot be killed. He is, like Primus, a god. Only, he is the god of destruction, while Primus is a god of life." said Ultra Magnus.

"So, I understand who this Unicron is, but who are the original primes supposed to be?" asked Sari.

"The thirteen primes, the original primes, are known as the first Cybertronians. They were built by Primus to oversee the creation and early stages of our race." said Ultra Magnus. As he said this, records of the beginning was shown.

"When our race was still young, Unicron showed up and tried to destroy us. Cybertron's only defense at the time was the Thirteen Primes and the army they amassed to protect the planet." A picture showed up on the screen of the primes and other transformers fighting the evil planet, Unicron and his terrorcon minions.

"After a fierce battle, Unicron retreated to the edge of the universe. Many millenniums afterwards, the Primes had designed and built many powerful weapons to combat Unicron for whenever he chose to return." Pictures of the Ark and Defender's construction and after shots popped up on the screen.

"The Ark and Defender were later built to keep these weapons safe. Because of their sizes, the ships became small colonies with the large number of workers and their families being moved there. When the war began, the Primes and their families moved into the Ark and had the ships leave Cybertron. They couldn't allow the weapons that were created to fight Unicron be used to fight each other." said Ultra Magnus as the same group picture of the Primes and their families popped up.

"Wow...Hey that Prime in the front has a hammer just like yours." said Sari to the Magnus.

He looked at the techno-organic and replied, "The current military chain of command is based off the Primes' own chain of command. That Prime," he said while indicating the mech in the center, "is, Magnum Prime, their leader. The title of Magnus and the Magnus hammer are symbols to respect his leadership. The title of Prime is a step down from Magnus and respects the rest of the primes." said Ultra Magnus.

"Then your names aren't prime and magnus?" asked Sari. He shook his head and said, "No."

"So if Magnus and Prime are ranks, did you have your names changed?" asked Bulkhead. Ultra Magnus, Optimus, and Rodimus said, "Yes." while Sentinel said, "No."

"I'm confused." said Hot Shot. "Sentinel's name didn't change when he became a prime." said Optimus. "Oh, that makes sense." he said, still confused.

"So what are your names if I might ask?" asked First Aid. "Ultra Dion." said Ultra Magnus. "Orion Pax." said Optimus. "Hot Rod." said Rodimus.

"Cool, reminds me of aliases." said Sari. They all continued to talk about little things while they fly through space.

The picture of the Primes was still on the main screen, ignored by all but one. When Prowl had seen Magnum Prime and the femme next to him, he noticed similarities to their missing friend. He began to turn around to join the others when he noticed the small sparkling that the femme was holding. He was so absorbed into the picture that he jumped when Jazz came up to him.

"What are you looking at?" he asked. Prowl quickly recovered from being startled and replied, "This sparkling in the front." he pointed to said sparkling, "doesn't he look familiar to you?"

Looking closer Jazz said, "Your right he does look familiar. Wait, what are those on his head." he pointed to two little dots atop the sparkling head.

"I can't tell. Is there a chance we can zoom in to see it better?" asked Prowl. "Good idea, give me a second." said Jazz as he zoomed into the picture.

The larger picture revealed the dots to be horns, identical to Bumblebee's. They looked at the enlarged picture for another minute and before they could say anything, someone behind them yelled, "OH, MY PRIMUS!"

Everyone stopped what they were doing to see that Ratchet was the one who yelled. They saw him staring at the enlarged picture and the sparkling in the center.

The earth team, the Magnus team, and Ironhide all gasped at the picture. "Is that Bumblebee?" asked Sari. "It can't be." said Bulkhead. "The little bumbler is a Prime?!" asked Sentinel, earning him glares for the bumbler comment. "Ratchet are you sure that that sparkling is Bumblebee?" asked Optimus.

"Yes I'm sure! The kid's physical characteristics are the same as this sparkling's. And look at the femme." Ratchet said defending his outburst, "Other than the door wings and being a mech, Bumblebee is the spitting image of her."

"He is right." said Prowl. "Well this is a stunning revelation." said First Aid. "No kidding." said Hot Shot.

"Well this is all fine and dandy, but shouldn't we be focused on finding the kid before we worry about him being a Prime's kid or not?" said Brawn.

"He is right. We will focus on reaching the Ark and a plan to rescue Bumblebee from the decepticons before we do anything about this. I suggest we all recharge, this has been a difficult day for all of us." said the Magnus.

They all agreed and went their separate ways to their assigned rooms, which are pared due to the lack of space. Sentinel shared with Optimus, Jazz with Prowl, the jet twins were with Bulkhead, and Ultra Magnus with Ratchet.

While the others rested, Team Athenia was on duty, piloting the ship and keeping an eye out for the decepticons.

On the Decepticon ship...

Bumblebee woke from recharge groggily when he felt a sharp pain in his leg. Opening his eyes, he saw a blur standing over him.

"Wake up, autobrat." the blur said as it stepped his injured leg. He grunted from the pain, his vision clearing up enough to see the figure clearly.

It was Strika. He glared at her and asked, "What do you want?" "Our glorious Lord Megatron demands your presence." she replied.

"And if I refuse?" he inquired. She picked him up and through him hard to the ground. He groaned loudly; too weak to scream or get up. Strika picked him up again and brought his faceplate close to hers, "That was a warning, youngling. You will do as Lord Megatron commands; fighting back will only get you killed."

With that, she proceeded to drag Bumblebee through the halls and to the ship's command center, where the other decepticons were waiting.

She deposited him in front of Megatron and fell back in line next to Lugnut. The Decepticon lord studied Bee, noticing that the mini-bot was a lot younger than he had first thought, 'Perhaps less than a thousand years into his second frame? That would make him around 13,000 to 14,000 years old.'

Bumblebee made himself sit Indian style, ignoring the pain it caused his leg. He glared at Megatron while the 'con studied him. When he had enough of being stared at, he said, "Well, are you going to say something or stare at me all day?"

"How dare you speak to Lord Megatron that way!" yelled Lugnut. A glare from Megatron stopped him from saying anymore.

Turning back to the mini-bot, Megatron asks, "You are the autobot known as Bumblebee correct?" "Why are you asking a question that you already know the answer to?" Bee asks.

Megatron gave a stern look to Bumblebee, waiting for him to answers. Bee rolled his optics, "Yes, I'm Bumblebee."

"Good. Now, if you would hand over the map to the Ark." Megatron asks with an outstretched servo. Bumblebee hesitated before opening his subspace pocket and took out the map.

The decepticons looked at it in awe as Bee gave his treasure to Megatron. In the back ground Blitzwing, as random, said "Oo, shiny!" before getting smacked in the back of the head by Blackarachnia.

Megatron smirked evilly as he handed to map to Soundwave, who hooked it up to the ship's computer and imputed the coordinates to the Ark.

The ship changed direction slightly towards their destination. Seeing that his plans are coming together, the Decepticon lord turned and walked back to where Bumblebee was, still sitting on the floor.

Megatron looked at the scout, "Now, what shall we do with you?" he asked to no one in particular. Bee glared at him and said, "You could let me go."

"Nonsense, you are too valuable to just let go." Megatron said. 'Valuable? How am I valuable?' thought Bumblebee.

Noticing Bee's confusion Megatron laughed. "Tell me, do you know who your parents are?" he asked. "What does that have to do with anything?" said Bee.

"Answer the question." said Megatron. "My mother's name is GoldBee, and I never knew my father." Bee said quickly. That wasn't entirely true though, his mother would talk about his father all the time; how he was a brave soldier and a wise leader. She told Bumblebee many stories about the Primes and the adventures she and his father went on with them. Whenever Bee would ask her where his father was, she would get sad and say that he had to go away, but that someday Bee would meet him.

"Isn't that a shame?" Megatron said disappointedly. "I thought that your mother would have told you about your father, about how he was one of the greatest warriors in Cybertronian history, that he was the mech who led our planet to victory against Unicron, or that he was one of the few who have seen the creation of our race."

Bumblebee was stunned and confused; everything that Megatron was telling him was like the stories that his mother would tell him when he was a sparkling.

Megatron smirked knowingly at the confused mini-bot. "Your father's is Magnum Prime, the very same Magnum Prime that is the leader of the legendary Thirteen Primes."

Bumblebee was confused, although everything that was said made sense. He now knew why the decepticons captured him and possibly why he had the map to the Ark, but too many questions came into his already strained processor. 'Why didn't my mother tell me the truth?' 'Why did my father have to go away?' 'Will I ever meet him?' The questions kept piling up, straining his processor and frustrating Bee to tears.

Megatron grabbed Bumblebee by the arm and threw him across the room and was caught by Strika. "Get him repaired and weapons deactivated, once you're done put him back in his cell." Strika bowed, "As you wish my lord." then left the room taking Bumblebee with her.

Author's Note...

The Ark will be in the next chapter.

If I have made any errors regarding the characters please inform me if it bothers you, (a little funny is that for Team Chaar I forgot to add Cyclonis) Oh well...

If you have any suggestions for the story, please tell me through your reviews or private messages. I will be happy to incorporate them with recognition to the viewers who provided the ideas.

Until the next chapter, this it Smartcat9 signing off.