They were gone.
All of them.
Ratchet frantically tried to reestablish contact with the rest of his team. He tried to reach them through an uplink; Optimus, then Arcee, then Bumblebee, then Bulkhead, then everyone at once, but all he received was static.
No signal.
No response.
The words he said to Optimus before the Autobot leader left through the Ground Bridge were repeating themselves in his head;
"Optimus, if you leave me stranded on a planet teeming with humans, I will never forgive you."
Ratchet never meant it. Not once.
He believed that his team would come back, their mission successful. Optimus would probably have the children stay with them. They might have eventually found more connections to Cybertron all over planet Earth. But they would never have the chance to do any of that.
He was furious with himself for not understanding what his leader had said;
"Ratch- ... we n-... idge now!" Optimus yelled through an uplink, but there was too much interference.
Ratchet adjusted a few settings on the screens, trying to repair the connection. "Optimus, I can barely hear you! Say again!"
"Ratchet-!"
Then nothing.
Both the children and Ratchet had gone silent. Ratchet quickly opened the Ground Bridge to where the rest of his team had been sent.
Ratchet only saw destruction. The remains of the Space Bridge were scattered everywhere. Ratchet searched all around, trying to find a sign that his friends were there, that they were alright.
Ratchet returned to base alone.
The children did not understand at first, asking where their partners were and when they would come back. Ratchet only looked at them and said;
"They're not coming back."
And the children left the base crying.
Agent Fowler hesitatingly offered his condolences, but almost immediately after that he started talking about adding more restrictions. Ratchet would have to be placed into a secret government area, telling humans everything about Cybertronians, staying 'locked up' in a facility and not allowed to leave.
Ratchet did not approve at all, and as soon as Agent Fowler turned to leave, Ratchet almost blew his voice box by yelling at the human. Both Ratchet and Agent Fowler loudly argued back and forth, before their fight ended up being about the most recent event; the loss of the team. Ratchet was the one who brought up how he had failed.
"The only thing I had to do was send them there and get them back safely, and I couldn't even do that!"
Agent Fowler paused before he quietly made it clear that what would happen to Ratchet was not up to the Autobot, or himself. The government would make the decision.
With that, Agent Fowler left.
Ratchet was all alone.
He used to prefer silence, though after what had happened he only wished that his friends would come back through the Ground Bridge, but with each passing second it was clear that he was the only one left.
The guilt was overwhelming.
Ratchet blamed himself for his family not returning home, that if he had done something different, they might have still been alive.
For the next few days, while the government was deciding what to do with him, Ratchet tried contacting his family one last time, and one last time, and one last time again. Each time he tried, he told himself that it would be the last time. He never stopped trying.
He felt so lonely.