Smokescreen groaned tiredly, he was once again in a world of nothingness. He's been visiting that place an awful lot lately. Strangely, he's starting to more or less get used to it. Why not? After all when he was there he had nothing to worry about. No war, no violence, no Decepticons and no.....friends or family or happiness or love.
Ok, it was lonely, maybe it's time to go back to reality. Speaking of which how did he end up here to begin with?
Then he remembered. 'That's right, the cons got me. They poked around inside of me and got the info on the other keys and another key itself, scrap, but.....I snagged them back right? And...Knockout, that slagger injured me and I was losing energon, then I jumped off the Nemesis and saved my aft just in time and then.......' he couldn't remember pass that and came to only one conclusion.
He groggily opened his optics and looked around. As his blurry vision became clearer, he was relieved to find himself on a cot inside the med bay in the Autobot's base and not tied to a slab in some Decepticon dungeon.
'I did it, I escaped. Smokescreen you rock!' he mentally congratulated himself. It was then he became aware of the numbed but burning pain on his chassis and door wings. Blinking he also realized he was lying on the cot sideways. He turned his helm around and saw the wound on his door wings was now bandaged up. He twitched it a bit and it sent a wave of aching pain through it but...at least it was fixed.
He then looked down and saw that the gashes on his chassis were welded up, the only reminder that they were there being the faint jagged lines he could make out if he squinted hard enough. The other cuts seem to have either naturally healed or been welded. He also traced a digit across his faceplate where he felt a faint line where Knockout had slashed him.
He also felt something on his servo. Another brace? No, it feels too soft and warm to be that. Another sling? Nah, his servo wasn't that injured.
"Smokes.....wake up......" he heard a sleepy voice mumble, evidently the owner wasn't fully awake herself. He recognized that voice anywhere. He looked down and saw Evelyn right there, sleeping on his servo. Her arms were crossed and her head was on it, tilted sideways. She seemed to be in a half-kneeling half-lying position.
Smokescreen smiled, seeing her made him instantly forget about the pain on his chassis. He gently nudged her with a digit. "Morning Sunshine." He said.
Evelyn blinked, did she hear that right or was she dreaming? She opened her eyes and her warm brown eyes made contact with those beautiful optics she's been waiting to see for so long.
"Smokes!" she cried instantly awake. She rushed forward and hugged his faceplate. Her body racked with sobs of relief and tears of pure joy dripped down her eyes. 'Bugger I'm becoming a crybaby.' She thought but couldn't care less; her guardian was awake and alive!
"Thank god.....thank god.....you're okay." Was all she could mutter over and over again
She nuzzled her face against his, her forehead against his smooth metal cold one. Smokescreen didn't mind and leaned into it. It felt so.....nice, feeling his partner's soft warm skin against his metal plating. He leaned into it, even though his face was twice the size of hers, the warmth enveloped him and re-energized him.
"I thought I'd lost you for good." Evelyn whispered through her sniffles.
"I promised, and I'm a bot of my word remember?" Smokescreen said. Then he cupped her head with his other servo. "Sorry I scared ya."
Evelyn scowled and flicked him on the spot where a nose would be. "Darn right you did! You came through that groundbridge looking like you just battled hellhounds!" she said.
"That probably would've been better than facing cons." Smokescreen said. "Sides' it was no biggie." He said attempting to brush it off.
"Smokes, if you plan on playing the cool-nothing-to-worry-about card I will personally whack you with a wrench." Evelyn said. Smokescreen nearly laughed but it died on his glossa the moment he saw the dead serious look on Evelyn's face.
"Yes ma'am." Smokescreen said meekly.
Then Evelyn leaned forward and hugged his faceplate tenderly. "I'm just glad you're alright." She said. Evelyn wasn't the type to stay angry for long. Yes, she was pissed off because he did something so stupid and she was angry because he had no idea how terrified she was. But she wasn't one to hold onto that for too long and knew when to push it aside and make room for relief and joy at seeing things were okay now.
She thought about it then kissed his cheek. "They say a kiss can help the mind and body heal." She said with a slight tint of pink on her cheeks.
Smokescreen tenderly touched the spot where her lips made contact and lowered his helm with a smile in an attempt to hide the red tint on his faceplate. "T-they weren't wrong." He said. 'You just got another kiss! On the cheek but still!' he thought.
"RATCHEEEEEEET! SMOKES IS ALIVE!" Evelyn announced as she ran out of the med bay. Ratchet covered his audio receptors at her announcement. Smokescreen tried to ignore the slight disappointment in his spark at not being able to spend some more alone time with Evelyn.
'How can one small being be so loud?!' he questioned himself not for the first time. "I'm coming, I'm coming now quit shouting before you damage our audio receptors! We've got enough problems on our hands already." He grumbled and made his way into the med bay.
Soon, all of Team Prime was gathered around him including the humans who opted to gather beside him on the berth. "Now this is a nice welcoming committee." Smokescreen joked. Then he grew more serious. "The keys?" he asked.
"Safe now, thanks to you." Optimus told him and showed Smokescreen the four Omega Keys they now possessed.
Smokescreen smirked. "What did I tell you? Destiny! Alpha Trion knew I'd keep em safe." He said proudly with his chest puffed up in pride.
Arcee scowled and whacked him over the helm. Okay, now that hurt. "Ow! You trying to give me another headache?" Smokescreen asked and rubbed his helm.
"That was for scaring the scrap out of all of us." Arcee said with a scowl then her gaze softened. "But Primus kid, you're lucky. Good to see that you're learning." She couldn't stop the smile from coming onto her faceplate as she was admittedly impressed and proud of his achievement.
"Lucky indeed." Ratchet agreed seriously. "You lost a lot of energon, your body was covered in Primus knows how many cuts ranging from mesh wounds to gashes and your freefall stunt made the wound on your door wing worse! Had it not been for the backup energon supply you would've gone into stasis much longer due to energon loss."
"Knockout really did a number on me, huh?" Smokescreen said.
"He did this to you?!" Evelyn said anger rising. "That's it, the next time I see that guy I am going to kick his arse, stuff it up his tailpipe and scratch his paint off all together." She said seething and had someone used a cortical psychic patch right then and there, she might have been taken to prison as a possible murderer.
Yes, that's just how detailed and graphic she was planning Knockout's torture but a girl can dream, right? Right?!
"Smokescreen, what happened? What did the Decepticons do? Did you learn of anything of importance while you were there?" Optimus asked.
Smokescreen took a deep vent and told them everything-from the key extraction to the cortical psychic and the interrogation. He tried to not make it too gory since Raf was among the crowd of listeners.
"The slagger could've just patched me up and get the info right then and there. Of course he'd use it as an excuse. Then again, I regret nothing. Gives me a good excuse to beat the scrap out of him the next time we meet myself.
"Anyways, it took a bit of acting but I got him to get closer and let his guard down. I managed to grab onto the Phase Shifter and get out of there, managed to snag those other two keys in the process. Oh, and I trapped Knockout in a wall." Smokescreen smirked proudly at the memory before he continued. "After that, I just ran through wall after wall till I reached the outer hull and well, you know the rest." He finished.
Silence washed over them as they digested this then Smokescreen realized something and shame filled him once again as he remembered that now the Decepticons also know of the existence of the other keys. They all listened with rapt attention, even Miko was silent and she and Evelyn had their sketchbooks out and were already picturing Knockout being trapped in a wall.
"I'm sorry, Optimus. I'm sorry to all of you. They patched into my mind and looked into my memories. They know about the other keys now because of me. I'm sorry." He said. Because of him, they had lost their only tactical advantage and the fate of Cybertron once again rests in the hands of both the Autobots and Decepticons.
It was a brutal race with the fate of their entire species at stake.
Optimus laid a servo on his shoulder. "There is no need to be ashamed, soldier. Megatron may know about the keys' existence but it is useless to him unless he can retrieve them first. You managed to show immense willpower by not breaking under interrogation. For that, I am proud of you." He said.
Smokescreen nearly burst in pride from the praise he was receiving from his idol but managed to compose himself. "Thank you, sir." He said.
"Right now, it is also paramount that we double our efforts to retrieve the Omega Keys before the Decepticons do." Optimus said.
"A cortical psychic patch." Evelyn said repeating the method Smokescreen had mentioned. "Wow, I knew you Cybertronians were leagues ahead of us in medical technology but to actually have something that allows you to look into another's memories? That's downright wicked." She said.
"And a downright pain in the aft if it's used against you." Ratchet grumbled then he turned his attention back to Smokescreen and scanned him one more time. "I'm afraid you won't be able to use your alt-mode for at least one week, that might reopen the welds so in the meantime, you'll have to stay in your bipedal form."
"Awwww." Both Smokescreen and Evelyn bemoaned. Smokescreen had been looking forward to going back to driving around with Evelyn while the latter had also been looking forward to having her cool ride back.
"No 'awwww's or buts, doctor's orders." Ratchet said.
"Rest kid, you need it." Bulkhead said before leaving.
:You were awesome.: Bumblebee said genuinely proud of Smokescreen. He only knew too well what it was like to be interrogated and tortured by Decepticons.
Smokescreen knowing what Bumblebee went through fist bumped with him. "You should see Knockout's face when I left him trapped in the wall."
"Oh, we can picture it." Miko and Evelyn said. They looked at each other and smirked before they took out the sketchbook they had been sketching on from their laps to show them a drawing of Knockout trapped in the wall.
(A/N: Miko's sketch.)
While Evelyn's was mostly a black and white sketch with shading, Miko's was more cartoonish and colorful which made it even funnier.
The remaining bots and humans in the room laughed at his predicament.
"You know for all the pain you went through, at least we got something out of it." Evelyn said waving the sketch around.
"Yeah......" Smokescreen smiled at her. Being able to see her again was more than he could ask for. Evelyn smiled back that beautiful smile that made his spark beat faster. They stared at each other for a while then realized what they were doing and promptly turned away with a red tint on their face/faceplate.
"I'm uh....glad you're doing alright. You need anything?" Evelyn asked in an attempt to lessen the awkwardness.
"Nah, I'm good." Smokescreen managed to say without stuttering. 'You can face off against Lord Buckethead and stare him straight in the optic but you can't even stare at your own human partner/crush long enough without becoming like this?!' he asked himself.
Then Evelyn smiled at him genuinely. "It's just good to see you in one piece. You free tonight?" she asked.
"Yes, why?" he asked.
"Well if memory serves, you still owe me a movie." She said with a teasing smile.
"Here tonight at 8 sound good?" Smokescreen asked.
Evelyn smiled and laid a hand over his servo. "More than enough for me." She said. They both smiled at each other, both glad to have the other back.
"I so ship them." Miko whispered to Jack. "I bet 10 bucks they'll confess in a week."
Jack rolled his eyes. "Yeah right." He said. Then he leaned in closer to whisper into her ear. "I bet 20 bucks it'll be a week." He whispered with a rare smirk.
**************************************************
Meanwhile back on the Nemesis......
"I beg you, my liege, release me from this absurd predicament!" Knockout who was still trapped within the wall pleaded. Breakdown was currently trying his best to hold in his laughter at his friend's current predicament.
Knockout glared at him. "This isn't funny!" he snapped.
"No." Megatron said instantly erasing all mirth. "You shall serve as a constant to those who dare fail me. This is also your punishment for allowing Smokescreen to once again slip through your incompetent fingers." Megatron hissed.
"You may remove your friend after he has learned his lesson." He told Breakdown. "Until then, make no attempt to help him or you shall suffer the same fate."
"Yes, Lord Megatron." Breakdown said. As much as he cared for his friend, he cared about his own spark too thank you very much.
Knockout sighed. Primus really isn't on his side is he? Then his audio receptors began to itch. Great, who else was planning on screwing his aft out there?
Back at the Autobot's base, Evelyn and Miko both couldn't help but sneeze.
"I wonder who's talking about me?" they both asked themselves.