Okaaay. So, ready for this? This is the first of three(3) chapters I will be posting this week.

This one is simply just Liliy and Orion.

Liliy was exhausted and it was starting to get the better of her. She stumbled against the wall with a faint clatter. It was enough to cause Orion to cease typing. He approached the console she was hiding under and crouched. She wasn't quite fast enough and he saw her hide in the vent.

"Wait," he said. "Please come out. I mean you no harm."

Since she was back in her human guise, Liliy decided to play the part of a timid fleshling and simply peeked out.

"You won't squash me?" she asked fearfully.

Orion looked rather horrified at the thought and shook his head. "No. I will not squash you. I promise."

She stepped out of her hiding spot but kept her back against the wall, ready to spring back in if he tried to get her.

"Are you an inhabitant of this planet?" he asked, curiously, his optics observing her features from head to toe.

"Yes." It made her slightly uncomfortable the way he stared but she knew that this was his 'first time' encountering a human.

"How did you get on the ship?"

"Uh…" Right. Timid fleshling who knows nothing about Cybertronians. "I don't know… It was bright and green and noisy and the next thing I knew I was here."

"The ground bridge?"

She shrugged. "I… guess?"

He turned to get up. "I shall contact Lord Megatron and have him-"

"No!" she cried, stepping closer and holding out her hand.

He looked back at her. "Why not? Would you not be happier back on your planet?"

"The other robots are scary." Liliy sincerely hoped that when Optimus got his memories back he would not remember this moment because she felt completely foolish.

Orion's optic ridges slid closer together. "Are you talking about the Autobots?"

"I'm talking about the big silver one who comes to talk to you and the purple one without a face." Even though she felt foolish saying it out loud, it was not a lie. Megatron and Soundwave really did scare her.

"Lord Megatron and Soundwave. They will not hurt you." He turned to rise again. "I can-"

"No!" she cried, more desperate this time. "You must not tell them that I am here. Please! I don't-" Her recharge warning chimed in her processor. She had to rest or her body would force a shutdown and she could not afford that. "I have to go."

She slipped back into the vent and followed the air shaft around to a vent above the door that allowed her to see almost the entire room. She recharged lightly, her visor and sensors recording everything that Orion did and they were set to bring her fully back online if someone else entered the room.

So there was native on the ship. They were an intelligent being and afraid of him. Or so Orion thought. He was somewhat torn about reporting them to Megatron but the way they had begged him, their small eyes wide with fear, their voice desperate. Besides, he did not know where they were now because he was sure that they were no longer in that vent under the console. Perhaps later he would do some research about the planet where they were. Surely that information was somewhere in the ship's archives. For now though, he went back to decoding the Iacon database.

Some hours later, Liliy ventured out onto the console where Orion was working. She leaned against the keyboard that was raised to better accommodate the archivist's height.

"Hey."

His digits stopped typing as he looked down at her in surprise. "Hello."

"Sorry about earlier. I was just really tired and needed to rest."

"I understand." So that is why she ran from him. He was definitely glad she came out again. He wanted to talk to her.

"My name is Liliy. What's yours?" Her tone was friendly and curious.

"I am called Orion Pax."

"Hunter of peace, huh… You seem like you might be one. But I'm just gonna call you O.P.."

Hunter of peace? He was not sure what she meant by that but he was more interested in: "Why can you not call me by my name?"

"Because those are your initials no matter who you are. This way I don't have to differentiate." So maybe she wasn't such an ignorant fleshing. This was going to come back and bite her, she just knew it.

Orion was about to ask what she meant when the door slid open behind him and she ducked under the keyboard. It was just a vehicon wanting to know if Pax needed anything. Orion said no and sent him away.

"So, can I ask what you are working on?" she inquired, coming out of hiding as he turned back to the console. She changed the subject so he would forget to ask about his name.

"I am decoding entries from the Iacon database," he replied.

Good, it worked. "What's Iacon?"

"It was a great city on Cybertron. I worked in the Hall of Records there. That is where this database is from."

"Cybertron? Is that your planet?"

He hesitated, still not quite believing what Megatron had told him about Cybertron's demise. "It was."

She tilted her head and frowned. "Was?"

He closed his optics, remembering the images of the destroyed cities and lifeless, gray landscape. "It is a dead planet now."

"Oh. I'm sorry. So why are you here on our planet?"

"That I am still unsure about but I was hoping that these entries might provide some answers. I just have to decode them." He looked at the glyphs on the monitor.

"Sounds hard," she said, turning to stare up at the big monitor while he started typing again.

"It is rather time consuming, but it is not bad."

They fell into a comfortable silence for a while. Liliy watched the glyphs scroll across the monitor and listened to the continuous 'tap tap' of Orion's digits on the keys. Orion would glance down at her every so often but she never noticed.

"Liliy."

His deep voice startled her as it always tended to do when they were alone together. She looked up at him. He had stopped typing again to focus on her.

"Yes?" she asked.

"Why do you hide from the other Decepticons but not from me?"

"Well, you're just full of questions, aren't you, O.P.. I guess it is because you are different from them. Obvious fact: your eyes are blue. But they are also kind compared to the others. Your presence is intimidating but… soothing, comforting, reassuring at the same time. I feel safe with you. The title of Decepticon does not really fit you. Just sayin'."

"Why not?"

"Because decepticon sounds like deception and if you were a liar, you would've already told the big silver guy that I was here."

"How do you know that I have not?"

"I don't really but I just have a feeling." She stared up at him with an innocent expression while internally daring him to contradict her.

"You are right. I have not. I do not know why you are afraid of Lord Megatron, but I promise that I will not tell him or any of the others that you are here."

Liliy smiled with relief. "In that case, would you mind if I stayed here for a while?"

Orion was surprised by her offer but he smiled back. "I would like that very much."

Liliy stood next to Orion's ped and stared up at him, wondering hard it would be to actually try to climb up to his shoulder as a human would. Getting up his calf was fairly easy. There were several uneven parts that made good hand and foot holds. Liliy balanced on top of his tire next to his knee and looked up again. Orion seemed oblivious of her, too absorbed in his work. The side of his thigh was mostly smooth save for a couple transformation seams and the hole where his hip joint attached. Bracing on the edge of the hole and pushing off the lower seam with her foot, she got enough upward momentum to quickly reach up and grab the blue armor at the top of his hip.

Orion yelped. Startled, Liliy let go and slid back down to his tire, but she landed wrong and the wheel rotated, sending her all the way to the floor. He looked down at her, more startled than she was. One servo covered his mouth and the other was on the affected hip. She stared at him for a moment before she started giggling.

"That was not funny!" Orion grumbled. "What were you doing?"

"I'm sorry," she replied, trying not to laugh as she got to her feet. "I was just trying to get up to your shoulder. I didn't realize you were so sensitive there."

"Neither did I," he mumbled. Air moved through his vents in the Cybertronian equivalent of a huff. "If you want to sit on my shoulder, then just ask me to pick you up." He knelt down and offered his servo.

Liliy hesitated, though she wasn't sure why. She often used her 'boys'' servos as a mode of transportation and was used to them picking her up for a shoulder ride. She looked up at Orion. He smiled encouragingly, as patient as ever. There was no reason not to trust him. She trusted Optimus and they were essentially the same person. She stepped closer to his servo. Besides, he had kept his promise so far and did not tell anyone else that she was there. She sat down on the black metal. Her legs hung over the edge of his palm and she took hold of one of his half curled digits, careful not to get her fingers too close to his joints.

"Lift me up please," she said once she was comfortable.

He did so slowly. He was careful not to jostle her as he stood up and raised her to his shoulder.

"Any sensitive parts up here that I should avoid?" she asked as her feet settled on the top edge of his chestplates.

There was no armor on the top of his shoulder leaving some nonessential inner workings exposed and she had to step carefully to avoid getting her feet caught in any gaps. She sat down on the first layer of his back armor but didn't quite lean back against the tire there because she knew that sometimes it rotated when he moved.

"You are fine right there," he replied.

"This is some view you've got up here," Liliy said as she assessed her surroundings from this new angle. "Makes everything in the room seem… less big."

Orion simply hummed in response as he returned to his task.

"Liliy, I have been wondering." Orion looked down at her sitting near him on the console.

"About what?" Her phone settled in her lap as she gave him her undivided attention.

"According to my research," he gestured at the monitor covered in glyphs, "humans are supposed to have two arms like most Cybertronians, but you only have one. Why is that?"

Liliy covered her empty shoulder with her hand as she looked away. He had to go and bring up a painful subject, didn't he? Especially considering where they were. But, of course, he didn't know better.

"I lost it… a long time ago."

If he did notice that the subject made her uncomfortable, he did not show it. He spoke again with an archivist's curiosity.

"As I understand it, your limbs are harder to replace because of your organic makeup. Unlike Cybertronians."

She huffed, annoyed that he would suggest that all Cybertronian biology could be replaced. "In some rare cases, our original limbs can be reattached, depending on how they were removed. I was not so fortunate. And who says all Cybertronian parts can be replaced?"

Orion opened his mouth to say it was common knowledge but then he remembered they were at war and their planet was dead. "I suppose that supplies have become limited because of the war and certain parts would be harder to find."

"Ah ha! See? Even you guys aren't perfect."

She was half tempted to vaguely mention Bumblebee but he probably wouldn't understand and she wasn't supposed to know so much about anything Cybertronian. Even though she basically admitted she knew something when she decided to call him O.P..

"That is true. Considering that our war has led to the death of our planet, we are far from perfect. But I am surprised that your world has survived after everything your kind has put it through."

What do you expect of a world forged from Chaos? "Humans have short life spans. No one ever lives long enough to see the destruction through."

"I see. By the way, Liliy," he changed the subject, "are you male or female?"

"I'm female. A woman."

"And how old are you?"

"I'm in my twenties." She didn't like giving anyone a specific number because her default alt-mode was a female in her mid- to late-twenties. Every ten years or so she would hack into the humans' databases and change her birth year to match her un-aging appearance.

"So you are still young then?"

"I am considered a fully matured adult but, yes, I am still 'young'."

"Are all humans around your stature?"

Liliy chuckled. "No. As far as humans go, I am at the tall end of the spectrum. Especially for a female. I tend to stand out like a sore thumb."

"Sore thumb?"

"It means that I am really noticeable."

Orion was in recharge. Unknown to him, Liliy had followed him to the room the Decepticons had set aside as his private quarters. She was not going to leave him alone, even there. They were simple officer's quarters. Just a berth, a small table, a couple of chairs, and a private washrack.

Liliy sat on top of the table. She was used to sitting in such a place because it was a common occurrence when she was at home. That or she sat on Leecher's shoulder so no one could accuse her of playing favorites. She smiled as she listened to yet another phone message from the children. She didn't dare reply with anything more than a one or two word text in case Soundwave was intercepting her comm signal. And she refused to reply if they asked her direct question concerning anything Cybertronian for the same reason.

Liliy sighed. She missed the children. She missed the rest of the Bots too. She missed her 'boys' and Leecher. At least she occasionally got to see Ucon, but that was it. She couldn't go near him or talk to him. She suddenly felt lonely. She really wanted to talk to someone but she didn't want to get Ucon in trouble. She couldn't call anyone outside the ship. And Orion needed his rest. She looked up at the mech on the berth. His chassis rose and fell evenly in quiet recharge. She may be lonely but at least she wasn't totally alone.

When Orion woke up, there was an extra weight on his chassis. It was not heavy or anything. It was just extra. Whatever it was, it was below his windshields and he could not see it. He raised his servo and gently nudged the mass. It shifted on his plating and mumbled.

Liliy!

Orion was both embarrassed and flattered that she had chosen to recharge with him. He carefully cupped his servo around her and sat up. Cradling her in both servos, he moved her away from his chassis.

Liliy shivered as her subconscious felt the other spark move away. She forced herself to open her eyes and she blinked at the black metal around her before she realized it was Orion's servo.

"I apologize for waking you," he said quietly.

Liliy sat up slowly and wouldn't look at him. "It's my fault. I didn't mean to fall asleep there."

"Oh. I see." He sounded disappointed.

"I'm sorry."

"I do not mind. I have... enjoyed spending time with you. And I am glad that you trust me."

She put her hand flat on his palm. "Of course. That's what friends do."

Even though she smiled up at him when she said that, Orion felt that she was actually sad but he did not question it. He simply smiled back at her.

A set of blue glyphs sat apart from the red ones on the monitor.

"What is it?" Liliy asked, playing the role of the curious human, even though she could read it perfectly fine and knew what it was.

"I have finished decoding the first entry," Orion answered.

"And?"

"And it appears to be a set of coordinates."

"Oh. Are they for some place on my planet? Or a different one?"

"I am not sure."

"Can you show me where they would be if they were on this planet?"

Orion tapped a few keys and a hologram of the globe appeared with a mark indicating the coordinates. He pointed at the flashing dot.

"It is here, in the southern hemisphere, just below the equator."

"Oh. That's in South America," she said, recognizing the indicated landmass. "So there is a chance that the coordinates are for this planet since they are on land. But what do they mean? What are they for?"

Orion shrugged. "That is still unclear. Perhaps the next entry will reveal more." He turned off the holo-globe and went back to decoding.

Liliy was sprawled across Orion's windshield for recharge this time. But because of the way the glass was slanted, her feet were by his shoulder and her head was more or less over his spark. There was something that she had been wondering about.

"Hey, O.P.."

"Hmm?" he replied sleepily.

She rolled onto her side so she could see his helm. "What is the last thing you remember?"

He raised his helm to look at her, his optics dim with recharge but still visible in the darkness of the room. "What do you mean?"

"What is the last thing you remember before coming to this ship?"

He laid his helm back. "Well, I woke up in a strange place, not knowing where I was or what was going on. And then Megatron was there-"

"No. I mean before that. Before you woke up in the dark."

Orion was quiet for so long that Liliy thought he might've actually gone into recharge because she couldn't see the glow of his optics anymore.

"I can clearly remember working in the Iacon Hall of Records." He voice was soft when he finally spoke. He opened his optics again to stare at the ceiling. "I remember meeting with Megatronus. I remember going before the council with him... But things start to get intermittent after that. There may have been some fighting. I do not know. I think the last thing I remember before waking up again was traveling to Cybertron's core. But I cannot remember why."

What a weird coincidence, losing oneself in Cybertron's core, only to wake up in Earth's. "It must have been important," Liliy said as she rolled back onto her back. "Too bad you can't remember more."

"Apparently it was a long time ago. And I was locked in stasis the whole time."

"Stasis?"

"I believe a human equivalent would be in a coma."

"Oh... Well, I am glad you're awake now. I mean, out of stasis."

Orion hmmed but did not speak.

"Good night, O.P.." Liliy tapped her fingers lightly on the glass underneath her and closed her eyes.

"Good night…" Orion brought one servo up and brushed a single digit over her hair. "...Liliy."

To be continued...