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Bumblebee couldn’t tell you when the world ended. One moment, everything was fine. Bots were laughing, ex-cons and autobots getting along and downing high-grade… the next?
The next moment, Cybertron shattered.
No, Bumblebee couldn’t recall much of what came after the planet let out its first dying wail. His fellow Cybertronians rushed about in a panic, trampling each other and searching for an escape as the ground ripped apart under their pedes.
He was like them, he thinks. At least, until a collapsing building hit him hard in the processor. When he came to, the planet was silent and broken. He was also so familiarly incorporeal. Fantastic.
Once again, he was denied access to the AllSpark. Once again, he was forced to roam a world unaware of his presence. Except, this time, he didn’t have a bot to bother.
Bumblebee wondered if the damage his processor took before his death leaked into his ghostly state, affecting his emotional programming. Maybe it was normal to feel nothing at the destruction of your planet and race.
With nothing better to do for the rest of eternity, he walked. He walked through ruins, hopping across pieces of a shattered planet as they lingered in space. He walked through floating graves of grayed frames, avoiding their empty gazes.
Maybe his processor is fine and he’s just in denial.
After a deca-cycle or so, he spotted something unusual.
In the ruins of Iacon, there was a flash of color.
It wasn’t much - just a glance of red and white before it ducked behind a pile of rubble. Bee, with nothing else going on in his “life”, decides to check it out. What’s it gonna do? Kill him?
He approaches without much thought, his stride confident and helm tilted in curiosity. Sifting through the rubble was a familiar seeker frame.
You gotta be joking.
“Starscream?” Bumblebee calls out, “Is that you?”
The other mech jumps slightly, wide red optics meeting blue as his helm snaps to where the golden mech stands.
“Goldenrod?” The seeker questions, standing from where he was crouched.
The yellow mech let out a small chuckle, making his way over to the taller bot. “Managed to make it out Screamer?” Bumblebee asked.
As he approached the other bot, he noticed a figure by Starscream’s pedes. It was gray, barely discernible from the rubble covering it.
“No,” the seeker replied, following the minibot’s gaze.
“Yeah?” Bumblebee asked, not taking his eyes off the grayed out frame. The offlined bot’s helm was caved in and cracked, one of the horns completely knocked off. A fresh coat of yellow paint could go a long way in terms of making them appealing. “Neither did I.” he finished.
They stood in silence for a moment, the stillness of space punctuated by crackling debris. With a slow ex-vent, the yellow minibot starts to walk away.
“Wait, where are you going?” Starscream calls, his long strides easily making up the distance between them.
“On a walk, “ the autobot replied.
“A walk? A walk to where?”
“I don’t know… Maybe Kaon? Haven’t been there in a while.” Bumblebee raised a servo, a digit resting on his chin.
“And what are you going to do when you get there, Hm?” Starscream inquires, optics closed and brow furrowed, “Shake servos with the dead?”
Bee lets out a hum and doesn’t elaborate further, choosing to keep walking in the general direction of where he thinks Kaon is. The red and blue mech follows him without much more complaint.
***
Starscream isn’t sure how much time has passed since he met up with the little bug.
He’d been scouring for any source of life that may have been left on their destroyed home planet. He didn’t find it, though. Just greyed frames and dead optics. As he dug through a pile of rubble, finding a familiar frame of an annoying little minibot, he was surprised to find its ghost still lingering.
Maybe he shouldn’t have been so surprised. The little pest was hard to kill. He knew that from experience.
The difference between then and now was that they were now both dead. No Wheeljack to save them now.
With all the corpses they’re finding, he doubts there would be anyone to save them.
“Do you think anyone will come back?” Bumblebee asked one joor as they stopped to rest and view the sun. Though their energy and fuel percentage never went down, seeing nothing but corpses was tiresome.
It was a rare moment of weakness from the little mech. Since they met up, he’s been unusually… apathetic to the whole state of the world. Of their situation. If he wasn’t apathetic, he was doing his best to make light of it. From the hollowness of his tone, Starscream didn’t think the autobot truly believed what he said.
“Who?” Starscream pried. He knew, of course, but this was the most he’s gotten out of his companion that felt real.
“The escapees. The bots who were already off planet when it collapsed,” the yellow mech continued, “The ones who were able to evacuate, will they come back to it? Do the bots who were already off planet know it’s gone?”
The seeker was quiet for a moment. Whatever bots managed to make it off the planet before the collapse were likely to alert others of its demise. If they were going to come back to see if there was anything to salvage or if bots could be recovered, they would have done so already.
It has to have been cycles since the planet's destruction, more than enough time for them to show back up and at least survey the damage. Yet, the two of them saw not a single ship in their time here.
“I don’t think they will.” Starscream answered, the words leaving an ache in his chassis.
Bumblebee didn’t say anything for a while after. Within a few klicks, they were back on their aimless journey around the debris field they used to call home. Within a few breems, the yellow mech cleared his vocoder.
“I know, if they do come back, the chance they’d be able to see us is low,” Bumblebee began, voice unsteady with the crackle of static at its edges, “But, Primus, I just want off this planet.”
The seeker regarded the minibot carefully, the slight rattle of his yellow plating shaking noticeable in the silence. Though his faceplate was turned away from him, Starscream wouldn’t be surprised if coolant leaked from his optics.
“I’m so tired of being surrounded by death, Starscream.” Bumblebee continued, wiping his face with a bitter chuckle, “I thought I’d be done with it when the war ended. Guess not.”
Starscream wasn’t sure if this was the time to bring up they were the dead. Probably not the best idea.
“It’s…” Starscream trailed. Comforting has never been his strong suit. He couldn’t even comfort himself, much less others. The seeker vented, “It’s unfortunate.”
The minibot was now looking up at him expectantly. Scrap. Why did he even open his intake?
“I’d never imagined that I’d be rejected from the AllSpark and forced to wander a dead planet,” the seeker continued with reluctance, “But I am glad I don’t have to do it alone.”
It was true. As much as Starscream was meant to be alone, he didn’t like to be alone. It was a habit to drive others off, to not let them close. It was his normal. At least until a certain yellow bot that no one else could see showed up in his life. Then he died. Then he was resurrected. Then he died again.
What a life.
Point is, if one has to wander their destroyed homeland after being rejected from the afterlife, might as well have a friend to make it a bit more bearable.
He looked back down at the yellow minibot, his optics cleared of any coolant and derma pulled into a small smile. Behind the sadness in his optics, Starscream could catch a glimpse of the bot he knew before this mess.
“Yeah,” Bumblebee said, “It’s nice to not be alone.”
With that, the two continued their walk with a little more pepe in their step. They may reside in a graveyard as apparitions of what was before, but they weren’t alone. They had each other and that’s enough.