Chapter Text
Smokescreen let out a low, shaky vent as he exited on the other side of the groundbridge. The location Ratchet chose for him to hide at was, in all honesty, beautiful. He had always admired the wondrous views on this planet that he never really got to see back on Cybertron(His earliest memories having been about an area heavily affected by the war and then getting sent to Iacon after graduation, he didn’t get to see many views quite like this. If he did, he had already seen them thousands of times).
He transformed into root mode, almost completely tuning out the quiet whirs that occurred as he did so. Stretching his servos out, he observed the area more closely.
It was packed with trees, all towering, even for him. There was a large amount of foliage, most of it being low to the ground and small(compared to him). The area surrounding him was a million different shades of green, ranging from the rich emerald color of the grass to a pale green of the leaves at the top of some of the shorter trees. The area he had been sent was located in a clearing, so he could see the sky from here. The bright blue or the dark, all encompassing navy it had commonly been during the day or night, was now a rosy red, melting into a cascade of oranges and yellows, pastel pink or white clouds splattered against it like the ‘watercolor’ paint he had heard about awhile back(yes he enjoyed human arts, they were interesting! Sue him!)
He turned around to see the groundbridge still active, a whirl of turquoises, cyans, and bright green with hints of purple, all twirling into a bright center that was almost white with how bright it was. The whirring coming from it drowned out all of his thoughts as anxiety began to plague him, curling around his processor like a virus. His plating rattled and his servos trembled.
Ratchet and Optimus were still there. Someone had to have stayed back to turn off and or destroy the groundbridge.
Decepticons were going to destroy the base, and knowing Megatron… they were going to bomb it and check the wreckage, probably predicting at least one of them stayed behind.
Which means whoever stays back was going to offline.
What if he’s wrong! He knows both of them can put up an amazing fight! Especially if Optimus stayed back, which, in the short time he knew the prime, was probably the case. And Optimus was- well- a prime! He has fought megatron for millions of years! He can handle himself!
But against the cons army? ALONE?
He couldn’t offer any help. He was just a rookie. He was useless.
Everything around him was drowned out by his increasingly labored venting and the constant whir of the swirling portal infront of him. Subconsciously, he reached a servo up to his spark, clawing at the plating as he desperately tried to calm his racing sparkbeat.
Both Ratchet and Optimus were too important to the team to lose, but what could he do? They were going to offline and it was going to be all his fault because he was such a coward and useless because he was dumb enough to not realize he was entering a long distance pod-
“Pull yourself together smokescreen.”
He mumbled assurances to himself in an attempt to calm the anxiety running through his lines like it was energon.
“You have the phase shifter. Alpha Trion trusted you with the omega key for a reason”(even if he didn’t trust you enough to tell you about sticking the DAMN THING IN YOUR CHASSIS-).
“You need to get whoever stayed behind out”(Oh Primus what if he was wrong and he disobeyed primes orders for nothing and died. Then prime and the others would know he was just a useless, idiotic, rookie).
He took one deep vent in, before shaking away his previous trains of thought, hopping in place to hype himself up a bit. He grabbed the phase shifter from his subspace and put it on(ignoring the shiver that crawled up his back as the claw like metal of the phase shifter clutched his lower arm like a particularly persistent scraplet). He turned it on just as quickly, letting the pure cold he felt while using it wash over him, before finally making a dash back through the groundbridge.
He’s got this. He has to protect the more important members of his team. He can’t fail them. Not like he failed Alpha Trion. Not like he failed everyone he knew back then.
He can’t leave them with a rookie that’s about as good as scrap when he could’ve saved Optimus.
—————
As soon as he reentered the base, he let himself slip through the ground(he doesn’t understand how, ‘grounding tech’ and all), just barely avoiding Optimus’s line of sight(he’s confident Optimus didn’t see him, otherwise he would’ve mentioned it) and walking to the side of the machinery to stay hidden. It felt suffocating, but he managed. The feeling of active mechanisms that were active and should be burning to the touch but weren’t and were instead phasing through him was much more uncomfortable than he thought it would be.
He quickly found a gap in between the wall and groundbridge machine(he doesn’t really remember what team prime called it, if they ever told him) where the whirring and constant screams of the technology were quieter, enabling him to turn his audio receptors up to max and listen into Ratchet and Optimus’s conversation.
He could feel the base around them trembling, dust and small pebbles falling from places high up, the rattle of larger items that were connected to the walls as he heard the end of the conversation, Optimus speaking, his tone commanding(and yet calm and assuring in a way that made him hope Optimus had a plan, but he knew that plan involved a high chance of Optimus dying or being injured and trapped under rubble, left to the decepticons) and leaving no room for Ratchet to argue.
“-Insure the deceptions cannot follow.”
The lack of a retort hurt in a way he didn’t quite understand. Why wasn’t ratchet arguing? Why didn’t ratchet try and convince prime that there was another way? Please. Please Ratchet don’t just leave Optimus here-
“I…. Never.. imagined it would end like this.”
His spark burned. Optimus wasn’t going to die. He wouldn’t let him. He wouldn’t let it happen. Better him to die than the one holding team together.
He jumped up right as he heard Ratchet enter the groundbridge. Optimus stood there, staring at the tunnel where Ratchet stood a few kliks prior.
Turning off the phase shifter, warmth flooded through him.
Optimus stepped forwards, as if he wanted to go through himself, but stopped.
Smokescreen took a deep breath, getting a running start and shoving with all his might. Please please please primus let him do one thing right let him die instead of somebot else for once please please please-
“Sorry Optimus, the team needs you more than a rookie like me!”
“Wh- SMOKESCREEN?! WHAT-“
Optimus turned with a surprised yell, but it was cut off as he was pushed through the groundbridge. He was safe. He was safe and with ratchet. Everyone else was going to be safe. Optimus would live and they would be able to regroup.
If he was injured or died in the process, then that was alright.
Smokescreen wasted no time in running over to the groundbridge controls, activating the phase shifter(it’s so cold it’s so cold it’s so cold-) and reaching inside the machinery, grabbing into something that felt important, and pulling.
Metal creaked and wires snapped, he felt the internal mechanism of the controls almost ripple as he pulled it out a vital piece.
The groundbridge tunnel’s lights began to flicker, the mechanisms starting to groan as the controls were messed up.
He repeated the process two more times, pulling and pulling, until with a loud whine, the groundbridge shut off completely.
He smiled softly, walking over to the groundbridge, standing there.
For some unexplainable reason, he turned off the phase shifter(it was getting so cold it burned). Warmth flooded back into him.
The base rumbled and shook, small chunks of rock and unsecured items falling to the ground.
He did one thing right. Now he just has to get out of here unnoticed.
As he reached to activate the phase shifter, a large chunk of rock and metal came loose.
All the warning smokescreen had was a bang! and a groan and a snap! before he looked up, optics wide.
A huge chunk of the roof had fallen, and was heading straight towards him.
He felt frozen to the spot(move move MOVE- WHY CAN’T HE MOVE-).
His servo clamped down on the phase shifter right as the rock and metal hit his head with a cracking sound that echoed, overpowering the rumbling of the base as it began to collapse from the battle happening outside.
The world around him glitched and shuddered and shifted as a sharp, agonizing pain shot through his skull. He couldn’t even yell as he felt his legs buckle underneath him before he crumpled to the ground. Everything hurt. Everything was glitching. His left optic especially hurt. Something warm began to puddle around him.
Huh.
Guess he was gonna die after all.
Everything was fading.
And then the world around him exploded(no, literally, the base got blown up around him).
And then there was nothing.
—————
He saw a blur of white, blue and red, before Optimus’s world flashed green for a moment, and he found himself stumbling backwards and falling onto grass as he fell through the groundbridge.
“-ARE YOU DOING HERE?!”
No.. what? How was he?
Nonononono-
“SMOKESCREEN!!”
He shot up, having been knocked to the ground when Smokescreen shoved him through the groundbridge with surprising strength. He rushed towards the groundbridge portal. It was still open, there was still time-
With a last whine, the whirlpool like portal closed, leaving him grabbing at empty air.
He stood there, shock freezing his frame to the spot
No..
Not smokescreen. Primus the youngling was so untouched by war and he caused and was so young and optimistic still and he couldn’t let him get hurt and broken under his watch- not like how bumblebee had, not like how so, so many had been. He couldn’t let anyone else get hurt.
“OPTIMUS?!”
Optimus turned to ratchet with wide optics as the medic rushed over.
“What?! Did you? How did you get over here? I thought you would’ve destroyed the groundbridge controls?!- How are you here?”
It took a few seconds before Optimus found to will to speak underneath the dread that drowned his spark. He took a deep vent and tried to calm his racing thoughts into something manageable.
“I.. was intending.. to do that. And then..Smokescreen came and pushed me through the groundbridge.”
“Smokescreen?! But didn’t he go through the groundbridge before us?!”
“That is what I believed as well, but, it appears that may have.. not been the case.”
“How did he sneak back in without us noticing?”
“I.. do not know, Ratchet.”
He could only pray to primus Smokescreen would be alright.