Forever Alone: Transformers Prime

Chapter XL

Julie woke up finding herself in the new base. The bright light hurt to look at as she sat up from where she laid. Julie flew off the bed and into the main room finding Miko looking excited.

"How rad would it be if you all had jet packs like Optimus?" Miko asked.

"Quite rad, Miko, but the Forge has been depleted of its power to do that." Ratchet replied as he was working on something near the new bridge monitor. Julie already knew it was going to take quite a while to get used to the new base, before she felt home once again, but she worried about Midnight who went missing after the destruction of their former home. She flew over and landed next to Ratchet as Bulkhead spoke up. "Now it's only good for pounding out dings."

The sound of an approaching car sounded at the entrance as Julie turned her head and saw a blue car with yellow and blue stripes. Parking in front of Bulkhead, Miko and Arcee in the process while revving its engine. "Smokescreen." Arcee commented. The car transformed immediately, "Awe, what gave me away? Come on, robots in disguise, right?" Julie smiled as she studied his new colors. She loved the blue on him, which was her favorite color. She loved the deep blue colors. Especially a royal blue.

"Where have you been, soldier?" Ultra Magnus walked up.

"Scanning new war paint. Thought it'd be proactive to follow Optimus's lead, and Bumblebee's." Smokescreen explained. Bumblebee turned toward them at the mention of his name. "What do you mean?"

"Now you can look your best while stacking those empty cubes." Magnus commented.

"Yes, sir." Smokescreen replied. "I was nearly a Prime, but somehow I'm still a rookie." Smokescreen muttered, but Julie still caught it.

"What was that about a Prime?" Ratchet asked.

"Uh, no time. Time to stop acting like a rookie." Smokescreen explained.

"Smokescreen was the only one who went back, if it weren't for him Optimus might not be with us today." Arcee commented, making Julie feel bad.

"Arcee we were under the strictest of orders, the three of you had your human partners to protect, but we are fortunate that Smokescreen is inexperienced enough not to have followed protocol." Ratchet explained.

"You're wrong Arcee." Julie spoke up, startling the two bots in the process.

"Julie, you're awake." Ratchet cried out.

"Yes, I have been sitting next to you for the past several minutes." Julie replied. "I was saying, Smokescreen wasn't the only one there for Prime. I understand completely what happened in the moment, because I never even left."

"You mean you turned invisible?" Ratchet asked. "I saw you leave ahead of me, but that explains why I never saw you with me."

"You guys have no idea what it took out of Smokescreen to help save Optimus. I am the only thing that remains of the power of Solus Prime's forge. He deserves the utmost respect out of anyone in this room, that is before Prime himself." Julie explained. "Now if you don't mind, I think I am gonna go help the new timer out." Julie explained as she flew over and joined Bumblebee and Smokescreen who were both stacking the cubes. "Let me, you two." With a wave of her hand the empty cubes flew into the air on their own and simply stacked themselves against the wall, before she turned to Smokescreen. "And the colors are awesome, Smokey. I love royal blue."

"Glad you like it, Jewels." Smokescreen replied. Julie simply laughed. "That's cute." Julie commented. "Nice nickname."

"Well it suits you." Smokescreen agreed, with a small laugh of his own. Julie flew over and hovered over the platform with Raf, just as a groundbridge opened with Optimus walking through. He was carrying something as he passed right by them, Julie couldn't help noticing how much the Prime had been avoiding her over the last several days. Did he know what he told her in the cave? Was he even aware at the moment? Did he not care about her at all?