Chapter 141 - Secondhand

(MPOV)

POTUS landed, finally. I circled the airport for a few moments, keeping well out of the traffic. Waiting.

Optimus was in the Ukraine for some reason, he'd been gone already when I'd roused from my own recharge, and Airforce one had all but demanded an escort before Jolt could even fill me in on the past two day's events.

He was going to brief me when I got back, or hopefully, I'd get the information from my Optimus firsthand, actually see my mate. Two months and we still hadn't managed to re-sync our recharge cycles. I had the brief memory of coming half-online, and remaining so only long enough to touch my Optimus' cheek and return the gentle kiss he'd pressed to my lips.

The human governments were far too fascinated with the idea of a Prime always being online for the liaisons to yell at.

Finally, ::. Archangel this is Airforce one.:: the pilot called out. ::. We are clear and landed, thanks for the escort Kae, I owe you one there.::

::. Just because you said that, Dave.:: I sent with a snort ::. Good flying with you man.::

I widened my circle, changing course and getting out of the newest traffic zone. And then it hit me. Shock, absolute, unremitting shock.

I didn't even know I was falling.

It was all I could do, one hundred feet in the air to remember to fire up my boosters, transforming and slowing my descent just enough to not crash... badly.

I sat in shock on the ground, not knowing why.

::. Archangel? Archangel do you read me?:: control called out worriedly.

"Arch... Archangel reading you," I replied faintly, the secondhand shock finally registering as just that, Optimus' shock, not my own. Then came rage. I needed to get to him.

Now.

::. Archangel you have dropped off our radar.:: control told me again.

"Control this is Archangel, Emergency, requesting clear airspace to DC-NEST, Emergency, do I need to repeat-"

::. No repeat necessary.:: Control snapped back, "Archangel you are clear to DC-NEST Operations at thirty seven thousand feet."

::. Mikaela where the pit are you?.:: Ironhide's voice called over my comm.

"I'm on my Primus damned way!" I shouted, "I had to escort the friggen President, remember? What the hell happened!? Why is Optimus two seconds away from breaking shit?" I transformed mid-air and went Angel, blasting into Mach 4 in seconds and scrambling for Washington.

Australia, why in god's name I had to be in Australia now was beyond me. The hours felt like an eternity. Finally, finally I threw on my cloak and transformed again, landing as lightly as I could in a panic and striding quickly toward the hangar with my holoform flickering well ahead of me.

"Lennox, what the hell is happening? What did you find?" I asked with a frown.

"Kae! Where the hell were you!?" Colonel Lennox shouted at my Holoform as he swung off his motorcycle.

"For the last time escorting the Primus damned POTUS!" I bellowed, "like they fucking ordered me to do! I can only fly so fast! What the fuck is happening!? Optimus!?"

"Who the hell is the teenager!?" a woman's voice demanded in an irritable tone. I turned my holoform to glare at her.

"The 'Teenager' can fucking hear you!" I bellowed. "What the fuck is happening!? Ironhide! Status Report!" I turned away from the humans and walked toward our weapons specialist as the doors closed.

Ironhide shrugged, accepting a new gun from Wheeljack.

"I still want to know who the hell you are! Who gave you clearance!?" the irritating woman shouted, grabbing my holoform's arm.

"Archangel Prime," I snarled at her, "Formerly Mikaela Banes, now what the fuck did you do?" I shook her off and offlined my holoform, dropping the cloak and striding toward Optimus' truck form. ~Why the hell are we pissed off?~ I demanded through our sparks, ~Optimus, you can't throw a bomb on me like this and not tell me why!~

I glanced over as the woman's entourage, escorted by Will walked toward us.

"Oh good, you're here, the name's Que. I do hope you have answers for him, I've never seen him so upset," Wheeljack stated, looking down at Lennox and the irritating woman.

"Optimus you remember Charlotte Mearing, our Director of National Intelligence." Will called out calmly.

"He's in a bad mood," Mirage stated warningly. "He's not talking to anybody today."

They stood in front of Optimus for a long moment.

"What is this, the silent treatment?" Mearing asked in a condescending tone. Jazz snorted in irritation.

"We've seen that and this is not that," Ironhide rumbled as I fidgeted irritably.

"Definitely not," Wheeljack agreed. I growled softly and began pacing somewhat.

"This is worse," Jazz added with a frown.

"It's bad enough that his anger is crossing their connection and affecting Kae," Ratchet added in a stern tone, obviously talking more to Optimus than the humans.

"Kae what's happening?" Lennox shouted up at me.

"If I fucking knew that I'd already be gods damned fixing it!" I snarled, stalking back and forth as humans and auto-bot's avoided crossing my path. My wings settled and re-settled restlessly, occasionally transforming into blades and back.

"Prime! Make something of yourself!" Ironhide demanded finally, lightly thwacking his roof.

"Oh 'e's piiissed," Jazz added with a low snort.

Optimus transformed as I moved to stand behind him to the right, crossing my arms to present our united front, he knelt down angrily and pounded the floor.

"You lied to us!" Optimus snarled, "Everything humans know about our planet we were told had all been shared, so why was this found in human possession?"

"Oh," I thought, gently listening to the wash of information that was surging through our connection now. I bristled to know that Shockwave was on earth, and watched with worry for my mate as he sent his logs of the battle.

"We were in the dark on this also," Mearing stated calmly, "it was director only clearance at sector seven until now. The bag," Mearing added quickly, looking at her aide.

The panicked looking aide looked at the collection she was carrying.

"Which bag?" she whispered in a terrified tone.

"Hermes Birkin, green ostrich," she ground out irritably. The aide scurried forward and handed over the bag. "My god," Mearing stated irritably, her face showing her thoughts clearly. I liked her less now.

"This is a secret few men knew, and fewer still remain alive," Mearing started calmly. "Allow me to introduce to you, two of NASA's founding mission directors, and Astronaut Dr. Buzz Aldrin, one of the first two men, to set foot on the moon. Sir," Mearing walked over, shaking Buzz's hand. I synced my processors, calming myself as Optimus did. "Optimus Prime." Mearing introduced the man respectfully before walking back to her entourage.

"And from a fellow space traveller, it's a true honour," Buzz stated with the honesty of a good man.

"The honour is mine," Optimus rumbled gently, walking toward the man and kneeling down far more carefully. I moved to stand behind him somewhat, watching as Mearing went up the communications catwalk to hand over an information cartridge.

"Our entire space race of the nineteen sixties, it appears, was in response to an event," Mearing began calmly.

"Our astronauts investigated a crashed, alien ship, no survivors onboard." one of the directors continued.

"We were sworn to secrecy by our commander in chief," Aldrin added strongly.

"A total of thirty-five people knew the real plan at NASA," the director added.

"The soviets managed to land unmanned probes, somehow they must have picked up that fuel rod," another man added, nodding to the engine part.

"We believe the Russians deduced that the rod was a fissionable fuel assembly, believed they had it mastered and tried to harness it at Chernobyl."

"We landed six missions in all, we took hundreds of photos and samples. We locked them away forever, and the moon program was shut down."

"Well did you search the crash vault?" Ironhide rumbled in a grave tone.

The humans looked at him in shock.

"The ship's name was the ark, I watched it escape Cybertron myself," Optimus rumbled softly. "It was carrying an auto-bot technology which would have won us the war. And, it's Captain."

"Who was it's Captain?" Mearing asked quietly.

"The great Sentinel Prime. The technology's inventor, he was commander of the Auto-bot's before me. It is imperative that I find it before the Decepticons learn of it's location." Optimus stated calmly. "Our auto-bot space craft has the ability to get there, and, you must pray it is in time."

I reached up and rubbed my faceplates for a moment, frowning. Something felt wrong. Tinny's words reached back to me. Something clicked.

Optimus looked over at me.

"Who took care of the money trail?" I asked in a deathly calm tone. Mearing looked over at me with a frown. I sighed. "The accounting, Director Mearing," I said patiently, "The United States managed to keep Megatron frozen in the basement of the hoover dam for years, hid the cube by building the dam over it. The potential of gleaning reverse engineered technology would have been too great to simply give up on it."

"It was too expensive," Dr. Aldrin called out in a saddened tone.

"No," I shook my head definitively, "those numbers don't jive." I looked at Optimus. "I'm going to go scout for a while," I stated calmly.

"Don't go to the moon without me," Optimus rumbled with a low tone of amusement.

"Aaaww, I'll be there and back in a few hours," I shot him mockingly pleading eyes.

Optimus snorted.

"We leave in six hours," he rumbled in amusement, "Hop into the flight deck, I'll drive."

I grinned and walked over to him, stretching to kiss his jaw gently.

"While we're here, precisely why is Archangel pissed off?" Jacobs called up. Director Mearing looked at me curiously.

"Mikaela is my spark-bonded," Optimus stated in a calm tone, "what one feels, we both feel."

"Like the smell of anger," I continued calmly, onlining my holoform beside Jacobs. "You know how when you get completely pissed off, and you stay really quiet to try not to have it affect everyone else, but everyone starts getting agitated anyway?"

"Increase that a hundredfold," Optimus continued for me. "Our sparks are interconnected, Mikaela is so calm, so patient most of the time that I often forget that my mood directly affects her." he onlined his holoform to stand in front of mine. ∂I apologize, my mate,∂ he added, cupping mine's face.

"Just tell me what's wrong, next time," I murmured with a smile, "so that I can move directly from pissed off to fixing, instead of pissed and panicked."

"Let's roll," he nodded to me. We offlined our holoforms immediately, I wandered to the open flight deck and linked up to it along with my Optimus, transforming into a trailer as he assumed his truck form and linked up.

::. That still feels so bloody weird.:: I giggled softly.

::. What does?.:: he asked curiously.

::. You're the male, but every time I assimilate myself into the flight deck I wind up with the male connectors.::

Optimus snorted as we meshed together, attempting to hide his laughter with a few extra revs. Ironhide glanced over at us and began fighting back his own gruff chortles.

"You thrice blessed bloody bot," he rumbled with a snort, lightly whacking Optimus' roof again.

"What's going on?" Lennox asked curiously as Optimus began to pull out.

"For the sake of the clean minded, don't ask," Ratchet snorted, transforming and following us out.

"Later," Ironhide snorted, looking at the grinning soldiers.

(IPOV)

The humans wanted to know the joke, which was cool, Ironhide was certain now that they'd begun to pick up a bit of Cybertronian. He watched the director go with a carefully neutral expression, and nodded respectfully to the old man. No fear in that one.

"I'm too old to be afraid," the man chuckled softly, looking up at him.

Ironhide knelt down to the man's level.

"We are only afraid when we have something to lose, be at peace," Ironhide rumbled quietly. Aldrin nodded to him in return and wandered out amidst the entourage.

"What are you afraid of, Hide?" Jacobs asked in a soft tone.

"Being the first, and being the last," he rumbled sternly, pushing himself to his feet. Chromia whizzed over and jumped lightly into his arms.

"You won't lose me," she whispered. Ironhide smirked.

"Is it later yet?" Chance asked cheerfully. Ironhide laughed and onlined his holoform.

"Situational comedy," he rumbled with a snort. "Kae rather cheerfully pointed out just how bizarre she finds it to connect to Optimus in the flight deck."

"Why?" Jacobs asked with a grin.

"Oh, well when she connects, she's using male connectors," Chromia trilled. "Take that as you no doubt will, Kae already did."

Jacobs began desperately snorting back his own guffaws.

"I don't get it," Chance frowned.

"Then for the sake of your innocent mind, you're probably better off," Jacobs snorted. Chance frowned for a second before the lightbulb flashed in his eyes.

"Wrong, awesome, wrong," he howled gleefully. Ironhide chuckled, pecking a gentle kiss to Chromia's neck before lightly setting her down.

"Alright boys, let's get some training done," he rumbled cheerfully.

Well. I suppose you aught to know. DoTM.

It starts.