I really am sorry about how late this is. These last few months have been extremely hard for me, and I just couldn't find the time or the motivation to write. Well, actually, I do have about 30,000 words of pure angst and emo-ness saved on my laptop from the last couple of months, but those will never see the light of day. They embarrass me. XD

Anyway. Not much to say about this one. It's pretty short, sorry. :C But, it deals with important stuffs!

Someone should make a CartoonRussian-to-English dictionary. It was so hard to write that accent. XD

There will be another chapter soon, followed by a challenge round of drabbles which is heading towards 25,000+ words long! :D MY COMPETITOR WILL NOT WIN THIS ONE. I'LL HAVE MORE WORDS AAAAAAAAAAND CRACKIER PAIRINGS. –cackles- I'm excited to post that one, its coming along soooo well. I just need to write a few more drabbles AND THEN I'LL BE DONE! :D

Sleeping Sentinel likes to sleep. And molest cute little yellow sub-compacts. :B

Disclaimer: Don't own any of this stuff. :/

Chapter 5

"So, what's the prognosis, Mirage?" asked Sentinel, thrumming his fingers against his desk.

"It's… not good, Magnus." The blue mech admitted in his low, cultured voice. "Straxus is gathering an army. We know for a fact that almost all of the bounty hunters are being hired by him, and there's a rumor going around that he's even hiring Decepticons."

"What else? Anything new?" The stressed Magnus kneaded his forehead again, feeling a headache slither into his processors.

"Well, yes." Mirage blinked. "For the last few days before I left, he'd been sending off a deep-space cruiser every joor or two. He must be looking for something, but he's keeping it very hush-hush."

Sentinel shot a harshly searching look at the noblemech. He was one of Ultra Magnus's old spies, and, not that Sentinel didn't trust Ultra Magnus, he just always had a clinging dislike of the nobility. "So, he's off in space, lookin' for some big, bad intergalactic… thing." Sentinel growled, abandoning the thrumming to grip the desk firmly. "Slag, I can't follow him through space, he would notice."

"We could always just catch him hiring Decepticons, sir." Mirage suggested blandly. "That is illegal, you know, and he hasn't exactly been careful in covering up his tracks."

Sentinel shifted in his seat apprehensively, before standing up abruptly to shake the mech's hand. "That all?" He queried, before standing up abruptly to shake the mech's hand as Mirage gave a quick nod. The noblemech squeezed his hand in a calm but collected way. "You may leave now." Sentinel dismissed Mirage with a wave of the hand.

As the mech walked out the door, Sentinel realized the fallacy of the mech's seemingly-reassuring statement. Catching Straxus hiring Decepticon's wouldn't stop the malice flooding the nobility of Cybertron. No, Sentinel would need something… much more dramatic and powerful to suppress the current rage of the Alphas. Sentinel collapsed back into his chair, rubbing at his newfound processor and neck cable aches. Maybe I could get Bumblebee to rub them out for me, the Magnus thought absentmindedly.

And, he was right, too, for as soon as he curled up next to the yellow 'bot three joors later, after finishing up a few reports of course, the younger mech snuggled closer to Sentinel. He slept better than he had in vorns that night, Bumblebee's comforting presence making his stressful thoughts slip slowly away for the night.

At first, Sentinel's avid avoidance of Bumblebee was cute. Now, it was just plain annoying. How in the Pit was he supposed to deliver a report to a mech who won't even look at him?

Primus, the mech didn't even notice Bumblebee's abrupt pause in the middle of his annual thievery report. Bumblebee's optic twitched, frowning angrily as he finally gave up pretending that Sentinel was listening and not slowly creeping towards the door to escape.

And that's when Bumblebee snapped. "Holy Primus, Sentinel!" He yelled, slamming the datapad report on the blue Magnus's desk with a loud crunch. "I've seen sparklings handle relationships better than you do! What's your problem?"

Sentinel muttered something low under his breath, so faint that Bee couldn't hear it.

"We didn't even do anything!" The yellow continued furiously. "Why are you so embarrassed?" He pinned the mech with a confused look.

"Yes we did." Sentinel's optics slowly grew dimmer and dimmer.

"Um, no. No, we did not." Bumblebee argued flatly.

The Magnus did not deign a response to this, and Bumblebee realized what was going to happen a second too late. He watched blankly as Sentinel slowly slumped forward and landed heavily on his desk. A datapad crunched as its glass screen shattered from the impact.

"Frag my life." Bumblebee grumbled. He debated just leaving the mech there. He appeared to be recharged, his fans were whirring softly and his optics were offline. There's nothing wrong with a little bit of recharge, now, is there? Although, Bumblebee had a slight sense of déjà vu concerning the last time he encountered Sentinel sleeping on his desk. And, Primus knows, he did not want to repeat that situation.

Bumblebee turned to leave. Honestly, the mech deserved it. If Sentinel had no urge to help his subordinates, then his subordinates would have no problem returning the sentiment, even if the Magnus was potentially injured. Bumblebee's optics dimmed at that. What if he was injured? Was he sparkless enough to just leave him there?

He turned back to Sentinel, grumbling. Of course, the mech was still there, oblivious to the world. The click and low grumbling of his vents switching on startled Bumblebee into jumping. Bumblebee frowned and touched the mech's shoulder lightly to confirm whether or not Sentinel was overheating. It scorched his fingers and he pulled back with a hiss.

Sentinel was definitely overheating, Bumblebee decided with a grimace. The least he would do is get Sentinel to his berth and call Red Alert to check on him.

He pushed gently on the mech's shoulders to lift him up, his hands sizzling against the burning metal. He pulled back again. This isn't working, he thought with another frown. Not only was he not even budging the heavy Magnus, but he was damaging his lightly-armored servos. His thick chassis armor would protect him from the heat, but not his servos.

Bumblebee grimaced. He knew what he had to do, and he was not happy about it. He slowly made his way under the desk and underneath Sentinel, rising up so the recharging mech rested on his shoulders. Sentinel's weight was stifling, Bumblebee realized as he struggled to somehow balance the mech on his shoulders and walk to the berth at the same time.

He should've known that this wasn't going to work. As soon as he took his first staggering step, his blue burden slipped and crashed towards the floor. Bumblebee reacted quickly, grabbing Sentinel's head swiftly by his large audio receptors. Sentinel's face ended up pressing against Bumblebee's crotchplate. The yellow mech's optic twitched slightly at the horrific site, his servos moving as quickly as possible in order to move the mech.

A flicker of red on the desk caught his attention. The recently smashed datapad on the desk repeatedly flashed bolded glyphs. Pushing Sentinel's head away from his crotch and closer to his hip, Bee unconsciously leaned forward. The heavily-cracked datapad flashed 'TOP SECRET' in big, scarlet letters, and suddenly Bee needed to read it.

Oddly enough, the report was not password-encrypted. Bee had no trouble reaching the brief but shocking report. It read:

TO: Sentinel Magnus, Commander of the Autobot Elite Guard

FROM: Jazz, Intelligence Officer

DATE: 2nd Orn of the 256th Megavorn after the Decepticon's Defeat

SUBJECT: Update on the Alpha situation

New Special Ops team and bounty hunters ready and in place for the mission. Target is blissfully unaware of our presence. Awaiting your final order initiate the assassination.

Bumblebee gaped at the datapad. Just who was Sentinel trying to assassinate? They really weren't kidding when they slapped that 'top secret' label on the top of this one! Before Bumblebee could contemplate the datapad's contents completely, a sudden burning on his hip plates distracted him.

Sentinel's arms came up to rest on one side of Bumblebee's hip plates, gripping it faintly. Bumblebee turned to stare at the offending arms dubiously. Did they just move on their own? The last time he checked, they were hanging limply from Sentinel's broad shoulders and brushing the floor. At that moment, something warm and wet encompassed his other hip. Bumblebee whipped around to watch in discontent as the sleeping Magnus sucked on his hip gently.

"You have got to be kidding me." Bumblebee was not amused.

Meanwhile, on Earth…

Swoop cawed shrilly, perched in his newly made nest to bask in the sun. He had found a protruding ledge on the face of the mountain on Dinobot Island. Using strong tree branches and scraps from Meltdown's destroyed lab, he'd constructed a large, heavy nest supported by 3 strong, large, solid steel beams.

"Me Swoop like nest." The little Dinobot cooed. "Gives me Swoop room to stretch wings!"

Practically purring, the pterodactyl slowly slipped into recharge.

"INTRUDER!"

The roar echoed across the valley, startling Swoop out of recharge and out of his nest. He crashed down the mountain, finally grasping a hold of a strong tree on the rocky face and launching himself into flight after hitting a few boulders roughly.

A laser shot punched through the thin armor of his wing, tearing a shriek of pain from the Dinobot and forcing him to drop beneath the treeline as jet thrusters screamed from above. A purple jet fired haphazardly at the hidden Dinobot, dotting the forest with laser fire and lighting whole sections of the forest on fire.

Another deafening roar sounded behind Swoop, followed by the groaning of falling trees and thundering booms that shook the ground beneath him.

Swoop aimed a blind fireball at his attacker, who easily dodged the poorly aimed shot. Swoop took this momentary distraction to fly off, soaring above his attacker and landing a direct hit on the jet, blackening his cockpit, nosecone, and part of his left wing.

The jet quickly screamed across the horizon and out of Swoop's sight. The pterodactyl soared back up to his nest to survey his surroundings. The entire west side of the island was in uncontrollable flames, and trees were rapidly falling in the north. Dust clouds erupted around the falling trees, and the occasional roar sounded through the dust. Grimlock and Slag must be fighting up there, he realized and swiftly took off to assist his Dinobot brethren.

Dodging the incoming trees, Swoop raced to reach the scene on time. Not even a klik later, the flyer was greeted by plumes of dust and the booming thuds of giant pedes slamming to the ground. The dust cleared in reaction to Swoop's approach, giving him a glimpse of a proud Tyrannosaurus wrestling with a true behemoth of a mech.

Swoop shrieked a shrill encouragement for his brother, fluidly circling around the field. Pain suddenly flared in his back as cold, unforgiving steel pierced his spinal strut, jutting out from his underbelly. Automatically, his systems shut down his flight capabilities to concentrate on his impaled back. And he was falling, falling, falling, the harsh wind slapping at him as he soon met with Earth's one true constant: the ground.

The new scrap pile known as Swoop barely kept himself online. Over the blaring of internal alarms and his own slowing sparkbeat, the fall of his treasured brethren was as clear as day. His damaged vocalizers let out one last, dying shriek as he watched the strong alt. mode of Grimlock crash to the ground and cease to move.

After that, not even the burning slide of the energon blade in his back being pulled out penetrated the static invading Swoop's systems.

"I thought you said there were no Autobots left on this pathetic planet." An eerily unemotional voice sounded above him.

"Vell, I guezz I vaz vrong." The second voice, deep, heavily accented and vaguely female, chuckled from a distance away. "No mazzer! Load zem into ze ship, and make zure zey don' die on ze vay!"

A brief pause. "We're keeping them?"

The second voice boomed in laughter. "Of courzz! Zey vould make vine Decepticons."

A new sound killed the whimper crawling up Swoop's neck cables. The slow swipe of an energon blade being cleaned. "… What about BlackArachnia?"

"Ze mission haz been changed." The femme paused. "Bezidez, ve do not need zat traitor anyvay. Zere are other zientistz to take her plaze."

The mech's 'hmph' showed that he did not agree. "These filthy Autobots are not going to willingly join the cause."

"Vell. That iz vhat cerebro shells are for."

Swoop's processors finally failed, sending the lithe Dinobot instantly into stasis.