And here's the next chapter! Let's go!
The corridor stretched on and on in front of him, his limbs working to propel him forwards… on occasion he'd find a corner to take… he was walking in a loop, there was the scratches he put in the wall, floor to ceiling, that said as such, it was already spanning six panels of the thin scratches…
His Chronometre was on the fritz, had been since initial takeoff when he'd been thrown back into that wall.
The only thing he had to guage for time was…
"It's time for your energon." The ever droning, disembodied voice announced from speakers in the walls and ceiling he couldn't find.
One of the panels in the wall had a smaller hatch panel on it, and a cube slid out.
A perfectly normal cube of mid-grade.
Just like every time… no variation, no little rust stick or iron flakes…
Just basic energon.
He stood there, staring at it, a part of him noting the ping from his tanks requesting he refuel.
But there was something of a ritual to complete.
"Where are you taking me?"
"Destination, classified. Only Pilots are permitted to know."
"Why did you take me."
"You were onboard when I was to depart."
"Let me onto the bridge."
"Denied. Only Pilots are permitted on the bridge."
"I am the third in Command of the Autobots. I demand you tell me where we are going."
He could practically feel the animosity in the next reply.
"You. Are not my Pilots."
"Why are you doing this? This journey."
"Pilots orders. I am to go to set location. I am to wait. I am to be good."
"You're not being good, you're holding me hostage."
"I am good. I am doing as my Pilots told me."
"That's it? Solar and Nebular's words are your moral compass?"
"They are my Pilots. They made me. I will not go against them."
"They're offline."
"I know."
"Then why are you doing this?"
"Because this is what they told me to do. My Cargo is too dangerous to leave on Cybertron."
"What is in your hold?"
"Classified."
"What does the Cargo do?"
"Classified."
"For the love of Prima… "
"Please. Drink your energon. You've refused the last two."
"And I'll keep refusing until you tell me what's going on here."
The voice didn't reply immediately.
"I do not want to force you. But I will not have a corpse inside my walls."
He snorted. "Then tell me one thing that is classified, and I'll drink."
"Negative, you will drink once, then begin another hunger strike with the same rules."
He made a face, why did Neb and Sol have to program this A.I. to be so smart?
"How long will this journey last?" He tried.
"Estimated time of Deca Vorns."
His optics went wide. "What!?"
"Estimated time of arrival. Three Deca Vorns. Time already spent on Journey, two Vorns."
He glanced at the panelling with all the scratches marked into it. "I… I can't…"
"Correct. You are not built for this. When your mentality begins to collapse, I will have to put you into stasis."
He fell silent then, and slowly picked up the cube, and began to sip.
He was doomed.
He looked ahead of him, the corridor stretched on and on without change, he swore he'd been starting to see things… pede's vanishing around corners that when he ran up to them, there wasn't anyone there.
Sometimes there were other voices… voices he knew, but chalked up to his memory banks playing tricks on him...
He was alone.
Completely and utterly alone, with his only company being the ship's A.I.
The A.I. wouldn't lose its central processing unit… it was specifically programmed for this… for journeys without set ends…
For isolation…
He could feel his right optic twitch.
"I'm never going to see Cybertron again… Am I?"
The A.I. didn't reply.
He was alone.
On a ship with an unknown destination….
On a ship with no one else but the spectres of offline friends and the A.I. they programmed...
He was going to slowly go mad.
He slowly opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling, that was the clearest that dream… or really, that nightmare had ever been…
He slowly eased himself up into a sitting position, being careful not to jostle Annie as she continued to sleep next to him.
He knew it was a memory… it was the only one that had actually come back to him over his more than thirty years on Earth…
He knew he should tell someone.
He knew that that ship was what brought him to Earth, it had to of…
Earth had been it's destination…
Which meant it, and it's cargo, were somewhere on Earth…
But if he told the others, it would just start a wild goose chase…
Annie groaned from next to him, rousing from her own rest. "Prowl… you're thinking too hard…" She grumbled.
He glanced at her and leaned over to kiss her temple. "Sorry Annie…"
She mumbled and swiftly slipped back to sleep.
He very much doubted he'd have the same luck, so, he slid out of bed on his side, doing up the buttons of his pajama top before stepping out of their shared room.
They were aboard the Gilded Falcon, on their journey across the Atlantic.
He opted to go to the balcony the room had, and took in the quiet sea outside, he was very thankful there hadn't been a storm to content with so far.
Glancing towards the north, the Gilded Falcons younger sister ship, the Eastern Wind's lights glinted in the calm night.
The Falcon hadn't been large enough to transport the entire convoy, it simply didn't have the parking space. He, Optimus, Elita-1, Arcee and Wheeljack were on the Falcon, while Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Inferno and Red Alert were on the Eastern Wind.
He took a moment to hope none of them had discovered they were sea sick and didn't want to broadcast that to everyone.
The balcony door slid open, and he looked over his shoulder to see his son, clinging to a blanket as he rubbed at his eyes. "Dad? I can't sleep..." The 'and I heard you get up' was left unstead.
He knelt down and gestured for him to come over, moving to sit on the deck fully as he pulled Raf into a hug, back to the wall of the balcony. "Bad dream?"
Raf nodded. "We're going to get to see Ira when we visit right?" He asked.
Prowl looked down at him confused at the sudden question. "Of course kiddo, why do you ask?"
Raf tucked himself further against Prowl's shoulder. "I dreamt she was in a lot of pain…"
Prowl nodded, he was very much aware that Ira was Raf's favourite harpy, she was really helping him foster a love of computers and robotics, and had practically taken the eleven year old under her wing.
Raf was a very bright kid though, and he knew very well like they all did Ira wasn't really at her best, she hadn't been since he, Raf and Annie each met her, after thirty years as a cop, he could tell a fake smile… "Raf, you know Ira's dealing with a lot from her past that causes her to be in pain…"
Raf shook his head. "It was different… she wasn't mad at herself… she wasn't hurting herself… she… I couldn't see who… but she was hurting someone else… screaming at them…"
He rubbed his kids back. "Hey, hey, that's probably your subconscious being scared of you upsetting her, I assure you, she loves you kiddo, you're her favourite un-official nephew, she couldn't get that mad at you, this is Ira we're talking about, sure she's got a temper, but never with you."
Raf gave a small nod, then looked up to him. "Bad dream too?"
He sighed and nodded. "Yeah… but don't worry, I can handle a dream I don't like once in a while… Say, how about we go for a wander? We can probably see the stars better from one of the front decks?"
Raf nodded at the idea, the view from the balcony was limited…
He carefully got up, carrying Raf in one arm and using the other to open up the door that led into the corridor their rooms exited into, the place was a bit of a labyrinth, but it was well marked and he was soon stepping out onto the main deck.
He was honestly a bit surprised to see Optimus already there in his own holoform, leaning on the railing and looking up at the stars. "Optimus?"
The Prime jolted a bit but settled when he saw who else had come out here. "Ah Prowl, Raf… I'm surprised you're both up right now…"
Prowl shifted to hold Raf with both arms now that there weren't any doors he had to open. "Yeah, neither of us are having much luck sleeping, figured the cool air and some stargazing would help…" He explained, moving to sit down on one of the padded lounge chairs that were available, once he was seated he coaxed Raf's blanket to wrap around him. "What about you Optimus?"
The Prime sighed and took a seat as well. "Much the same… but Wheeljack snores so that doesn't help all that much."
Prowl nodded. "Right… right…" He looked up at the night sky then. "So… how much do you two know about stargazing on Earth?" He asked.
Optimus and Raf both looked up.
Raf smiled and pointed to three stars in a line. "That one's Orion's belt… right?"
Optimus glanced over. "Orion?"
Prowl nodded. "Yeah, and the rest of him is… all these… see, there's the torso… the head… the legs… and the bow." He explained, pointing to show Raf how the shape formed. "Orion was a legendary hunter, whom Artemis, the God of hunting, accidently killed due to the meddling of another, grief stricken, she made him into the constellation he is today, where he is forever able to hunt." He chuckled and nuzzled Raf's messy hair. "That was the first constellation Annie taught me how to find. Can you find anything else?"
Raf looked back up at the stars for a time, while Optimus spoke up. "Prowl… the constellation is called 'Orion'... and he was a hunter?" He asked.
Prowl nodded. "Yes, the name 'Orion' actually translates to 'Hunter' in Ancient Greek."
Optimus suddenly gained a thousand mile stare out into the ocean ahead of them.
Prowl glanced to Raf as his son did the same to him, both shrugging in tandem.
A while later, Optimus spoke again, but it wasn't much more than a whisper. "Sol… she used to call me Hunter… when I was Orion Pax… before I became Prime…"
Prowl and Raf both looked back to him, surprised. "Sol… she was one of the ones who… you know…"
"She said it was because 'I had a knack for hunting down data pads'..." He mumbled.
Raf spoke up. "Maybe it's just a coincidence? She died long before Ancient Greek was even a language…"
The Prime hummed and rubbed at his face. "What a coincidence…"
Raf decided then to turn the conversation back and pointed at the North Star instead. "And that one is the North Star… it's directly above the North Pole, and people have been using it for navigation forever basically…" Raf said, pointing at the exact star, hanging in the sky brighter than all the others around it. "It's also the first you see at night because of how bright it is."
Prowl nodded, and decided to add his own information. "It's also the last star in the tail of Ursa Minor, also known as the Little Dipper."
Optimus was looking at the bright star now too. "Fascinating… to think humans have been using the stars to guide their way… Guiding lights…" Something in his memory banks pinged, but he pushed them away, he wanted to focus on the present, he was getting better at leaving the past in the past… somewhat.
Prowl nodded and kept going, talking more to Raf than Optimus. "And you want to know something cool? The North Star isn't one Star, it's three, one large one, that one is a Yellow Super Giant, that's why it's so bright, and it's orbited by two smaller ones. And each one has a name."
Raf looked up at him in surprise. "Stars can have other stars orbiting them?"
He smiled and nuzzled him again. "That's right. Want to know their names?"
He nodded.
"Polaris. Polaris Aa, Polaris Ab, and Polaris B. Aa is the largest, and Polaris B was the most recently discovered. Cool huh? Because they're all together they're named the same thing effectively."
He didn't notice the Prime's head slowly turning towards him and Raf, the sudden shock in his gaze as words died in his throat.
"Polaris… The Guiding Star…" He rasped out finally.
Prowl and Raf looked back over to him, and were surprised to see such a mess of emotions on the Prime's face.
"Prowl… that's the name of the Starship you vanished on… The ship that was built and piloted… by Solar and Nebular… I… I don't think this is a coincidence…"
Alps
Ira yawned as she walked out of her room, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as Keeley warbled and tried to 'tame' her bed head, which only ended up making it look like more of an actual birds nest as she descended the stairs into the living area, where Glen was already watching the TV.
More accurately he was watching whatever channel he was skipping through, trying to find something he was actually interested in. "Mornin' Glen." She mumbled, tussling his short cut hair before leaning over the sofa to give Skitter some scritches. "An' mornin' tah yah too yah terror…" She chuckled as the sparkling chittered and tried to nip at her, but she was faster. "Ah ah, no bitin'." She chastised him.
Glen chuckled. "He's feisty huh?" He remarked.
Ira hummed and nodded, scooping up Skitter by his under belly. "No surprise.. Hey yah li'l terror?" She asked, lightly petting the sparklings helm as he melted into putty.
Jazz's voice joined in then. "Well, he's takin' after his auntie Ira after all, having some fire in the tank always helps." The mech remarked with a chuckle, letting Ira pass Skitter over to him. "Ah've got a gig tonight down in the town, you want to come and join in?" He asked.
Ira shook her head while Glen nodded his. "Ah'll pass on tha' lou' noises, where's Maggie?" She then asked, glancing up at the part of the second floor that was visible.
Jazz smiled. "Sleepin', she looked too cute tah wake up, yah hear?"
Ira and Glen both nodded. "Fair." Glen answered.
Ira stepped away and moved to the kitchen. Grabbing out a bowl and the other things required for a bowl of cereal, that she topped with a copious amount of honey once the milk was in, bowl and spoon in each hand she turned back to them both. "So… we alrea'y go' tha cleanin' done in prep for tha' new arrivals… and they're still ah day or two ou'... anythin' ah've for'otten?"
Jazz shook his head. "Nah, we got everythin' covered here… excited to finally have some new faces around here?" He asked in turn.
Ira had taken him talking as que to take a bite, and took a while before answering. "Ah' be lyin' if ah sai' ah wasn', gettin' some extra life goin' on here yah know? Ma'e tha days more interestin'." She replied, before getting back to her cereal. A few mouthfuls in she paused and looked out the window. "Ah wan' tah go drivin'..."
Jazz glanced over to her. "You want me tah take you for a cruise?"
Ira shook her head. "No… ah wan' mah own car… Ha' these sweet lambo's bac' home... miss um…"
Jazz nodded and moved to sit on the sofa as well. "You haven't had much chance to drive recently huh?" He asked, already knowing the answer.
Ira pouted before she took another bite. "Damn spark…"
No one really made a comment after that, letting Ira muse to herself over her cereal.
Once she was done and it was dropped in the sink for later she spoke up. "Havin' this weir' feelin' recen'ly... "
That got Jazz's attention. "Need me to get Ratchet here?"
She shook her head. "No… no… i' ain' painful… jus'... heavy… somethin's there…"
Jazz glanced to Glen who exchanged the concerned look back. "Ira… it may not hurt… but I think we do need to get Ratchet to take a look… it could be good? Your spark might be trying to stabalise?" He offered.
She sighed. "Fine… call him… I's been keepin' meh up a' nigh'..." She admitted somewhat bitterly. She seemed to think for a moment before coming to a decision. "Ah'm goin' tah Monaco." And without any more warning, her holoform flickered out of existence.
Jazz glanced again to Glen and just shrugged. "Ah'll let Ratchet know she's in Monaco right now... "
Monaco
Grim hummed as she pulled the soul from the body strewn on the floor. "So my dears… what is it that you wanted to talk about?" She asked, using her scythe to help her return to her full somewhat hunched height.
The twins were in their shared holoform and pacing. "The relic…"
"I can't help you with the relic… it is not one of mine… it is one of his."
They nodded. "We know. We know… it's ah… it's been getting twitchy… antsy… it's not cutting us like it used to… It's trying… to get on our good side now…"
"It wants something from you… they want something from you."
"Yes well they better start learning to speak a language we can understand! We asked Megatronus for help, and Optimus… but it isn't something either of them know either… they're using something 'old and forgotten'…" Wren snarled.
Grim hummed in understanding, Wren in particular loved to crack codes, to understand, this must be absolutely gualing for her. "Keep refusing them then… Whatever they want from you, they had better be clear."
They nodded and continued to pace.
"There are new arrivals coming soon… if I remember correctly… is that also stressing you out?" Grim asked.
They shook their head. "No no, everything is ready for them… once they're past the straight of Gibraltar we're all flying out to meet up with the ships to introduce ourselves… okay maybe we're stressing about what they'll think…?" They admitted.
Grim let out a knowing hum, glancing down at the body on the floor. "So long as they don't see you calling me, you should be fine…"
"This was an assassin."
"Ah… so this meet up wasn't planned."
"Yeah, but we had a body available so we'd figured we'd hail you…"
"Fair enough… Luci misses you both."
"Yeah… we miss getting to talk to him too… how are things in Hell?"
Grim made a face. "The death rate is increasing… the instability… don't tell Ira… but Jack passed last week… he's one of the lucky ones… passed away in his sleep…"
The twins grimaced but then nodded. "Did you let him know that Ira's okay?"
"Of course… he deserved to know… he was a good man… Luci's allocated him the same job he had in the living… he's looking after the young ones…"
They let out a sigh of relief and rubbed the back of their neck. "What do you think the population is standing at now?"
Grim took in a deep breath before answering. "Post Plague… Two thirds of the population is already gone… most life is snuffing out… animals… plants… it's… it's this sickness is sucking the life out of everything…" She admitted.
"And… it only started to really get worse… after we left?"
Grim nodded. "Not immediately after… I have suspicions… but I have little to no time to investigate… if you were still there… I'd send you two to investigate…" She admitted, her lower jaw bone working and grinding her ancient teeth together. "But alas… that is out of our control…"
There was silence for a few moments, before Grim spoke again. "Stella is dead…"
The twins jolted, eyes going wide as they turned to look at her. "What…" They rasped out.
Grim made as much of a face as her skeletal face could. "I worded that poorly… she died… but… I wasn't the one to collect her soul… by the time I arrived… there was a smouldering crater… she didn't die alone…"
"Smoldering… cra… you think?"
"I don't think… I'm fairly certain I know. They're here… on this Earth… somewhere…"
"Who else?"
"Ivan… and… Moira…"
"They can stay missing… Stella and Ivan can handle themselves… but… that… that Sociopathic… deranged monster… is not getting her hands on Ira again…"
Grim nodded. "That's why I told you… I know you'll keep her safe… She's in a bad enough state as is…"
"We know she's not going to die… but…"
"But that doesn't make her agony any better… I know… and I don't know what's causing it…"
Any further conversation was interrupted by the speaker mounted into their desk activating, and the head butler, Sebastian speaking. "Miss Halloran is in the living room awaiting your presence my ladies."
The twins looked to Grim. "We'll keep on top of things here as best we can… take care Grim."
Grim nodded, hefting up the body of the assassin. "I'll take this with me, impressive neck break by the way."
They shrugged. "It saves us needing a carpet cleaner."
Grim departed after that, vanishing back into the shadows of the office, the body going with her.
Sighing the twins quickly fixed some of the errant hair framing their face, and made their way downstairs, finding Ira curled up on one of the sofa's, Megatronus already there keeping watch as he was used to doing these days. "Hey Ira…" Aria spoke up.
Ira looked over and smiled up at them. "Hey twins… hope yah don' min' me crashin' here… fel' li'e ah nee'ed ah chan'e ah scenery…"
They shook their head and sat down next to her. "We see no issue with that, so, what's on your mind?"
Ira huffed. "Oh where do ah even star'."
They let out a soft chuckle, offering their open arms for her to lean into. "Take your time to decide… and we'll see what we can do to help…"
Somewhere in the Philippines
A storm not unlike the one they'd first woken up in roared overhead. The rain falling heavily enough to create a small river that flowed into the cave they had been using for shelter from at least some of the elements for the last day or so.
Ivan made a face as the knots coming from where his stomach should be continued to nag at him, beg him for something, anything, after a few more moments he snarled. "I'm hungry."
Moira, who was perched leaning against the wall of the cave, and closest to its entrance, rolled her eyes; she's going to keep calling them eyes until more suitable terminology is presented. "We're all hungry you lumbering fool." She remarked biterly, the wings that had replaced her arms wrapped around her to keep at least some of the bitterly damp wind from chilling her further.
Furled up in her lap was the latest addition of their motley little crew, whom Ivan was less than pleasantly referring to as 'that bastard'.
'That bastard', whom she had begun to in turn call 'Karma', which he seemed to prefer by a margin that was somewhat unnervingly sentient, happened to be the inciting factor that had gotten them all in this situation.
Not that she really wanted to think about how they'd all ended up here.
Ivan was muttering something to himself but she paid it no mind, none of them currently had the body coordination to successfully kill the other, and it had been mutually agreed they'd likely have a better chance of surviving if they worked together.
If only they weren't stuck in this blasted cave waiting out another storm.
They'd managed to find this one and crawl inside during the last one, and they'd been too occupied trying to see what had become of them in the light of the day that followed to even really try finding out where they were.
Then this storm had rolled in and they were stuck once more.
From deeper within the cave, the last member of their group moved, waking from a nap to find the parts of her touching the ground wet from the water flowing deeper into the cave, grumbling she tried to sit up, only for her arms to protest and deny her such motion in the directions needed, with a aggravated huff she tried a different way, rolling herself bodily out of the small stream.
Moira looked to Stella, as did Ivan. "Ah, you're awake." She stated.
Stella growled, and was swiftly followed by a growl from her abdomen as well, made of metal and still held in the grips of hunger pains, how delightful. "We need to start moving."
Moira snorted and gestured with a head tilt towards the storm raging outside, it was a wonder it was only now that Stella was waking, well not really, Moira too felt the bone(?) deep tiredness that was demanding her to slip into the inky blackness which was her own rest, sadly she could not use coffee as a boon to keep her awake as she was used to, and if she kept pondering over if she'd just be increasing the rate at which she did inevitably collapse into sleep as well. "We can't go now, we're literal lightning rods now, this is especially dangerous for us, more so than when we were human. May I remind you that I for one, have none of the skills even remotely relevant to keeping you alive if you were struck by lightning?"
"We stay on the ground and it goes right through us."
"Don't be stupid Stella, do you really want to be the one to prove if lightning can kill us? Are you volunteering?!"
Oh that was a truly murderous look she was getting from Stella now.
"I'll do it." Ivan pipped up. "Hardly going to be the first time I've nearly died and not."
Moira took a moment to consider just how few brain cells were still left within Ivan's head to just decide that.
Stella however genuinely considered it. "Nothing's successfully killed you before… including the last time you were struck by lightning… if you really want to do it I won't stop you… as if I physically could right now…"
Ivan gave Stella a grin, and began trying to get up from where he was sitting, his legs shaking as he tried to get his feet to work with him. "Still feels fucking weird." He grumbled to himself, before setting his limbs more firmly in place.
Moira glanced then to the tail feathers coming from just above Ivan's ass. "Clench your gluteus maximus."
Ivan floundered for a moment before looking at her like he assumed it was an insult but wasn't sure what exactly. "Clench my… what?"
She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Your arse. Clench your arse."
"Oh... " He muttered, and did just that.
The mass of feathers flared out, causing him to jump a bit. "Weird! That felt weird!"
Moira snorted. "They're for balance, I assume, they seem to have the potential to act as a counterweight. Look how your torso leans forwards with those heavy wings, having something to act as a counterweight helps you stay stable, flaring them out provides more force in a wider range of directions than when they are flat." She explained her rough hypothesis.
Ivan rumbled, and tried taking a step, being weary of how his new talons would land.
They managed to grip tight, and he was able to stay upright, for the most part, there was still a drastic wobble.
Stella wasn't one to be idle, and managed to follow his lead, grunting as she managed to get upright, though she was just as hunched over as Ivan, trying to stand upright made her unstable.
Moira watched the both of them carefully. "Hmm… we might actually be making some progress…"
It's a bit shorter this one, but that's okay, things are still happening~
Until next time!
Moon.
