Changes

So many things changed in his life.
The ex scout walked slowly in the main street of the now restored city of Iacon.  Everywhere the ex Autobot could hear the intense hubbub of his kind. Just few solar cycles ago his steps echoed in the empty abandoned streets and he felt like one of the last Cybertronians left in the universe.
They sent a signal in the space, calling all the exiled Cybertronians, Autobot, Decepticons or NAILS (Non-Affiliated Indigenous Life-forms) who were simple civilians, announcing the war was over and that Cybertron had been restored.
Even now that his people populated the city and the planet again he felt strange, as if it was all just a dream. For centuries Bumblebee had been the last youngling in a war full with veterans who treated him like a child.
Because he WAS a child. Now he could admit it, even if hated being protected by much taller and huger mechs. He wanted to protect his comrades.
They stopped considering him like that just when he died.
So many things changed after that day.
First of all he could talk normal. His vocalizer came back with his life. Then he stopped living in disguise. It was still strange transforming into his 'normal' vehicle mode. Earth vehicles and planes were looked strangely by the NAILS, who clearly never needed to camouflage in a world full with small creatures. Sometimes Bumblebee took a ride outside the city as a Chevrolet Camaro, just to revive old times.
But it wasn't the same. No one sat on the back seat, playing with a remote-controlled car or fiddling with a laptop.
After one solar cycle the ex Autobot finally stopped being carefully and looking at the ground: now he was surrounded by much taller and non-organic creatures, but sometimes the young warrior surprised himself looking worried at his peds, afraid that he could have stepped on something... or someone.
A tall and bulky mech bumped against him. "I'm sorry." He mumbled.
"No problem." Bumblebee replied, barely looking at the purple and ruined insignia on the mech's shoulder.
Many solar cycles passed before he finally stopped startling every time he saw a Decepticon walking close to him. The first months the tension between the two factions was high and they kept fighting for every stupid pretext, until the temporary government suggested to implant an explosive in their I/D chip. Decepticons strangely didn't appreciate the idea and after the ex second in command Starscream came back from the wild zones he used his silver tongue to become their government spokesperson.
Now the ambitious seeker finally got the power he desperately sought for eons, and Bumblebee had to hold in a laughter every time he saw one of his speech on the TV.
So many things changed since the day when his cousin Arcee tried to terminate the silver seeker.
The Cybertronians who were swarming busy around him often recognized his black and golden frame and nodded to him, some even bowed. Many stories and rumors about him who died and then came back to life thank to a miracle and even killed Megatron with a magic sword spread over the whole Cybertron.
But Bumblebee didn't consider himself a hero.
Just one was a true hero.

The wheels of the black and golden Chevrolet Camaro screeched on the metal when it stopped and transformed into the young warrior.
That was an off-limits zone, a few kilometers out of the city walls but still far from the wild zones where the Predacons lived and hunted. But Bumblebee survived to many battles, hiding himself was almost a game for him now.
He walked forward until his ped brushed the abyss border.
It was perfectly circular, and so deep that he could throw a stone and wait for one hour to hear it landing on the bottom.
Bumblebee could see the slight blue light in the abyss, where the living core of the planet pounded. Just few solar cycles ago it was silent and dark, as if Primus itself fell asleep and never woke up...
Until the last Prime joined the Well of the Allspark and joined his spark with the core of the planet.
Bumblebee sat on the ground, his legs which dangled in the hole.
He missed that serious faceplate, those kind blue optics who looked patiently at him, that deep vocalizer which calmed his youth fire.
The scout got mad at his leader so many times, because he kept sending the younger to the rear, because the wiser mech asked him to be prudent and less reckless... because he kept refusing bonding their sparks and be official lifemates.
Bumblebee cried for many nights because he thought that the blue and red mech didn't love him enough even if he let the scout use his true name, because the younger thought that the last Prime loved more his mission than anything else.
Probably Optimus knew he would die, even if he didn't know when. A true warrior knew that. He refused the sparkbond just because his death would crush the mate.
The ex scout cried even more after his only one love sacrificed to make Cybertron live again. He barely could look at him while he said them all goodbye and flied towards his fate.
It was so unfair. So many times Bumblebee wished to jump in that abyss and follow his love, so he would finally stop crying, stop suffering. They would be one finally, they would be far from the sufferance and the death.
But Bumblebee admired Optimus Prime too much to choose a coward way like that.
The black and golden mech looked up at the starry sky before turning his attention to the pounding core again.
"I'm still mad at you, just to let you know." He whispered, looking at the colorful sparks which melted and danced around the blue sphere.
A day his spark would be there too.
If he focused enough he could see Optimus' moving among that light arras, but probably it was just his desperate wish to see him again.
"Can you still hear me, Optimus?" He asked in a whisper.
The ex scout came there often, because that place was the last where he saw his mate and he still could feel his presence. Sometimes the young mech thought to see a small spark fluttering close to the border before disappearing, but it didn't happen always and Bumblebee was abandoning hope.
Probably Optimus lost his awareness and now was one with the Well of the Allspark, too happy and in harmony with Primus to worry about the ones he left behind.
Stupid Prime.
Probably his beloved was much different before he became a Prime. He heard that he was an hard-working archivist and an employee. It was so strange thinking of the strong and wise warrior while he was too busy with data pads to go out for a pint of High Grade.
His life changed after his ambitious friend Megatronus tried to become a Prime. Their life changed forever after that day.
"I miss you all the time. Now I cry for you just once in a week." Bumblebee said with a smile. "I hope a day I'll be able to smile while I think of you."
The ex scout set on the border a small and ruined rectangular item. He carried it carefully, wrapped in his seat belt on the driver's seat.
An old data pad.
Time passed, but some things never changed.
"Happy anniversary, Orion Pax."