It was at some hidden prompting that woke Athena the next morning, a hidden twist in her mind and body that brought her out of that fuzzy, velvety fog that the humans called 'sleep.' She sat up slowly, dislodging the heavy comforter that had kept her warm during the night and stretching, she stood. Almost idly she walked to the window where she stared out, noting that the sky was beginning to lighten as the day approached.

She blinked as the memory snuck up on her, slowly distorting her vision as it took over her consciousness.

-

It was dark, but her eyes had long since gotten adjusted as she stood and stretched, shaking off bits of dirt from her body. The girl beside her, taller than her by a hand-length, giggled, a strangely muffled sound as she grabbed a small white and some-other-color-distorted-by-the-darkness pen that read EXPO in bold white letters.

"No," she whispered in a strangled, muffled whisper, digging through her bag for something. In the silvery moonlight she pulled out a thick, metallic pen that read SHARPIE, KING SIZE PERMANENT MARKER in big, bold letters.

Her companion clapped her hands to her mouth, muffling her laughter before taking the thick pen from her hands and turning to their other friend who lay sprawled out on the bed, snoring with wild abandon.

-

The memory disappeared from her 'sight' as her knees became wobbly and she began to collapse. Instinct took over and her hands shot out and caught herself on the windowsill, dislodging the memory's lingering effects with a short burst of adrenaline.

Athena's face twisted in a frown as she straightened, turning to look in the mirror nearby. Four shapes shimmered into existence, two whose eyes conveyed a deep sense of worry, understanding, and sympathy while the other two's eyes were sharp, direct, and accusing.

-Time is something we don't have.- the first of the two whose eyes were accusing told her though his lips didn't move in the mirror.

-Time is something you don't have.- the second corrected, dark eyes hovering between accusing and sympathetic.

The two disappeared, leaving the two who Athena peered at closer. They shrugged, ethereal apparitions like the 'ghosts' she'd heard about from the Internet. She didn't know whether to feel afraid or nonchalant about them, or what to feel exactly, seeing them on either side of her in the mirror.

'They are right,' the first one whispered, and Athena felt herself becoming angry.

'But it is your choice,' the second intoned, tilting her head to the side.

The first tucked her chin to her chest, looking down. 'Make the best of your time.' She said at last, and she disappeared, followed closely by the second.

Athena touched the mirror gently with her fingers, feeling the smooth glass beneath her skin. As ever when she saw the four apparitions, she felt the stab of adrenaline and a flash of cold fear though recently she was beginning to get used to the two female ones. They seemed very nice.

The sudden urge to move assaulted her and she stumbled backwards, shaking her head. With a last glance at the mirror, she turned back to "her" belongings to get dressed.

She walked silently down the carpeted stairs, shoes in hand; in Hawaii, she vaguely "remembered," one took off their shoes before entering the house. Jared was in the kitchen, and gave her a warm smile as he cooked, and Athena bit her lip. If he was asked where she went, he'd tell, and if she just walked out, he'd chase after her to figure out where she was going…regardless of where she wanted to go, she wanted to do it alone.

Frenzy, who was on the counter but untouched, lifted a startling blue optic, warbling curiously. 'Where gogo?'

Athena shushed him gently, looking at Jared thoughtfully as he opened his mouth to speak. A thought stopped him and he froze almost comically with his mouth open. Then, after a few agonizingly slow seconds, his eyes slid off her and he returned to cooking. Picking up Frenzy, Athena slipped out the front door where she pulled on her shoes and walked into the garage.

'What you dodo?' the former Decepticon chattered as she put him down the covered garage. A similar thought allowed the scanners of Arcee, Bumblebee, and Ratchet, who were in the garage, to not notice her at all; they all went back to their recharge cycles, their reason for "waking" forgotten.

'Made sure that I'd be alone.' Athena murmured in reply. 'Except for you,' she added belatedly, patting the silver boom box fondly. Something in the corner caught her eye and she walked over. It had two thin wheels with a light metal frame, a strangely triangular seat and handles opposite the apex of the triangular seat. She touched it gently, wondering what it was.

'A bike. Nicole's originally.' Athena's head jerked up and she stared into the tiny bit of shiny metal beside her: one of her apparitions was distorted in the contours of Ratchet's backside. The apparition smiled. 'You won't remember how to use it, but your body will.' And then she was gone, disappearing like mist in the wind.

She shook her head and looked back at the 'bike' once more, running her hand over the painted metal. She peered at the grips and the seat, then at the small metal basket in the back over the rear tire. 'Transform,' she told Frenzy, and he obeyed; she placed him gently in the basket and hooked a small cord over the top to keep him from bouncing out.

Athena glanced at the helmets on the wall, pulling off a silver one that was oddly familiar, clipping it on. The apparition was right: though she didn't quite remember anything about this odd contraption, her body did and responded automatically. Opening the door, she wheeled the bike out the door after she flipped the small metal stand up with her foot.

For a while she wheeled it out of the garage, then out on the street before checking her clothes and the condition of the bike. She wore a pair of long shorts and a relatively loose T-shirt, clothing that was 'not bad' according to Mikaela. She also said that it was good for outdoor use, and Athena supposed that it would count in this strange place she was in. Athena adjusted her helmet and swung a leg over the bike, careful not to hit Frenzy in the little metal basket.

After a moment spent getting used to the alien and yet familiar feeling, she pushed off the curb with her foot and glided along the street for a few feet before falling sideways; she caught herself with her foot and frowned, skewing her face as she strove to remember as the apparition suggested she would.

-

She raced along the road, on the right side of the yellow line, ducking beneath low branches and weaving expertly around dips and bits of trash in the road. She turned her head and grinned back at the man behind her. "Come on!" she cried with wild abandon, swinging her head back around and pedaling faster, her surroundings becoming a blur as she sped down the road.

-

Athena blinked. She was getting better at that. Movement in the glass beside her caught her eye and she peered at the glass window of the neighbor's car: one of the male apparitions frowned disapprovingly back at her. Shaking her head, she pushed off the curb once more and placing her feet on the strange, flat pedals, she pushed.

Athena adjusted her backpack and dismounted her bike, frowning at the long bridge leading off of Ford Island. Walking beside her bike, she decided that she really didn't want to ride her bike or walk all the way across. A flash of disappointment flashed across her face until she spotted a man glaring at his smoking car as if by the glare alone it would be fixed.

It was a truck, with enough space in the bed for her bike, and a cab large enough to fit her, Frenzy, and the man. She felt her "spirits lift" as the saying went and walked quickly over to the man. "Car broke down?" she asked, pushing sympathy and worry into her voice with no little difficulty.

The man grunted and kicked the tire. "Yeah, man." He grumbled. "On my way to one 'portant meetin' an' everything. I don' need this shit."

"Where's your meeting?" she asked, leaning the bike against her hip.

"It's not one meetin'." He admitted. "I was s'possed to meet one general down at the airport, let him use my truck an' all."

Athena tapped the metal stand with her foot and it popped out, and she propped the bike upon it, allowing her to walk away from it, making a sympathetic noise. While she wasn't sure where the airport he was talking about was, she had a feeling that it was fairly far away. "If I fix your car, would you take me to the airport?"

The man started and he scratched his head, disrupting his beret. "To the airport?" he raised a quizzical brow. "You goin' somewhere?"

She shook her head. "No, just going around. I'm going to catch the bus from there." That seemed to appease him, for he nodded and stepped back from the truck.

Athena nodded and looked at the car carefully, allowing her mind to go blank as she assessed the damage. When she was sure the man wasn't looking, she allowed a small arc of bluish light to race across the expanse between her and the car, pooling around its "injury" until it was fixed. The smoking stopped immediately and she closed the hood. "There. All done. Try start it."

The man looked dubious, but obeyed, and his face portrayed his shock at hearing the truck hum to life. He cut the engine and climbed out. "Aw, man, thanks so much. Let's get your bike loaded and we can get going, ya?"

Upon reaching the airport, the man had pulled over, helped her to pull her bike out of the back of his truck, and then drove off to find his general. She hesitated, and found a bus drawing near. On its front, it declared: 'ROUTE 20: WAIKIKI-PEARLRIDGE.'

She stood back a bit, watching as other passengers got on and off the big bus, and noticed that there was a bike rack in front of the bus. She walked her bike over and placed it carefully in, adjusting the hooks to keep the bike in place while the bus drove. She unclipped Frenzy and with him under her arm, walked on the bus.

At the top of the stairs she paused, staring at the pay center for a long moment. How much did she pay? She had no idea how old she was, so she paid two dollars (the adult rate, or so the sign read) and found a seat near the front.

'Whatwhat this?' Frenzy asked excitedly as they bounced along.

'No idea.' Was the reply.

'Cadecade wants know where we are.'

Athena looked down at the silver boom box in her lap and patted it absently. 'Tell him we're on The Bus.'

After receiving an affirmative, Athena checked the time. It was nearly eight o'clock in the morning, so she had plenty of time to explore before her absence was noticed. She had noticed long ago that the humans tended to spend a lot of time asleep, especially Mikaela and Sam who were the youngest aside from her host body.

A surreptitious hand tugged on her shirt and she looked down at Frenzy, pulled from her thoughts. 'Cadecade wants know why.'

The bus jolted and she peered out the window, seeing the beaches approaching. She wasn't aware that she had been riding for so long… The bus chimed as a passenger signaled that they wanted it to stop, and Athena stood with them, tucking Frenzy under her arm. 'We…' she hesitated as they walked off the bus and pulled their bike off the rack. 'Something is telling us to come here, and we don't think it is wise to ignore it.'

She felt Frenzy relay her message to his partner as she strapped the silver boom box back in the basket before mounting the bike once more. Athena pushed off the bench and glided along the sidewalk, weaving between pedestrians and other bikers. Looking around, she glided across the street and rode along the lines of shops and fancy hotels, beginning her exploration of the area.