Omega (TFP AU)

Strange Memories

"Is he going to be okay?" Arcee asked Ratchet.

"Yes..." Ratchet paused for a moment, "His processors were receiving too much information. Possibly from seeing his picture as the last Iacon file."

Bumblebee beeped a question, ::Why do you think his picture was there?::

"Maybe he knows where the key is," Bulkhead guessed.

"And never bothered to mention it," Arcee retorted.

"A more likely possibility is, that Smokescreen himself somehow is the key without knowing it." Ratchet responded, with a hint in his voice that he knew something.

"Hey," Arcee said, "Smokescreen went looking for you after he got back, and then later you two arrived together. What was it about?"

"Smokescreen thought something was wrong with his memory circuits," Ratchet responded.

"And..." Bulkhead verbally nudged Ratchet to continue.

"He was right." Ratchet stated, "Something had been inserted into the circuit, causing certain memories to be locked away. The strange device has cracked though, letting those memories leak through."

Bee beeped again, ::Did you remove it?::

"No," Ratchet lowered his head slightly, "Optimus had called in that he uncoded the last file. Not to mention simply removing something like that could cause a processing overload. Smokescreen could have ended up forgetting everything! The best course of action is to let the memories leak out." Going back to his protective medic personality as he neared the end.

"We will have to keep a close eye on him," Optimus said.

~~~~~

Smokescreen was standing in a black void, everywhere he looked it was the same, empty. A voice came from behind him.

"Hello again," They said.

"Alpha Trion? What's going on?" Smokescreen panicked.

"Do not worry, Smokescreen. I am here to help you." Trion calmed

"What..." Smokescreen noticed Trion confused him a lot.

"I can't tell you much but I can tell you this. Trust your spark, it knows more than you think." Trion said as he disappeared.

~~~~~

"Wait!" Smokescreen shouted as he woke. He shifted so he was sitting on the edge of the berth. It took him a moment to realize everyone had turned their gaze toward him.

Ratchet broke the silence, "Are you alright?"

"I had a strange dream, not one like the others. I-," Smokescreen stopped himself.

"What was it?" Optimus asked.

"Alpha Trion spoke to me, but it felt like I was actually talking to him. He told me that he couldn't tell me much but he could tell me, 'Trust your spark, it knows more than you think'. Whatever that means." Smokescreen stated.

"Any idea why your mugshot was in that file," Bulkhead asked, seeming a bit impatient.

"I'm not sure," Smokescreen said eyes falling to the floor, "I know it's in my head somewhere, but I just can't remember." Smokescreen wrapped both his servos around his head, "What's wrong with me?"

"Nothing's wrong with you," Ratchet comforted as he sat down next to Smokescreen.

"Then why am I remembering things that never happened!?" Smokescreen shouted, trying hard not to show his distress, but failing miserably.

"There's something blocking some of your memories, but it broke and now they're leaking out. These memories you're seeing are real, they have just been locked away." Ratchet explained.

"Can you remove it?" Smokescreen asked in a small voice.

"No," Ratchet responded, "It would be too dangerous, there's a good chance it would cause more harm than good. For now we need to let the memories leak out, which means I will be checking on you daily."

"I- Okay." Smokescreen said it so quietly Ratchet nearly didn't hear it.

~~~~~

It's been a full day, the kids came and left. Smokescreen had a hard time recharging, afraid of what he might see if he does. He decided to go for a drive.

Smokescreen drove for a long time, his mind wandering from one thing to another, not paying much attention to anything. Something shot a blast behind him, he transformed and looked to see what it was, Laserbeak. Soundwave was close behind, using the Resonance blaster to knock Smokescreen unconscious.