Smokescreen relaxed as the bridge closed behind him. As far as he knew, he hadn't been followed. Hopefully.

He looked up at the ruins before him. The Iacon Hall of Records. The place where this had all started. He took a deep breath, opened the door, and entered.

The long stretch of hall before the main chamber was lit nicely with makeshift lamps, which were new additions. No rubble was on the floor cracked pillars had been, for the most part, mended. Someone had been putting a lot of time and effort into making this place look a little neater.

He approached the door at the end. His servos started shaking. He looked down at the handle.

He had guessed that Soundwave would have come back here. The Autobots had completely lost interest of the "Iacon ghost" when the whole. . . incident had happened. Now it was just a forgotten detail in the log books. It was the perfect place to continue hiding.

Smokescreen looked around nervously, before putting a servo on the handle. He summoned all of his courage and gently pulled, only to find that it was locked.

Paranoid thoughts came bubbling into his head again. How would Soundwave react to him coming here? Would he attack? Would he flee?

In a sudden lapse of judgement, he tapped three quick knocks on the door.

There was chatter on the other side, but he couldn't pick out words. He tensed when the door opened.

He didn't see anyone. Then he looked down.

"Well, whadaya know?"

It was Rumble, holding the door with one hand. His other arm was in a cast.

Smokescreen's mouth gaped open. No words came out.

"Bro, who's at the door-?"

Frenzy walked into the field of view through the crack of the door, holding a stack of datapads. He nearly dropped them as he came over.

"Smokescreen's here." Rumble shrugged, then turned. "What's up?"

Smokescreen stayed frozen.

"Well gee, he looks terrified." Frenzy said. "What do you reckon he's here for?"

"I came- to see- how you- were doing-!" He spurted in a rapid-fire sentence.

"Woah, woah. Calm down." Rumble laughed.

"We weren't expecting you to drop by, but. . . I mean, based off of what Boss told us, you'd know where to find us."

Smokescreen hesitated. "Yeah."

"Well alright, come on in." Rumble opened the door wider.

Frenzy glanced at his brother. Rumble slightly shrugged back, before opening the door all the way. Smokescreen stepped in.

Natural sunlight streamed into the room, lighting it enough so that the datapads no longer glowed. The shelves looked even fuller and more organized than before. There were two Minicon-sized chairs, and another larger one beside them. Soundwave was sitting in it, reading a datapad.

Soundwave looked up. The single optic that was uncovered by the broken visor seemed to stare straight into him. Smokescreen froze up again.

The optic softened. Soundwave put the datapad down on a nearby end table, and got up from his seat.

"Hey Boss, guess who came to say hi?" Rumble walked past Smokescreen.

Soundwave gave a quick nod, and walked towards him.

It took all of Smokescreen's courage to stay standing in that one spot. Which meant there was no courage left to keep the expression of fear off his face.

Soundwave slowed down, and gave him a curious glance.

"I- uh- I-" Smokescreen babbled. He was wordless. What could he say?

"Boss asks why you came here." Frenzy said.

Smokescreen took a deep breath. "I came to see how you guys were doing. After all that mess a couple weeks ago."

Soundwave looked around, and then set his gaze on him.

"Boss wants to know if the Autobots know."

"Know what- oh." Smokescreen gave a nervous chuckle. "About what I. . ."

"About what you did for us. Yeah." Rumble chimed in. "Boss wouldn't stop worrying about you and Knockout, worried that because you helped him, the Autobots might-"

Frenzy gave him a quick glare, which cut him off.

"Ultra Magnus would never do such a. . ."

Soundwave bristled slightly.

"Right. Sorry." Smokescreen shook his head. "I'm- I'm still getting over that. No. I don't think anyone knows. Well, no one's told me they know, anyway."

Soundwave relaxed again. There was a moment of pause.

"Boss wants to know why you helped us. Why you did it." Frenzy said.

"I, well, uh." Smokescreen rubbed his head.

Why did he do it? Why did he help them? That was the question he had been sitting on for weeks.

"Because Optimus would have done it." He looked Soundwave straight in the optic. "Optimus would have never left anyone in some wacko dimension." He then glanced down at the twins. "Or kept friends needlessly separated."

The words sank in. Soundwave looked satisfied, and walked away.

"Yeah." Rumble said to break the silence. "Thanks."

More silence.

"Right. Do you wanna check out the collection?" Frenzy gestured towards the shelves. "I've made some new additions."

"Yeah, this nerd likes to write." Rumble lightly punched his brother in the arm.

Smokescreen laughed, grateful for the change in topic. "Sounds good."

He wasn't much of a reader, but he would use anything to get away from the awkwardly standing there. There were a couple new datapads that he hadn't seen before, and he gave them a quick look over.

After a while, he stood up from the shelves.

"Hey, guys, I have to go. Someone's going to get suspicious if I'm gone for too long." He said as he turned around.

"No problem." Rumble said.

Soundwave came out of the corner as Smokescreen walked to the door.

"You're welcome to come back whenever. The archive is always open." Frenzy said without looking up from the datapads he was organizing.

Smokescreen stood beside the door and opened it. he was about to leave when Soundwave came up. Smokescreen turned.

"Yeah, what is it-?"

"Thank you."

Smokescreen's optics went wide. His mouth moved, but no words came out. He stepped back without thinking, out of the room. The door closed in front of him.

He stood for some time, staring at the blank door, before calling for a groundbridge back to the ship.