Chapter Text
The sky turned from blue to red to black in a matter of seconds. A roar shook the Earth and a giant dragon soared overhead. A familiar dragon, black and blue with orange wings and a giant horn on the tip of its nose. Dirge- that must be Dirge. Highly aggressive and the leader of two other seekers. Ramjet and Thrust, who right on time, swooped into view after Dirge. A rather notorious trio of dragons as they appeared often and left ruin in their wake- or so he’d been told.
Bumblebee crouched lower to the ground. He was in between two houses both luckily untouched by the flames for now. Thrust broke formation with the other two making a wide swoop then fire spilled from his mouth blanketing several houses. The sheer force of the flames caused a few to collapse in on themselves.
He came dangerously close to Bee, one of the houses right next to him catching a few sparks. Thrust made another wide turn aiming to leave behind another trail of fire, this time heading right towards him. Bumblebee found his feet, leaping out into the street and running, feeling the heat on his back and hearing the woosh as the dragon swooped by.
He kept running, dipping between houses and frantically looking around. There was no telling where the rest of the stationed Autobots were. Seekers were notoriously hard to deal with. They almost never landed unless they had an injured wing. Meaning the only ones who could really do any damage were archers. Everyone else must be trying to get a vantage point or
get out of the way.
Most Autobots had some training with either bows, crossbows, or bowguns but Bee was fresh into the field only having a trusty glaive. It was the only weapon he could reasonably wield. Dragon scales were tough, too tough for someone his size to break without the added momentum that the glaive gave him.
He clicked his tongue watching as the three dragons made more lines of fire. They were burning this entire place to the ground in just minutes. They were hopelessly outmatched, this place hadn’t seemed a prime place for a dragon attack so it wasn’t heavily guarded. One of the reasons Bumblebee was sent here, it was safe- supposed to be anyway.
The dragons' trajectory was quite predictable. They turned and twisted in the air then either made a straight line of fire or followed along a street. Bumblebee punched his glaive into the ground, launching himself into the air and onto the roof of a nearby house. He lowered himself to the roof. All three were a distance away now but with a wide arc Dirge turned and fire spewed, he was heading right towards Bee.
He braced himself waiting for just the right moment. The dragon's path of destruction ended right next to him, it started to pull higher into the air, Bumblebee bounced off his glaive and miraculously landed straight onto the dragon's back. It felt the disturbance, turning its head and spotting Bumblebee sitting between the large black spines lining its back.
Its lips curled back revealing bluish-gray gums and blackened teeth. Red eyes narrowed then it jerked, diving downwards. Bumblebee shouted grabbing onto one of the spines as the dragon threw itself into a spiral, spreading its wings again just a few feet from the ground. He was slammed hard into its back at the sudden stop but managed to hold on even as it shot upwards screeching in fury.
He held onto his glaive with one hand readjusting his grip on it so he could stab down at Dirge’s back. Unsurprisingly the blade bounced right off the tough scales. Fighting the rushing wind he clambered farther up its back towards Dirge’s head. He stabbed towards the dragon’s eye but at the last second, it swerved its head. Bumblebee lost his grip and frantically tried to readjust, Dirge flipped over, belly to the sky and Bumblebee dropped off his back.
He hadn’t realized how high up they were until he started falling. Dirge twisted in the air, diving towards Bumblebee, jaws parted with an orange glow shining from within. Bumblebee cursed, spinning his glaive around and pushed himself away. The flames barely missed and Dirge dived right past him, seeming to have lost sight of him in the blaze.
Bumblebee readjusted in the air facing down and watching as the ground grew closer. The glaive was meant to be used aerially but it certainly didn’t make one fly. It could however stop a deadly descent. If he timed it right Bumblebee could be completely unscathed… except he had never fallen this far before.
The ground grew closer, and finally, he acted swirling his glaive and feeling as his fall jolted to a stop.
He did it too early.
He started falling again for another several feet, landing with a painful crack. He grit his teeth and silenced a scream, Dirge was searching now, gliding nearby. He scooted backward, trying to put as little pressure on his leg as possible and getting into some cover in a blackened building. It was still smoldering and uncomfortably hot.
The dragon wouldn’t expect him to hide here though.
It eventually turned away when something bounced off its scales in the air. An arrow, Bluestreak was the only Autobot here that could hit a dragon flying that fast, he must be in a good position now. Bumblebee sighed with relief as it seemed all of the dragons were on the far side of the city.
A yell rang out not too far away. Breaking the spell of relief. Bee jumped, peeking out from his hiding spot to see.
A white blur shot past him and a shrill shriek followed it. Bumblebee’s heart sank.
Starscream
The dragon was considered a myth as all the stories were a bit different. But there were a few consistencies. An almost pure white dragon that was followed by a high-pitched screaming wherever he flew. Some said it was the dragon's voice, others said it was the souls of those he killed who were trapped screaming within his spark.
He could barely follow him with his eyes, Dirge, Thrust, and Ramjet were predictable.
Starscream was not. He moved erratically, shooting through the air then would come to a sudden stop and pick another direction. Interestingly he wasn’t breathing fire. He wasn’t attacking at all. Starscream flew over Bumblebee’s head, the draft swept Bumblebee off the ground and threw him into the air. He landed right onto his injured leg.
He hissed, there was a loud clap. Bumblebee’s head shot up.
Starscream had come to another sudden stop with such force the air snapped. Starscream’s head whipped around and locked onto Bee’s prone form. He dropped from the air, snaking forward with nostrils flaring. Bumblebee could only stare as it crept closer and closer.
Starscream was a small dragon. Everyone said he was a seeker but he looked more like an aerial. Aerial’s were tiny harmless feathered dragons that were rarely ever seen. Starscream looked like some cross between a seeker and an aerial. Half the size of a seeker with feathers and scales covering his body. Like a seeker he had the sharp glass formation protruding from his chest. He was almost pure white except for his entirely black head which had a gemstone lodged in its center.
Starscream got so close Bumblebee’s hair was blown back with every warm breath that washed over his face. The dragon slightly bared its teeth, eyes dropping to Bumblebee’s glaive. It lunged forward tugging it from Bee’s grip and snapping it in half. He cursed.
Bumblebee heard a shout, only managing to catch a glimpse of Arcee dashing forward, twin blades gleaming in the firelight. Then he was in the air. Starscream’s teeth latched dangerously around the scruff of his armor. He yelped, twisting himself to wrap his arms around the dragon’s snout and hold on for dear life. It growled lowly but made no maneuver to chomp Bee in half, only raising higher into the sky.
The shrieking never started and Bee was thankful for that, when Starscream was flying by he was nearly certain his ears would burst. Flaps sounded around, the other dragons were flying around Starscream now. It seemed with Starscream’s departure the seekers decided it was time to leave as well. At least that was one good thing, they were done burning the city to the ground.
Bumblebee watched as the walls of the city got farther and farther away and realized he was going to die. The dragons were going to kill him, they took people dead and alive, no matter what nobody had ever been seen again after a dragon snatched them.
He was going to die.
Dirge spotted him, face wrinkling into a snarl. Starscream growled right back and the blue dragon moved farther away with a huff.
He could hear his heart thumping in his chest, the fear was crushing his lungs.
It only lasted a moment.
Then he felt nothing, like he had already resigned himself to this. He supposed not many people signing up to be an Autobot expected to live very long lives. He wasn’t an exception- he just- he thought he would last a bit longer, not get swept away in his very first battle. Everyone was going to be so disappointed.
He swallowed back tears, suddenly wishing he had given up joining the hunting division like everyone had tried to convince him to. At the time it had felt overprotective, most people in his situation ended up joining, he thought it was some favoritism too. He was raised by some of the highest-ranking members of the hunting division of course he wanted to join! Nobody wanted him to but he was determined and they finally conceded.
And now?
He was being carried away by a dragon to his death.
He wondered how they would react when they heard the news. Bumblebee is sure that's what bothers him the most- he is scared. Very scared. How were they going to feel though? That they had let him do this only for him to die. Would they feel like it was their fault? Of course they would, he knew they would.
Different scenarios cycled through his head the entire flight. But they would be okay again, eventually.
Starscream dipped down, and Bumblebee finally looked down. They were gliding over a huge rocky area covered with streams and lakes of lava. He knew of this place, Kaon. It was impossible to cross into and any travel had to be done around it. It was always rumored this was where the dragons lived as the dead hot wasteland seemed fitting for their ruthless and fiery nature.
It seemed they were correct.
The dragons flew over Kaon for maybe an hour before the previously flat areas either spiraled into the air or the ground split open into deep ravines. Up ahead there was a large wall with an odd purple substance dripping down its sides. At the bottom, it mixed with lava forming a rich crimson color.
The dragons flew over the wall, it was an immediate hundred-foot drop into an almost endless-looking ravine. It had streams of purple liquid throughout but most notably was covered with dragons. They dove down and along the walls of the ravine, there were small caves. There was at least one dragon in almost all of them.
Dirge, Ramjet, and Thrust suddenly banked left and swooped into one of the caves. Starscream flew a bit farther before diving into one himself. He landed almost silently then ungracefully dropped Bumblebee on the floor. He cried out as pain shot through his leg. The dragon snarled, then stepped over Bumblebee.
He followed it with his eyes. Deeper in the cavern there were two other dragons. They were a bit bigger than Starscream and also covered in both scales and feathers. One was blue, black, and red, the other black and purple.
The blue one looked dead. Blue blood pooled under its head and was dripping from its snout, its eyes were halfway opened and it was so skinny he could see every bone. He looked back at Starscream, he could see most of his bones too, the black dragon wasn’t much better. Well, there wasn’t much life in Kaon so there wasn’t much to eat, so why chose to live here?
The blue dragon coughed, its whole body shaking with the effort. The black dragon jumped up, clicked and churred at Starscream then lunged at Bumblebee. He had no time to react, and there wasn’t much he could do with no weapon and a broken leg. It snapped down onto his arm, dragging him over to the blue dragon.
They were going to eat him!
Its teeth pierced through his armor with ease then into the meat of his arm. He bit back a cry. It’s teeth stopped as soon as blood started to flow and let him go. Confused, he started to sit up but was pressed into the ground by a claw giving barely enough room to breathe. The blue dragon's head snaked over and its forked tongue licked at the blood that leaked through his armor.
The effect was instant, small scratches and injuries closed up and its frame even seemed to fill out some. His blood had healed it. Every dragon that escaped battle returned at a later time in near perfect condition was this how? Drinking their blood?
The blue dragon still looked sickly, no longer like a corpse but unwell. Not much other than the Autobots themselves could even come close to harming a dragon. How were they being injured so often they needed to perform raids to heal themselves? Or was it just this sickness that was driving them to it?
The talon pinning him down pulled away and he, as carefully as he could, put himself in the farthest corner of the cave from the dragons. They stared at him for a time but once they decided he would not move, they ignored him.
Despite being in a volcano, the cave was remarkably cold. The chill seemed to emanate from blue crystals in the wall. Bee began shivering and even long after the dragons seemed to fall into fitful sleeps Bumblebee remained awake and vigilant. Listening to the pops and hisses of lava and distant roars that echoed throughout the ravine.