Secret

A/N: Just an idea I had - what if Cody knew the Rescue Bots' secret for longer than a day?

I can't tell you how much I appreciate your responses to these oneshots! If anyone has any prompts/suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

"I'm telling you, Graham, there's something up with our bots. Mine will either do stuff without me telling to, or it'll do something when I specifically tell it not to! It sucks at following orders…You too? No, I agree, we should bring it up with Dad. We can't have malfunctioning bots – they could jeopardize a mission, or worse, make us look bad –"

Heatwave's (infuriating) human partner had gone on in a similar refrain for the last fifteen cycles. When he was not complaining to one sibling about their "malfunctioning" Rescue Bots, he was complaining to both or to himself when either was busy. The day's patrol was tedious and uneventful, which Heatwave should have been grateful for, but for the last two megacycles he had honestly wished something would spontaneously combust, if only to give him something to do other than listen to Kade run his mouth.

So far Chief Burns was detaining any attempt on his offspring's part to convince him that their bots were not behaving in the expected 'robot' fashion. Of this Heatwave was appreciative, if only because he did not wish to deal with the young humans' reactions to the truth. He and his team were quite content with the two humans on Griffin Rock who did know their secret, and if they were forced to deal with the additional processor-aches of their oblivious partners (Heatwave especially), so be it.

To Heatwave's immediate relief, Kade turned him onto the firehouse driveway just as he shut down communications with his sibling. Allowing their partners access to their manual controls was just an added hindrance, but sometimes it allowed Heatwave the time to clear his head. Today was not one of those days, but perhaps Kade would start talking less and maybe tomorrow could be.

Kade pulled into the garage with a grumble about his fuel intake being low, and Heatwave engaged the parking brake before his partner had the chance. Kade startled, but turned around and kicked the door open with a stubborn expression, muttering about stupid robots and "letting Doc Greene have a look at them" as he stomped toward the human living quarters.

As if Heatwave would allow any human scientist to come within even an inch of his frame.

The garage was empty save for Heatwave, though he could detect the energy signatures of his teammates in the bunker below. Once he was certain that Kade would not be returning, he transformed to robot mode and made the necessary adjustments to reach the bunker.

He stepped off the lift and was greeted by the sound of the television set to whatever inane soap opera Blades had fallen in love with that week and his teammates scattered around the bunker.

"Hi Heatwave!" Cody cried in greeting from the floor, where he was in the midst of playing a colorful board game with Boulder and Chase. Blades had his upper chassis propped up on the sofa, his attention torn between the TV show and the game.

"How was patrol?" Cody added hopefully as Heatwave stalked across the room. He growled lowly, clambering onto the raised platform that housed the training dummies, and proceeded to beat the scrap out of them.

Cody winced. "That bad, huh?"

"I don't think Heatwave and Kade will ever get along," Boulder opined thoughtfully, examining the tiny playing card in his servo.

"Especially since they can't actually, y'know, talk to each other," Blades pointed out.

"Don't think I'd want to talk to him," Heatwave grunted, completing a particularly impressive sequence of movements against the dummy, diverting Cody from his game. Heatwave was almost always out of sorts after returning from any mission with Kade, and Cody hoped a distraction would put him more at ease.

"Hey Heatwave, did you used to fight on Cybertron?"

Heatwave paused mid-swing, momentarily shuttering his optics in surprise, and the expression was mimicked by the other Rescue Bots. He turned around, looking down at Cody with a quirked optic ridge.

"What do you mean?" He was not upset, only curious as to why the boy would ask, and made sure his rough tone conveyed just that. Heatwave had vented his frustrations (which seemed to only increase in number the longer they stayed in Griffin Rock) many times with Cody present, and despite his initial surprise at the bot's strength and ferocity, had made no comment.

Cody shrugged with deliberate offhandness, throwing a pair of dice onto his board game and moving a small piece of metal down four colorful squares. "Well it looks like you're really good at it. You were a firefighter back on your planet, so I get why you're strong, but not why you know how to fight." Cody grinned, passing the dice to Boulder. "Kade can't throw a punch to save his life."

Heatwave snorted, sitting down on the edge of the platform. "I can believe that. As for the fighting…"

"Heatwave learned that all on his own," Blades inputted with a sly grin.

"Through the attendance of various debauching bacchanalias," Chase muttered disapprovingly, taking the dice from Boulder and rolling an eight.

Cody looked at Boulder for clarification, and the engineer smiled at him ruefully. "Heatwave was in a lot of bar fights," he explained, while the fire-response bot sputtered in indignation.

"Don't tell him that!"

"But it is accurate," Chase cut in, looking over at Heatwave with a frankly unimpressed expression. "I myself had the duty of intervening on part of numerous conflicts you often participated in, and occasionally instigated."

Both Cody and Blades burst out in laughter at the betrayed look on Heatwave's faceplates. Boulder chuckled and Chase looked proud as he advanced on the board game.

"Alright," Heatwave interjected pointedly, glaring at his teammates. "But to answer Cody's question, I did not learn my combat skills through bar fights. I was taught by the Cybertron Elite Guard."

"The what?" Cody responded, looking perplexed. Blades rolled his optics.

"You've just gotta rub it in, don't you, Heatwave?"

"The Elite Guard was the pinnacle of Cybertron's military force," Heatwave explained with rare patience. "Only the best of the best went there. Of course, I didn't join, but one of the instructors was an old friend of mine and agreed to train me. Thanks to Kup, I was able to hold my ground in all those bar fights."

Cody was quit a moment, rolling the dice and moving his piece accordingly. "Why didn't you join?" he asked eventually. "I mean, I'm glad you didn't, but it sounds like something you'd like to do."

Heatwave nodded. "Yeah, I guess it does. But I think I realized then what I realize now – I need my team, and they need me. Besides, the Elite Guard's got a really high mortality rate."

"Aw," Boulder said, moving his game piece further down the board. "That was almost sweet."

"Boulder, you have landed on the fictional location of the "Boardwalk", upon which I own an overnight establishment," Chase informed his teammate succinctly and with a tinge of amusement. "You now owe me 2000 dollars of the false paper variety."

As Boulder groaned dejectedly and handed over the required amount, Cody snickered with a near incredulous look on his face. "Chase you own practically every property on the board!"

Chase appeared confused. "Is that not the purpose of the game?"

"Yes, but there's no need to rub it in," Boulder retorted good naturally.

The dice were handed to Chase, and from the sofa Blades gasped at something on TV. Heatwave snorted, hopping off the platform with care to avoid jostling Cody or the board game. "I'd say we've just about assimilated. If only Optimus could see us now."

His team shared a susurration of amusement, though Cody looked curious. "Who's Optimus?" he asked.

Heatwave fell silent, as did the others, and they glanced at one another with a touch of uncertainty. They had refrained from explaining too much to Cody, and had only covered the basics of whom they were and why they were on Earth. He knew they were from Cybertron, and they had come to Griffin Rock to learn human custom and put their skills to good use, but that was all.

"Optimus Prime is our leader," Heatwave explained, tension lining his frame as he dealt with an inner turmoil. "He's the leader of all Cybertronians – well, Autobots, at any rate."

"He was chosen when we were already in stasis," Blades elaborated, lowering the volume on the television. "We didn't even know we had a new Prime until we came to Earth!"

Their board game temporarily abandoned, Cody seemed determined to learn all he could about the Rescue Bots, as honest as they were being with him now. "There was more than one?"

"Sentinel Zeta Prime was still in command when we left Cybertron," Chase informed Cody, who did not appear satisfied.

"And how did Optimus become Prime? Was he elected?"

Chase prepared to answer, and would do so truthfully, of that Heatwave was certain, but he lifted a servo to silence his teammate. He crouched before Cody and told his straightforwardly, "Sentinel Prime was killed."

"Heatwave – "Boulder tried, whether to keep him from continuing or take over the explanation himself, but Heatwave cut him off.

"He deserves to know, Boulder." He glanced up to determine the reactions of his team – Chase looked resigned and Blades a little frightened, though he rose from the couch and joined the group gathered around Cody. Heatwave turned back to the boy who was appeared shaken but retained a resolute look in his eyes.

"Cody, when we left to patrol Cybertronian space in our ship, our planet was in trouble – we just didn't realize it. We were told that a rebel group calling themselves 'Decepticons' were gaining favor with the populous. Led by Megatron, they opposed the inequality in our society. It turned out that what he really wanted was control of Cybertron – and Sentinel Prime was in the way of that. The Decepticons kidnapped and killed Sentinel, and arranged a series of coordinated attacks against Cybertron. Optimus was chosen as Prime, the Autobots were forced to fight against Megatron and the Decepticons, and so started the War."

Cody appeared stricken, and for an instant Heatwave regretted telling him the truth. But then Cody inhaled deeply and looked up at the Rescue Bots with an expression of mixed awe and trepidation.

"You were told," he said softly.

Heatwave furrowed his optic ridges. "Huh?"

"You said that you were told," Cody repeated louder. "Heatwave… how long were you guys in stasis?"

Blades chuckled weakly behind him. "This is gonna sound ridiculous, but…"

"Four million years, "Chase said shortly. "Give or take a century."

Cody blinked owlishly at him. "What?"

Heatwave face palmed with a long ex-vent, both of them habits picked up from too much time around the humans. "The war went on for four million years. Our ship malfunctioned and locked us in stasis just before that."

"But," Cody stammered, clearly trying to process what they were telling him. "Four million years? How old are you guys?"

"Ancient," Boulder said warmly.

"Old as balls," Blades agreed with a solemn nod, and Cody burst into laughter.

"Blades!" Chase admonished. "You are aware that foul language is not to be used in Cody's presence! Younglings should not hear such vulgarity. What would Chief Burns think?"

Blades sputtered for a rebuttal, raising his servos defensively. "But-but I heard Kade say it!"

"Then by all means, Blades, repeat what the irresponsible Kade Burns has to say!"

As the pouting Blades continued to be lectured by Chase and then a slightly kinder Boulder on appropriate language around Cody, Heatwave leaned forward and claimed the boy's attention.

"Cody, I don't want you worrying about what happened in the past. After we met you, we weren't sure whether or not to tell you about Cybertron and the War. But I can count the number of humans we can trust on one servo and decided it was only fair you knew."

Cody positively beamed with pride. "You guys trust me?"

Chase turned away from Blades with a mutter about installing anti-swear programming, and gave the boy a small, sincere smile that Heatwave had only seen on the Enforcer's faceplates a few times. "Indeed, Cody. Admittedly, upon our first meeting I was doubtful we could confide in you. Humans as a species, younglings in particular, are notorious for their inability to keep anything of great magnitude a secret – for example, the existence of extraterrestrials. With you, however, I was pleasantly surprised."

Cody's eyes danced between the Rescue Bots, and his smile grew at they expressed their agreement.

"Besides," Heatwave added. "Even if Kade did know what we were, do you think I'd bare my spark to him? I might not think much of humanity, but you're the best example of the good ones."

"Thanks, guys," Cody said, and Heatwave was sure that his smile could outshine any supernova. "Really. Living in Griffin Rock might be interesting some days, but meeting you guys – that was amazing. You're my best friends."

"Aw," Blades murmured, sounding tearful, and scooped Cody up into a careful hug. "Thank you, Cody. We are pretty cool, huh?"

"Dork," Heatwave muttered, toning down his insult at Chase's pointed glare.

Blades had taken to cradling Cody as humans did their sparklings, despite the boy's vocal protests amid his laughter. "Blades," he snorted as the bot began rocking him back and forth. "I'm not a baby, you can put me down now – "

Cody's pocket emitted a series of strange musical notes that had Blades pause in his coddling. "My phone," Cody said quickly, pulling out a small rectangular device and immediately looking worrying.

"Hey, Dad," he answered, pressing the phone to ear. "No, I'm not at Frankie's. I'm –"Cody trailed off, looking up at Heatwave with wide eyes that seemed to scream 'what should I tell him?'

Heatwave smirked and nodded, though Blades got the message instead. "Tell him the truth," he whispered unnecessarily to Cody.

"Um…" Cody stammered. "Dad, I'm – I'm actually hanging out with the bots." There was a pause, and then Cody's face became a picture of surprise. "Wait, you knew? The whole time? Yeah, I've known for like a month! No, don't tell Kade, Graham, and Dani. I think we should surprise them."

At Cody's mischievous grin, Heatwave couldn't help but laugh.