[Video // Second Transformation]

[proveyourmetal]

[For all you night owls out there, Vanguard decides that now (just five minutes past midnight in an abandoned house at the edge of HospiTown) is the perfect time to voice his displeasure.:]

As you are all my witness, there is nothing here, there's no such things as ghosts, and if this rickety old house comes crashing down on our heads, it's Bumblebee's fault.

[Bumblebee shines his flashlight back at Vanguard and the D-terminal with an amused smile, Vanguard gives an indignant scoff.]

I'm not scared. I'm annoyed

[Bumblebee laughs silently, patting Vanguard as he moves past. Vanguard murmurs irately and paws his impeccably groomed mane back into place. Ghosts may not exist, but Digimon ghost types certainly exist. Even the small ones are a pain to deal with, dispatched with a good fireball. But the higher level ones? Best to stay away from those altogether.]

Can we just go now?

[Bee sighs. Fine, they can head home, if that's what he wants. Of course, that's when the camera catches a glimpse of something: moonlight pouring in from a window flickers on the wall behind him, like a shadow dashing across the light. Floorboards in the distance give off a terrible groan, wood creaking under something's weight. The orb of light from Bumblebee's flashlight creeps down the long, dark corridor. The beam hardly penetrates the stifling darkness to reveal a room at the end of the hallway, its door half fallen off its hinges.]

[The D-terminal's camera starts to shake from unsteady hands. And as camera focuses, two slivers of light stare back at them. Soft mumbling carries down the hallway as the D-terminal's shaking intensifies.]

[Bumblebee, stricken more with curiosity and wariness than fear, takes a tentative step forward. Bewildered, Vanguard snatches Bumblebee's sleeve]

What're you doing-!?

[As if in response to the noise, the two slivers of eyes disappear into the dark. A voice that is neither Bumblebee's nor Vanguard's hisses vehemently right next to the D-terminal:]

-can't take it from me!

[The inhuman noise that comes from Vanguard is so panicked and high pitched, it's practically comical. His flailing knocks the flashlight from Bee's hand, and the D-Terminal goes sailing with it. Both hit the ground with a clatter.]

[The last thing the feed picks up is the sound of rapid footsteps in the dark. The feed cuts.]

Comments

[fuckinstoplights]

Yes.

That was why I was made, after all. So that he could be perfect.

[He says it so simply, too. As if there's nothing at all wrong with it.]

[proveyourmetal]

I certainly hope he thinks as much of you, as you do him.

[And his words are in no way sarcastic or ironic. It's a genuine wish on the other's behaf.]

[fuckinstoplights]

I... I think that he does.

[He hopes so. He has to believe so.]

[proveyourmetal]

Have you had much of a chance to speak with him?

[fuckinstoplights]

Yes. We... spent every day together. Ever since they brought him online...

But, now -- I haven't seen him since coming here. I haven't seen him for months, now.

[proveyourmetal]

Sorry.

Must be hard to be separated from him after all that time together.

[fuckinstoplights]

It...

[It is. He just tries not to think about it, lately.]

Yes. It is.

[proveyourmetal]

What was his name?

[fuckinstoplights]

... Shadowmaru.

[There's that little flicker of something on his face when he says it. Before it fades and he tilts his head to one side.]

No one has ever asked me questions like this.

Is it really that interesting to you?

[proveyourmetal]

[He laughs at the message]

If you ask my teammates, they'll tell you I've always been this curious. About Earth, about humans, about this world and everyone in it.

I like learning about people. About the good in them. And about what's really important to them.

[And this last part is a little closer to his spark.]

They remind me what I'm fighting for.

[fuckinstoplights]

Curiosity... Yes. I understand that. There's a lot to learn. Isn't there?

[And it is sort of fun to hear about things. To find out more. Provided, of course, someone is willing to teach him. Which isn't always the case.]

Fighting --

You're in the war too. The one Wheeljack talked about. Aren't you?

[proveyourmetal]

There is. And the more you learn, the more you realize how much more you don't know.

[Perceptive, Kagerou.]

I am. Arcee and Wheeljack and I are on the same side. They're teammates from my world.

More than teammates, actually.

[fuckinstoplights]

I think I have already realized that last part. I don't know anything, here.

[Sometimes, even the most naive BP unit can figure things out!]

They're your friends?

That's what you mean, isn't it?

[proveyourmetal]

Almost.

They're family.

[His answer is simple, but if they were in the same room, he would see a deep fondness in his expression.]

[fuckinstoplights]

Family.

You're lucky, you know? To have something like that.

[proveyourmetal]

Earlier, you told me about someone you thought was worth existing for.

[Someone he spent time with, missed and cared for.]

It sounds like you already do.

[fuckinstoplights]

...

That's... all it takes to be a family with someone?

[He'd never thought of it that way.]

[proveyourmetal]

It's hard to know what family really is. Cybertronians don't have that concept. We only really discovered them on earth.

I don't know if I can even really explain it.

[fuckinstoplights]

You don't?

But you're alive. Aren't you? Don't all living things have families?

[He smiles faintly, sadly.]

You know more of it than I do.

[proveyourmetal]

Not all living things. We have things that are similar. Some of us have caretakers, some of us born in the same generation consider each other siblings.

But there's nothing like the concept of family on Cybertron. Not like how they are on Earth. We were all born from the Allspark.

I guess... to know if they're your family or not, you just have to feel it. It isn't like just being friends. Family, as I understand it, is made up of people who you can fight with, get angry with, argue with... and would still be willing to take a bullet for at the end of the day. You want them to be happy, healthy and safe.

You wish you could take away all the things that hurt them in the past, and will fight to make sure things won't hurt them in the future.

It's about love and trust, I think.

[fuckinstoplights]

[He hunkers down to listen, trying to absorb all of this. None of the humans bothered to explain 'relationships' of any kind to him. He'd had no name for what he felt, regarding Shadowmaru.]

[Maybe this will clear things up. If he learns to understand this.]

What's an all-spark?

[Probably not the best thing to ask, but it came out, regardless.]

Love and trust. Wishing... to protect them from things... wanting them to be happy...

[Now it starts to click.]

That makes sense, now.

[proveyourmetal]

Our lives begin and end with the Allspark. It gives us life. And when we reach the end of ours, we return to it again.

I'm glad. If you understand... you must have someone in mind.

[Though he has a good idea who it might be.]

[fuckinstoplights]

Is it like what Wheeljack spoke of? A... spark? A soul?

[There's a faint coloring on his face, and he bows his head.]

I think that I do. Maybe.

[proveyourmetal]

[Bumblebee may smile, amused. That's a tell, if he ever saw one.]

Yes. That's about right. Our spark is everything we are. It's our life force. It keeps us alive.

Isn't it like that too in your world?

[fuckinstoplights]

[He shakes his head.]

I'm only an AI. I don't have anything like that. We're... just data. Nothing more.