I do think the train that hits Sentinel should be Astro, but consider Grease finding/hiding/nursing our fav train back to health and in the middle of it all the fighting starts. Wherever it is they're hiding they can see it and hear it, Astro wants to go and fight, but he's still to weak/broken/not coordinated enough. Grease is trying to hold him back (Works or not?) But by the time Astrotrain gets outside all he gets to see is the Elite guard leaving with Megatron.
He still wants to go, even after seeing and hearing about how it went down. Astrotrain wants to follow the "real fighters" and poor Grease is just left watching and waiting for the time when his new friend is going to leave.
Sorry for the rant, your trains au is just so delicious. It sparks so much joy and plot spin offs. Hope you're doing good!
Please never apologize for ranting about the trains (or any of my bullshit for that matter), everytime I receive an ask it's pure gasoline for my brain, which is on fire.
I love the idea of their parting being this slower process instead of happening immediately after the battle, the slow-burn angst, if you will. The parting is inevitable and only a question of time after Astro knows who was the one that fought and took down Sentinel. And Grease knows this and is just thinking the famous "You're heading somewhere where I can't follow."
They shall hold hand... but it will hurt (because it will be just before the inevitable parting). But at least they handled their own little "divorce" better than MegOP, haha (Or at least I hope so!!! Grease wouldn't stand a chance in an actual fight against each other, that much is obvious.)
But also... the idea of Grease just... hiding Astro - a whole damn TRAIN at this point - after realizing he's not just a vehicle summons only one image in my head
