Disclaimer: do not own Transformers.

Summary: Oneshot, AU G1. The truth is that there is no war. It's all a lie, a mockery, a play put on for a gullible audience by a cast of fools.

Rating: K+

Cast of Fools

It is growing dark, and Bumblebee approaches the house that had served as the Witwicky residence ever since the father and son had met the Autobots. None of the lights are on, the windows are bare, and in the driveway, the family's car is attached to a trailer. Sparkplug and Spike emerge from behind the trailer, apparently finished with packing and ready to hit the road. The pair stop short when the see the yellow bug emerge from the shadows, enter their driveway, and transform.

Sparkplug recovers from his shock first, and he pushes his son behind him. Spike won't have any of that, however, and steps to the side.

"I need to ask Bumblebee something," Spike says. He and his father exchange a significant look.

"I'll wait for you in the car," Sparkplug says finally, giving Bumblebee one last glare.

Spike and Bumblebee look at one another. There's a large space in between them, and neither makes a move to close it.

"Leaving without a goodbye?" Bumblebee asks, trying to grin but failing.

"You don't deserve one," Spike says shortly.

"How long did you know?" Bumblebee manages to ask. Because, though Bumblebee had tried to deny it, he knows that they know. They all know. Raoul was among the first, then Chip, then Carly…all their other human allies, putting the pieces together and figuring out that they had been made fools of. Not even actors in this play, delegated instead to the status of puppets and props. Spike and Sparkplug are the last of their human allies to fall away. Starscream would have said that it is because they are the most foolish, but Bumblebee thinks that it is because they are too trusting, too ready to see goodness and kindness when it is offered. They had seen what the other humans saw, but had refused to believe, had refused to listen to the blaring alarms, had refused to acknowledge what was being revealed about their 'friends.'

But not anymore. Now they know, and embrace the truth in all its harsh glory.

Some of what they had told the humans was true; their people are dying out, but it isn't because of war. The truth is that there is no war. The Autobot and Decepticon factions are farces. The truth of the matter is that Cybertron had been and still is a starving planet, undone by its own hunger for progress.

But then…a miracle. They found an energy-abundant planet, ripe for the harvest. However, there was a hitch in their plans; this planet was dominated by humans.

They had been disgusted by the human race, whose history was pitted with conquest, violence, pain, and death. They had been horrified with the things that they did to each other and the things that they let each other endure. On Cybertron, with each individual connected to each other intimately in a way that the humans could only dream, they didn't hurt each other, because there was no other. They were each part of a whole.

And if they did this within their own race, they had been sure that this brutal race would not have sympathy on their own starving, dying race. The humans took to change and new populations badly; they destroyed that which they feared and which they could not understand.

The Cybertronians did not fear these inferior people who were, in comparison to them, as fragile as glass. However, they were a peaceful race and did not enjoy the prospect of xenocide, which seemed the inevitable outcome of crossing onto human territory.

Humans did not seem the type to share their resources, and the Cybertronians would not let themselves be destroyed.

So they came up with a plan, a script, a play. An introduction of two groups of aliens, one a killer of humans, the other their defender. One group to steal energon and the other group to be given it by a grateful population, because they knew this: humans took care of that which could protect them, took care of that which protected their interests. And as long as the "Decepticons" toed the line, the humans were content with letting the "Autobots" deal with them.

Energon was gathered, and the humans were happy. A win-win situation.

Granted, the closeness they had with some of the humans was unexpected. They had not expected the offered help, though they took it gratefully, improvising on their script and adding a part for the humans to strengthen their own personas. But they hadn't expected the sheer fragility of these beings.

Though the Decepticon "enemies" were careful, there were the occasional mishaps. Megatron's run-in with Bumblebee and Spike, which had led to a very large plot twist in their improvised play, had been a sheer accident, a misinterpretation of cues by both sides. The parts that the "Decepticons" had to play were infinitely harder than those that the "Autobots" had to play.

But they hadn't expected the courage, the tenacity, the integrity…the quality in their human companions that could only be described as humanity. They gradually (and some reluctantly) found out that, though they were capable of great horror, they were also capable of great compassion.

Their human companions did take pity on them, to their surprise. They treated them as family, and were treated as family in return.

The Autobots started feeling ashamed of their motives. The Decepticons were quickly disgusted with their characters.

But… they are too far in now. They can't stop the play. The action is rising, and they haven't yet reached the climax.

And all the humans have already exited, stage left.

How did they find out?

Perhaps they started wondering why, if the Decepticons are as bloodthirsty and as powerful as both factions make them out to be, why do they content themselves with what is comparably petty thefts? Or why, though Red Alert is such a security obsessed nutcase, why Lazerbeak always manages to find his way through the Ark in time to reveal some major Autobot plot?

There are too many plot holes in their play, inconsistencies within the storyline, stinted dialogue and forced acting. It had revealed them, had shattered the fourth wall and spit on the pieces.

Spike doesn't answer how they found out for sure, and instead, he asks, "Was any of it real?"

But Bumblebee can't answer that. He doesn't know the answer. He's been in this play for too long; the truth is that he doesn't know if he truly cares for this organic who once called him friend, or if all his concern for his 'little buddy' is all for the sake of their deception, all just pretend.

At Bumblebee's silence, Spike's gaze hardens, shifting from vulnerable and desperate to nothing short of betrayed. He delivers his ultimatum: he and his father are moving away. None of the Transformers are to go near him or his father ever again. If they so much as try to find them, they'd tell the truth to the whole world.

It's an empty threat, and they both know it. If either Spike or Sparkplug, or for that matter, any of the humans, attempt to speak to the media, they would be ridiculed and laughed at. But Spike does make his message clear: Act all you want, prolong this play for as long as you like, but we are no longer your props.

Spike turns his back to his former friend, and Bumblebee knows that nothing he says or does will make him turn back.

And as Bumblebee watches the small weathered car pull away and enshroud itself with shadow, he pretends again.

He pretends it doesn't hurt.