Transformers Fan Fiction ❯ Fragments of Memory ❯ Complicated Machinery ( Chapter 9 )

Chapter 9: Complicated Machinery

 

The small town of four hundred or so Michiganders had never seen a tourist such as Arianna Walther before. The small main street shop owners rung up her purchases with mouths half open. The startlingly beautiful girl was wearing blood stained clothes, a giant bandage on her head and knee, and had pine sap in her hair. Most of the proprietors leaned out of their front doors to watch as she continued, finally ending her shopping trip by squeezing an enormous amount of groceries in the passenger seat of an Italian race car. Wheeljack sounded his horn merrily at the onlookers, startling one old timer so bad he fell off a bench. Arianna slapped the car gently, climbed inside with the most dignity she could muster, and Wheeljack drove them away.

“I appreciate your company Wheeljack, I really do, but I just don't understand why Bumblebee couldn't bring me.” She said starting up an argument they had been having before she went shopping. Arianna had been delighted when Bumblebee produced her small purse that he had dug out of the rubble at her job; and immediately demanded to go shopping for essentials.

“Prime is briefing the others on what he plans to do about the Decepticons.” Wheeljack murmured, the complicated stereo system flashed blue as he did so. “I rarely go into battle so I was the best choice.”

“All right then.” Arianna gave up. For the past few days she had gotten the feeling that Optimus Prime and Hot Rod had been taking turns at keeping her apart from her guardian.

 

First it was Hot Rod, who begged her help to organize and clean the base's second floor, packed with dusty high-tech equipment. Arianna loved her biology, chemistry and geography, but with matters of complicated machinery, she was lost. Second was Prime, who (much to her dismay) regaled her in tales of the glory days of Cybertron for hours on end. Every time Bumblebee had come to her rescue both seemed disgruntled and she once heard Prime lecturing Ratchet on “keeping the boy in check”. Bumblebee and Arianna had resorted to meeting in secret to talk. She wasn't sure why she had this pressing need to be with him. Perhaps it was because he was the only thing- person- left on Earth who knew her and wanted to be with her just because. His gentle comfort had stemmed her grief where the others had been chiefly concerned where her loyalties lie. He had listened and commiserated with everything she had to say, only speaking of himself when she asked. Complicated machinery indeed, she thought with a small smile. The bumpy road could not jar her thoughts as Wheeljack sped back to base. His eyes were her saving grace for so long, it was like she always knew who he was. Bee was her guardian; her angel. She would have been dead twice over if not for him. With a revelation that widened her eyes she realized that she wouldn't even -be- without him. God, what was she thinking? Her cheeks were flustered. Even despite all lack of interest in the opposite sex, of all the boys who had pursued her for looks, and her blockheaded ignorance of the subject, she had apparently fallen for a machine. Figures, she thought with a snort. Eff-ing perfect.

“What was that?” Wheeljack asked.

“Blargh! It was nothing. Never mind.”

 

They all could see it, Bumblebee thought miserably. They all knew and now they were trying to stop it. Prime's words stung in his mind. He had taken the young Autobot aside as soon as Arianna went off into town with Wheeljack.

“She isn't one of us, Bumblebee. Your feelings endanger all of our lives, not to mention you are way out of line. She is human- as far from out species as it gets. If we must sacrifice her to save the Earth, how will you stand; with your comrades, or alone against us irrationally demanding her life be spared? What if the Decepticons do capture her, and turn her into a mindless mech?”

“I can't help it Prime. I love her, and I won't stop feeling that way. I've cut off every emotion I've ever had for the greater good, but Cybertron still fell. When I joined you, you know what I lost, how many friends I've faced in battle. I am still here, and they are not. I've given up everything for this, for you, and I can't do it anymore!”

“If they capture her, Bumblebee, she won't know herself. The only way they can defeat us is to utilize the power the Allspark has given her. We will have to kill her! Her power will be too immense for her mind to overcome! Hot Rod and I are the most powerful transformers left alive, and she is their only hope of taking us down. I want to preserve her life as much as you, Bumblebee, but her life could end up meaning the lives of everyone on this planet!”

“I drifted for countless years alone on your precious mission to recover the Allspark, and to befriend the Earthling who had the key to it. This is all your fault! You want me to agree to sacrifice the one life in this universe that sees me as more than just a soldier? I'm not prepared for that, Prime. I never will be!” The yellow Autobot nearly sneered at his commander.

“Then I have no choice but to send you on the front line, Bumblebee. I cannot let your feelings get us all killed.” Prime shook his head sadly. “You'll leave in the morning to join the first assault.”

Optimus Prime was glad for the shield covering his wavering jaw line as Bumblebee saluted and stalked away without being dismissed. You're more than just a soldier to me, you're like my own son… he very nearly stretched out a hand and said it. It hurt; he mused, the weight of responsibility upon him.

 

They met under the cover of night, the vast carpet of stars glittering in the watery mirror of a lake before them. The northern lights wavered a green brilliance in the July wind, and Arianna was stilled by the phenomenon.

“This only happens a few times a year.” She pointed, as Bumblebee joined her on the rocky beach. Bumblebee's oculars caught the fantastic display but his attention could not be held there. He gazed on Arianna, her head upturned, breath quicker than normal. She was wearing jeans and a blue hooded sweatshirt to fend off the night's chill. Her hair was freshly washed and hung in still-damp tendrils halfway down her back. The bandage on her forehead was gone, but a nasty scab remained. An upturned sickle cut near her hairline like a cruel smile three inches long. Bumblebee visibly winced when he realized it would not fade away, but remain as a marring scar.

“He's making me leave you.” The Autobot said simply, after he realized he was studying her. Primus, but she was beautiful.

“I figured it would happen.” Her brown eyes did not leave the Aurora Borealis, and with a shift forward he could see the green plasma illuminating them.

“Why?”

“Because they think I'll kill you all. That I'll get caught. That I'll die, and you'll hurt even worse because of it. Who knows, maybe it's just because they think we're too different.”

“But we aren't that different.”

“No. No we're not.”

“I don't want to be without you.” He said and her eyes finally met his.

“You're all I have left in the world; I don't think I can be without you.”

Bumblebee sat underneath an ancient willow tree, its branches dangling in the water. Arianna sat on his leg, resting comfortably against his torso. He memorized every line of her back against his armor, her very presence intoxicating him.

“I don't understand; they encouraged my friendship with Sam. Why is it different with you?” The transformer rumbled.

“I don't think we are meant to understand how love works.” Arianna whispered. “I don't even understand how I came to love you. Even if we don't know, or they won't admit it, it happened like-“

“-like it was supposed to be that way.” Bumblebee finished; a wave of pure joy washing through him. She loved him!

“But even if we are the same inside, we can't ever be together.” Arianna said, her chest rising and falling deeper. Tears struck Bumblebee's thigh. “It's impossible.”

“The Decepticons machine could fix that.” Bumblebee said suddenly.

“But I might end up killing you. That would be worse than not being together.”

Neither was so sure of that. Nevertheless, they spent the remainder of the night sitting under that willow tree in silence. It was near dawn when Bumblebee realized just what he had to do. If the Autobots wouldn't let them be together, then he would no longer call himself so. As the sun winked out, muted by clouds that had blown in, Bumblebee set the sleeping Arianna in the soft grass on the other side of their tree. He picked up a smooth lake stone from the beach and drew a large scratch through his Autobot insignia. It was time.