Back To You

Prologue

The Training Center was unusually lively today.

He'd heard the first ground bridge early that morning when Chase came to inspect the simulation gymnasium one final time before his morning patrols. It was a quick ordeal, but as soon as he left, Boulder and Graham greeted him through their comms. Similar to Chase, they'd come to inspect the cloaking device and a few back up generations they missed the last few times they came. 

These past few weeks had mainly focused on random inspections around the base to make sure everything was in order for tomorrow.

This was the busiest the training center had been since it's opening day. As some left, others arrived to complete tasks of their own. That was how the first half of his day went, constantly being greeted by any arrival. But just as they'd come, everyone eventually left and the usual silence returned.

His attention focused back on the screen in front of him when the sudden chirp of his comm made him subtly jolt in his chair. 'Okay, I'm off!' He matched the voice to the orange bot on the transport room's security footage, slowly approaching the swirling portal. Hadn't he already left?

'Don't forget, party starts at 6! I'll be back to start setting up at 5.' Blades' orange arm waved at the camera before disappearing alongside the rest of him through the portal, though not before playfully adding, 'Don't make us come in there and drag you out.'

Heatwave resisted the urge to roll his optics and exhaled at the reminder. He glanced at the clock above the door. To his relief, it read 2:34. Plenty of time to finish this report—this last and final report on the developmental phase.

Finally, finally, after a decade of careful planning and preparation, countless sleepless nights, and a mind-numbing amount of paperwork and reports, the Rescue Bots Academy was ready to receive its first-ever class.

The mixture of anticipation and apprehension he'd been feeling for the past few months returned, along with arrhythmic spark palpitations. It had been getting worse as the opening day came closer, but stoic— stubborn as always, he didn't allow his inner turmoil to show. He simply reminded himself to breathe.

Everything they'd been working towards for the past decade was coming down to this. Tomorrow was the big day. The words 'First Day of School!' were marked on his calendar and circled in a bold red font, courtesy of Blades. As if he could forget. The date had been tattooed in his processor since Optimus had set a definitive date for the opening two years ago.

He scowled as his mind drew another blank. He's written a few hundred reports to the Prime over the years, but there was an added degree of pressure for this last one. It had to perfectly summarize his final inspections of the academy and encapsulate the grandeur of the Academy as he was told Optimus planned to quote a few of his statements to promote the Academy later on for future classes.

He was glaring at the mostly blank message on his holographic screen. Two barely put-together paragraphs were the byproduct of a full hour of work so far. His servos hovered over the keyboard, but he lacked inspiration. However, his mind wasn't entirely devoid of thoughts.

The eerie silence that resettled left eliminated any and all distractions. It was just peace and quiet, with nothing to save him from the persistent thoughts he'd been actively avoiding all day.

They were more images than the usual verbal contemplation, though he could faintly make out a few whispers in a painfully familiar accent.

Delving into introspection, he realized it'd been a while since it's been this bad.

There was a point when she consumed his every thought. He couldn't focus on anything without her in the background of his mind. Any light shade of blue triggered a visual of her optics, sparkling with their usual acuity. He couldn't bring himself to step foot in any training arena for the longest time and couldn't even punch away at his training dummy to let out steam.