A/N Similarities with this to any other work is (usually) accidental. I may have accidentally picked it up as 'fact' due to not knowing much about Transformers as I've only watched Animated, Cybertron and the 2007 movie. The non-accidental incident would be Sam as a mech, which I believe is a popular theory?
Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. If I did... Well, you don't want to know. Seriously.
Summary: Barricade is captured and taken to the Autobot HQ as a prisoner. Complications arise, and later Megatron is reawakened. Where will Barricade stand in all this? Barricade/Sam friendship, Bumblebee/Sam
Chapter One: Revival & a Fight
"Will it work?" Sam asked hopefully, as Ratchet finished mending the rest of Jazz's torn body. Sam hadn't known Jazz for long- Heck, they'd barely talked- But he still felt some affection for the Autobot. To him, the Autobots were a second family, and losing even one of them hurt... doubly so when he looked into the optics of his friends, and saw the grief that sometimes flickered through. And when those optics in particular were Bumblebee's, Sam's heart all but broke.
Ratchet put away the blowtorch and began tightening some bolts. "I don't know, kid..." he sighed. "Sam, are you sure you want to try this? Scans indicate that the residue energy from the Allspark in your body should be able to activate the shard that Optimus retrieved- However, there is no telling what could happen."
Sam frowned. "I told you, I'll do anything to bring Jazz back. I'm not gonna change my mind."
Ratchet sighed, finishing the last of the repairs, before Optimus handed the shard to Sam, who gripped it tightly. He held it over Jazz's body and concentrated on reviving Jazz, as Bumblebee began to sing to the Allspark, asking it to help with a final task.
A burst of bright light engulfed Sam an instant later.
---
Sam frowned, suddenly finding himself somewhere... else. The room Sam was in was entirely light- a glaring, sharp sort of light. Yet Sam found that he wasn't blinded. Sam turned to survey the area, but his thoughts were interrupted.
"What would you give up for the return of your friend?" A voice seemed to echo, reverberating throughout the room.
Sam frowned, but answered without hesitation. "Anything."
At this, the voice seemed to relax, letting out a chuckle that lightened the atmosphere and cleared Sam's mind, feeding him information- he supposed this was similar to what his friends seemed to call a databurst, though how he could receive one was beyond him- so that he knew who the voice was. Primus.
"And if you were to become a Cybertronian? Watching as your mortal friends pass in the blink of an eye?" Primus asked, solemn again.
Sam blinked in confusion, this time hesitating a second. Give up his life? Watch as Mikaela and Miles grew old, while he remained, without aging? But he knew what he had to do- Bumblebee and the rest of the Autobots came first in his heart. If he had to sacrifice his humanity... So be it. Nodding resolutely, Sam answered, "I'd do that, too. ...But what does this have to do with Jazz?"
Primus laughed again, and Sam could almost hear the smile in his voice. "Child, the energy in your body is nowhere near enough to revive your friend. Not even the Allspark can revive a mech this long dead. If Jazz is to be revived, you will have to channel my power through you and into the shard, then into Jazz. The wave of pure energy is not something a human can survive. Therefore, I will change you into a Cybertronian, first."
Sam nodded, but a thoughtful look crossed his face. "What about-"
"I will databurst how to do the most essential things, like transforming and some basic fighting techniques as well as a file on Cybertronian anatomy." Primus interrupted, anticipating his question. "You will not be much larger than Bumblebee and will need to know the weak spots in an average Cybertronian. Now, chose an alt form and we can continue."
"Alright... but hey, Primus? You have anything to tell the 'bots? I'm sure they'd love to hear from you."
"Tell them they're doing a great job as Autobots, then." Primus answered, and Sam was sure he could hear a smile in his voice. "Oh... and the rest of the Autobots are in the Aeros Galaxy, 42,575th solar system in. They met up there after an incident involving Wheeljack attempting to build a space bridge, I believe."
Sam nodded, and went ahead to decide on an alt form.
"One more thing..." Primus suddenly added. "That's not residual Allspark energy. You have a tiny bit of my Spark in you, enough so that you can heal hurt Cybertronians to some extent and at the very least maintain their condition."
Before Sam could say more or comment, the light flashed brighter until Sam had to shield his eyes.
---
Sam screamed as a felt raw power and energy flashing through him into the shard. It felt like lightning was coursing through him, lending power to the shard, and the power increased until Sam felt he would explode.
Ratchet frowned- His scans of Sam couldn't be right. "Optimus, Allspark energy readings are off the charts! This is far more than what Sam had in him... He seems to be getting the energy from somewhere."
"Where?" Optimus frowned, worried for the health of his medical officer. 'Off the charts' meant the energy was even greater than that of the Allspark, since Cybertronian charts could measure a huge amount of energy. That much energy being created just didn't seem possible.
"It's coming from the direction of... Cybertron." Ratchet looked up in wonder as he said this, running a systems check to make sure his scanners weren't malfunctioning. "Optimus, how is this possible?"
Optimus shook his head. "I do not know, Ratchet..." he looked up as the bright light began to fade. "...But I believe we are about to find out."
---
Sam looked up as the pain faded, and his eyes met with- The ceiling? Oh, right, he was Cybertronian now. That probably meant he was taller. He looked down at Jazz, whose optics were just beginning to flicker to life.
No one, however, was looking at Jazz, besides Sam. Ratchet, Bumblebee and Optimus were staring in astonishment at Sam, who turned and blinked. "What? Did Primus make me ugly or something?"
"Er- No." Optimus answered, still dumbstruck. "But how?"
"Explanations later!" Ratchet ordered. "Everyone! OUT NOW! I need to do some scans on Jazz to make sure he's fully recovered."
Bumblebee grinned at the 'new and improved' Sam. "You're actually handsome, by Cybertronian standards," he answered cheerfully. Sam rolled his optics... Or, well, he had the 'I'm rolling my eyes' tone, at any rate.
"Whatever, let's just go before Ratchet blows a gasket."
"Agreed."
---
"Jazz is fine." Ratchet walked out of the medbay, sounding relieved. Jazz walked out behind him.
"So, what's been go- Whoa, who's that? Never seen him before. Funky armour." Jazz blinked as he stared for a second at Sam, whose armour was black with silver streaks. The plating shone as though newly polished (which it technically was). Sam was just a little taller than Bumblebee. "Wait, let me guess." Jazz stared hard at Sam's face. Sam twitched- he was beginning to feel somewhat uncomfortable.
"It's me, Sam." Sam smiled up at the newly revived Autobot. Who was pouting.
"I wanted to guess."
"So Sam, how exactly did this happen?" Optimus asked, curiously. Sam gave Optimus a quick rundown of what he had experienced with Primus. When he was done, all of the Autobots were staring at him in awe. "You spoke with Primus?" Optimus stared.
"Yup, and he databurst to me how to use this form, too." Sam said, cheerfully. "Thankfully, I don't have to scan an alt mode since Primus incorporated it into my form."
"Your alt form being...?" Bumblebee questioned.
Sam shrugged. "I made it up."
Optimus stared. "Won't that attract attention?"
"Nope, I can just say it's still a prototype. Bes-" Abruptly, the alarm went off. Optimus rushed to the computer.
"Barricade's been spotted just south of here." he announced.
"What are we waiting for?" Sam said excitedly. "Let's go!" He transformed into a sleek black and silver car and rushed off. Bumblebee followed, with Ratchet yelling, "Hey! I haven't checked you yet!"
As Optimus, Jazz and Ironhide left, Ratchet grumbled, slowly trailing behind.
---
"Slag!" Barricade muttered as his censors picked up six Autobots heading towards him- Wait, six? There were only four Autobots now, with Jazz dead. That meant that the Autobots had two new arrivals. Frowning, he stopped. Running wouldn't help, but he had no chance against six Autobots, either. Then again, he wouldn't go down without a fight.
Barricade transformed as the first two of the Autobots arrived. He recognised the second one as Bumblebee, but who the slag was the first one?
Sam transformed, a grin evident in his voice. "Bet you're wondering who I am. This is Ladiesman217... Now known as Nightslicer."
Barricade snorted unbelievingly. "Even if that were true- which is very unlikely- Why in the Pit would I care?!" With that, he charged his plasma cannon and shot at Sam, who ducked and rolled.
Bumblebee laughed, transforming. "Just thought of that, did you Sam? I'm more used to Sam, you know."
"So am I. I just want the Decepticons to know me by that name." Sam grinned back, dodging another one of Barricade's shots and sending out a shot of his own, discreetly launching a cutting disk at the same time. Barricade, dodging the shot, rolled right into the path of the disk, which cut through some wires. Barricade let out a hiss of pain.
"It'll take more than that to defeat me!" Barricade growled angrily, sending a shot at Sam and ducking to avoid one of his shots at the same time, rolling toward Bumblebee. Abruptly he came up with his cannon pointed right at Bee's spark chamber.
"Attack and your friend dies." Barricade growled.
Sam shrugged. "Oops- Guess you should pay attention to which wires are cut, huh?" At that exact same time, Barricade's cannon powered down.
"What?!" Barricade screeched angrily. "You'll pay for that!" Launching himself at Sam, he punched into Sam's face, torso and legs in a flurry of punches. Sam staggered back- He wasn't a melee fighter. He did, however, manage to jam a disc into Barricade's other cannon. Growling angrily, Barricade shot Sam with the aforementioned cannon twice before it powered down.
---
When Optimus arrived, they found Sam in stasis, a heavily injured but still conscious Bumblebee, and a severely injured and very unconscious Barricade.
"...I kind of lost it when he knocked Sam into stasis." Bumblebee admitted.
"Good!" Ironhide grinned a feral grin. "The sooner we turn this Decepticon slag into a heap of scrapmetal, the better!" Aiming at Barricade, Ironhide charged his cannons.
"Easy, Ironhide," Optimus cautioned. "We should just capture him."
"What?! Why?!"
"Because, Ironhide, with the Allspark gone we are the last of our kind. We should discuss more in depth whether we should kill him or not." Optimus answered, glaring.
"...Whatever." Ironhide muttered.
---
"Ugh... I feel like I just got pummeled, then shot, then pummeled again.." Sam groaned, trying to get up.
"That's because you DID!" Ratchet yelled, glaring at Sam. "What glitch made you do such an idiotic thing as to attack Barricade when you JUST GOT INTO YOUR NEW BODY?!"
"New body...?" Sam mumbled. Then his optics widened in horror and realisation. "Oh, no. Nonononono! I thought it was a dream!"
"That's no excuse!" Ratchet retorted. "And are you saying you wouldn't have helped Jazz if you'd known it was real?!"
"Of COURSE I would have!" Sam replied indignantly. "But what will Mikaela say?!"
Ratchet promptly ignored him and muttered, "You're just lucky your self-repair works so abnormally fast." Doing one final scan of Sam, he told him that nothing else was wrong and he had somehow managed to heal in just six hours from the incident. With the 'bruises' taking all of two seconds to heal.
Sam nodded in thanks, and walked out of the medbay- And was promptly hugged by Bumblebee.
"I'm so sorry, Sam." Bumblebee said, guiltily. "I know I should've helped you, but I figured you'd want to fight yourself, and you seemed to be doing pretty well, and I thought you should have some experience, and when you did get hurt I couldn't react in ti-"
"Bumblebee, shut up." Sam interrupted. Bumblebee abruptly stopped and stared at Sam with a questioning, and still guilt-filled look. "I'm fine now, alright? And that's what matters. So you don't have to keep feeling guilty over something that wasn't your fault. You're right- There's no way I would've let you help me anyway."
"But-"
"But nothing." Sam glared, daring Bumblebee to say more. Bumblebee subsided, looking away. At that point, Sam focused enough to realise something. "Bumblebee! You're hurt!" Anxiously, he ran over to Bumblebee and began to inspect his injuries.
"It's nothing," Bumblebee insisted, pushing Sam away. "I'm still functioning, so I told Ratchet to treat you first."
"Bumblebee..." Sam frowned. He shouldn't have done that. Then again... "Let me try something." Walking forward, Sam placed his hand on Bumblebee's chest, concentrating on repairing him to health. Sam grinned as he felt a tingling energy flow through him and into Bumblebee, who was beginning to glow.
"Sam, how are you...?" Bumblebee started in amazement, then quieted interrupted when his armour seemingly came to life, undenting itself and knitting back together where the metal had been torn. After twenty minutes, Bumblebee was fully healed.
At that point, Optimus, Jazz, and Ironhide walked into the room and stopped in surprise. "What just happened?" Optimus questioned. "How did Ratchet repair that much damage from two mechs in just six hours and twenty minutes?"
"He didn't." Sam answered. He then proceeded to tell the Autobots of how he had a part of Primus' Spark in him, and could heal. Apparently that applied to himself as well.
"Primus did WHAT?!" Ratchet burst out of the medbay. Apparently, he'd been listening in. "What else didn't you tell us?!"
"Uh..." Sam thought back to his encounter with Primus. "...The rest of the Autobots are apparently in the Aeros Galaxy, 42,575th solar system in?"
The reaction to the news was very varied. Optimus smiled, Bumblebee and Jazz whooped, Ironhide and Ratchet proceeded to give Sam a yelling that would last a lifetime for 'not telling them sooner'.
"Oh!" Sam suddenly realised something. "What happened to Barricade?"
Ironhide frowned. "The piece of slag was captured. Optimus wanted him alive, but I wanted him dead. We were waiting for you to wake up to decide."
Sam blinked. "Why wait for me?"
"Bumblebee and myself think Barricade should be killed," Ironhide explained. "But Ratchet and Optimus want him alive."
"And Jazz?"
"I haven't exactly met Barricade, ya know?" Jazz pointed out. "Even before this Earth business, the only time I saw him was when he was beatin' up on some poor mech. Which pretty much all Decepticreeps do."
"Well..." Sam thought. Having someone's life on his hands wasn't something he liked. "I think we should give him another chance at all this."
"What?!" Bumblebee started, surprised. "But he nearly killed you!"
"All the same," Sam replied, "I can't just let someone die. Megatron was an exception, but I'm not doing it again. At any rate... When Barricade was attacking me, I saw something in his optics.. It was like some small part of him didn't really want to be there, fighting. Or at least not as a Decepticon."
"You think he could be an Autobot?!" Ratchet snorted. "Even I doubt that."
"I'm just saying he should be given another chance." Sam pointed out. Optimus nodded.
"Alright, then. Barricade will remain our prisoner for know. Sam, you're in charge of him."
"But sir-" Bumblebee protested. Sam turned and eyed Bumblebee.
"You can come with me if you want to make sure I'm safe." Sam looked at Bumblebee. "Bumblebee.. You know it too. No matter what a person has done, there's always room for change."
Bumblebee sighed and subsided, nodding. He knew.
A/N: I know Barricade fought with a mace in the movie, but using a mace is a veryyy bad idea when outnumbered. I figured he'd do the smart thing and use his long-range weapons.