Transformers/Beast Wars 1. Betrayal

**Queen's Notes:** I've been working on this since a few days after seeing the TF4 movie, it took a while because I've been sick, and still am (bronchitis is horrible, and what fun I'm going to have it for a long bunch of weeks it was/is so bad x.x), but I just couldn't shake the thought of what happened to the Wreckers. Beyond a glimpse-clip of Leadfoot in the movie, though it implies they died...

I just can't see that.

So, here's me, as someone who loves the movie Wreckers (and Roadbuster!) so much that I came up with this. I'm trying really hard to keep this as alined as possible with the movies, and not slide into my Level Workers saga style of things. However for the story... there are a few things I just have to break, as in some characters that where killed off in the first three movies I deeply believe shouldn't have been, or that the 'death' made no sense, then you'll see or hear about them.

I really love the size differences between humans and mechs, and how they can interact so well. So I'm going to be playing with that. There's a few 'odd' moments, such as a scene I did for my friend Kitra XD

Thank you to those who read, reread and reread and reread while I wrote this [Storm, Blue, Kitra, Ultra Rodimus].

**Wreck an' Rule**

Part One

Betrayal

The sun had almost completely dipped under the horizon, painting not only the land in purples and reds but the rare thunderhead above as well, with a few streaks of vivid orange reflecting on the curves of the cloud formation. The storm looked like it had already let it's contained water free to the northeast, and it would take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours for the water to reached this road. Or if it didn't then the flash floods might make it this far instead in the nearby wash.

When the rain finally fell, it can in warm sheets that washed over crusted sand, rocks, loose quartz crystals, the pavement and finally descend on the old gas station. The overhang for the nearly dry pumps was mostly intact, the building standing, though the garage was hollow looking, the former shop was something out of a horror or zombie movie. The old fridge inside still had a few bottles of beer and cola, stale chips from thirty years ago, even a pack of smokes on the counter that used to serve coffee, shakes, eggs and bacon like things to truckers and travelers. The kitchen in back had pots hanging from one wall, a pan on the stove had started to grow a micro forest of molds, only to dry up in the desert air from one of the open back doors.

As the night closed in on the land and those few people in it now, steam rose up off both of the road, as well as the sun-heated metal from a few beater trucks and cars sat to one side in a bone yard. The air was filled with the thick, rich scent of hot, wet pavement. There was also slightly sharper smell of heated and wet rock, but it wasn't nearly as strong near or on the old highway.

It was an acrid smell that was somehow wonderful, a scent that Robert Epps knew most of his life. He had learned that the mechs he worked with over the last few years had fallen in love with it. It was something just a little familiar that they found on this world. With the mechs the man knew better, the Wreckers, loved it even more. Normally driving them out to go racing each other with curses and laughing in a truly alien language.

But right now, no one was enjoying it, or noticing the rain more than it being like a kick to the ribs when they were already down on the ground.

The six standing men were shouting, trying to coordinate around the mech that would normally tower over them. It would be an understatement to say the humans were over-armed, both with manmade weapons and the eerie silver-black-shine of alien metal that the men had in place of body armor. As well as scaled down versions of what the some Cybertronians had for hand held weapons. A couple of these men, unknown to their own government, even most of the- now seemingly former- Nest agency were techno-organic with faster reflexes and stronger bodies.

The green and silver mech gave what could only be called a roar, struggling to rise as one of the humans half climbed up on his right side, trying to get to the open wound above him. The man was reaching in fearlessly through the energon as it bled out, to get to the currently exposed inner workings. Shouts between the men wove between the alien words and yowls of pain. The Wrecker was trying to push the two humans off him, dropping to his knees as he was off balance as one of his armor panels dropped. It hit the old road, adding another crack to the ground.

"Come on! _Hold him down_\- pull the muscle cables to get him down!" The dark skinned man, Epps, yelled as he was jumping to put his full weight onto one of mech's wrists, reaching into the joint itself to tug on one of the black muscle like cables inside. He could feel a charge but the clawed hand spazzimed, letting go of Jorge before the mech could pull the other man off him, "'Buster! _Stop!"_

"Mech- come on we're trying to close this shit!" Another man yelled as the Nest agent fumbled with a welder in one hand, and a strip of metal to try and seal the hole from a 'small' sabolt-round, where energon was oozing out. The answering keen from the Wrecker tore at the ears and chests of the humans, having never heard Roadbuster in this much pain, so much that the mech wasn't even cursing as he tore at his armor as well as the green and white kibble.

"What are you doing- _Roadbuster!"_ Epps yelled as he was lifted off the ground, jarring as the mech dropping back to his knees. Epps could feel his armor and cloths getting soaked, and not just from the rain as the mech was above him. The sharp-warble-buzz of Cybertronian words reverbed from the mech as he pulled his hands free, claws extended and digging at his chest. "_Stop!_" he yelled again, unable to understand the Wrecker dialect being used- _why_ did the transformers have to have as many dialects and languages as humans?!

The mech gave a sound between a fax machine being strangled, and a groan like tone, trying to shrug off the humans as he tore at his chest plates this time. It was a deliberate action, and the men couldn't fathom the reason behind it. Unable to understand what the mech was trying to do, it looked more like self-mutation from their point of view as more green and white chucks and panels were dropped. He needed out of them, even pulling off one of his nine visible guns on his sides

Green optics- no longer hiding under the now cracked (though normally color changing) visor, looked up at last, spotting the garage door that two of the six soldiers were struggling to open. A seventh form was laying near limp on the ground nearby. He warbled, calling to them as Roadbuster felt his systems still flooding internally. He needed _out_ of his armor, dropping down to be on his hands and knees the mech gargle and made a near full body motion as certain systems spazzemed. Fluid was starting to drain from his middle and lower chest now, different in the light of the human flashlights from the rain water pooling now. Some part of the Wrecker noted with a string of pride the humans under, and on him weren't panicking as some back at the base would have by getting the stuff, along with energon and other fluids on them like Epps and another were. The man glanced down to see what the stuff was, the erratic lights showing the fluid being a bronze color, with streaks if silver flecked in.

"What the hell is this Epps?" One man asked, Jorge, whipping the sticky stuff off of the rapidly becoming bare gray-black frame of the mech.

"Something that shouldn't be leaking out." The techno-organic said, turning and then pointed, "Come on, everyone! We need to get 'Buster under cover- can you do that mech?" He moved to grab the bare left arm, a split second before the integrated saw-of-unholy-hell, started to disconnect.

Roadbuster hissed, reaching with his right arm to finish pulling the weapon off, and then the other saw blade and rig off that arm. Much to the worry and then panic if the Nest agents at his actions. With a growl and shiver, half lunging forward at the encouragement to get to the gas station, the mech had disconnected one of the two launchers that rested over his shoulders, it tilted and hung at an odd angle before it dropped. More than one of the six men cursed after the new heavy hunk of metal cracked and added new scars to the road.

Roadbuster was never seen without his launchers, locking them down if needed, but even when first walking down the Xanthium's ramp he had been decked out like a living armory as Topspin had been. Something was very wrong, as the mech crawled forward, shedding parts- or nearly ripping them off, even the heat exhaust tubes on either side of his 'rib cage' were taken off. The mech had to stop, gripping one of the old gas pumps hard enough that his claws warped it before piercing the metal, it bent farther as he shifted weight onto it, his right hand scrabbling at his chest again. Then with sounds no-one had heard from an Autobot or Wrecker before, Roadbuster started doing what they could only describe as heaving as he started purging out his primary, and ruptured tank.

Epps scrambled out of the way as the Wrecker lifted on his knees only to drop his shoulders, trying to get that same bronze colored fluid out as fast as possible, using gravity to help. He caught the glitters mixed in with the thicker fluids, making a note of it for later as Epps gritted his teeth and moved around to the mech's head, "Jack, other side, grab the helm," he half yelled, half ordered.

"Gross Epps that's-"

"Robotic puke, yeah, yeah. Suck it up and grab the jaw line!" The dark skinned man said, shoving his gun farther up on his back, getting a better grip on the rain-water slicked, green-black metal. "Remember what Ratchet said, we got to force his intakes to output." Epps said as he felt around with his right hand in the junction where jaw met helm and the neck cables.

On the other side of Roadbuster's helm, Jack grunted as he felt one of the large hands start to wrap around his right leg and up the side. "Don't you dare big mech, we're trying to _help_ so-" He grunted again as he used the metal digits to brace against, then found the same spot under the flex metal as was on Epps' side. It was a like a pressure point on a human, only when this pushed up, and then back, had a reaction of making the muscle cables half freeze, and all the inner 'valves' all switching to output. As long as Jack and Epps could hold on, the mech could finish the purge.

"You so owe us for this shit…" Epps gritted his teeth as the Wrecker couldn't help moving in the next set of heaving motions, forcing the humans in an odd shuffle-dance to stay in place. "Mongo!" The man yelled over his shoulder.

"Almost got it!" The man on Roadbuster's own right side yelled back, it wasn't easy staying balanced like normal, as the mech no longer had as many hand and foot holds. With Jorge's help just below though, the oozing flow of energon was stopped. "Ratchet's so not going to like this..."

"He wouldn't like losing 'Buster either, he can bitch about the duck tape later." Jorge said, taping over the newly welded section as extra protection from seeping, looping the roll a few times before almost doing a pull up to reach a smaller leak and tape that as well.

A low sound came from above and around them, half that whale like groan and half vibration. It warped and altered into rising and falling pattern. More than Mongo felt the first hopeful thread as they realized that the strange sound was an attempt at a chuckle as the mech coughed the last of the mixture that was in his tank up. It would coat a good section of the pavement under the overhang, and maybe at some other time they would be concerned for the little bit of echo system around. However, they weren't all that much right now, not with their metallic ally and friend seeming like he was dying.

At the moment, Roadbuster was keening again, if a bit of a lower level as he was forced to look up at where the last two, three, men were.

"Can you make it?" Epps asked as he glanced up, seeing where Marc and Eddie were carrying the seventh, and still limp human between them. Ducking under the mostly open garage door, as they shuffled to the inside door that linked to the gas station itself. No one knew about the open back door yet.

"...fraging..." The mech muttered, tilted his head one way and the other, freeing his head from the two humans. Epps and Jack let go of the trigger points and moved aside, still trying to grab and try supporting the mech in some small way as he slowly pushed himself up to hands and knees. Mongo scrambled, feeling Jorge boosted him up so the tattooed man could get a good hold and pull himself the rest of the way, to cling to Roadbuster's back.

"Jorge, toss that stuff up!" Mongo yelled, bracing his feet and looping one arm on an external support and leaning over to extend his right arm down to catch the silver roll that was thrown up. He half rolled himself into the middle of Roadbuster's back, flopping down as he pulled a strip of the duck tape out, biting it free. He had just enough time hang onto the roll with his teeth as he started wrapping another, much smaller spot that had energon and a clear-green mix weeping out the torn looking line near the spine-like support. He wrapped another strip over that before looking up and started moving back and to one side, climbing down to the hip joint and then thigh of the mech.

The Wrecker had to pause, shifting to reach out and lift the sliding garage door up the rest of the way. He was the only one not to flinch at the screech of metal and un-greased workings, instinctually unbothered as the humans were. Green optics scanned around, able to see better in the dark then the men, even with the flash lights sweeping around the abandoned place. Noting tools that, had they not been metal, might have started rotting away a decade ago. There was an eerie feeling of everything having been just... dropped and left behind, strong enough that the mech felt it as he paused with head and shoulders just starting to enter the garage.

"It's okay, come on big mech," Jack coaxed, one hand on the mech's black-grey forearm.

Roadbuster gave a longsuffering vent as he shifted, half dropping onto his elbows, sliding in more as the humans moved things around to open the space up more. Jorge was the last to enter, scanning around as he checked the sky more than the landscape, very aware of the metallic feet on either side of him. He turned in time to see the Wrecker's back scraping the garage door, grunt and lower himself more.

Then it made sense.

Roadbuster wasn't transforming back into car form, and from that mad and admittedly rocky ride out here, he likely _couldn't_. With all the exo-armor and alternate mode kibble, the mech wouldn't have been able to fit into their only cover for miles around. Jorge glanced back at the pumping stashing of the building, noting that semi trail of alien metal and 'car' parts. He turned and scanned for something useful in the debris to cover the bigger chucks like the launchers and saw-rigs.

The mech grunted as he did a controlled collapse, rolling onto his left side. Green optics flicking to watch as the big man, Eddie started shouldering the door connecting the work garage to the shop itself. The other dark skinned man slammed his weight against the door again before looking up at a mechanical growl.

"Shit!" Eddie almost tossed himself to the side, instead of at the door as the clawed hand descended and drove into the door, ripping it off the hinges and moving to the other side. "...That's one way to do it." The second techno-organic said looking up from the reflex to cove the limp man on the ground that Marc was supporting now.

"Worked..." the mech rasped as he shook that hand a few times, and then resorted to flexing his digits to get rid of the thick wood and glass. He looked back as Eddie moved to help lift the wounded man up again, reaching back over. The large hand lowering, curling to get the rounded edges of his claws to brush against the semi conscious man, "Tanner?"

"Hey boss man..." the man wheezed as he wrapped an arm around a few of the metal digits. "Don't die..."

Roadbuster rumbled back, "That's an order to you Tanner." The mech gave a growl to emphasize, he saw too many of the humans fall, both the Autobot allied and potential Wrecker-humans. If these seven were the last, then by Primus he didn't want to lose any more _Crew_.

Tanner stayed as limp as he could to make it easier to be carried, and watch the green glowing optics as long as he could before Marc lifted him up higher. Eddie let go to push two tables aside, tossing the chairs aside for now, then helped lift the injured man up to start getting body armor and fabric off him to see the full extent of the damaged now that they weren't cramped in a impala or hanging onto the outside like a barnacle without the glue.

The mech was heard on the other side of the wall as he warbled, the sound like hybrid mix of low clicks, a purring machine and a whale song. It was completely new to the humans, and in the garage the mech getting his pedes pushed to try and get him in enough to close the old door.

Roadbuster only shifted, pushing himself partly up and hissed next, one hand reaching out to tug on Epps pack for attention, "Get something... seal my tanks..." he ordered but it almost sounded more like a plea to anyone that had spent several years working with the Foreman.

"How?" Epps shrugged off his pack, stripping the armor plates as well. Those where light weight, but the alloy that it was made up of _was_ Cybertornian made... Not nearly as effective because it just wasn't as thick or dense as what the mech's carried on their persons for obvious reasons with the size scale differences. He thrust out his arms to catch what was dropping out of the air beneath the palm in front of him. The air had shimmered in that way of the mechs using sub-space, and Epps managed to catch most of the things that were just dropped out. He looked down at the part, or rather tool in his hand. It was one of the things Ratchet had made, for the human 'mecha medics' to use back in Nests' 'glory days,' and what Mongo had been using.

There was just a moment of pain, as the hybrid man remembered a few months ago. He had been watching Roadbuster leaning over from the spot he was sitting, extending a claw to tap a few of the human sized welders to subspace and claim them, his visor never leaving the screen but likely watching the distracted Ratchet who had been watching the race as well for a few minutes.

"Patch, seal it with any metal." Roadbuster was adjusting himself, bringing Epps back, seeming to take in a deep breath with his chest and then front expanding. Protoform armor plates slid aside with mechanical whispers of sound, "That'll work just make sure its all sealed." He had seen the man take the plates off, they were made out of smaller, well, plates that were layered. "I'll talk yea through it... it'll take two of yea."

"Mongo, Jorge, strip the armor off, pull it apart if you can," Epps called, raising his voice to those inside, "Eddie! Toss you're armor to the door!"

"We need some help in here too!" The bigger man yelled back.

"And there's a trail of green metal and guns," Jorge pointed out as he started disarming to get to the layer of his own armor under it all, Glancing over as Jack started to the inside. "We need to take care of that slag."

"Later," Epps said as he tossed a fresh welder to Mongo along with one of the mech-fabic gloves, the two moving in on the mech as he flared his armor and did a partial transformation that just looked painful with parts being held up and stopped mid motion.

Later, but hopefully not too much later, Epps thought, the stop was blocking out most ways of watching- at least he hopped it did. Yet Jorge had a point, if they could get the assorted bits and parts out from plane view the better, though just one of those shoulder-launchers was going to take most all them to move.

The two men focused, having pulled their armor apart as instructed, bring handfuls each with as they had to pretty much take turns climbing deeper into Roadbuster's frame. The mech clearly didn't like the sensations any more, if not more than the two men liked having to do it. Yet it must be done. So with stressed static crackles in his voice, Roadbuster described what was to be seen- threatened to eat anyone that left things rattling in his frame- what the two humans could and could not touch. He wasn't a medic, but the leader of the Wreckers did know more than enough to help other Cybertronians, as well as knowing his own frame. The claws of his left hand dug into garage floor, the only outward sign of pain as he suffered from the uncomfortably intimate and invasive feeling of the humans working on him.

He needed his tank sealed, or enough that it would hold energon for a while, as the remaining nanites were re-build inside the tank. Then he could shut down into a safe semi-recharge state as internal repairs could finally start to work, and let the humans finish patching leaks. As well as make a list of the weakened spots from those fragging sabolt rounds their shared attackers used on him.

By the time that the riddled part in question looked a bit more like an energon tank again, and the damage around it was repaired as much as possible for what the two men knew (and maybe a few things that seemed logical, but still a guess) Roadbuster almost yanked the humans out of his frame. Hissing in a higher octave than normal, the Wrecker struggled to fold himself back into place in robot mode. Even still, Epps had to set the cup he had down and with the help of Mongo and Jorge, they pushed a few armor plates into place for the mech.

Roadbuster vented in a broken rhythm, trying to cool stressed systems and then slow pushed himself up, crunching a few things but not caring as he wedged himself into the garage at an angle, drawing his feet up with another cough to clear his intakes of something lodge in there from the purge, he had be able to ignore it until now.

The humans pulled the door down, almost closed with enough room for them side in and out if need be despite the wet ground, and a few trickles of water came in. Mostly pooling in the groves in the cement that large pedes had made some twenty or so minutes prior. Epps looked up to the now notable dimmer green glow, for a minute only the sounds if the rain, the mech's wheezing coughs and mumble words in the diner/store section filled the air.

Then a clawed hand lifted off the 'stomach' and chest armor that wasn't quite sitting like it had a ten minutes ago, and pointed at the door into the stastion. "Get those ta Tanner," Toadbuster had to pause to try and dislodge the irrigation, working his jaw to help, "'Fer my nanites die."

He aimed a finger down at the cup, watching as the hybrid scooped it up and hurried with what just might be the injured man's last chance. Before closing the largest whole, the mech had told the two to get some of the silvery fluid out of his tank if there was some left. The primary and secondary energon tanks were where most of a mechs nanites for internal repairs were produced. Granted these nanites weren't refined like those given to the few Nest members deemed 'worth it' according to Ironhide, but with no doctor or medic, the silver nanites were the best they had.

Epps wasn't all too pleased, but at the same time relieved at the chance. If it worked even partly, then the silver 'fluid' would start in on closing wounds and working to repair the internal damage. He came up to the tables, the Wrecker's instructions replaying in the back of his mind as he joined the cluster around the improvised medical table.

"Tanner?" He held the cup level, making sure not to spill as what looked like liquid silver crept over his fingers. He waited until the semi glazed eyes were meeting his, "This is gonna be a dirtier way of doing things... You know how Eddie, Lenox and I got injections? Started to become techno-organic-bad-asses?" He got a small, slow nod and continued, "This is like what we did, but not. I'm going to put this in the wounds, and your gonna have to down the rest like a shot. Nanites have to help you inside and out. Okay?" He wouldn't do it if Tanned refused, if it worked, it meant a much longer life span and a whole shit ton of other stuff.

Tanned shifted, hissed in pain before one hand let go of Eddie and reached weakly for the cup, not making it but he coughed himself before a cracking voice rose, "...hit me bar...tender..."

"Okay, Jack, hold his legs, we're in the level of new alien weird shit again," Epps gripped the hand tightly for a moment, then slowly prying the improvised bandages up and off, grimacing at the instinctual ugly sight. Yet the man hadn't survived human and Cybertronian wars and battles by being squeamish. Once the patch of duck-tape was off, and another being made to seal everything again, he poorer as much of the nanites into the bullet holes and the tear into fat and muscle as he could, rushing to reseal the area.

To Tanner's credit, he restrained himself well, jerking reflexively and clenching his teeth against screaming, he was holding back the instinct to get away from the burning sensations. Held or not it was impressive, more so when Epps helped prop Tanner up and almost force feed what was left of the active nanites to the injured man.

No one blamed the man for cursing himself unconscious after that.

Eddie sighed, "Damn that was...rough." the big man shook his head, about to scratch his head but stopped short. He was staring at the blood on his hand for a moment before grabbing one of the stray cloths to try and wipe most of it off. He glanced over at Jack as he stared to pry and inspect the cushions on the two booths that were closer to the kitchen. "What are you doing?"

"Not the best but," Jack flipped two of the cushions down, reaching for another to line up, he pointed at Tanner on the counter, "Better than him rolling or jerking before falling off there."

"Is it safe to move him?" Eddie asked, looking back down at the unconscious man he was still supporting with his other left arm.

"At this point..." Epps frowned, but then his mouth set in determination, "At this point it's more of a slim chance he'll survive the next few hours- he lost so much blood." The other dark skinned man carefully moved to lift Tanner's legs, nodding to Eddie to help lift him, "I'd rather him be more comfortable."

"As much as those things came be comfortable," Eddie grunted as he lifted Tanner, shuffling around until they could lay him down, covering the man with their jackets and vests for now.

"Start looking around, see if there's anything we can use here," Epps told the two, pointing to the kitchen, the counter and a general motion, "We're going to start hauling the things outside under cover as soon as I check on Roadbuster again." He moved to the open door, using a foot to kick a few wooden shards aside and glanced over at the dark rumbling lump of Wrecker, then at the few smaller pieces of armor that had already been dragged and pushed in under the cover of the garage.

The mech gave a, "Haaar…" as he shifted, left hand digging into the mess under him, pulling out a tarp and flicking it towards the human. Roadbuster picked at a few tares but got the rest so it flopped rather sadly over his leg.

"Needed a blanket?" Epps asked as he tugged on the old plastic, feeling the near brittleness, surprised it didn't dissolved under his fingers let alone being yanked like that by Cybertronian talons.

Roadbuster snorted, and then coughed, "Fer' Jorge..." He coughed again, the mech's glossa flicked into view as the Wrecker's attention shifted inward at that bit still annoying him now that he was settled as much as possible.

"Don't die big mech," Epps patted the nearer pede, the grasping claws on it flexing in return as the human pulled and bundled the old tarp up.

"Donna intend ta…" Roadbuster said as he shifted, watching as Epps took the tarp to and under the still open garage door. His exposed optics flicked focus to the inside door, he wanted to activate his scanners, but the energon had to be diverted to self repair systems. So he listened, filtering out the sounds of the rain to get the human voices inside, and then locating once more the weak breathing. Keeping track of each slow inhale as he silently encouraged the human to keep breathing.

Roadbuster knew he himself needed rest, but resisted dropping into recharge- or stasis as that would be worse. Recharge at least he could be awaked again by the humans, who depended on him to get them back out of this desert if his plan fell apart. It was like wastelands before the Sea of Rust, long, flat, rusty colored and in complete lack of anything useful but space. Hopefully this place didn't have the equivalent of Cyber-crocodiles that emerged from the Rust Sea to lay their eggs in the metal shavings before burring themselves nearby to guard their nests.

The mech twitched his claws, turning part of his attention away as Eddie came out of the inner door, only having a few hand guns strapped to his thighs. The hybrid human came over to grasp a part of Roadbuster's leg, the shin. He gave a rough purr in return, and again for Jack to assure them that no, Roadbuster was not planning on dyeing just yet. He did watch, grumbling with small mechanical growls as they worked to get his armor, now regretting he didn't drop it out in front of the garage. Yet he hadn't been thinking with his systems flooding, and with a vented sigh, Roadbuster realized he would need help once more with cleaning himself out.

Roadbuster coughed again, denta clicking as he tried again to get that last nugget loose. He returned his attention to listening to Tanner as the other organics worked together to get his armor either in the garage, or against the building to cover with the tarp. The hours it took had to be long, grueling labor, in the dark and rain. Though Jorge had the foresight to set out every pot, pan and most of the cups to catch the rain water in the meantime. When the humans finally returned, the rain was just starting to taper off a bit. They were surprised to found that Roadbuster managed to skim one of his subspace pockets to dump out human related things, including a few _large_ water jugs.

The Wrecker had stolen a lot of things, more than anyone really had expected, as much for saving for '_just in case'_ moments, as well as... Well, more Roadbuster just wanting to drive humans crazy by way of missing supplies that had been there the day before, or even an hour ago. All three Wreckers did this, messing with humans, and Ratchet, but what Epps had caught on after the first few days of meeting the Crew, was that the mechs were prodding and testing the weird organics to see if they were worth as much as Optimus had said. Just in their own assery way of doing things.

Now, this habit and like to drive others crazy was worth it. Water and a case of granola bars, as well as another case of snickers was waiting for the exhausted men as Roadbuster was back to coughing, looking very annoyed himself, but not over the reason of the humans using one of his legs to prop one of the water jugs on. Nor did he mind them flopping or leaning against his legs, or in Mongo's case on using the pede to lean back on.

It was odd... but also just comforting as well.

After Tanner was checked on, to be sure the man hadn't died and was as comfortable as possible; Epps took stalk again on the situation. He could see one large hand inching closer to him, and from another rasping cough had a feeling of why. "Okay, check list: Roadbuster's tank is as sealed as we can get it, he's still breathing- so to say. So is Tanner for now- and we can't get to a hospital. We're stuck out here, until the big mech can transform again. But klepto habits of Wreckers and the canned stuff in the back, we might make a week and a half out here. The armor's hidden for now and the rain should wipe out tire tracks on the off road areas and we have no official or unofficial connections to this hole."

"And cell phones were destroyed." Jorge added, remembering the day before and so many hundreds if not thousands miles away where his own phone with four others had been crushed and ground under Roadbuster's tires. He had liked that phone...

"What about the energon trackers?" Eddie asked, worriedly looking up to green optics.

Roadbuster snorted, "I made those scanners." He shifted his shoulders and rumbled lowly, just shy of a true growl, "All of them- an' I made sure that my Wreckers an' Prime's Bots had the blockers fer' them. Besides, there's a lot of places that those scanners can't reach. This is one." He pointed down at the ground.

"Don't make something against your kind without able to bust it?" Marc asked.

"Frag right." The mech coughed, grimaced, a claw tugged at the back of Epps' shirt, "Squishy- help."

"Yeah, yeah." Epps shrugged to hold off, turning to look up the reclined metal frame.

"What are we going to do about money?" Jorge asked, not quite ready to talk again about what happened to drive them out into near fugitive-ness. He waved a debit card out of his wallet, "These are likely all locked, and credit cards too. Not to mention tracking if it does go."

Epps paused, looking at something in his right hand, that he had scooped up off the ground outside, rubbing it with his thumb before looking back up at Roadbuster. A light dinged on metaphorically speaking, and he started climbing up to help the mech, but also had that 'on a mission' air to him. "We have money- a shit tone of it really..."

Even the mech arched an optic ridge at Epps, confused as he watched the man climb over the unsettled armor. Boosting the man over his chest, and with an interesting face and an exasperated sound opened his mouth.

"_What_ the _hell_ Epps?!" Eddie demanded from the doorway as he half returned, staring in a cross of fascination and horror as their leader- for the lack of anyone else, reaching in to grab Roadbuster's denta.

"Calm down, he's choking." Epps snapped back, he had done this once before for Topspin. He knew all too well how weird it was, for not just him but the mech himself as the man had to pull himself into the Wrecker's mouth. Only this time it was slicker from the last time, as Roadbuster _had_ just purge. Bracing a knee on one of a fang, Epps reaching farther in past the curve of the glossa to feel over nothing and then he cursed and with a, "Sorry Buster…"

He felt the mech rumbling in distaste (both in comfort and likely littoral taste as the only remotely organic-like thing this mech could stand is olive oil) around him as he got a good hold of one back denta to get some more reach. Those alien 'teeth' where scary as hell really. It was a pure illusion that the denta were like human teeth, it wasn't true at all. The Wreckers had flipping _fangs_ that could cut through neck cables of other mechs, and the normally unseen denta in the back of the jaws were meant not for chewing soft meat and vegetables. Ooh no, these mechs were _giant robots_ who had to naw on strips of _metal_ off and on to feed their internal repairs and nanites- not to mention their likes of hard ores and minerals.

Then Epps felt something rough against his fingers and adjusted himself on the glossa to get a hold of the lump, it was still hard so the nanites hadn't started to break it down yet. Pushing and pulling for a full twenty seconds before the fist size lump was freed and Roadbuster vented in relief.

The glossa flexed a moment later, pushing Epps out with a, "Out!" as Cybertronians didn't need to use their mouths to talk, or depend on air. Epps scrambled and managed to keep from being cut on the sharper fangs or the other wicked looking denta, dropping down on Roadbuster's chest. He ducked as the mech lifted an arm up and dragged his glossa over his wrist and forearm. Over exaggerating for the other humans who didn't work as closely with the Wreckers normally, except for Tanner, and being kind for once. If Topspin could tolerate Epps pulling shards out of his mouth and glossa for almost an hour, so could Roadbuster.

"That was some weird shit Epps," Eddie said after a long pause, barely repressing the shiver that worked up his spine. That image will be stuck in his head, for a long time, "What the _hell?_"

"Like I said before, 'Buster was choking." Epps grunted, sliding down the mech until caught and lowered the rest of the way to the ground, "And our cash problem is fixed." He held out the hunk of dark yellow that was just a little bigger then fist sized.

"Is that gold?" Jorge ask sitting up again off the side of Roadbuster's leg.

"More than a few thousand dollars worth." Epps nodded, pointing outside where the mech had purged out his tank on the old black top, "Not to mention the nuggets that are out there. What most people don't realize, is that the precious metals," Epps held up the chunk of gold, waving it a bit, "Are only precious to us: to _humans_. Gold, copper, silver, nickel, platinum, even steel- it's all just flavors and the equivalent of 'solid food' for the mechs."

Roadbuster chuckled, he sounded a tiny bit more comfortable, but still looked like hell, and as exhausted as the humans felt. "I see what yea're thinking lad..."

"Wait a minute," Mongo said sitting up again on the mech's pede, "If you eat metal, how do you... digest it?"

"Nanites," Roadbuster rasped, giving Mongo a look, one that all present were familiar with from both the Wreckers, and Ratchet (and yes sometimes from Ironhide too). It was that look that was a mix of '_You-really-can't-be-that-stupid-can-you?_' and '_come-on-you-silly-little-organic-thing-__**think**__!_' with just a hint of, '_What-__**else**__-would-it-be?_' reflecting in his optics, "They dissolve metals, and crystals into a none heat-molten liquid state." Roadbuster examined his left forearm and one of the improvised, duck tape bandage wrappings around one of the minor lines. He frowned... where had that stuff come from anyway? And what was it made out of to hold a seal over energon?

"Why do you need… or do that?" Jack asked, wincing as he knew he likely sounded stupid to the mech for asking, and was going to get that same look as Mongo. But really, it had to be asked.

"Easier to absorb, makes more nanites for internal repairs," the formally green mech thumped back into his corner and back wall, the building seemed to give an almost unheard groan at that, "Slow healing... I'm going into recharge mates... need to dedicate energon to repairs."

"Go ahead big mech." Epps patted the protoform frame, watching with the others as those now visible green optics looked at each human, then shifted to stare at the wall to his left. Where Tanner was on the other side. Then with one last cough like sound and motion in the loose chest plates, the green glow faded as Roadbuster stilled completely. The dark skinned man rubbed the metal, not unlike how people did with cars normally. "Don't worry, we'll make sure you're safe Buster. And fix what we can."

Eddie wasn't the only one to nod, or agree softly. After all, of Roadbuster hadn't grabbed them, or slowed down for two of them to jump onto his frame, these men may not have survive the attack- the _human_ attack on both the Autobots and humans. Nest soldiers and the noncombat support staff alike had been targeted. They didn't know who it was, but the way the black clad men had moved... how they knew where the mechs liked to be, to work or socialize with their organic counter-parts. There was an unpleasant, but still there suspicion of who it was, and just that suspicions left a bitter taste of betrayal.


	2. Basking

**Queen's Notes:**

**Wreck an' Rule**

Part Two

Basking

The sound of claws twitching, scraping audibly against the textured, silver-y-black of the protoform frame, warned the watching man that Roadbuster was waking up from his recharge again. The Wrecker had been in and out of it, rising and falling into different levels of recharge over the last five days. Becoming aware long enough to be assured that the seven humans were alive, to check the report of repairs (his own internal repairs and what the humans were doing to help), and skimming his sub-space pocket for supplies for them. Though what came out was more than a bit random, a mix of stolen things, stuff from Ratchet and Ironhide- maybe even from the other Wreckers. It was the mech's 'dump-stash' pocket so to say, where smaller bits were put, including parts Roadbuster used in his weapon making, and some smaller armor plates too. Epps commandeered those, as well as the smaller parts from what the mech shed off, to help with fixing him, and a lot more duck-tape then the group would have liked to hold lines together or just in place.

No one understood _how_ or _why_ it worked, as the mech's energon wasn't eating the tape away, at least not very fast.

A low growl came out of the Wrecker, it was equal parts annoyed and pained as Roadbuster shifted. It was more like a stretch held in as his helm hit the roof of the garage, getting another growl of annoyance from him.

"Good morning." A human voice greeted, and brightening green optics turned down to look at the man sitting on his thigh, leaning back against the living metal of the mech's front. Mongo moved to stand up, glancing over a tattooed shoulder at the large hand coming up behind him, but it didn't pull the man off his new spot. "How are you feeling boss?"

"Like scrap..." Roadbuster grunted, he tilted his head, watching the human do the checks he and the others learned from Ratchet. The mech paused to consider the damage report as it updated, "Hmm... seems like my tank might be able to hold some fluid soon... need some old fashion basking time fer' energon." He was still rasping, or what sounded like rasping to human ears as the mech looked to the garage door, and the sun light bleeding in through the cracks as well as the small two foot gap on the ground.

Roadbuster suddenly wasn't fully sure about risking fluid in his primary tank now that he started moving. Aware by hyper sensitivity in the area how the molten remains in his tank shifted with the nannies inside working, so maybe it would be a better idea not to use it. The Wrecker was glad he hadn't gotten rid of secondary tank, plus that would work better he realized. Roadbuster wasn't made or modified to fully fuel up by using solar made energon, but given time he could after a few days and some internal alterations.

Mongo shifted, dropping into a crouch, and then jumped off the mech, wisely moving out of the way as he trotted to the garage door, lifting it up with a teeth gritting sound of metallic protest from the door.

It was a good thing they didn't have to be stealthy.

The others looked over from where they were sitting, just in under the shade of the main gas station building. One of the water jugs was sitting as far away from the direct sun and heat while still being close to the men to refill water bottles.

"Something wrong?" Eddie asked, sitting up as the man tossed a small chunk of copper at Epps to really wake him up. Not that the garage door screeching in protest again wouldn't do it as a giant metal foot nudged it up the rest of the way.

"Big man wants out," Mongo said as he grinned a bit, taking this as good news as the tattooed man moved out of the way again as Roadbuster stiffly shifted his way out of the shop on his back. The man glanced over to where a pale form was laying down in the cleaner, non-stuffy air of the inside. "How's Tanner?"

"Uhh..." the pale form barely stirred, but then slowly lifted an arm and hand limply to show he hadn't died yet as the hand flopped limply at the wrist.

"He seems to have stabilized, we did get a bit of that fruit juice, from the jars in the back, down in him with the water." Jorge said from beside the injured man, he shifted his own large frame, one of the two biggest of the men present. He was darkening like the others of the group with five days of sun, and working out in it while they kept trying to hide the larger parts shed from the mech. Right now he was on the shift of staying with Tanner, much like how Mango had been staying with Roadbuster to be sure the two were alright. Eddie checked over the ashen man, carefully looking at the improvised and improved bandages.

He looked up, as the former green Wrecker that completely freed himself from the garage and was now sitting up. Roadbuster poked at a few pieces of armor still in place on his person, considering them, and then eyed the disconnected pieces covered up. With a groan he turned to the humans, half pulling himself, half scooting to lay down on his front. Roadbuster debated on rolling over but his hands slackened on the edge where dirt and the old black top met, where his helm rested on it. A broken sound came out of the mech, one that normally was something the humans had learned was a mechanical purr from a mech. It was off, but still there in reaction to the warm ground under him and the warmer sun above.

Epps moved over to the mech, rested a hand on the helm, "You alright 'Buster?" The Wrecker grunted in return as the dark skinned man shifted to look down at the green optics, finding them dimmed very low but not completely off. He stood back up, one hand carefully feeling the broken left side of the mech's visor to see if the nanites had worked on that at all to repair. "I think that's a yes." He told the others.

"Do you have any proper bandages in that magic pocket big mech?" Jorge asked as he sat up beside Tanner.

There was another snort, and the purring sound faded to something more like an unimpressed and disappointed sound. "Not magic squishy. Sub space." Roadbuster shifted the level a look at the humans, the 'M' word was not one the Cybertronians liked, as it wasn't logical to them and just a too-weird thing of humans that just wasn't real as far as they were concerned.

Unless used in sarcasm against humans, a bit of mocking and derogatory way it seemed. Despite being a sarcastic bastard himself, Roadbuster generally didn't do _that_ to humans, call them idiots very loudly yes, but as Epps knew from experience he wasn't really spiteful to humans.

...at least, generally.

"Alright, not magic," Epps interjected, not wanting to think of that day but at the same time couldn't help it. The Wreckers hadn't been hesitate about firing at those men that attacked them. "Can you skim some more on your subspace pocket, or pockets?"

The large left hand twitched behind Epps as the man crouched beside Roadbuster's head, running one hand down the jaw line, finding a spot the man had seen Topspin go after. It was a sensor patch, or 'pool' as the mechs called it. It was an off-switch as far as Epps could tell, but the smaller sensor pools could get a mech purring and relaxed. For him it could be a bribery tool, or just a way to comfort, and that latter option was how it seemed to be taken as the fait purring turned deeper.

After a few minutes, the mech stirred as if waking up from a sudden nap, "Frigging squishie." Roadbuster muttered, tilting his head to get a better rub away from the pressure point, and then his left hand flexed. The clawed digits curled, stretched and repeated, but on the second time there was a not so faint shimmering within the space of his hand. It was like overheated air, yet the air if one was close enough to it would be cooler.

Roadbuster set the handful of miscellaneous things down on the old blacktop, repeating it twice more before pausing. Then the mech nudged something out of the semi-controlled mess as Epps knelt down by it with Mongo, starting to sort it. Epps leaned over and picked up the box that had been pointed out, recognizing at once the universal red cross for medical supplies and opened it.

He moved over to Tanner and Jorge at once, "Thanks big mech."

The Wrecker rumbled to the humans, his optics flicking as he watched them start the slow process of carefully changing the Tanner's wrappings from duck tape to proper bandages. It wasn't hospital sterile but they were keeping things as clean as possible, and putting faith on the nanintes in Tanner. The man was limp in unconsciousness again, making it a little easier for the process, and for Jorge to add a few stitches as the tape was removed.

Roadbuster sound changed to humming, almost without thinking as he watched. He glanced from the silvery tape on Tanner, and another wrapping on Jorge's arm he didn't remember from before stasis. Then as the rhythmic old tune became a bit louder, green optics turned to regard some of the duck tape that was wrapped around the smaller fuel and coolant lines.

"Hmm..." strange how even in injury there was a connection, relation. Roadbuster rested his helm down, still humming as he just let his personal, though small, solar heat to energon system boot up, needing time to bask in the direct sunlight and get some energon. He would need to start emptying his subspace pockets, sort them out and take a better inventory soon. The Wrecker was fairly sure he had the parts to make or retrofit something into a small scale (but needed) energon converter. All this sun needed to be taken advantage of. He didn't want to resort to using the canisters... but he might.

Jack moved over to Roadbuster, motioning to Mongo over to the shade, "I'll take over, get some water." He held up a water bottle as he moved to sit against the mech's left side, above the ingrained looking exhaust pipes. Leaning against one of the secondary canisters that were just as attached it seemed, as well as being nearly as tall as he was. He shifted, starting to trace what was in reach of the engraved glyphs that were all over the grey protofrom metal. It wasn't often, even in NEST that one was aloud this close against a mech, Jack wasn't ashamed to take advantage and examine the ancient looking glyphs. They were carved into the metal of the protoform he realized, seeing the little warn edges microscopic groves to the Wrecker's scale, barley a half in long, and they were filled in with a darker seeming metal substance.

"Oy," Roadbuster grunted behind him, proving not to have dropped into recharge as they thought. "The frag yea' doing molestin' me when I can't move?" The mech's voice vibrated against Jack's back and into his chest.

There was a long pause from the men, absorbing what was said.

Then Tanner who had just stirred awake, gave a wheezing, hitching sound that had Jorge and Epps tensing for a split second. Tanner was laughing, trying to and unable to help himself, curling up slightly as his chest shook with the barely heard laughter and yes the pain that resulted. But the quiet grin as he closed his eyes was showing proof that Tanner thought it was worth it. "Jack..." he breathed, trying to look over and see his team mate in or around the mass of metal, though Tanner's eyes were closing again from this new exertion, "Stop molesting the mechs..."

"...not promising." Jack said, slowly grinning as he shifted and nudged Roadbuster, then stood back up as he rumbled a pleased tone.

"At least do a me a favor mate, and molest this Wrecker in a better place." Roadbuster said shifting ever so slightly, head tilting for dimmed green optics to regard the humans.

"Nah, I have a feeling we're going to be climbing inside you again to check that tank as it is." Jack said, coming back around the mech's shoulder, he reached over once close enough to tug as gently as he could a piece of shrapnel out of the neck cables, exposed more with some of the thick over armor off the mech.

Roadbuster grunted again, not pleased but also there were no protesting death threats or cursing so he knew it might be a needed thing to happen.

"So what's the plan?" Marc asked from his spot, nibbling slowly on a granola bar to make his stomach think it was getting more then it was.

"Short term, long term or 'Ah hell I don't want to think about that' term?" Epps snorted from where he was gently wrapping up Tanner's right thigh. The bloody duck tape, sprinkled with glitters from the nanites, was tossed aside. He reached up to triple check the pale man's blood type, grimacing as the little engraving hadn't spontaneously changed into something they could work with.

"...all of the above." Someone said.

"One of the short term ones," Eddie turned to look at the dark, but now known aware optics. "Why did you bring us out here? Other than being out of the way."

"Bolt hole." Roadbuster said, head tilting to let Jack have better access to his neck cables.

The men exchanged looks, "This place?" Marc motioned to the abandoned gas station. They were NEST, they knew unofficially that the Autobots had taken precautions, just as humans had in those first shaky, carefully years leading up to and then working together. A habit of Cybertronians in general to dig in to a safe place, literally that is. Their own home world had levels and levels all the way to the planet's core, many of the Autobots, Decepticons and more so the Wreckers felt better with secure walls and high, cavernous ceilings above them, where they could walk and stretch.

"Here?" Epps, who had a little marginal more information about these things, asked as he looked thoughtfully around, "Are you sure? Wouldn't Topspin or some of the others have come here?"

Roadbuster's humming turned into low rumbling growl like sound for a moment, "No, we were going different directions, he had some o' yea squishies that he grabbed."

"Are they alive?" Mongo wondered softly, glancing in the general direction of their former base.

"Topspin is," Roadbuster's optics had partly shuttered, then opened again. "He's my Second, he'll keep those he can safe."

"Are you sure?"

Roasbuster growled at the humans, "Ah' know my bonded is alive yea little fraggers. If he wasn't I'd have killed the lot o' yea in a berserk rage." He shifted to eye those that dared think the blue mech was gone, knowing the threads that connected their sparks and formed the Bond were muted by the distance, but still hummed with life and love… and a mix of rolling emotions like he had for their humans in general. There was also that sharper grating edge of hate for whoever attracted them.

Epps made a motion to drop that part of the subject.

"This place isn't really like anything like the bolt-hole Tracks and I made…" Jorge cut in slowly as the big man slowly peeled off the tape on his arm.

"You're 'retirement plan?'" Eddie blinked and stared.

"What?" Marc blinked.

"When I was taken out of NEST the first time," Jorge smiled slowly, "Ironhide asked a favor… and to make a deal before I shipped out. You know my metal recycling place? More stealth then I thought was possible was engaged and we made an Autobot bolt hole that turned into a recovery ward. Tracks is the guard with me, and my niece I guess, she's running the plant. But it's a place we can get to maybe?"

Roadbuster considered before shaking his head a little, almost at the same time Epps and Mongo did.

"I don't think going there right awake would be a good idea, it's your place so... 'they' might be snooping there." Epps started, glancing back at the mech. "If Tracks can lay low and avoid notice like he has been...?" He trailed off with a questing inflection.

"The lad can," Roadbuster jugged from what he remembered of the other mech. "There's at least three bots that can't move there, we won't put them in danger ta be slaughtered." The wrecker wasn't the only one to twitch and grimace at that thought and mental image, only he had seen the result of a curly raided medical centers on Cybertron. He pushed the memories away of dark shells with gaping plasma burnt wounds where spark chambers should have beam."Won't risk that lil' lass of yea'rs either."

Jorge gave a faint smile, the girl, young woman was almost his only living relative and more like his only daughter. "The place is in her name right now... had a feeling that might be a good idea. Hope it will be."

"Sure it will be," Jack said, shifting as he thought about his own daughter, safe with his parents. Hopefully still.

"Short term goal?" Epps steered the conversation back.

"Find the bolt hole?" Mongo guessed, looking at the desert and then the station with a calculating gaze.

"Hmm, more like some good basking, then searching." Roadbuster admitted, venting out and stirring the sand and some gold flakes. "Need my scanners to find the fragging place, not enough energon fer them."

"Another short term goal: things for surviving." Eddie added looking around, motioning to the water jug, "we're rationing but can't live off of what we have for long."

Roadbuster's optics flickered on and dimmed back, he was quiet for a minute, letting the humans prioritize what they would need for surviving. He carefully rerouted some energon to tap into the internet and examine a few things then shut it down. Rerouting that energon back he looked around, even glancing at Jack so close, "Right now, I need ta bask, long as I can to make energon, can't do slag without it. Can't get yea all out. Can't scan something new either."

"Something new?" Epps echoed now.

Roadbuster smirked, and then yawned, the motion like and not like what humans did. Re-setting the mandible connections in the jaws, and then the flex metal down his neck shifted back into proper position. It also exposed those fangs that were half and arm's length long, if not a little bigger.

In all that, the mech kept talking, "As much as I like that impala mate, gotta blend in again now."


	3. Stepping

**Wreck an' Rule**

Part Three

Stepping

Roadbuster growled low and deep in his chest, feeling some of the vibrations travel up into his neck cables. He had stirred in the late afternoon light, drawing attention from the humans as he pushed up onto his hands and knees. The mech gave a half sound that was a little more like groan, his joints were stiff from being mostly still from the last two weeks of not moving, for both the stasis repairs and then just basking in the desert sun.

"…pit spawn slaggin'...ooooy..."

Epps grinned despite himself, listening to the mumbled words and growls that at one point years ago would have worried him. A mech mad or hurting enough to laps more into Cybertronian, and just the alien tones that made a human leery automatically. However, Epps was used to this Wrecker, and right now he was happy at hearing the muffled threats and curses, it meant that Roadbuster was feeling better. He was still hurt yes, but also able to move now and he far more alert then the mech had been in the last two weeks.

Roadbuster grunted as he carefully moved to arch his back, in a slow motion stretch, testing some of his range of movement as he did so. Seeing what still hurt and just to get the energon moving, _flowing_, in his frame again. He grasped at the support column of the over hanger, then the edge of the roof above. More for added balance then for shifting his weight onto the old thing, besides even with most of Roadbuster's outer layer of armor off (and the main rocket launchers), the Wrecker still estimated that he would be a bit too heavy for the human structure.

"..._scrap_." Roadbuster said after a long pause, staring downwards at the crackled cement and black top under his peds, flexing the grasping toes on them.

"Something jar loose?" Mongo asked, moving forward to the mech, a hand held welder in his grip.

"Hm? Ah, no lads, just activated mah scanners." Roadbuster shook his head at first before he pointed down at the cracks between his pedes. "Still some gas down in those tanks."

"Can you use it?" Epps asked, eyeing the Wrecker carefully, he didn't like the look of dried energon and crusting grit, sand and dirt. _Dried blood on open-raw wounds_, a voice whispered in the back of his head with an internal cringe, the man wasn't the only one who now knew what were the equivalent of human wounds on a mech's frame.

"Gonna have to." Roadbuster yawned, fangs flashing in the bright sun as he reset his jaw and small joints. "Just getting it out..." and it would taste stale and bitter as gas did... The mech shifted and looked down at his chest, fingering one of the canisters on his chest with an expression rarely seen by the humans he worked with, either NEST solders or workers.

"What is it?" Eddie asked once he indented the surprised, almost shocked look on the mech before the Wrecker started undoing the clasps and band on one of the containers.

"Forgot Ah' had these," Roadbuster said staring at the canister. He shook it, listening to the slight sound of a thick but still liquid martial sloshing inside. The wrecker looked around and vented in a way like a long suffering sigh as he started to twist the top of the canister open.

"What is it?" Epps asked coming out of the shade cast from overhang, Mongo not far behind with the largest of their group, Jorge, trailing behind. He was watching as Roadbuster took a careful sip from the canister, but the man caught the glimps of glowing blue on the inside of the lid. "Energon?" He perked up, Epps' tone reflecting his relief at the idea that there was some of that.

"Highly concentrated energon." Roadbuster corrected, making a face and almost gagging, or so it looked to humans. He shivered and took a second slightly larger mouthful before quickly capping the canister and shaking his head in a way that reminded Jorge of someone taking a shot of hard alcohol. "Aaarssft." Roadbuster 'said' with some sort of none-grace, glossa sticking out before he attached the canister back to spot in his chest, "Haven't had _that_ for five hundred years or more..."

The Wrecker could feel the heat from the dense energon already spreading through his near empty secondary tank. It still tingled down his intake and remined Roadbuster of the last time he and Topspin had shared this drink, pressing fists closed over the canisters in a slow motion cheers before drinking a quarter each before what they had thought at the time was the last stand of the Wreckers. Of nearly all their clan of Level Workers, with their mechlings in stasis and hopefully hidden away until after the fighting.

Facing odds that would have made Roadbuster's old sire Cronks balk, he and Topspin had downed what was nearly like vodka to Cybertronians for that extra edge. That surge of high grade energon and become over charged-drunk on more than the rush of battle. That thrill of tearing through the 'odds' and the Decepticons with his saws before he had been pinned under Decepticons. The Foreman class Wrecker had been furious he wasn't even allowed to face his death, as his visor and head was ground into the dirt and-

And Roadbuster remembered Ironhide roaring, the sense of even more chaotic movement before he was being pulled up to his pedes by Optimus, glimpsing a battle axe, hearing Leadfoot's voice again before things really got hazy.

Roadbuster lifted a hand, feeling over his broken visor and glanced down at the human men staring back up at him. He rumbled a neutral growl and quirked his lips up at seeing them relaxing a bit. "Can't have too much at one time. Don't want to be over charge an' useless." He shifted and took a step, frowning as he ran what internal scans were active again. His legs seemed stiff, the right knee and left hip more so as he continued the slow pacing to the road way.

Mongo kept up near but not too close to the mech's right foot, watching how he was moving as Jorge and Epps did the same on the other side. "So big mech," the tattooed man looked up and waiting a moment to be sure the green optics turned in his direction, "Any idea where this bolt hole is?"

"Or was it a random direction out into the middle of nowhere?" Jorge added, looking around the desert, and sighing himself as he thought of his home, the metal recycling plant he bought and made with his hazard and retirement pay seemed far more welcoming now. Where his newly built home was over the small Autobot base for three refugee mechs. Once more he praid to whatever deity might be even glancing in this direction that they all were safe, and even more importantly that Tracks and Eject were watching over and protecting his niece, his legally adopted daughter.

"No it's supposed ta' be around 'ere." Roadbuster lifted his head to look around as he flexed his hands, there was soft _shinc-shinc_ sound as his claws pulled back and extended several times. "I dinna make it, but Ironhide said it was here."

"The question is where/" Epps asked as the mech rolled his shoulders, some panels shifting and twitching where his launchers and some of the over armor would have been.

Roadbuster nodded, "Got a few locations, an' a basic location fer around 'ere," the mech waved his hands as he felt something shift and ease in his left hip. The mech scowled a moment as he realized that it was likely something that had drained from his tank and inadvertently lubricated his hip joint. The Wrecker looked back up and turned partly to point at the desert, "Somewhere around 'ere there's one. _Supposed_ to have energon an' supplies."

"Repair tools?" Mongo asked hopefully, inspecting the desert again with a new hope and gaze, and then after glancing back to the gas station, "Medical supplies for humans too?"

"Maybe," Roadbuster eased down into a crouch beside the three humans, one hand reaching out and the backs of his claws brushed against Jorge's arm, over the proudly worn NEST tattoo on his left arm and a glyph on the right that was a simplified version of 'Autobot'. Mongo had the same glyph too, as did Tanner. "How is Tanner doing?"

"Better." Epps reported, smiling, "The nanites did the trick it seems. Tanner isn't pale like he's lost _all_ of his blood. He even starting to eat something more than broth of soup and fruit juice yesterday. Complaining about not being allowed to get up this morning."

The mostly green mech vented a sigh, and smiled as he stood back up to head, "Good, maybe he can take some steps later on. Gotta look around fer a hatch."

"Where?" Jorge asked.

"Frag if I know."

"..."

"..."

"...great." Epps sighed and rolled his eyes, having the distinctive feeling the next few days were going to be filled with digging and crawling over hot rocks trying to find something that wasn't supposed to be found at all. Roadbuster's chuckle from above wasn't all comforting either.


	4. Breathing

**Queen's Notes:** fear me... I aim feels at everyone!

**Wreck an' Rule**

Part Four

Breathing

The giant that was looming over him in the dark of the night, it was larger than life with blazing red eye like optics burning down at him. Like an angry metallic god of death. Parts flared out, extending like half formed arms or extra limbs as the large mech braised himself on the ground as it stooped to get a closer look at him. The feeling of just the sheer mass filling his vision was as over powering as the thick energy field pressing down unseen on him.

Every fiber of his being were alternating from screaming in fear and screaming at him to run _the hell away damnit!_

He could see the giant's mouth opening, fang like denta shining in the double light image. The real darkness- the light dimming more with the form blocking it out, as well as the green sheen from the lens over the man's left eye. That little boy part of him that had been safely buried deep inside of him for nearly thirty years, looked up and cried at seeing that this monster-god of metal was big enough to make a snack out of him! That childish fear was newly reinforced at seeing the fully exposed fangs and the fluid shining inside from energon or oil or... maybe something else, as a large hand like shape moved towards him, digits that were size of trees curling around to grab or crush.

Run away! Run away! RunrunRUN!

He gripped his riffle tighter, taking a step closer to the giant, wanting to cry, wanting to run wanting to be anywhere but there with death feet away from every side. He knew even if he couldn't sense that his team had to be behind him.

**_"Should have left..."_** The mech hissed not in any human language and smirked.

Tanner jerked, his hands closing automatically and lifting as the half translated Cybertronian words echoed in his head. It took a moment for the man to see that the darkness around him wasn't the same, it was...softer. There was no massive form, not red light but a dim blue of a small lamp so if anyone woke up they could move through the semi organized chaos.

The blond man flexed his fingers in the air over a rifle that wasn't there, and Tanner paled a bit before spreading his fingers wide and pressing them down on his legs. He was very glad he didn't have a weapon as he saw the form of Eddie stretched out on his back, and hearing Mongo snoring lightly not far away to his left. He wasn't sure where the other three men were at first, and after getting his breathing back under control quietly so not to disturb his team mates. Friends, family, that had been taking care of him these past two weeks, making sure he wasn't going to die, the least he could do was keeping it down now that he was.

Tanner made a face, leaning back on the improvised bed that had him propped up. It wasn't all that comfortable, but it was also better then the hard ground that Eddie was on, or where Mongo was behind the counter of the old gas station. Listening carefully it sounded like Jorge was in the kitchen, the man was another snorer, his tone a bit deeper and louder.

The man made a face, shifting and slowly, carefully rolling over onto his better side. Tanner knew better, he really did know better but another sound was drawing him to get up. His whole body ached from the nanites struggling to fix the damage to his body, and convert him into a technical 'cyborg' like Epps and the others. Yet between faced with being in the near quiet and dark, and getting himself up to go over to the workshop next to the main part of the station where soft growling of cybertronian cursing. The connecting door was all of ten feet away from him, and Tanner bit at his lip to repress the groans that were lodged in his throat.

His movement had a stillness from the work shop, the mech's scanners likely picking up on Tanner's attempts to get up, then his slow progress to the door, and leaned on its frame.

"What are yea doing lad?" Roadbuster's voice grumbled from the back of the shop, where he was lounging on his back. The green optics dimmed as he shifted slowly to nudge his left pede over to the door way, curling his griping claws.

Tanner smiled for a moment, and then pushing off the door frame with a grimacing, "Sorry boss...couldn't sleep anymore." he grasped one of the edges in the mech's foot...pede and used the mech's frame to slowly walk up closer until he was in Roadbuster's arm's reach. He fought the urge to flinch as the large hand lowered to his level, the claws staying out, likely unable to retract again. This wasn't the nightmare, wasn't a threat to him or what was left over of his team. Tanner eased back into the curve of the mech's fingers, wincing but getting comfortable as he was lifted off his own feet.

The Wrecker rumbled a soft reassurance, "Nanites starting to hurt?" he asked, propping his handful over his other arm. Waiting for Tanner to move and then settle down against his arm and one of the canisters on his chest, legs stretched out on his forearm.

"Yeah...Eps said it was normal?" Tanner asked, looking up to the mech's face and finding it strange to see Roadbuster's optics and the optic ridges without the visor shielding the upper part of his face.

Roadbuster nodded, keeping his voice low, so not to wake any of the other humans up, "Yes, Eps said it itched an' sometimes became hot." The wrecker relaxed back as much as he could again, growling a neutral sound as he looked around, "The nanites will be working on muscle an' organs by now, starting on yea'r bones soon to help support the new weight when yea can eat more."

"Kinda sounds scary when you put it like that," Tanner said in a dead pan and snorted as he heard, more felt the mech chuckle. "Well it is boss."

"Not gonna loose yea lad," The mech said firmly before smirking and gave a low, affectionate growl, lifting his other hand to very lightly poke Tanner's left foot.

"...thanks boss." Tanner said lowly after quiet moment to let the mech's words sink in.

"Get some rest Tanner." Roadbuster said, and smirked in the dark at the snort he got.

"I've been doing nothing _but_ resting Roadbuster." Tanner said, his tone turning more complaining.

"_Good._" The wrecker said, green optics glower brighter in the dark as he looked down, "I never lost a member of mah Crew by forcing them to work when recovering, I ain't gonna start that scrap now." Roadbuster said, the growl shifting slightly but still non aggressive to the man. "I all but lost mah clan Tanner, yea lads are nearly all I have left. A Foreman with no crew?"

That was a Forman who failed, a leader that lost family and friends first... that was a nightmare he couldn't stand living with. When every pulse of the spark a reminder of all those lost.

"But your man Topspin is still alive isn't he?" Tanner asked, remember this tidbit of information. It had been a shock years ago at first, until someone had pointed out that these were _alien mechanical life forms_ that didn't have genders as humans knew it. It had been still been a surprise to see the blue colored Topspin reaching out to grab the somewhat shorter Roadbuster as he walked by, giving the other mech a rough but affectionate nuzzle only to shove Roadbuster away again.

Roadbuster, who already had a reputation to be loud and angry seeming at the time, the mech had froze. Most watching, including Tanner had expected a fight to break out. That's what people said after all, the 'Wreckers' were more inclined to start fighting then other Autobots, only Lenox and Epps had been the ones to roll their eyes instead of gaping when Roadbuster demanded if that was all the attention he was getting. He and Topspin had debated for the next half an hour over the times appropriate for interfacing in front of squishy native organics.

At least, Tanner thought it had been a half an hour, he, like many others discovered why the rumor mill grounded out so many warnings of the normally quiet Topspin, the mech's voice had…interesting effects on human bodies.

"Mah mate is alive," Roadbuster's voice drew Tanner out of the past and focused him back to the here and now, inside the old gas station. The man noted the accent was thicker for a few moments, a more Cybertronian then human accent at that. He watched from his spot as metal claws scraped over armor away from him, though it left no mark. "I would feel it if he died lad, our sparks are and ever will be bonded."

The mech was now looking in a specific direction, looking at the midway point of the outside wall of the shop where a tire iron was, that neutral more thoughtful growling starting. Tanner could feel the vibrations pulse in intensity with the rise and fall of the sound, so strangely comforting. Like someone breathing, even if Roadbuster didn't need to breath for staying alive.

As the quiet stretched on for a little bit, it was only interrupted by a tire voice of Tanner before he dosed off, nightmare now blocked by the sound of the living friendly mech who wanted the man awake. "We'll find your man boss..." Tanner was aware of the green optics turning back down to him with amusement before physical exhaustion and maybe the new nanites sent man back to sleep to heal and rest.

"Nothin' on this world will stop me." Roadbuster promised the darkness. He could felt the active rhythm of emotions from the bond from his mate and surviving creations, sending his own wordless love back to them.


End file.

Transformers/Beast Wars, Drama, Hurt-Comfort