Avani Bacchus's only hope for surviving this night shift was a constant stream of coffee and nightly reruns of the original Star Trek. She was fortunate to come across a station that aired old television shows, or else she would have to resort to sitting here staring at the surveillance monitors for the rest of the night. The proposal of joining the E.D.C seemed exciting at first for the Princeton graduate. But here she was, wasting her masters degree in aerospace engineering by sitting here. She thought she would be doing something with her life. Like, I don't know, going to space? Wasn't that what the Defense Command was for? She was beginning to regret not accepting NASA's offer. She groaned, taking a sip of her coffee.
"Has it occurred to you that there's a certain inefficiency in constantly questioning me on things you've already made up your mind about?"
"It gives me emotional security."
"Me too, Kirk." Avani said to herself. "You crazy bastard."
Her one-sided conversation about Spock and Kirk's on-screen interaction was interrupted by a flashing red light to the right of her keyboard. She rolled her chair over, brought her cup of coffee up to her lips, then froze. She glanced at the monitors. Nothing seemed to be breached, so why was the beacon going off? She typed some more, making sure to get a good look at all the cameras until she found the source of the disturbance. Within a few minutes, she found what she was looking for, and her cup fell to the desk. Rolling her chair over to the telecomm, she dialed in a few numbers and brought the device up to her head.
"This is Avani Bacchus in Surveillance." She said. "I need this line to be transferred to Kup right away."
"Yes it's an emergency!"
Cassandra knew she was going to be locked up, but she didn't think Marissa would confine her to her bedroom. Well, it was a small room with a two bunks, but it was better than a prison cell. The room was meant to house two people, but luckily no one wanted to be her roommate. It must be her charming personality. So yeah, she had the place all to herself, and surprisingly all her belongings were exactly as she had left it. There use to be a window next to her bed, but given the circumstances Marissa had it covered up with some old-fashioned planks of wood and nails. Guess she didn't want any peeping Toms watching her while she lays there contemplating her existence.
She turned her head to look at the clock. She had gotten no sleep since she had been here, and it was now a whopping 4 a.m and Cassandra wasn't even sure she blinked in the last ten minutes. However, one thing kept replaying in her mind over and over again.
"You're a wanted criminal."
Cassandra would be lying if she said she didn't like the sound of that. I mean, wanted by the Galactic Council? No one would fuck with someone with that title. Her lips quivered into a hesitant smile. For the first time all night, Cassandra felt she could actually relax, and fall into a much needed sleep that seems to have been misplaced from her life for the past few months. However, fate had other plans for her.
Her eyes shot open. A steady, obnoxious beep roused Cassandra from her few seconds of peace, and in that moment she felt a deepand profound desire to just fucking die. She balled her first up, swung her arm out for the telecom, and hit the answer button with such force she was surprised she didn't smash the device.
"Go fuck yourself." She said.
"I had a feeling you weren't asleep, " Marissa Faireborn replied, pretending she didn't hear that comment.
Cassandra groaned. "What do you want?" She said, eager to hang up and then throw the device against the wall.
"I think you'll be happy to hear that you have some visitors." Marissa said. I don't know if she was expecting Cassandra to scream with joy, but all the Captain got was some silence, and a "'kay".
Cassandra changed out of her sweats, and wrapped her hair up in a bun. Fashion wasn't her biggest concern considering she knew she looked damn good in anything. Confidence was one thing she always had, despite all odds. She took the long way, taking her time with a stroll through the calm, cool night. She missed space, but nothing replaces actual gravity. It was nice to walk around again without wearing a clunky space suit.
It really didn't concern her who wanted to see her so late at night, considering how small her list of friends was. I mean, her parents weren't really around anymore, so the closest family she had was Marissa. She knew some names around the base-but no one really seemed to want to talk to her. Her last guess would be some Autobot who wanted to lecture her for breaking so many laws and protocols. Couldn't be Ultra Magnus, he already scolded her within the last 24 hours. She kind of blanked out when she arrived at the door to the bunker, and not a single thing seemed to process in her mind until she laid her eyes onto five very familiar-and very very angry-Aerialbots. Oh shit! She was not about to deal with this now. She turned on her heel ready to haul her ass back, but she heard Silverbolt's loud, obnoxious "Ah-hem!" and physically restrained herself from bashing her head against the nearest wall. Fuck! Was the only word running through her mind right now.
Cassandra stopped, and turned to face them. She knew she couldn't run from her problems anymore now that she was back on Earth. In her mind, she counted who was present, and all of them were here. Fireflight, Skydive, Air Raid, Slingshot and Sliverbolt were all accounted for. Luckily her for, Silverbolt spoke first and didn't seem to care if Cassandra wanted to explain herself.
"We were mourning for so long," Silverbolt said, "we genuinely thought the rumor of your return was a lie. After the first few months we began to accept that you might be dead."
It really didn't occur to Cassandra before the impact her actions had on those around her. And even when she was aware of it, she just didn't care. Cassandra sometimes forgot that, even in the middle of a war, she still had to suffer the consequences of her actions. Cassandra now began to see that she had unintentionally weighed a heavy burden upon the Aerialbots. It was funny really, that being a criminal didn't shove her into reality but rather a simple sentence delivered by the beings closest to her.
Cassandra had assumed they were angry, but Silverbolt seemed to be the only one who openly chose to express his feelings about the situation. The others, however, looked beyond relieved to have her back. And it showed in the way Air Raid rushed her, scooped her up and held her up to a more comfortable height so that she could interact with the rest of the team. Silverbolt stepped away, watching from a short distance and he began to realize that the past, was in the past. Slingshot was now back to being an arrogant asshole, and Air Raid had his partner in crime back. The data pad that was practically glued to Skydive to help keep him busy was nowhere to be seen. Fireflight remained quiet, but the smile he wore expressed what words could not. They all conversed to themselves about her adventure and what has been happening on Cybertron. The team's morale was back. They could rest easy now.
"And it just appeared out of nowhere?" Kup's optics stayed glued to the screen. Avani stood beside him, keeping her distance incase the old 'bot took an unnecessary step in her direction.
"Yes." She replied. "It appears to be Deceptions, but I'm afraid I cannot identify him. There are four or five signatures, but their identities are hidden."
"It's Astrotrain." He said sharply, startling the engineer. "I can't identify who is aboard, but I can tell you it's not Megatron."
"How do you know?" Avani asked.
"He's on Cybertron." Kup replied hotly, and Avani lowered her head, kind of regretting the question. She was still new to all this alien stuff. Kup reached to the keyboard, and opened up a line to Ultra Magnus.
"We have detected Astrotrain, sir." Kup spoke, "I will send you his coordinates. He appears to be going for the forest a few miles out from the base."
"Alright. I will dispatch the Aerialbots." Ultra Magnus replied. He was clearly unaware, however, that among the Aerialbots now was the human female he loathed. Kup was surprised to hear that the gestalt team was om Earth, but kept the question to himself. With Autobot City fully constructed, he was needed to enforce security while Autobot refugees made their way to Earth.
"Avani," Kup addressed, "I want you to find Marissa Faireborn and accompany her and Cassandra Paxton."
Avani could feel the hairs on her body stand up at the name. Everyone knew of Paxton, and nobody willingly wanted to be around her. She recently overheard from the people around her that she was back. A reckless, irresponsible hothead, she surely had a reputation of enforcing fear into her comrades in the wrong way. She was about to question Kup's authority, but stopped herself. This could be a chance to promote her out of surveillance duty. She would have to take the risk.
With a newfound confidence, she made her way out and mentally preparing herself for the events to come.
