Ch. 158
Smokescreen was tired, but he wouldn't be the first to admit such a thing. At least, not quite yet. He and Optimus had been driving for almost a solid twelve hours. They hadn't stopped for rest or recharge since they left the destroyed site of their former base. Since they left Starscream behind...
If he were in bot mode, he would have shook his helm vigorously.
'Stop obsessing over it,' he tried to think loudly to himself.
But there was little use. Instead, he allowed his sensors to take in the scenery around them. The pair had passed through three cities and had been stuck in seven instances of heavy traffic, one involving an overturned semi and split crates of bell pepper crops. Now they were back out on wide open two lane roads with nothing but plains of grass on either side and formidable mountains ahead of them. What they were doing was dangerous, and that didn't just mean driving the full length to the Harbinger at such a distance.
"Smokescreen," Optimus COMMed him, his voice as ragged as the white mech felt, "we are approaching another gas station. After this, there is a mountain pass that should provide us with optimal shelter so we may rest."
Smokescreen couldn't stop the exhausted groan that escaped his vocalizer, "Optimus, that is the best thing I've heard in a while... How long?"
The red semi sped up, an eager air about him to make it to their destination so they could finally stop, "At our current speed, we shall be there in ten minutes."
The white mech's engine revved loudly and pulled into the opposite lane to pass the larger bot's vehicle mode, "Let's make that less. I gotta let these tires have some relief or they might fall off."
The two sped down the road way and passed the station. When it was well out of view and the mountain pass became ever more visible, Smokescreen transformed and ran down the road, activating the Phase Shifter as he picked a target.
"Alright Optimus, I'm ready!" he called back.
The red semi transformed and ran after the smaller mech, grabbing a servo when it was offered. Smokescreen held onto the Prime's servo tightly as the two phased into a wall of mountain rock and finally collapsed in a dark cavern that was cooled with a trickling of water seeping in from somewhere above them. Neither mech moved. The silence was just as welcomed as the reprieve from their long journey. And it could take them a couple days more before they were within range of the Harbinger. Maybe more...
"Op..." Smokescreen panted lightly as he finally sat up, the dark becoming unsettling as he enhanced his optics to glow brighter, "Optimus?"
The Prime sighed gently in response, "I am here, Smokescreen... Are you alright?"
The smaller mech shrugged but shook his helm even as he answered with a contradicting, "I'm fine..."
Optimus smiled weakly, "Then why are you disagreeing with yourself?"
Smokescreen grumbled, "I... I'm thinking about Starscream."
The red mech nestled his back against the mountain cavern wall, "We cannot dwell on the decision we made. What is done is done. Against the whole of the Decepticon army and Megatron's unpredictability, we would have been destroyed... and Starscream would have been made to watch us perish."
Smokescreen frowned, "You think?"
Optimus nodded, "Controlling Starscream has been at the forethought of Megatron's mind for some time now. Our deaths, our proof of nonexistence to save him from that control would compromise Starscream's state of mind... and his will."
The white mech turned away to pick gently at his peds, flicking away grime that had accumulated from their long drive, "... D..."
Smokescreen hesitated. What he wanted to ask he knew he didn't want to vocalize, but Optimus was patient and the longer the smaller mech stayed silent, thinking, the more he knew he wanted to hear an answer from someone else.
"... Do you think he's ok?"
Optimus shuttered his optics, "... I do not know, Smokescreen. I hope, with everything in my spark, that he has every intention of fighting back. I hope that he knows we escaped from the base without harm... I hope that Megatron is at least showing him the respect he deserves. Starscream has more than earned that. He... is not the same mech he used to be."
Smokescreen smiled, but it was mixed with a look of pain that emanated from the guilt he felt, "He really was the Decepticon second-in-command, wasn't he?"
The Prime nodded, "He was... and now he has become so much more than simply a soldier defecting from the faction he helped build. I hope he sees that, too. I hope he fights back against Megatron not because he is an Autobot, but for himself. For who he has become."