Transformers Prime: Shrouded Truth (#4) [Completed]

Chapter 33

"Ow!" I exclaimed.

"Well, if you would stop yelling every two seconds, this would go a lot faster," Knockout snapped.

"Well, if you stopped—ow!—doing that, I would gladly sit still," I threw back.

Predaking had left four streaming cuts on my chest, which needed to be treated. Knockout was doing a terrible job. I never thought I would say it, but I preferred Ratchet's grumpiness to this.

Megatron's thundering footfalls stopped Knockout and I in our bickering, but that didn't mean we didn't resort to silent glares that said it all.

Solus walked closer to Megatron, leaving her post at the door.

"Smokescreen, report," Megatron commanded.

"About what?" I asked, leaning forward. Knockout grumbled and stopped patching me up while Megatron was present.

"Why did the Predacons attack us?" he asked, his patience already thin. From beside the warlord, Solus shook her head. I wasn't going to push him today, not when this incident seemed to point towards me. The Predacon had helped the Autobots, which pointed towards me, I guess.

"I think they must have been trying to prove a point," I said, which wasn't wrong. I said nothing else, for risk of having to divulge the truth.

Megatron studied me for a second, looking for something on my face. I kept it blank, and stared at him in the optics. A few seconds ticked by, starring at each other. Finally, he nodded.

"Get him patched up, Doctor." The leader of the cons turned on his heel and left.

Four days later,  I laid on the top on the warship. The sun was gone, and the star were out. I was just there, watching the night sky and thinking over everything.

"There you are." Solus walked up to me. She took a seat beside me, and tilted her head up to the stars. I didn't move from my position: on my back and arms behind my head. "What are you doing up here? I mean, besides looking at the beautiful sky."

"Thinking."

"About?"

"Everything. Mainly Lora."

"Oh?"

I let out a sigh and finally looked at Solus. She was looking at me with a quizzical look about her face, asking for more. So I gave her it.

"'I'm missing her, more so than usual. Just being under the night sky reminds me of her. It was our thing together, a time for Lora and I to just breathe and watch the night sky. I told her stories about Cybertron and my life before she joined the team, and Lora talked about her happy moments in life—which sadly aren't much—  and told me about earth's myths. It was an unspoken rule that we wouldn't' talk about the bad. It was our time together."

Solus shuffled down and laid beside me. "It is relaxing," she commented. "It sounds like you had a great relationship with Lora."

"We do, it's just... this." I gestured to me.

Solus turned to look at me better. "And that's stopping you?"

"No. Yes. I don't know." I sighed. "Probably."

Solus turned again, looking back to the stars. "Tell me about a myth."

Thoughts about possible stories to tell the prime ran through my head, but as I watched a star cross the sky, I got the perfect one.

"See that?" I pointed to a shooting star, quickly appearing and leaving our sights.

"Yeah," Solus said.

"Even though it's a meteor passing past earth, Lora told me once the the humans call it a shooting star. She said that it's a superstition to wish upon it, and you wish will come true."

I heard Solus smile. "I like that."

"I wonder if she out there somewhere, looking at the exact same stars. I wonder if she made a wish on that star."

"She is. And just as you are thinking of her, she's thinking of you."

"I can believe that."

And so, we fell silent, watching the stars. It felt as Lora was right beside me, watching the stars as I was. It was comforting. That was when I made a promise to myself. I would find her again, and when I did, I would tell her everything.

Exactly a week had passed since the starry night, and a week and four days since the predacons had come for me. I never regretted turning them down. Together, Solus and I had scoured every part of the ship, looking for clues, checking logs, and eavesdropping in on conversations. In a week, surprisingly, we had discovered a lot. Dots were connected, and realizations grew. With Solus' help, we planned, and put that plan into action.

Now, I drove through Jasper, looking for her. And there she was.

The weeks we spent apart had not changed Lora. Her face was red from running, and her breathing hard. She stopped on the side of the road, hands on her knees. She wasn't stopped for long before she rightened her posture, tightened her hair, before continuing on. She walked for a few paces, then started back into her jog.

I turned the corner in a rush, burning rubber on the road. I tore down the backroad, optics set on Lora. She startled as I spun in front of her, but quickly moved in a defensive stance. My driver's door faced her, and as I opened it, her eyes widened at the empty seat.

As I spoke, her eyes widened with recognition. She knew it was me.

"Lora, get in. We need to talk."