All she could do was observe and listen in on their conversation. It wasn't long before Optimus was out of his trance and from the looks of it was quite exhausted. Afterwards, he tells the others about the message.

"It is paramount that we recover the final four iacon relics. The Omega Keys."

"Keys?" Arcee questions, with Ratchet following up.

"To what?"

"To the regeneration of our home planet."

A ghost of a smile graced her lips, looking on in silence. She's genuinely happy for them, it's what they've always longed for after years of constant war right at their doorstep. Yet she couldn't help but feel heavy-hearted.

There were many conflicting emotions, albeit for all the understandable reasons. She had grown attached to them in the span of months. They held a special place in her spark and to watch them leave suddenly breaks her into tiny pieces.

Everyone else was scattered throughout the room, expressing their delight in returning home, meanwhile, Lucy hadn't moved from her spot for what felt like ages. She was lost in her thoughts, so much so that she hadn't noticed Optimus approaching her.

"Lucy,"

She perked up and looked up to meet his gaze.

"I'd like to speak with you in private."

She stared at him, wide-eyed, slowly nodding and he motions for her to follow him. Pushing herself off the wall and following right behind him until they arrived at the training area. Not knowing exactly as to why he wanted to speak to her suddenly made her feel nervous. She was shifting from where she stood and watched Optimus turn to face her. The silence that hung between them was nerve wracking, so she decided to break it.

"So, uh… what is it that you wanted to talk about?" She kept averting her gaze nervously.

"I was wondering if you would like to spar with me?"

She froze and was staring at him in disbelief. "Spar… wait, really? You must be pulling my leg, right?"

He sends her a quizzical look. "Why would I pull on your leg?"

"What—no. It's a… never mind." She waves her hand dismissively. "But, are you sure? To spar, I mean."

"I don't see why it shouldn't. Besides, I've been meaning to take you under my wing for quite some time." His revelation keeps surprising her as he went on, "That is why I brought you here. I would like to test your full strength in battle."

She flinched, "What? My strength—no. I can't, Optimus. I—" Her breath hitched, as memories of the event flashes before her eyes, to which she balls her hands into tight fists. "I don't want to hurt you…"

Optimus rests his servo on her shoulder plate, feeling her tense under his touch. "That is another reason why I brought you here. To help you overcome those fears."

There was a moment of silence before she looked up to meet his gaze, a determined look across her features albeit nervous at the same time.

"Alright. I'm ready when you are."

They stood on opposite ends, keeping themselves a good distance away. Optimus was already in his fighting stance, with his battle mask on, and was patiently waiting for her. Lucy closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath to calm her nerves, and then started to position herself. Her arms were now raised in a defense stance, then exhaled the remaining air that she had been holding in.

Once her eyes were reopened, locking onto his, then she made the first move at incredible speeds striking him right on his forearm. The raw speed caught him by surprise and he narrowly avoided getting hit if he hadn't dodged in time. As he went to attack with his free arm when suddenly he was taken off balance and forcibly pushed back, falling hard on to his back.

His breath hitched from the harsh impact and his vision was momentarily impaired until his focus returned, however, he was greeted to see her foot coming down. Swiftly, he rolls out of the way where she ultimately kicked the ground where he once laid, leaving a deep indent on the floor. Summoning his blade from his left forearm before he charged where he swung his blade upwards to which she simply moved out of the way.

She kept dodging his attacks, pushing away the blade when it neared her and occasionally landing solid hits on him. But that didn't last long. As she went to hit him only for him to dodge it at the last minute, deactivating his blade to grab her arm and with the other he threw a punch at her. In those split seconds of panic, she manages to catch it using her telekinesis in the nick of time, his fist being mere inches away from meeting her face.

They stood there, holding on to each other, almost like a game of tug-and-war. Waiting for an opportunity until the other loses their grip to strike. Their eyes remained focused on each other, neither of them refusing to back down. The sounds of their struggles can be heard through their metal creaking every so often.

He expected nothing less from her, in fact, he was impressed by how long their training had lasted. However, what genuinely stunned him was the fact that she wasn't even using her full strength, and that single push she did earlier left him quite sore.

"Are you really going to leave after you find all four Omega Keys?" She blurts out, and this left him speechless for a moment. He wasn't expecting that kind of question.

"That is what we hope for. Why?" He notices the sad gleam in her optics which makes him loosen his grip on her.

With that she took this opportunity and swiftly knocked him off his feet and he fell to the ground on his back once again. She pinned him down, with one hand firmly pressed against his chassis and the other hovering above his face. He stared at her in disbelief and then she proceeded to tap the tip of his battle mask, signaling his defeat.

She lowers her head to stare at her hand that was resting on his chassis. "You're like family to me, all of you are. Watching you all leave reminds me of all the loneliness I had to endure."

Optimus shifted underneath and she moved off him allowing him to sit up while she remained seated with her legs cushioning her.

"I have no intentions of leaving you behind, Lucy." Optimus stated and he slowly stands up, offering his hand to her. "Afterall, you are a part of our team, and as such, you are always welcome to join us in our return to Cybertron."

"Is that so?" Lucy stared fixedly at his hand, and with a smile she gladly took it. "I'll think about it."

XXXX

Optimus was standing at the main monitors decrypting the first sets of the iacon coordinates, working at a fast and diligent pace. Unaware of a pair of optics watching him from the medical bay.

She moved her gaze back onto the monitor she was using, Ratchet's medical bay monitors. He was kind enough to lend her his monitor for the time being as he was elsewhere around the base. Even if she can't revert to her human form, might as well pass the time by looking through her patient files. This was all Agent Fowler's doing and she was grateful for it.

"Callie - - 30 years old - - suffered a fractured femur - - current medication doses..." She mumbles whilst reading through the file and making sure that the patient is taking the right doses and examining over the x-ray of the fractured femur on another screen. She slides the file and proceeds to open the next and final one.

One other thing she gained, besides her newfound strength, is not only can she read the Cybertronian language, but she can also write it! With this newfound knowledge made her feel all giddy. But most importantly, she took the time and called Jack via video call along with Miko and Rafael.

They were certainly surprised to see a new face calling them, so much so, that it sent a certain Japanese girl into an excited outburst. With thorough explanations, even going deep into what happened three days prior as well as diving in on sensitive topics about her family. Lucy was practically in tears when they all showered her with love and support. Secretly she was glad no one else was in the room to her bawling, except for Optimus, who had seen her in tears. He looked like he was ready to interrogate the person that made her cry but didn't when she sent him a reassuring wave whilst pointing down at her screen where the teens voices can be heard, which he understood before focusing back on the monitors.

With one final swipe, she was done looking over her cases for the day. She stared aimlessly at the screen until her eyes landed on to the newly obtained sword; it was perched on top of a metal stand on full display. Stepping away from the monitor and she now stood in front of it, staring at it with utmost curiosity until her eyes landed on to the hilt.

Absentmindedly, she reaches out with her left hand and the moment her digits graced on the hilt was when the Star Saber lit up. This sent her into a trance-like state, and she remained that way for what felt like ages until someone had pulled her out of her trace, literally.

She blinked confusedly, with her hand still outstretched and a familiar red arm wrapped around her waist. What happened? All she did was touch the hilt, for a moment, she could've sworn she heard indistinguishable voices whispering in her audio-receptors.

"Lucy,"

Her head perked up at the sound of his baritone voice and looked up to meet his wide-eyed gaze. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out, she was at a loss for words herself. Could it be… does this mean that she's a… Prime?

"Ratchet ground bridge, now!"

The sudden urgency in Arcee's voice emanated from the monitors and at that moment Ratchet appeared from the hallway as he quickly made his way over to the ground bridge controls.

Optimus releases his hold on her and then goes to join with Ratchet but not without glancing over to her. She was staring at her hand, obviously in shock from what just happened.

With the news of Smokescreen's death and the knowledge of Megatron having enough power to equal the Star Saber, given the circumstances, only Optimus can have a chance in recovering the Omega Key. He now carried the Star Saber on his back and with that he departed to Egypt.

XXXX

At the very center of the spacious training room was Lucy sitting in a lotus position, deep in a meditative state. Unaware of the four autobots watching her curiously from the entrance. Smokescreen was complaining about losing the Omega Key in his mission not too long ago with Bulkhead. The constant noise roused her out from her hours of meditation and was rather annoyed at Smokescreen's rude interruption. She stood up and made her way over to the entrance, passing by them without a word.

"Was it something I said?" Smokescreen asks.

Not a second later, there was a sound and then Smokescreen was drenched. This earned uncontrollable snickering from the others and a small chuckle from Arcee.

She arrived at her room, shutting the door behind her, as she laid down in her berth for some shut eye. Fifteen minutes in, as she was beginning to drift off to sleep when she was abruptly awoken by the sound of Smokescreen's voice through her comm link.

"Lucy? You there?"

She huffs in annoyance. "You better have a good reason to wake me up, Smokescreen."

"Sorry I just… needed someone to talk to right now, and I want to apologize from earlier. I didn't mean to disturb you from your, uh… meditation."

"It's fine. But next time you decide to repeat that again I'll make sure to hang your upside down from the ceiling instead of soaking you, got it?"

He laughs nervously. "Got it."

"Besides, you could've knocked on my door, instead of contacting me." She sits up from the berth while pushing away a strand of her hair.

"I... had an argument with Arcee, so I left in the heat of the moment." There was a moment of silence before he asked.

"Lucy, do you think I'm not good enough?"

"Smokescreen," She exhales, pressing her digits in between the single thin diamond-shaped antenna on her forehead. "Don't think so poorly of yourself. How ironic. I think of myself like that more often than you think."

"Wait—Are you serious? I've seen you in action! You have these amazing powers, it's everyone's dream of having them!"

"I know… but not so good things have happened since I gained them, however. So much pain and suffering came with it. There are people who want to use these powers of mine for their own sadistic purposes." Her voice wavered for a moment, taking in a deep breath.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—"

"Hey, it's alright." She reassures him. "Although it's not easy possessing what I have, and then finding out that these powers are strongly linked with my emotions makes things so much more difficult to control. Meditation helps, for the most part, though, I'm trying my best, slowly but surely, I'll get there eventually. Yet,"

There was a pause before she rambled. "There's so much responsibility and so much pressure when everyone else expects so much from you. I don't… think I'm good enough, to be honest."

"Hey, don't say that! I've seen the way Ratchet and Optimus look at you when you're not looking, especially Ratchet, he's heads over heels for you!"

She hums in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Well, he—Oh, scrap!"

"Smokescreen? Smokescreen!"

There was static at the end and Lucy instantly jumped out of her berth before sprinting out of her room. She flew at incredible speeds down the hallway until she arrived at the main room. Everyone else was present staring up at the monitors where an image was shown but she couldn't really get a good look at it since she was in a hurry.

"Locate his position and prepare the ground bridge."

Luckily, she already had his location from their conversation. She hurried on over to the ground bridge, which she activated with her telekinesis. Her sudden arrival caught everyone's attention.

"Lucy, what are you—" Ratchet didn't get a chance to finish when she interrupted him.

"Smokescreen is in danger!"

Not giving them a chance to respond before flying through the ground bridge. Upon her rushed arrival she was horrified to see Smokescreen sprawled face down on the ground, unconscious.

"Smokescreen!"

She flies over to him and kneels right beside him, attempting to shake him awake. "Smokescreen wake up! Wake up!"

The sound of a weapon activating catches her attention as she whipped her head around. There stood Soundwave on the other side of the road pointing a strange weapon in her direction.

"Forgive me for doing this, my dear." Megatron's voice played through Soundwave's screen before he fired the weapon at her.

She flew up front to protect Smokescreen from the blast, raising both arms just as the blast hits her. Unknowingly, summoning a force field around her and Smokescreen. Alas, it didn't last for long as cracks began to form on the shield which ultimately shattered from the intensity. She took in the full brunt of the blast which sent her flying back until falling face down on the ground.

Her body twitched and attempted to stand only for her to tumble right back down. "Ngh…"

She slowly lifted her head, ignoring the excruciating headache that came with it, and watched as Soundwave dragged Smokescreen away. In a weak attempt to save her friend she reached out for him, but her powers failed on her when she needed them the most.

"No… Smokescreen…" Her voice trails off.

The last thing she heard was muffled voices rushing towards her, faintly recognizing the red and blue mech kneeling next to her before falling unconscious.

{A/N}

Hello everyone! ~

It's been quite a while since I last wrote an author's note in the end of my chapters. Didn't really feel like leaving my thoughts in the end because of college (I literally have like... one more year until I graduate. Holy moly!) Since everyone around the world is on quarantine because of this whole virus, I wanted to leave a little note here.

During these times of stress and anxiety we all tend to feel lonelier than ever. The beginning weeks were stressful, and I'm not used to being alone with my thoughts. I literally felt like crap, honestly, and after a while is when I started feeling like myself again. Haven't left my home, taking classes online, and just hanging out with some of my friends on discord. With this I decided to dive in and get real in depth for this story. I am slowly mapping out the upcoming chapters and figuring things out along the way.

I've been feeling this motivation and there were these ideas slowly pouring in my mind. As of now, one chapter is under revision and the second one is on its way.

Also, I had to give some love to Smokescreen because I haven't been giving him enough screen time in my stories and who doesn't like this precious boi?!

Thank you, again, for your patience.

Sending you all the love and support during these stressful times! xoxo