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

Chapter 1

"NO!" I screamed. My hand stretched forward, reaching towards him. But I was too far away to do anything.

Smokescreen's peaceful smile was frozen on his face as the light left his eyes. They faded, turning lifeless.

I felt the pain fill me up, and no manner of running, screaming and yelling changed what I saw in front of me. I want to tell him to come back to me, to not abandon me in this darkness, but he didn't hear. No matter what I did, my guardian laid on the ground, his eyes empty. 

My eyes snapped open. I could feel tears wet on my face, my body shaking at the sight I had been forced to relive. The grief and terror that had previouslyfilled me vanished as I saw what was above me.

I was surrounded in darkness. Only a few beams of light seeped in through the cracks in the roof above me. What the roof was, I didn't know.

"What happened?" I wondered.

Squinting through the pounding headache, I thought back, trying to piece together what had happened. Thinking through the fog and pieces, I slowly put together what had transpired earlier.

Swoop, the dinobot scout who had been severely injured in his last fight against the Predacons—flying, robotic, aliens that took the shape of mystical creatures such as dragons and griffins who could also blow fire—had spotted the Decepticons coming towards the Autobots' base. Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots, had divided everyone up in order to get everything valuable from the base before we had to evacuate. Agent Fowler had secured a military base for us to stay at after the missal silo was gone.

When we were evacuating, the roof had started to come down, and I had used the Amulet of Life—the Cybertronian relic that had chosen me to be its protector—and its powers to hold the roof up while everyone escaped.

Grimlock, the leader of the dinobots, had grabbed me at the last moment and we had left through the ground bridge, but something told me that this wasn't the military base.

"Grimlock!" I realized, my eyes widening. My hand fell to the ground underneath me. That was when I figured out what the roof was and what was beneath me: Grimlock.

"Grimlock!" I yelled, sitting up in a rush. I didn't expect the pain to erupt. My headache flared up even more behind my eyes, and I nearly hit my head on Grimlock's hand that curled around me in a protective manner.

I closed my eyes and laid back down.

"Grimlock, are you okay?" I called. No answer came back.

"He's alive, just unconscious," Alpha Trion assured me.

"Thank Primus," I sighed. "What happened?"

"The ground bridge blew before you and Grimlock could make it all the way through to the military base. I absorbed what I could to keep you two as unharmed as possible. Luckily it worked. Although, you two were displaced."

"What about everyone else?"

"They all made it though safely," Alpha Trion assured me.

I let out a grateful sigh. "How much Energon did we gain with you absorbing the excess power from the unstable ground bridge?"

"We lost over half of the reserve when you supported that beam; it took a lot of power. When the ground bridge exploded, we gained back nearly as much as we had before, so the stores have not changed overly much."

"Well, that's probably the only upside to all of this. Any clue where we are?"

"No, but I would suggest for you not use your phone or any human frequencies. No doubt the Decepticons will be monitoring them in hope of finding any Autobot survivors. Luckily for us, they don't know we got out."

"So, for now we have the element of surprise on our side again?"

"For now, yes. It will not last long. As soon as no bodies turn up in the wreckage, that they are no doubt scourging as we speak, they will know we are out there, regrouping and planning," Alpha Trion said.

I let out a sigh.

A groan erupted in the near silent air. Grimlock shifted underneath me, and I found myself scrambling to support myself against his hand around me.

"Woah. I'm in here. Please don't squish me," I exclaimed as I felt Grimlock sit up.

"Sorry." Grimlock slowly removed his hand from around me. I cringed and grimaced against the sudden light that hit me. The headache that was finally becoming bearable flared up again, twicefold. My arms shot up, shielding my eyes from the light as I squinted. Noticing my reaction, Grimlock used his giant hand to help block the light.

It took a moment for my eyes to adjust. I squinted through my headache as I observed where Grimlock and I were.

It was a brightly lit area, filled with dense brush. Moss grew on the old trees, lush, green and full of life. There was a rough dirt gouge in the ground, leading to where Grimlock and I now sat. I could only guess that the grass that had been torn up was on the other side of Grimlock.

"Where are we?" Grimlock asked, also looking at where we were.

"Don't know," I shrugged. "Alpha Trion said that we were displaced when the ground bridge exploded; we never made it to the other end."

"And the others?"

"They made it safely to the military base," I assured the leader of the Dinobots, looking to him.

He visibly relaxed at my assurance, his broad shoulders hunching. I did a quick once over of Grimlock, looking for any injures of any sort, but he appeared to be perfectly fine. The only thing was the tiredness that showed in the his yellow eyes, but underneath it was the warmth and kindness that I knew all to well, but from a different bot.

Smokescreen always had the same look in his eyes whenever he looked at me. Even if he was worried or serious, whenever he looked to me his expression changed. More than ever I wanted to see that again; see him happy. And alive. I would give anything to see him again, or even hear his cheerful voice. I missed him so much, and every day that ache in my heart grew.

"Lora, are you okay?" Grimlock asked. His expression turned to concern. He had noticed the sad look that covered my face.

"Yeah," I said, shaking my head. "I'm just trying to figure out where we are and how we can get back."

"I may be able to help with that," Alpha Trion said abruptly. "Sorry Lora."

"It's okay. You know I don't care," I shrugged. "I know you don't like interfering with my life, but you have to do what you have to do."

"Alpha Trion," Grimlock greeted, nodding his head respectfully.

Alpha Trion (I) nodded back. "The Amulet of Life has a connection to anything else made by Primus, so naturally, any of the original Thirteen Prime's artifacts and the Matrix of Leadership. We can use this connection to contact Optimus Prime, and he can trace it back to us."

"The only problem is that they won't have a working ground bridge," Grimlock said.

"Even if they did, that wouldn't lead them to us. The connection is something you follow, not something you transport to. Do they not a few ships? I believe the Jackhammer and the Iron Will."

Grimlock's expression showed that he had caught onto what Alpha Trion was saying.

"So it's like a piece of rope that we're extending to Optimus that leads him to us?" I asked.

"It's more like the Key to Vector Sigma." He paused. "You don't know what that is, so yes it's like a rope."

"Okay. So, how do I pull this off?" I felt Alpha Trion slip back, letting me have control of myself again.

"You're going to want to sit down. It is a long process."