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“Are you sure this is the place, boss?”
Bumblebee looked around skeptically. They stood in a very large clearing, surrounded by woods on one side and mountains on the other. Retreat would be easy should the need for it arise, but it was still strange.
A rather peaceful place for a hostage negotiation.
“Yes, these are the exact coordinates that Megatron sent us.” Optimus Prime replied calmly. The Decepticons leader had combed them not long after they had left their base in search for the Decepticons ship.
“Meet me here for negotiations.” The message had simply said, clearly referring to the fact that Megatron's sparkling that they had been raising had run away, confirming that she had gone to her sire.
And now they had to wait, anticipating every possible move their foe could pull in order to make them suffer. It appeared that Megatron's favoured method, this time, was coming late to his own meeting.
“This has to be a trap.” Prowls growled next to their Prime. The Autobot SIC had every right to be suspicious, but he could at least have tried to quell the fears of his comrades. Well, it wouldn't be Prowl if he didn't voice his frustrations the moment they came to mind.
Bumblebee couldn't say he didn't share his superiors fears, but he could really do without being reminded just how difficult things were going to be very soon.
A large bird was sitting on his shoulder, a hawk, if he needed to guess. It was picking at its claws and had its brown feathers puffed up, all calm and content.
That was until the animal abruptly stilled, tilting its head towards the high mountain peaks. Its optics were far better than the average bots, being able to see from high in the sky, and apparently it had spotted something they couldn't yet see.
The hawk let out a high pitched screech and took off, leaving a small scratch in Bumblebee's paint.
He was seemingly the only one who had been paying attention to his feathered companion, the others didn't seem to mind the animal rushing away and were muttering to each other.
For a few moments at least.
The loud roar of an endless amount of jets flying towards them pulled the attention of the gathered Autobots away from their discussion.
Over the crest of the mountains a single seeker appeared, shooting up straight before stalling, making themself torque and dragging the rear of their alt mode up, causing them to stand upright in the air. Their nosecone pointed down to the Autobots as they dropped out of the air into a free fall.
As they shot down the sky darkened, various types of aircraft tailing them closely.
Optimus couldn't even believe his optics. Here they had been wondering if Megatron would arrive alone just as the entire Decepticon Airforce decided to show up.
A mere klik before the seeker would have crashed into the ground they transformed back into their root mode, revealing a familiar tricolor frame.
Both a heavy bomber and a stealth bomber were the next to land behind Starscream, who looked increasingly smug. Crestfall walked up to stand uncomfortably behind her creator's wing and Soundwave signaled the other seekers to drop down behind them.
One after another they lowered themselves, keeping a small distance between them and their former Air Commander.
Starscream turned towards the flight frames for a klik, raising his servo in the air as he let out a loud scream that reminded Bumblebee of the Hawks screech. They replied in kind, raising their voices in a loud answering call, before lowering their wings and shuffling back a bit.
“I apologize for the wait.” Starscream said, turning back to the gathered Autobots. “It wasn't easy leaving the rest of the troops behind, but we came as quickly as possible.”
At least most of the Autobots had the decency not to gawk at the seeker before them, the one who had explicitly been told not to leave their base. Bumblebee himself only managed to suppress the confusion in him from rising to his face by glancing at Optimus who had taken a step towards the rogue scientist.
“Starscream, care to explain what exactly is happening?” The prime asked politely, as if the seeker hadn't deliberately ignored his orders and was now flanked by their enemy's entire airforce.
Starscream tilted his head back to look at his sparkling who was, despite her huge frame, trying to make herself as small as possible. “I got my daughter back my way. It was quicker than what you lot had suggested and worked out far better than anticipated. I even got a souvenir from my visit to the Decepticon base.”
That didn't sound good to Bumblebee and, judging by the noises the rest of the team made, he wasn't alone with that opinion.
A wave of snickers rose from the seekers, who had all sunken to their knees to rest in a crouch while resting their weight on their servos. Bumblebee had been in a few old cities, all strewn across the planet, and there he had gotten to know some of the aesthetics favoured by the humans. Right now the decepticons were reminding him very much of the winged statues that were sometimes perched on the roofs and parapets of the older temples in Europe. Pointed and menacing.
“Astrotrain! You may let him out now.” Starscream spoke up, waving his servo towards the large triple changer who had remained in his shuttle form. It should have probably been concerning that the decepticons were so willing to listen to their former Second in Command who had long since changed his alliance.
Astrotrain opened his hatch and out came a disheveled looking Megatron who was missing an optic.
Optimus barely stifled a gasp as the large silver mech walked to stand beside Starscream, his steps uneven but still as imposing as always. The hateful glares of most of the flight frames didn't seem to bother him at all.
The large grounder turned his helm to gaze at Starscream, nodding slowly and leaning down to be face to face with the seeker.
“You have surrendered, haven't you?” Said mech purred wickedly, lifting his servo up to cup Megatron's face in his grasp, making him wince as pressure was put on his cheek.
Starscream dragged one of his claws down from the open socket, leaving a fresh trail of Energon dripping down Megatron's face, but instead of lashing out the mech looked, for a lack of a better word, enamored.
“No more war, isn't that what everyone wanted? And peace is being delivered by me.” The seeker smirked as he addressed everyone in the clearing, not looking away from his former master.
Bumblebee peered around the scientist's large wings and found Crestfall still behind her carrier, cringing at her creator's display of, well, affection was the wrong word, but he was unsure anything else could describe what was going on.
“What are the conditions to this surrender you procured without our input?” Prime asked, seemingly resigned.
At this Soundwave moved forward, pulling a data pad out of his subspace. The spy handed it to Optimus, his staticy voice echoing out of his mask. "Draft: completed. Decepticon high command: in agreement. War: over as soon as the Autobots sign.”
Prowl moved closer at that, leaning over Optimus’ servo to look at the document. “Is that last part necessary? An imprisonment sounds far less strenuous.” He asked, turning his head to Starscream and Megatron.
The tri-color mech grinned, displaying his sharp fangs. Megatron, who had finally found his voice, replied. “It is a punishment fit for my crimes.”
Bumblebee decided then, as the seekers began to howl with laughter, that he really didn't want to know what this “punishment” entailed