Another One?!: Book 2

Chapter 12: Truth

Optimus pulled Smokescreen and Tinker, with Bumblebee following out of the main room. "Optimus, I don't know what-"

"I know," Optimus interrupted. "I know what you are."

"What?" Smokescreen asked after a quiet moment.

"I know you're a mysticbot." Smokescreen stopped dead in his tracks. Optimus stopped and turned.

"How?" All Smokescreen could think to say.

"YEAH! HOW DID YOU FIND OUT?!" Tinker bellowed in Optimus's face. "You couldn't have learned it the same way I did!"

"Alpha Trion told me during the-"

"Wait!" Bumblebee's voice exclaimed. "You're a mystic too?! Like me?!"

"What?" both Tinker and Smokescreen said at the same time. They looked at Bumblebee in astonishment.

"You're ... you're a mysticbot too?" Smokescreen exhaled.

"I thought I was the only one who woke up." Bumblebee remembered what Optimus and him meeting for the first was like. "And I was not easy one to deal with back in the day." He laughed a little at the memory. "I even pranked Optimus a couple of times before we got along."

"How did you prank Optimus, Bee?" Smokescreen asked. Both him and Tinker were clearly interested in the pranks done on the Prime.

"Smokescreen," Optimus called out. He didn't want to hear Bumblebee list his pranks. "Can you track the Omega Keys?"

"I ... I know how, but I've never been really trained how to do it." Smokescreen wished that Alpha Trion didn't reveal what he was, and that he knew how to locate the last Icon Relics. "I can try. Just ... give me some time."

A few days pasted until Smokescreen found the Omega Keys' location. They got all four before the Decepticons could even found out about them. Tinker and Smokescreen came up with a back story to tell the others.

"So," Arcee started, "where's the Omega Lock?"

"Sea of Rust." Smokescreen sighed.

"Hey," Jack called out to him. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Smokescreen exhaled.

"That's terrible convincing, Smoke," Tinker told him.

"Not, helping," Smokescreen told him in gritted teeth.

"We're ready to tell when you two are," Optimus told them.

Tinker put his hand on Smokescreen's shoulder. Smokescreen looked at him. "We got your back, Smoke," Tinker told him. "And you'll always have my back. No matter what."

"I know," Smokescreen smiled a little.

"Optimus what is going on?" Arcee demanded-ish.

"Yeah, and what are you wanting to tell. And what's with that piece of scrapyard metal?" Bulkhead pointed to the metal on the table. The metal moved to the right, then the left and right.

"What's ... happening?" Raf asked in a fearful tone.

"Is it ... haunted?" Miko questioned.

The metal all of a sudden bolted to the center of the Team. After a moment, Raf noticed only Bulkhead and Arcee were the only bots who were spooked by this. "How come only Arcee and Bulkhead are the only ones out of the bots who are as terrified as much as us?" he asked.

"Because," Smokescreen started, "I'm mysticbot." He paused. "And they know."

There was silence for a few brief moments. "WHAT?!" Arcee exclaimed. "HOW?!" she demanded. "MYSTICBOTS DIED OFF YEARS AGO! HOW ARE YOU-"

"Arcee," Bumblebee called to her. They turned to him. "I'm ... I'm a mysticbot too."

"Okay. PROVE IT!" Arcee snapped.

"Does... THIS prove it?" Bumblebee's eyes became red, bolts of red lightening started to circle and crawl over his body, wings sprouted out from Bumblebee's back.

"This ... this ... can't be happening!" Arcee was trying to not believe it. "Mysticbots, died ... cycles ago!"

"Arcee." Tinker's voice made Arcee looked at him. "During the time they were being killed," he begins to explain, "the High Council of the time had engineers make these ... pods, that would freeze their age to whatever age that was until someone would wake them up."

"You knew?" Arcee exhaled. "Who else knows?!"

"Me," Optimus told her. "And Ratchet."

"What?"

"You're having a hard time coping with this aren't you?" Bumblebee asked plainly.

"OF COURSE I AM! WE COULD'VE USE YOUR POWERS!"

"Arcee," Bumblebee tried to say.

"AND NOW ... heh ... YOU'RE TELLING US YOU HAD THE POWER TO KILL MEGATRON?!"

"Arcee," Bumblebee tried to speak.

"THE POWER TO SAVE CLIFFJUMPER?!"

"Arcee," Bumblebee tried once more.

"YOU COULD'VE SAVED ELITA-1!" The world fell dead silent. "YOU WERE THERE!"

"Stop," Bumblebee told her.

"AND YOU JUST."

"Arcee stop, now," Optimus ordered.

"WHY?!" Arcee demanded. "HE LET HER DIE! HE HAD POWER, AND HE DIDN'T USE IT! ELITA WAS A SECOND MOTHER TO ME!"

"AND TO ME!" Bumblebee yelled at the same volume as Arcee. "Do you think," Bumblebee marched over to Arcee, "that I ... WANT HER TO DIE?!" Bumblebee towered over Arcee.

"Bumblebee..." Optimus warned.

"I WANTED HER TO LIVE! SHE WAS SO MUCH, LIKE MY MOHTER! Caring, kind, helps others see hope, AND YOU THINK I DON'T REGERT NOT DOING SOMEHTING TO STOP HIM?!" Bumblebee's pressed his finger into Arcee's chest. "I LOVED HER LIKE AS IF SHE WAS MY REAL MOTHER! AND ... and ..." Tear swelled up in his eyes. "I couldn't do ANYTHING without Megatron discovering the truth about me." Optimus walked over to Bumblebee. "I ..." Bumblebee's voice was cracking. His finger fell from Arcee's chest. "I couldn't ..."

Bumblebee's head whipped to his right when he felt Optimus place his hand on his shoulder. "Let it out Bumblebee." Bumblebee fell to the ground and Optimus caught him. "Just ... let it out."

Bumblebee cried into his adopted father's chest. Optimus wrapped his arms around Bumblebee's body in comfort. "I miss her," Bumblebee sobbed.

"Me too." Optimus rubbed Bumblebee's back.

"We all do," Ratchet told him.