Twenty-Six

Illusions

0630 hours

November 21, 2009

Suffolk County, AFB, Long Island

Wearied by the night's activity in the city, Alexis wasted no time in getting dressed for bed and going to sleep that night. She had no fear of oversleeping, not in a base under either Stanton or Skye's command. Between Ari, the base's buzzer, and occasionally Starscream, oversleeping was a wasted fear and an alarm clock would be wasted money for Alexis. So she never worried or stressed out about it. But there were times however, rather frequently lately, when she wished desperately for a clock, especially when it was Ari leading the wake-up charge with no warning whatsoever.

"Happy Birthday!" Ari squealed with delight, her sharp loud voice penetrating the haze of sleepiness in Alexis's brain. All of last night's excitement seemed to be forgotten already. Alexis meanwhile let out an audible 'oof' as a large and heavy weight landed on top of her blanketed torso. "Happy birthday Alexis! You're another year older and another year cuter!" Ari chirped, rolling over Alexis's body and lying parallel to her friend. She landed between Alexis and the edge of the bed. "Well aren't you excited?" she asked when Alexis blinked blearily at her.

"How the hell did you get to the base so fast last night?" Alexis asked. She sure as hell wasn't ready to drop last night yet.

Ari grimaced. "Jolt and I decided that speeding recklessly back was preferable compared to getting caught in the destruction of Manhattan by the media and Ironhide. If you hear anything on the news about tire tracks through fields and people's lawns, just assume that we might have something to do with it," she said, wincing at some memory. "Either way we're going to hear about it later, seeing we did break some historic NASCAR records and even at normal speed it's roughly an hour and a half..."

"Speaking about hearing about it later, you really pushed it last night," Alexis said in a stern tone, hoping to get through to her friend.

"Why? I only spoke the truth. I thought Cybertronians had processors, not brains," Ari said, her eyes widening. "Isn't that what they call their version of brains? Or was Starscream too wound up last night? I was talking about human brains, not brains in general. Skywarp said that Screamer would understand the difference," she added quickly, as though to make sure the difference was clear to Alexis too.

Alexis stared at her. "How is it that you're still here talking to me?" she asked.

Ari shrugged. "My self-preservation instincts may be bad, but my fight-or-flight response is automatically programmed to 'flight'," she said, leaning on her elbow.

"What about the photograph?"

The photo I took last night is gone. Screamer discovered this wonderful thing in Stanton's office called a 'paper shredder', and sent the hard copy through it. I'd already printed it out and erased it from my camera memory card, and then my computer mysteriously deleted it from the hard-drive," she said calmly, as though the loss hadn't affected her at all. She noticed Alexis's mildly irritated expression, and then repeated, "Happy birthday," with a smile and a hopeful expression.

Alexis said, "I'll think about forgiving you," and then promptly nudged Ari off the side of the bed. With a yelp and a whump, she was down.

"And there she goes," Marcia observed as she climbed out of bed and began pulling her fatigues on. "Ari, I think Alexis is right. Human or not you shouldn't generally call someone stupid because one day it's going to be a general and they'll be so pissed off that you'll be demoted faster than you can blink."

"You don't even know what we're talking about," Ari shot back indignantly.

"Well, whatever you're talking about, Alexis has more common sense than you. So you do well to listen to her," Marcia said, and scowled when Ari flipped her off. "You are so lucky that I'm not higher on the rank scale than you because if I was, God so help me I would risk discharge just to put you back in your place," she said, getting somewhat further irritated when Ari sniffed in disdain.

"Okay Marcia, whatever you say," Ari said before delicately picking herself up from the floor. She squared her shoulders and stalked out of their room.

Alexis shrugged when Marcia sighed. "Where on earth does she get her attitude?" Alexis asked, glancing back at the door, which was still partially open. Through it, Alexis could see Ari walking down the hall back to the mess.

Marcia sighed, and said, "Maybe it's what you get when you live with guys too long with limited female contact. Think about it. She was close to her brother, but when the divorce occurred, she went to live with her father for like, two years until she graduated high school. Then she latches onto childhood crush Tyler Collins when she finds him again. Now she's chilling with Scott and Stryker." She tilted her head and asked, "Did you know her father was caught working with Sector Seven remnants last year?"

"Really? How did Ari take it?" Alexis asked, raising an eyebrow at her friend.

Marcia shrugged. "I don't know. I wasn't there when the arrest was made. No pity from what I heard from official reports," she said, pulling on her sweatshirt over her fatigues as Alexis grudgingly got dressed.

"Remind me one day to tie Ari up so she can stay out of trouble for more than a measly twenty-four hours," she said, pulling on her camo jacket on top of her own fatigues, and then nodded to Marcia. "Let's go, shall we? And keep the birthday thing low key please, I'm not one for attention," she said, gesturing to the door.

"Sure thing Captain," Marcia said, winking at Alexis.

The two women left the room and walked briskly down the corridor. In the stillness of the hall, Alexis could already hear the chatter coming from the mess, and checked her watch as though to reassure herself that she hadn't slept in by accident. "Skye is drilling us to the bloody ground today, and to make sure we all woke up, Stanton did this mass call thing and probably sent at least twenty cell phones ringing at six o'clock," Marcia said, noticing Alexis checking the time. "Ari has her natural energy that keeps her up at night and wakes her up early, and I had my phone on vibrate."

"Nice," Alexis said as they walked into the mess. She walked ahead of Marcia and went to a clump of the 401st already sitting separately from the other staff of the base. It almost felt like home at Area 51, if it wasn't for the unfamiliar faces on the staff.

"Wonder what they've got for breakfast today," Marcia said as they walked up to the serving line.

"Standard fare I bet," Alexis said, her suspicion confirmed as they grabbed their filled plates from the permanently scowling chef.

"Not much better than the crap they used to give us at my old finishing school," Marcia said, sniffing the food. "Oatmeal. What a surprise."

"I heard Riley nicked some chocolate-covered Hostess doughnuts from some friend on the janitorial staff," Alexis commented as she nodded to the pilot in question. "Maybe if we're really nice, he'll share," she suggested.

"He only got four. I'd rather eat this than be extra nice to Riley to get one of four doughnuts," Marcia muttered, but followed Alexis to the table anyway.

Alexis smiled brightly to everyone as she sat down between Jay and Ari, who was next to Tyler. Riley grinned at her from across the table as Marcia sat down next to him. "Morning Squeaks, how did you sleep?" Riley asked conversationally as he patted his stomach.

"Pretty good, how about you?" she asked, noting both Starscream and Skywarp entering the hangar. They nodded their greetings and sat down a little ways down from Riley and Alexis. Skywarp seemed excited about something, while Starscream looked bored. Something, Alexis suspected, was about to go down.

"Best I've had in a long time," Riley replied good-naturedly. He was in a better mood Alexis realized.

Jay rolled his eyes as Tyler snorted. "He's just thrilled because he's gained at least four pounds overnight," Tyler said irritably. "Even with my crummy eyesight I can tell that he's got a bit of a paunch that I swear wasn't there last night."

"And that's a good thing?" Alexis asked as Ari scoffed.

"For guys, it's called muscle. For girls, it's called fat," she said dismissively as she continued eating her breakfast

"Yeah, what she said," Riley said absently as he slowly tore a chunk of doughnut into two. Alexis figured by now that he never intended to share his booty with any of the others. As she watched, Riley quickly glanced around to make sure no one was watching, missing her gaze, and then discreetly slipped a chunk into his jacket.

"Riley, I'd ask about why you did that, but suddenly I don't want to know," Marcia said, having been missed also in the perusal to ensure discretion. She drew in a sharp breath when the 'paunch' suddenly moved on its accord. "All right, I really don't want to know now."

"Know what?" Ari asked, but stifled a shriek as the jacket moved again, more vigorously this time. This drew attention, and everyone surrounding Riley seemed to be holding in his or her breath. Alexis felt her jaw drop in surprise as a familiar gray-furred snout poked its way out from his jacket. "Oh… my…" Ari began slowly.

"You brought that disease-ridden thing all the way from the southwest? For real?" Marcia asked as she raised an eyebrow as Charlie, older and fatter than Alexis remembered him, finally clawed his way out of the confines of Riley's leather jacket. His coat, once luscious, was now faded and several of the nearby pilots groaned while others shot quick looks off in Wilson's direction. The sergeant was at another table and had his back to them, but Stanton and Skye were sitting across the table from him, so they were able to witness the furtive glances.

"Someone had to feed him! And no, I asked for a friend to bring him," Riley hissed defensively as Charlie paused on Riley's lap before executing a not-so-graceful jump to the floor, landing with a faint whump, and then began waddling away from Riley. "Dude, get back here!" Riley added anxiously when Charlie moved out from underneath the table and waddled over to where the commanding officers were sitting, the chatter falling silent at the tables nearby as the animal was spotted. Silence dominated the room as Charlie approached Wilson's seat, the old sergeant twisted around watching the animal carefully. Stanton's hand twitched toward her side, but seemed to remember that her weapon had been confiscated yesterday and picked up her fork again. Wilson however stared at his old adversary for a few moments before turning back around to continue eating his breakfast.

Alexis let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. Unharmed, Charlie turned and began making progress towards the NEST-dominated table as his master closed his eyes in relief, still sheet-white at Charlie's close brush with death. Marcia snickered as Charlie used his teeth to tug on Jade's pants to get the young pilot's attention. "It's okay, he doesn't bite," she called out as Jade leaned down to pick Charlie up.

"Someone's been eating well, hmm?" Jade said soothingly as she scratched behind Charlie's ears. "Has he always been with you guys?" she asked, glancing back at Marcia, who shrugged.

"Riley was on the squadron before I, so Charlie was around even when I came," Marcia replied, glancing at Stanton. "The colonel's wanted his pelt ever since he started causing problems, and that was around, 2004 or 2005 I think." She turned back to Riley and asked, "Do you know when it started?"

Riley shook his head. "I just know that Matt loved him, and it was by his graces that Charlie lived," he said, his eyes widening when he realized he'd let the dead man's name slip, the first mention of the name in years. Alexis grimaced at the memory, and a few of the old 401st veterans glanced back at the officers' table to see if the colonel had heard. Thankfully she had not; if she had, there would have been one less pilot participating in the operation. "God help me, I'm starting to talk as much as Ari," Riley whispered after a few seconds of tense silence.

"Just keep the volume down then," Kina said, materializing out of thin air. "'Kay guys, you've got to be up and out in fifteen minutes, so scoot along. Riley, I think Charlie is going to be in good hands, Rivers and her, uh, partners aren't going out until this afternoon," she said, recovering quickly from the almost slip of tongue. Riley didn't notice. Kina turned and said, "Stryker, if you and Scott can hang back from the run this time, I'd like to chat with you guys later."

Just do it, Alexis mouthed to Starscream, and to her surprise, he acquiesced. "As you wish, general," he replied calmly, making Kina tilt her head in surprise at the easiness of getting the answer.

Alexis stood up. "I think, I'm going to go get some fresh air," she said to Kina, who nodded despite the slight crease in her forehead. She hesitated, and then said, "Um, Stryker? Could you help me with something please?" She ignored Kina's questioning look, and then Kina relaxed, assuming Alexis had things under control.

Ari's hound-like ears were up in a flash and she started to get out of her seat when Tyler blatantly put a hand on her shoulder and pulled her back down. Starscream smirked at Ari's scowl as he stood up and joined Alexis, and then began walking out the hall. Behind her, Alexis could hear Kina berating Ari for her ignorance about people's need for privacy. "I'm surprised she stayed," Alexis murmured to Starscream as they walked.

"That's because I paid Collins thirty dollars to keep her in the mess hall. I have a way with computers, remember?" he said, still smirking from satisfaction. Remembering the incident when he'd used her ID card to get illegally into the Pentagon, Alexis nodded. Unconsciously she linked her arm with his just as he pushed the mess door open and they left, a small howl of indignation following them out. Alexis figured Starscream might have just electronically transferred the money.

"I'm guessing you have a way with paper shredders too?" she asked casually as he pulled his arm out from the link. She simply let it go. "Ari said her picture went away without leave last night."

"And she'll discover this morning that a few choice pages from her scrapbook had an unfortunate yet fatal encounter with said shredder. Don't know if the colonel will be able to get the machine fixed," Starscream replied just as casually. He paused in his footsteps, and then said quietly, "I'd like to fly with you again, sometime today perhaps. A small birthday thing?"

Alexis blinked in surprise, and then remembered his way with computers. "Starscream, are you going soft?" she asked teasingly, and was rewarded with Starscream puffing up in indignation. "But I'd still like that, a flight later today. And I won't steer you into any trees, promise," she added, her eyes twinkling slightly

"I am not going soft," Starscream said, catching her wrist and rolling it slightly so her arm, twisted with it. He smirked and said, "For example, I can remind the colonel about who gimmicked the phone lines during her training when colonel was trying to catch Ari red-handed. You were caught, and it went into the records, but the sergeant never reported it in."

"You'd better not say anything," Alexis said, but grinned. Her smile faded slightly when Starscream pulled her close.

"Maybe with the right incentive I won't," he whispered, and didn't wait. He lowered his head and softly kissed her, his arm snaking around her back and pressing her close. She closed her eyes, taking advantage of the stolen moment of their peace. Alexis let herself sag slightly in his arm, carefully and slowly placing a hand on his shoulder. Starscream broke it first by gently releasing her and stepping back. Slightly thrown off guard at the sudden loss of contact, Alexis hugged herself lightly for a moment.

"When is the operation?" she finally asked.

"Tomorrow. Skywarp is staying behind to keep an eye on you and stay out of trouble when going against Megatron," Starscream said calmly, in a tone that brokered no argument. He looked down at her as though expecting her to blindly agree.

Like she would.

"I don't need a babysitter, Starscream, I'm not a child anymore and I hardly need someone watching me. It's actually an insult," she said, folding her arms.

"Frankly I don't trust you enough to not do something rather stupid just because I'm not here," Starscream said bluntly, crossing his arms.

"Me? Stupid? You can't…"

"No."

Alexis let the word sink into her brain as Starscream turned his head and tilted it slightly as though to hear something coming down the hall. She would have to make sure that Jay was ready for tomorrow, although having Skywarp around was going to screw things up a bit. If Jay had been squeamish about their original plan, the modified version was going to have him confined to the medical bay for days. She pursed her lips as she thought about it, how she was going to give him a final pep talk before departure before tomorrow morning; the poor guy needed it. Someone had to have unquestionable faith in his leadership abilities, and he sure wasn't getting any from the other pilots. Now he was working with one less pilot than he was practicing with. Besides, Stanton and Skye were going to be running so many drills that day that it was going to drive Ari into either an extreme mischief or an extreme tirade by mid-afternoon. Perhaps she could convince Ari to vent on and distract the Decepticons on her own and keep them occupied enough for Alexis to speak with Jay in a stress-free environment.

A faint whining sound caught her attention. She turned and looked down just as a toy truck came into view, coming to a skidding halt on the floor. "Well, well, well. One nasty little Decepticon disappears, another one shows up," Starscream sneered, causing the truck to suddenly reverse in alarm. Alexis watched with slight amusement as it finally shot back down the way it came. "I hate that one too," Starscream grumbled, turning back to face her. "But I sense another enemy, so I will leave and join up with you later. Perhaps I shall find Kina and see what she wants," he said, and with a faint pop, he disappeared.

Before Alexis could question his actions in her mind, a young ensign appeared around the corner with a familiar young man in tow. The toy truck from earlier was in the man's arms. "Mr. Witwicky, it is an honor, but not a surprise to see you again," she said. She doubted Sam remembered her from the last mess Stanton had herded them all into. No wonder Starscream bailed so quickly. Coward.

The sandy-haired man ducked his head in acknowledgment and in slight embarrassment. "Ma'am. Do you know where Major Lennox is?" he asked. He seemed more haggard and worn since she saw him last. He was being forced to grow up too quickly; he looked like he was in his thirties or forties instead of his twenties.

"I'm not sure, I think he was in the mess last time I saw him," she said apologetically, stepping aside to give the pair room move to continue walking down the hall. Yes, he did not remember her. Sighing, she pushed Sam and his missing girlfriend to the back of her mind and turned to go to the hangar where Jay should be waiting for her.

When she arrived at the hangar however, she found not Jay but Thundercracker standing there as he checked something on a nearby jet. "Um, hey," she said warily, unsure of what to do or say.

He looked up and nodded a silent greeting. She looked over the hologram over as he did a final check on the jet's wing. She had never met the real Major Cromwell before; he'd died in a freak aerial accident at Nellis Air Force base in 2003, an accident involving a rogue F-22 pilot. The death had sent Stanton into a tizzy over the lack of safe practices at Nellis, which in turn riled up the base commander for a long time. Heated words had been thrown over the computer, the phone, and in person for almost a month and a half. Now that she thought about it, it made sense. It was probably Starscream's first human kill, and he'd thought no one would make the connection with the dead man. "That woman with you in DC, that wasn't really Lisa, was it? And the man and child were probably hired to play along as the uncle and son?" Alexis asked, placing some weight on the back of one leg.

Thundercracker nodded as he turned to face her again. "The man and woman were partners on the field before they ran afoul of Barricade. As far as your Central Intelligence Agency is concerned, they're both traitors to their race. Barricade found an insured way to secure not only the loyalty of those two, but three others also. Ethan, that was the boy's real name, and Richard was actually his father, not uncle," he said, leaning against the jet's body while giving the appearance of wiping his hands. He was dressed in loose civilian clothing.

Alexis remembered something the day they had been preparing to leave. "The phone from 'Lisa' then, the one Stanton confiscated?" she began slowly.

"Was her last bid for freedom. She's been trying for a while to establish contact with her old superior. Barricade's blocked off every attempt so far," Thundercracker said, finishing the sentence for her. "Your colonel already knows, I think, so no need to report it in."

Alexis nodded. It did sound like something Stanton would know by now. "So," she began casually, "Is it just me or does Starscream have this thing against small Decepticons? There was this toy truck earlier…"

"Anything less than one-tenth his size is an irritant that's constantly underfoot," Thundercracker said, shrugging. "As for the toy truck, well, Wheelie is an Autobot and turncoat as far as I know or care. Nothing holding Starscream back from squashing him flat now," he finished, rolling his eyes while he spoke.

Alexis winced.

"Sam, it's great to see you again," Lennox said, clapping a hand on the teen's back. Sam grinned as he knelt to put Wheelie back on the ground again, where the disgruntled ex-Decepticon immediately began to seek shelter from the other NEST members. Sam stood up, dusting his knees off as Wheelie continued searching for safety.

"It's great to see you again too," Sam said, glancing at the few other NEST members who were present in the cavernous hangars. Devoid of jets, planes or any other kind of aerial equipment, Sam hazarded a guess that this was where the Autobots were staying in Suffolk County. Despite the early hour and the fact that not everyone was up yet, there were still quite a few personnel members walking around and getting ready. "What are you guys planning now? Bee wasn't specific when he picked me up from school," Sam said, wincing when he remembered Leo's reaction at the fact Sam was getting into NEST business again. Leo had assumed that since the Autobots loved Sam, Sam was a buffer between Leo and the Autobots. Leo hadn't been thrilled when the buffer decided to leave again.

Lennox sighed and said, "Remember back a couple months after Mission City, we briefly got involved with an investigation that exposed Starscream and Barricade to be hiding in the U.S military?" When Sam nodded, Lennox said, " Well, it's the same leader this time, but the colonel's gotten a bit more ambitious this time. She wants to draw Megatron into an ambush and finish him off for good. She's already exploited Starscream's desire to overthrow his master, so like it or not we are going to be working with him again. I've already tried to overrule that, but the colonel's stubborn."

"Screamer's here?" Sam said, glancing around quickly like he expected the Seeker to be in the same hangar as them. "Oh that's bad, I don't think he's forgiven me for our last encounter," he continued shuddering slightly. "This colonel is expecting defeat, right?"

"We keep warning her, but since she's not listening, we're working on our contingency plans," Lennox explained quietly as he fiddled with the beaded chain he'd been holding, the beads spelling 'DAD' in the middle, a gift from his daughter, who would be around two years old by now. "All I can say for sure is be prepared," Lennox finished grimly.

"When do we start?" Sam asked, silently daring Lennox to challenge the 'we'. The major didn't; it was well-known that Sam had earned the right to be on the team a long time ago.

"We technically set out tomorrow, so colonel is drilling everyone all day today," Lennox said, frowning as a thought occurred to him. "You know, we should keep your arrival under wraps for now. This is what will happen if we don't: the colonel will try to use you as bait to draw Megatron out of hiding. When he hears you're at Montauk, then that's where he's going. I bet that's what Stanton will think when she hears of your arrival."

"Stanton is the colonel? Her name sounds familiar."

"Yeah, she was the general in the last operation."

"I thought you moved forward on the rank scale, not backwards," Sam said, frowning as he tried to remember the list of ranks. "Does the Air Force do it different from the Marines or something?"

Lennox snorted in laughter. "No, you typically move forward on the rank scale in the Air Force. Stanton just got into major trouble over the years and lost her rank. New general in charge now, and more sensible than Stanton," he explained, grinning slightly. He tilted his head and asked, "Where is Mikaela?"

Sam shrugged. "In Tranquility with her dad. She couldn't keep Wheelie in the workshop, he was causing too many problems. So she sent him to me for watching. He doesn't like it, I don't like it, and Leo sure as hell doesn't like it. Yet here we are, Wheelie and I. He still misses Mikaela, it's kinda unhealthy," he said, casting an eye over to where Wheelie was sitting fixated in front of a closed supply closet door. "Anyway, where is everybody?"

"Getting fresh air. C'mon, we'll go see them. Hey Wheelie, betcha we can find you some pesky chipmunks to use for target practice," Lennox said, gesturing toward the hangar exit near the massive doors. To Sam's surprise, Wheelie actually listened for once and followed the two men out of the hangar door and into the open air and grassy fields surrounding the fields.

Neither of the men heard the faint scratching sound from the locked supply closet.

A/N: I figured out there are nine chapters left in this story :( But there will be a poll up very soon, because I have several ideas on what to start next after this, but I want to see what you, the readers, want. Also, I know I haven't been updating the 'messages' part of my profile and appear to have vanished off the map, but I leave a lotta news on my dA page (homepage). So I'm not completely gone, just working on getting the next three chaps done and being careful with the doors around here; I've already been locked in, then out of my room and almost got trapped on a bus.