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nova--spark · 6 months ago

Note

Heya! I stumbled across your Smoke Bee Switch AU and thought it would be fun to write about it! The scene below is a small exert from the larger project that I'm gonna be working on and off from, featuring all sorts of different headcanons and a few surprise characters.

(The scene below is a draft, and will go through alternations as I proceed.)

Context: This scene happens right after the Bee team moves into Denny's Scrapyard after The Pilot Part 2 and it follows Smokescreen and Bumblebee trying to navigate having two new missions.

~~~

The shadow moved so fast. But the only mech who possessed such speed that Smokescreen had ever bore witness to was-

“You didn’t tell me the plan had changed,” The now fully black-mode mech hissed once he had come into proper speaking distance. “When were you going to tell me you were going to high-tread it off to Earth the klik you got the chance?”

Smokescreen winced, the form he was possessing now feeling so much worse now that he was face to face with the mech he was disguised as. “I didn’t know I was going to Earth either, Bee. I’m sorry. I would have eventually contacted you,”

Bumblebee, in his black shadowed form and beady bright blue optics, simply treaded in front of him like a predator stalking its prey. “With no ground bridge, no satellite, no communicator that could reach back to Cybertron, and no tech to even begin making any of those at your disposal,”

“I said eventually,” Smokescreen replied back weakly.

Bumblebee’s vent fans blew loudly for Smokescreen to hear before they went silent again. “More like never,” Bumblebee shot back accusingly. “You never planned on ever communicating back to me once you escaped back to Earth, did you?”

“Bee, I need you to trust me when I tell you this,” Smokescreen watched the younger mech cautiously, doing his best to remain as unthreatening as possible so as to not set the young mech off. “I saw him. I saw Optimus,”

“Be very cautious with what comes out of your vocalizer next,” Bumblebee snapped, taking one tread forward with his ped in an offense ready stance. His shadowed wings spread out to make his whole body seem to take up even more space- like a black hole completely erasing what precious light they were using.

Smokescreen let his vent fans run, trying to produce some sort of background noise to make it seem like less of a standoff. He was not going to fight Bumblebee if he could help it. “Do you trust me?”

Bumblebee didn't budge, but Smokescreen didn't take that as a threat. Slowly, he raised his hands and then extended one out.

“Meld with me,” Smokescreen spoke gently.

Bumblebee still didn't budge, as if the very idea of melding with Smokescreen was worse than being offlined.

“Meld with me, please. I promise I won't hold anything back. I'll give it all to you to show you that I'm speaking the truth,” Smokescreen pleaded, his desperation revealing itself not only through his emotional field but in his voice too. “I promise. Just please… Do you trust me?”

The younger mech continued to stare him down, and for a moment, Smokescreen feared Bumblebee was going to do his worst. Then to Smokescreen’s greatest relief, Bumblebee stiffly extended one of his arms out and approached in robotic motions. Soldier like, where his guard never dropped, even for a moment in the company of an ally.

When their digits graced each other, they intertwined and Smokescreen allowed the younger mech to lead every step of the way. Then Bumblebee’s optics flickered dark and Smokescreen’s followed suit.

The events of the day flooded them both, going from Smokescreen to Bumblebee. The echoes and snippets of every detail, significant and minor, seemed to reverb between them effortlessly. Getting ready for the chord, greeting every bot he came across, receiving daily tasks from the station, meeting Strongarm and recalling all of her little personality traits, the feeling of freedom and flight whenever they moved to the next patrol location, encountering all the miscellaneous troubles throughout the chord, hearing about and encountering Sideswipe, and then-

“Optimus,” Bumblebee expressed suddenly through their meld. It wavered with shock, disbelief, and a newfound hope. The memory played and replayed, and Smokescreen allowed the younger to do it as many times as he wanted because that's what he owed him.

Then, without prompting, Bumblebee released the last chord’s events back on Cybertron to Smokescreen before the unauthorized usage of the ground bridge. Reviving from recharge, morning routine checks with subordinates, daily orders and messages that Bumblebee relayed to the other Elite Guardsmen, important times that Bumblebee had taken note of, and then meeting with Cyclonus and-

“Who is that?” Smokescreen asked.

“His name is Sunstreaker,” Bumblebee replied. “He was just assigned to you- me- us- to be an understudy,”

“From Cyclonus?”

“Straight from the top,”

Smokescreen observed the young mech in the recall Bumblebee had provided. A light yellow frame, much lighter than Bumblebee’s, a thin build obviously built for speed but not so much endurance. No warframe by any means, but some bot who would be more useful for physical labors and active civil duties rather than in a facility.

“He looks just like Sideswipe,”

“He should. He’s Sideswipe’s twin,”

Smokescreen was taken aback by the statement. “A spark-split twin?”

“Yep. Spark-split twin. He's a good youngster. Eager, energetic, but a lot calmer and more willing to improvise and think outside the strategic box,”

Smokescreen couldn't help but to let his processors hum in approval, and Bumblebee agreed with his own light and peaceful hum.

They continued to reveal things to each other and after each moment of recollection was shared, Bumblebee kept relaxing more and more. The assurance that everything Smokescreen had said was actually the truth must have helped wonders. They went like that, a simple and careful back and forth which revealed the mini-con, the humans and the Decepticons: all the way up until Optimus appeared again- this time- sort of physically in their world. Right in front of them in order to save the human father.

All at once, the meld between them snapped like a twig and Smokescreen found himself brought harshly to reality again. He was brought back so harshly that Smokescreen fell back and hit the soft Earth ground below without warning.

In a scramble to sit up, Smokescreen scraped his peds against the ground.

Bumblebee didn't seem to fare any better from the sudden break in the meld, even though he had initiated it. He had stumbled and placed his hands over his face plate, hunched over and crouched at his knee joints like he was ducking poorly for cover from an incoming explosive. His vent fans were whirring loudly and his voice box sounded like it was going on the fritzs even though it had long since been repaired by the Omega Lock.

Smokescreen rose to his peds again, trying his best to get his servos to stop jittering and jerking. “Bumblebee?”

Without warning, Bumblebee collapsed to his knees, and Smokescreen rushed to him, reaching out his hands to try and figure out what was wrong. But when he placed a hand on the younger mech’s shoulder, Bumblebee jerked away and Smokescreen withdrew as quickly as he extended.

And the two knelt there on the ground, in the dirt, on Earth. The night time was just past its peak and the sounds they had grown accustomed to during the end of the war raged peacefully around them. The only sound that wasn't of this planet was coming from Bumblebee. A sound Smokescreen could now identify as intense despair and distress- despair that took the form of heavy heaves, static filled vocals, and a total lock up of bodily systems.

“My sire…” Bumblebee finally spoke out, his speech sounding like a mixture of vocals and beeps and static. “My sire is…”

Smokescreen- didn't know what to say.

“Yes,” He finally confirmed. “I don't know how, but he is, and he can't maintain a physical presence for very long,”

This time Bumblebee didn't respond.

Smokescreen continued. “He gave me a mission, Bee. A mission that- he couldn't quite explain. But he said that the team I have now here on Earth is a team that will help me succeed in completing this mission,”

Bumblebee seemed to have composed himself more in the time that Smokescreen had been speaking. And while he didn't turn to directly face him, he managed to speak with a clear vocalizer. “You already have a mission, Smoke,”

“What?”

“The one you dragged me into? To try to figure out if there was something wrong with the Senate? Your feeling of wrongness that you exclaimed over and over again to convince me into helping you for half a cycle?” Bumblebee reminded bitterly.

Smokescreen felt his internals heat up at the recollection. “Bee,”

But Bumblebee was already moving past it and he rose to his peds, standing with his back to the other. “Whatever. Follow your mission from Optimus then, see if I care,”

Smokescreen reached out a hand toward the younger mech. “Bumblebee-”

“Don't touch me,” Bumblebee hissed, turning around finally to face him with burning hostility.

Smokescreen froze, but reluctantly lowered his hand.

“Just for your information, however, your unit has a routine health inspection,” Bumblebee informed sharply. “Which means, in case you can't put that into perspective, that the medical staff over at the capital have technology that's strong enough to bypass my disguise,”

And like a solar wave, it hit him. His emotional field went shaky before he managed to get it back under control. But that didn't shake the true reality of what the younger had informed him of. “When?”

“In seven arcs,”

Smokescreen shook his helm. “I- I can't leave my team here by themselves,”

“Well, your whole plan is about to go to the pits the klik they run their high end scanners over me. I might not have a file, but you do, and if you don't come up when they try to scan ‘you’-”

“I know! I know, I know, I know!” Smokescreen finally blurted, turning from the younger mech and putting his hands on his helm. He began to tread back and forth, trying and failing to get his emotional field under control while still trying to come up with something that wouldn't immediately be rejected by the more experienced youngster. His vent fans began to run automatically and his HUD ran scenarios and returned data to him that wasn't useful in the slightest. It would all end up as an error or as a failure- it all told him what his subconscious was already telling him. He was a failure and he was not ready to lead a team, no matter how loudly Optimus’ words of support and confidence in him rang through his audio receptors.

Ducking his helm, Smokescreen gripped his hands into fists. “I have a mission that I put you on, but Optimus gave me another one- Primus, frag all! I know what you’re thinking, I'm not ready, but by Primus I can't not be ready. I just-” his vocals faltered on him and he fell mute.

Smokescreen remained in his state of distress, until he felt an emotional wave of comfort wash over him. An emotional wave that was filled with remorse, sympathy, and mild regret. Regret that was coming from-

“Go back to Cybertron, Smoke,”

Smokescreen’s spark fell.

“Go through the medical check as yourself, and then come back,” Bumblebee finished.

Smokescreen, despite the lighter feeling in his spark, immediately went to reject the idea. “How would we possibly-”

A tap on his shoulder pulled him out of his self-spiral and he turned to identify what the younger mech had tapped him with. What he came faced with was Bumblebee, no longer disguised in his shadowy blacks but in his yellows that Smokescreen was replicating. In his hand was a wrist device and a spare communications device that went into one’s audio receptor. Spares that were left over from the war. Spares that everyone else had turned in because they were to be reprocessed for other things aside from war.

Staring at the two devices, Smokescreen lifted his optics to meet with Bumblebee’s. “What… where did you-”

“If you think that I'd ever let myself be stranded on Cybertron without a means of escaping, then you're more naive than I thought,” Bumblebee informed bluntly before moving on. “Use the bridge and take the comm with you. That way we can signal to each other where we need to meet in order to trade back again. It'll be our private little trade off so we can hop between both planets,”

Smokescreen tried to interject. “But Bee-”

“You want both of your missions to carry on, right?” Bumblebee interrogated firmly, his tone falling down at being interrupted. When Smokescreen didn't speak up again, he continued. “Go back for your routine inspections and scans whenever they appear for me, and for however long it takes, I'll fill in and take your place down here on Earth. That way, your presence as ‘me’ won't abandon your gaggle of youngsters here, and my presence as ‘you’ can continue as uncompromised to allow me to work more efficiently,”

“What about the gaps in knowledge and information?” Smokescreen asked. “There's no possible way we can fill each other in on everything without tediously drafting up reports,”

Bumblebee held up his other hand, showing the palm and digit pads to the elder mech. “No more secrets,” he said simply, like it was the most obvious thing in the universe.

And it was the most obvious thing in the universe. It was easily executed with the tech Bumblebee already had on him, but despite its simplicity, Smokescreen hesitated where he originally would've taken the plan and ran with it blindly. The idea was better than any he would've came up with, but he was hesitating. And by the Prime’s he never hesitated like this before.

Bumblebee noticed it just like Smokescreen knew he would. “You've got secrets,” Bumblebee revealed blankly.

“Don't we all?” Smokescreen rebutted insecurely.

Bumblebee’s optics narrowed with heightened frustration. “None that we haven't had ourselves, Smoke. Your secrets are just like mine, with mild variations scattered about,”

Smokescreen didn't reply.

“We are both sparks of war. We both saw things. We both did things. Things that we’re ashamed of and things that we were morbidly prideful about. Whatever you've seen and whatever you're hiding? Is nothing I haven't seen and hid myself,”

And Smokescreen couldn't argue anymore with that. And once he finally let his processors accept that, he released his disguise of Bee and returned to himself. Whites, blues, reds, and yellows returned to him- chasing away the yellows, blacks, blues, and reds he had taken in order to perfectly fool even the best, most observant optics.

The two of them stood like that, as if to confirm for each other that they were back to normal again. That they were themselves and not the other. The confirmation was liberating, but heavy on his conscience as he reached and took the wrist device and comm from the real Bumblebee.

“Don't scare them,” Was all Smokescreen could say.

Bumblebee nailed him with an annoyed and reprimanding look. “Don't blow my cover,”

They stared at each other, using the moonlight and the colors of their paints to outline their forms. Millions of words went unsaid between them, as their optics gazed into their very sparks.

Then, without a word, Smokescreen treaded away from Bumblebee and opened a bridge back to Cybertron. He looked at the yellow mech one last time. “I'll be back,”

“I’m counting on it,”

Then he treaded through.

~~~

And that's what I have! I hope you enjoyed!

I AM SORRY BUT PLEASE KNOW THIS MADE ME

sit in my car after dropping off my laptop

for 10 minutes in AWE

AT THE AMAZING DEVELOPMENT MADE BY YOU WITH JUSG A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF THIS AU???

@lets-try-some-writing BITCH LOOK AT THIS

BECAUSE THIS LITERALLY IS EVERYTHING I COULD EVER WANT FOR THIS AU BECAUSE GOOD GODDAMN LORD IT'S GLORIOUS

BOTH BOYS HEARTBROKEN AND IN SHOCK, AND HAVING SECRETS, OG MY GOD I LOVED THE BIT ABOUT THE MED EVAL ANS SWITCHING PLAVES AGAIN ALND KWHVO3H OY3 KABP9CS

MAY YOUR PILLOWS BE COLD, YOUR MCD'S SPRITE CRISPY, YOUR FOOD EVER YUMMY AND YOUR DAYS MERRY, OMFG THIS IS AMAZING

#Smoke Bee Switch AU #transformers #maccadam #maccadams #transformers prime #tfp #tf prime #tf rid 2015 #nova writings #tf rid15 #tfp smokescreen #tfp bumblebee #AA A. A A A A A A. A A A A A

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