The second hand made its leisurely way around the white face of the clock, which sat high above the classroom door. It was a guardian of time, a dictator of when the bell would sound and, in Alexandria's mind, a device of pure torture. Barely five minutes had gone by since she last checked on its progress and she returned to her doodling with a long drawn out sigh, shifting impatiently on the stiff plastic planks that composed her desk chair. The thick multicolored block letters she had drawn in marker with painstaking detail stood out boldly on the page compared to the rapidly scrawled pencil notes below them. Alexandria smiled as she read the name over and decided to add a small star beside it as it seemed fitting given who the name belonged to. She only had to make it through several more hours before she could visit her secret alien acquaintance again; assuming he was still there and she was able to locate him again amid the other voices. The thought made her giddy with anticipation and she subtly looked about the room, wondering if anyone had caught her grinning like an idiot at her paper. Her classmates sat around her, oblivious to the reality of aliens living within their universe. This insight into something far greater than any one of them would ever experience made Alexandria a part of an extraordinary situation and she relished the feelings of delight it created.
A change in the tone of her teacher's voice drew Alexandria's attention to the front of the room and she realized Mr. Andrews had completed another blackboard detailing events of Roman emperors. Covering a yawn with one hand, she copied the information at a pace that made her fingers cramp yet it wasn't fast enough to capture everything before Mr. Andrews swiped away the chalk to continue the lesson. Alexandria huffed in dismay at the half finished paragraph on her page and leaned to the side, trying to read the work of the girls sitting beside her but with no such luck. She scratched a long wavy horizontal line across the page underneath her notes as a personal reminder they were incomplete and copied the new content below.
Alexandria gave herself a mental shake realizing she'd missed most of the class because of her daydreaming. She watched Mr. Andrews pace at the front of the room, gesturing enthusiastically with his hands as he described civilization as it would have been during the time of Ancient Rome. History wasn't a particularly difficult subject to pay attention to when it was taught by such an animated teacher, yet Alexandria couldn't stop her mind from drifting back to Bumblebee as she wondered about the similarities and differences between Cybertronians and humans. She was brimming with questions she wished to ask him. Did he have a family? Were there multiple races of his kind? What would happen if they came to Earth? Knowing how members of her own species tended to treat each other with cruelty, she could easily see it extending to others not of her kind and, if Bee represented the size of the average Cybertronian, the thought of the magnitude of damage an entire army of them could bring about in retaliation was disconcerting. She shuddered and pushed aside several post apocalyptic man-versus-machine images from her mind, shifting her focus yet again to Mr. Andrews' lesson.
Three blackboards of notes later, another glance at the clock revealed a much more satisfying length of time had passed and it wasn't long until there came a hollow ringing, signaling the end of the period. The entire class livened at the sound; jumping up from their seats, stuffing supplies into bags or overloading their arms, and the room was filled with excited buzzing conversation. Alexandria's pack grew heavier as she added her own books and she waited in her seat to allow the students from the back rows room to pass on their way to the door. She followed the last one, smiling shyly at the pretty brunette who had nodded at her in thanks, and walked to where Mr. Andrews was busy cleaning off the boards.
"I have my assignment," she spoke up over the din of the room, placing several stapled pages onto the desk. Clapping excess chalk off his hands, Mr. Andrews picked it up and skimmed over the paragraphs briefly.
"Thank you, Alexandria," he said, holding it in the air between them. "Just next time please be more mindful of the deadline." He opened a desk drawer and deposited her work within. "You're going to lose marks because it's late and those added to any other deductions can be quite a chunk of your grade." The warning, although necessary, wasn't unkind and Alexandria nodded along with it. She liked Mr. Andrews greatly. Being rather young himself, he had a very open and friendly manner with his students, treating them with a mentor-like disposition rather than authoritative.
She felt another yawn coming on and tried to hide it unsuccessfully. Mr. Andrews leaned against his desk, studying her with a small curl at the edge of his lips and a raised brow.
"Didn't sleep well last night?" he asked.
"Yes… no… well maybe," she answered, her cheeks flushing a dark pink.
Mr. Andrews' laugh bounced off the walls and Alexandria found herself smiling despite her embarrassing response.
"That has to be the most unsure answer I've heard yet this week," he said, running a hand through his neatly trimmed beard. "If we'd had a test today I would have to be worried about you."
Alexandria shifted her bag to the other shoulder and gave a soft snort. "I just can't remember, that's all."
"Well I hope your memory at least retained an answer to this next question because if my memory serves me right"—he shuffled a few papers around on his desk and selected one detailing a long list of names—"you still need to give me your speech topic."
Crap…
He waited patiently as her thoughts raced through the past hour in hopes of triggering something familiar. One name had stood out among the rest; its owner experiencing an exciting enough life that a speech detailing the events didn't seem too much of a hassle. She grasped at the name frantically; it reminded of her a drink. Wine. Champagne…
"Charlemagne," Alexandria stated proudly. "My speech will be on Charlemagne."
"Ah, Charles the Great, Emperor of the Romans," Mr. Andrews exclaimed. He scribbled Alexandria's choice beside her name on the list. "A very interesting leader and…" he smiled at her, "one of my personal favorites."
Alexandria stopped herself from wincing and she shrugged haphazardly. "Mine too," she said, her voice a tad higher pitched than usual.
"I look forward to hearing your speech then." He slid up his shirt sleeve and glanced at his watch. "I think I've taken enough of your time. You should get to your next class."
He resumed his work on the board and Alexandria made her way to the door, the ache of disappointment in oneself twisting in her gut. Every psychiatrist she'd been to had always considered success in school a reflection of the effectiveness of their therapeutic interventions for her. If she wasn't careful she could draw unwanted attention to herself and that was something she couldn't afford; not when such clarity and wonder was just on the horizon.
0-0-0-0-0
Bumblebee paced within his second bout of stasis and grunted as time dragged by. He reached the edge of the platform and peered over at the void, which was as bleak and empty as always. His vents huffed and he turned to resume his back and forth travels, counting each step; twelve total from one side to the other. Patience had never been one of his stronger virtues, much to the frustration of a few senior Autobots. He checked his internal clock for the umpteenth time. If his calculations were correct, Alexandria could show up at any moment. Bee wondered if humans were highly specific when it came to their sleep cycles and Earth's twenty-four hour orbit. Ratchet had been helpful in deducing humans required frequent periods of rest in order to function correctly.
He sighed, needing something to take his mind off of the waiting before he drove himself crazy. The analysis of the human data remained incomplete and the idea of watching some of the recordings came to mind. With a shake of his head he dismissed the option as it would have been too much of a distraction.
Glancing around carefully, he sought any sign of Alexandria, even making sure to check behind the console. Humans were such a small species it would be easy to overlook her signature, especially considering how faint it was even with her fully materialized within the program.
There came a questioning prickling in his cranial chamber and he shook his head.
"Not yet," he replied to the unseen presence. The sensation came again, stronger and with an irregular pattern that made him roll his optics. "My sensors are up as high as I can put them without blowing a circuit," he grumbled in reply, although he still checked his recent audit logs just to be sure.
The presence withdrew itself to hover just beyond his stasis field and Bee continued his surveillance of the tiny virtual environment. He whirred at its familiar setting in its black and green entirety and wondered how it must have felt for Alexandria to stumble her way into it. The image of her delicate features frozen with fear came to mind and he shifted uncomfortably. Even though his stasis program suited his needs just fine, he did begin to see how it could have a cold and rather unwelcoming appearance to an outsider.
Not that stasis was the only thing that scared her. Bee frowned, recalling one of the first questions she'd asked him. Unfortunately there wasn't much he could do in terms of physical appearance in stasis as one of its limitations included only allowing the user to be depicted in their true form, minus appropriate color rending of course. In Alexandria's case, that meant getting his sixteen foot bipedal self in all its glory.
He whirred softly as this left him relatively few options in regards to creating a more inviting situation for the organic. He toyed with the idea of changing the backdrop, perhaps to something Earth-like in appearance, and the more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed to provide the most viable solution.
All the images in the human data files were far too low resolution to use, so Bee resorted to browsing his personal archives for planetary holos he'd taken during his travels. The data packet for Stadus 8, with its never ending plains of flowing citrine colored grasses and pale blue sky, seemed ideal at first glance until Bee remembered the planet's primary species had been a subterranean worm that ambushed prey from below. One had tried its luck in making a meal out of Ironhide, much to the amusement of the rest of the ground team, by grabbing hold of his ankle plating with its trio of serpentine tentacles. Ironhide had simply glowered at the offending creature as it attempted to work its much-too-small pronged beak around his armor. Bee grimaced; somehow the holo didn't seem as appropriate, knowing a human would be an easy two-bite meal for the worms. He filed the data packet back into place and scanned several others until he had a reasonable selection to work with.
There came a sequence of sharp beeps from his auditory sensor and Bee stilled, listening closely to the muffled thumps and soft billows it had recorded. He scanned the ground slowly and, to his delight, found the faint green haze he had hoped for. It flickered in and out, a weak glimmer against the black, and Bee further relaxed his security protocols much to his unease. Alexandria slowly fazed into view, her back toward him and her shoulders heaving in pace with her winded breathing. Bee let out a light chirp causing her to twist around. Her smile upon seeing him was almost bright enough to light up a room.
"You're still here!" she cried, rapidly closing the distance between them and giving him a thorough once over.
"Of course." He knelt down, peering at her curiously. "Were you expecting otherwise?"
Her hand rubbed along her arm as she shifted her weight. "Maybe?" The uncertainty in her voice was apparent and Bee watched as she captured her bottom lip between her teeth, her gaze lingering off to one side.
"I was still kind of worried you would turn out to be a dream," she murmured. Her shoulders lifted in a shrug and she met his optics, a smile touching her lips. "But here you are."
Bee whirred softly under her warm gaze. Gone was any indication of fear from her demeanor. He was as alien to her as she was to him and yet her ability to adjust rapidly to their situation after such a brief first encounter was commendable.
"What happened last night?" he asked, using Earth's timeframe for simplicity.
"It was morning, I woke up," she replied. "Although, it didn't really feel as if I spent hours talking with you so maybe it took me a long to reach your… uh… stasis?" Her arms crossed over her chest and she tapped a finger against her lips. "Or I guess time could pass different in here than on my world..."
He shook his head. "Time in stasis is no different than that on the outside and a length of a unit of time on your world would have the same length at my location." From what Bee knew, time was only truly affected when a section of the universe was in contact with subspace and the only natural phenomena where that contact occurred were black holes and wormholes. "You must have been close to the end of your sleep cycle when we met," he said, agreeing with her former speculation.
"Well, I think I found you faster tonight." Her chin lifted up in pride. "As soon as I woke up in here I found your light and ran really fast until that weird tugging feeling happened."
Bee blinked, not following half of what she said. His light? He hadn't been aware his program emitted a visible spectrum of energy but, then again, he hadn't been aware he'd been broadcasting his voice either. He made a mental note to ask Ratchet later about the odd things Alexandria was experiencing.
At the thought of the medical officer, there came the same curious prickling as before.
"Yes, but just wait—" he tried to reply but was cut off as the sensation intensified. He rumbled, concentrating on the rapid multitude of questions being directed his way.
Alexandria noticed his focus had shifted and she glanced around for the source of his distraction. Finding none, she looked up at him, brows knit in confusion.
"Just hold on a bit longer," Bee pleaded. "Yes I understand but… No, I want to—"
"Are you okay?" Alexandria piped up from below.
He stopped, giving his head a brief shake. "Of course," he replied, returning his attention to her.
She squinted at him. "You sure?"
"I'm sure." He chuckled at her serious tone. "Why do you ask?"
"Because you had this sudden blank look on your face."
Bee rubbed at his helm. "I suppose I did…" he muttered. He noted she didn't seem fully reassured, however, and seeing how she continued to look up at him with concern he decided to lighten the mood. He whirred and cocked a brow plate, leaning in closer to her. "I didn't look weird though, did I?" he asked, trying his best to sound serious but his voice warbled and face twitched, threatening to give him away.
Her hand came up to her lips in an attempt to suppress the rolling giggle that bubbled forth. "No," she said, the word muffled against her fingers as her mouth split into a wide grin.
"Oh thank Primus!" he exclaimed as he heaved a massive sigh of dramatized relief, placing his hand over his spark as if in eternal gratitude. His actions caused Alexandria to erupt in a fit of laughter.
Bee found himself laughing along, the sounds of her amusement contagious, and realized just how wonderful it felt to indulge in conversation with someone outside of the war that permeated every facet of his life. Exchanges with other Autobots, although holding mirth at times, had seemed devoid of true joy for so long that now when he was faced with it in the tiny organic it was like staring into a sun; radiant in its beauty.
Alexandria sat down cross-legged near his foot. "You know, you're really funny."
He trilled. "Thank you. I try my best," he replied, earning him another smile.
"So… what do you do in here all day? Is this where you work?" she asked, glancing around and studying the console behind them. She grew quiet as her face scrunched up in thought, which was replaced by a look of mild alarm. Her head jerked upward, eyes wide. "Are you sleeping like me or is this like, your home? Are you a computer program?" Her words were rapid with worry. "I just assumed you were like me and had a body outside of here but if not, I'm sorry if I said anything to upset you."
"First of all"—he gestured to himself—"do I look upset?"
"No," she replied softly.
"That's right." He nodded. "You haven't done or said anything to offend me in the slightest and if you did I'd let you know, not get angry."
Alexandria's breath huffed out in a long exhale as the tension in her shoulders ebbed away. She wasn't the most eloquent individual when it came to socialization finesse under normal circumstances so conversing with an alien presented a lot more opportunities for the proverbial foot-in-mouth.
"Second," he continued, "I am in a type of sleep mode, at least that's the easiest way of putting it without going into a lot of technological jargon."
"Oh okay." She brightened at the shared situation between them. "Then is it nighttime on your planet too? How long do you have to sleep for?"
As much as he wanted her to continue freely indulging her curiosity Bee held up a hand, halting further inquiries. "Actually, I have some questions I need to ask you first," he told her, knowing he was testing the patience of a certain other bot. "I'll be happy to answer yours afterward though."
"Oh, sure thing, Bumblebee."
"I have to let you know there are oth—" he began but stopped as the void beyond them shimmered and two figures emerged from the darkness.
Alexandria looked over her shoulder, following his line of sight, and her mouth dropped open at the sudden appearance of the unfamiliar Cybertronians who towered over them.
Bee grimaced as saw Alexandria draw her limbs close to her defensively and scoot away from the newcomers. It was interesting to note, however, she had chosen to move closer to him in the process.
"I wish you would have waited longer," he acknowledged the two in Cybertronian, lowering his eyes as he wasn't challenging their decision to reveal themselves, just disappointed. "I wanted to introduce you beforehand so it wouldn't be so distressing when you showed up," he explained.
Optimus nodded to him in understanding while Ratchet stared down at Alexandria, his piercing gaze slowly taking in every minute detail of her form. Bee could hear the soft hum of multiple scans taking place and knew the both of them were running analyses of the human, searching for any indication of falsity in her statements of who she said she was. Ratchet had especially been skeptical of Bee's report, suspecting Alexandria could very well be a program of Decepticon origin; inserted into the human files and activated once uploaded to the Ark's system. It had taken much convincing on Bee's end to keep Ratchet from quarantining the data.
Not wanting to prolong Alexandria's discomfort, Bee moved over her so he was visible in her peripheral vision. "Don't be afraid," he told her as her eyes flicked back and forth between him and the others. "These are my friends."
Alexandria raised her hand slightly and gave a small wave. "Hi," she squeaked.
In consideration of her size, Optimus knelt down. "Hello, Alexandria," he replied; his commanding presence and deep voice sending a brief shiver through her. "My name is Optimus Prime. I am the leader of the Autobots."
"Autobots?"
"One of the primary factions of Cybertron; our faction," Bee explained.
"And this is our medical officer, Ratchet." Optimus gestured at the bot to his left.
Ratchet, who had remained standing, snorted upon hearing his earthen designation. He turned to Optimus. "I do not detect Decepticon programming within her signature, which I suppose can be taken as reassuring. Keep in mind, however, these are just my preliminary results. To have a more accurate reading I would need to examine a physical form." His optic centres narrowed as they refocused on Alexandria. "If there is one that is..."
The string of pulses, resonant tones, and low metallic hums of the Cybertronian language had Alexandria looking to Bee for reference. "What did he say?" she whispered.
Before Bee could translate, however, Ratchet huffed and crossed his arms. "What I said is none of your concern," he told her. The usual blatant sternness of his voice, although familiar to the other bots, had Alexandria ducking her head as if she'd just been reprimanded for the innocent question.
A confused frown graced Ratchet's features as he noticed the dirty look Bee cast his way. "What?"
"As much as I know you meant no harm, my friend, a certain measure of gentleness is needed here,"Optimus murmured. "She is a youngling."
"We haven't fully determined that yet."Ratchet pointed out.
"I trust in the quality of your assessments just as I trust in Bumblebee's judgement,"Optimus replied. "As to whether Alexandria holds knowledge of the AllSpark's location is another matter." He shifted to sit back on his heels and a low rumbling hum sounded within his chasis, catching Alexandria's attention. He chuckled softly in sympathy as she looked absolutely miserable. "There is no need to feel so, little one. You are not in trouble," he reassured, switching to English.
"I'm not?" Alexandria looked to Ratchet, who shifted awkwardly. "Sure feels a bit like it."
"That's just Ratchet." Bee waved dismissively, ignoring Ratchet's responding grunt. "We were just trying to determine if you were a threat or not, that's all."
"Seriously?" Her face screwed up in disbelief. "You guys are massive! I think you're taller than my house," she said, gesturing at Optimus.
Optimus smiled, shaking his head. "Size is not always a good reflection of power, Alexandria. I have known some creatures much smaller than you who have reshaped entire planets."
Her fingers twiddled the hem of her pant leg as she reflected on his words. "That's… a little scary," she admitted.
"It can be, hence our caution concerning your sudden appearance in stasis." Optimus motioned to Bee who in turn initiated a code sequence that had been given to him earlier. "This brings me to the reason why we are here right now," he said as a wall of florescent green symbols appeared, encircling the platform. "Bumblebee informed us you had found a shard of metal with markings on it."
"Yeah…" Alexandria had stood and was circling slowly; eyes travelling along the columns of symbols, bright against the dark background.
"Do any of these match what you saw?" Optimus asked. "I know this may be a daunting task, but any assistance in identifying what was on the shard would be most helpful and much appreciated."
Alexandria hummed in thought, wringing her hands as the silence grew when she didn't respond right away with an answer. "It was a long time ago and I only saw it for a few moments."
It was difficult for Bee not to step in and try to help. Given the amount of visual information that had been presented to Alexandria, without providing her with any time to prepare or recollect, an explanation of what she was seeing would likely have helped focus her concentration. Ratchet and Optimus, however, had disagreed, feeling that her answers would hold more value with a harder test.
Bee studied the symbols, which were arranged in neat formations creating multiple sections; each containing only one writing system. The neocybex alphabet, currently in universal use on Cybertron, was displayed near Ratchet and was bordered by the older and outdated syllabary of Primal Vernacular and the logography for Chirolinguistics. Ancient runes of the mythical Quintesson race flickered behind Bee and off to his side he saw the distinctive scriptures that were engraved on the Cube; the metallic housing structure infused with the AllSpark. All but one of the remaining sections were filled with languages not originating from Cybertron. Bee sighed as he spotted the series of symbols similar to those depicted on the Cube but unlike them, these ones had been fabricated by Wheeljack and fed to Decepticon intel as the true AllSpark markings and if they were the ones chosen by Alexandria, Ratchet's concern would be validated.
Tension escalated as the false symbols attracted Alexandria's attention and she spent several long moments looking them over. Bee gave a puff of relief when she eventually shook her head in dismissal and continued onto the next section.
"I don't know," Alexandria's posture slumped as so far she hadn't been much help for Bumblebee or his friends.
"Just how many of Earth's languages and alphabets are you fluent in?" Ratchet spoke up.
"Well, English of course and I have to take Spanish for school but I'm not that good in it. Oh and I know a few French words." Her voice was hopeful but that dwindled upon seeing the disappointed look that crossed Ratchet's face.
He cleared his vocal processor and addressed Optimus. "The human data indicated Earth has over six thousand spoken languages and forty alphabets in use. It is highly possible she saw one of those and didn't recognize it as writing native to her planet."
"But how did she access stasis then?" Bee pointed out, standing to stretch to his full height, which always seemed to help when debating with Ratchet even though he was still well below his eye level. "You said yourself human physiology doesn't have the capacity to do that."
"Then it has a technological basis, likely utilizing their Cybertronian source."
Bee snorted. "I've never heard of anything that would accomplish that."
"There are devices that can achieve a similar result. A modified cortical psychic patch perhaps," Ratched said, recalling the procedure Shockwave had developed and which was subsequently banned by the Autobots due to the horrific experiments that had been conducted for its creation. "More feasible than the AllSpark creating undocumented capabilities in an organic being."
"Yes, but—"
"Wait." Optimus held up a hand, gaining the attention of the other two. "Look."
Bumblebee and Ratchet followed Optimus' gaze to where Alexandria stood; having moved away from them to stare intently at a section of symbols beside the ones depicted on the Cube.
"Are any of those familiar to you?" Optimus asked, his cables tensing on realization of which writing system she was looking at.
She turned to give him a quick nod. "Yeah, this one." She reached up to point above her. "The one with the curved lines." Her hand moved as she traced its form in the air. Optimus caught Bee and Ratchet exchange glances, the script unrecognizable to either of them, however this wasn't surprising as it was far older than all of their years combined. Optimus knew of it through lore alone, passed onto him from the teachings of his mentor and the prior leader of the Autobots, Sentinel Prime.
"You saw this on the shard you found?" He was cautious with his question, not wishing to give away the significance of her selection should she be attempting to manipulate them for an ulterior motive.
"No..."
Ratchet bristled, turning toward Optimus. "I don't think we're gett—"
"It's on my arm."
Three sets of optics stared at her, the owners silent in surprise.
Alexandria pushed up her pajama sleeve, the scarring of her forearm standing out against the surrounding skin in a lighter tint of green. Her scars had always appeared as an indistinguishable disorder of slashes and curves but now, as she referenced the wall of glowing text before her, her mind began to see structure behind the lines. The pattern they made just proximal to her wrist was identical to the symbol she had identified and she traced her thumb along it just as she had done so many times prior.
Optimus held out his hand. "May I see?" he asked in a gentle voice.
Alexandria went to him, holding up her bare arm for view. As he leaned in close she swallowed thickly, her mouth bone-dry. The size of the Autobot leader was impressive from afar but now with him hovering only a breath away, her heart was sent into another tempo of rapid beats. The sensation of their signatures meeting tickled along her skin, raising delicate fine hairs in response, as his hand hovered just below her outstretched limb. She trembled in the effort to not pull away to rub vigorously at her arm to counter the feeling as it continued up through her shoulder and into her jaw.
"Do you see it?" she asked, ready to point out the mark if needed.
Optimus nodded slowly, the implications of what he was seeing shaking him to his core. He could indeed identify the symbol etched into her flesh along with numerous others, some superficial and exposed and others embedded on a microscopic level creating a maze of runes upon runes. Present were those displayed in brilliant green nearby as well as ones Optimus hadn't included and several he had never seen before.
"What does this mean?" Ratchet asked, even though the dramatic shift in Optimus' demeanor told him volumes.
Optimus stood and turned to his companions who stared up at him with trepidation. Every decision he made they supported with an undying trust of his ability to lead them forward into a better future. Their lives, their world, the very future of their species was dependent on him and the choices he made and now he would be asking them once again to throw themselves into the unknown.
He spoke without hesitation; only a confidence in knowing what they needed to do.
"We go to Earth."