In the span of six days I cranked out the entierity of chapter 43, the vast majority of which I did in one day (yesterday) so now that one's finished and I can post this one! Hope you all enjoy! The plot thickens further!


Optimus stared at the mech in front of him, his missing, believed offline, Third in Command, with an expression caught between shock and confusion.

Prowl was not the mech he'd expected to stumble upon when he detected an unshielded energon signal.

His processor was trying desperately to figure out how this was possible.

But then it hit him, the Polaris.

The Polaris had vanished from its moorings around the same time Prowl had gone missing from the main Autobot Base in Iacon.

Both vanishing in the aftermath of the Tarn Refinery… when everyone had been so consumed by their grief and the recovery effort… no one had noticed the colossal ship, or the third in command vanish...

If Prowl was on Earth, it stood to reason, that the Polaris was too…

His spark soared at the notion, but then crashed back to reality as Prowl shifted further away from him in distress, still begging and pleading not to be killed.

"Prowl." He called, stepping slowly forwards, trying to be as non threatening as possible.

It didn't work, the mech stumbled backwards, hampered by the low height of the underground parking, and crashed down onto his aft, wincing and whimpering in pain as his doorwings were jostled.

He stepped back away, and properly took in the other mechs state.

Halfway to the slag heap was probably an overstatement, but not by much.

His door wings were dented, a large chunk of his external plating was showing signs of heat stress, there was a significant fist shaped dent in his lower abdominal plating, and he could spot a number of places where wounds had began healing without medical help.

He'd been attacked, recently.

"Prowl, who… did this to you old friend?"

Prowl's golden optics regarded him cautiously from behind his arms. "A robot… but… bigger… you're not gonna finish the job?"

He shook his holoforms head. "No. I would never strike down one of my own soldiers."

"S… Soldiers?" Prowl mumbled, peering further out at him. "You… you know me? Like? ...Know me?"

This was… beyond alarming. "Prowl… you're my third in command, do you… do you not remember?"

The Praxian's helm was shaking from side to side before he even finished. "N-no… I'm sorry… I… I don't remember anything… before waking up thirty years ago…"

Optimus nodded. "Okay… well, it would seem that I will have to introduce myself once more. I, am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots." He offered his holoforms hand out to the still weary mech.

After a few moments of pause, Prowl let one of his servos reach out, offering the tip of his digit to the holoform, and shaking it. "It's… It's nice to meet you sir… I came here looking for you actually…" He laughed, though it was a high nervous laugh. "But you found me before I could even start searching… funny huh?"

Prowl likely didn't realise he was putting off a signature that was pretty impossible to miss once you got close enough. "Indeed old friend. How did you know to come to Monaco?" Even before he finished, he was glancing at the white and silver car he'd been parked next to.

Prowl perked up, his doorwings bouncing up for a moment before he winced and forced them back down. "Oh… Some of my friends spotted you when they were doing a bar crawl a while ago." He pointed to the Autobot insignia on his left shoulder, scuffed up as it was, it was still visible. "They recognised the emblem and sent a couple pictures to my boss, she relayed it to me and my wife and…"

"Prowl?"

A new voice in the underground parking lot caught both of their attentions, and Prowl's helm swung around to look behind him as a set of fast foot falls approached.

"Prowl Honey? What happened?" It was an older womans voice, not the one he remembered Narissa having, one of the others?
"Oh Molly! Look! They found me!" Prowl declared, shifting so his holoform and the approaching women were in sight of each other.

Another elderly woman stood before him, her expression one mixed with concern and worry as she continued closer to Prowl, until she was able to reach up and take his servo, only then looking away from his own holoform to look up to Prowl. "Prowl, back in your car form, this is a public area."

"Huh… Oh!" The mech exclaimed after a moment of confusion, shuffling just far away to transform back into his alt mode, and slowly return himself to the parking spot he'd previously occupied.

Whilst he was doing that, Molly eyed up Optimus suspiciously, and to the holoforms credit he only shrunk back slightly.

Prowl's driver side door popped open then, and outstepped a white haired holoform, one wearing attire that in no way hid the damage to his frame in it's representation.

Prowl reached back to nervously rub at the back of his head, while gesturing to Molly. "Um… Molly, this is Optimus Prime, Optimus Prime, Molly, she's a close friend of mine."

Molly looked past his holoform where his very out of place alt mode was parked just in view of the entrance to the parking lot, and realisation finally seemed to dawn on her, and in a moment she went from mild scowl to gripping Prowl's shoulder and throwing her head back and laughing.

Optimus sent a confused look to Prowl, who was just raising an eyebrow at the older woman, evidently such a mood swing was not unusual.

Finally Molly seemed to regain herself and clapped Prowl on the shoulder again. "This is the one Nari helped pick out a drink for!"

Realisation seemed to dawn on Prowl after a moment. "Oooh! No wonder he was lost on the drinks menu!"

Optimus couldn't help but feel his pride smart a bit at that. "In my defence, I have only been on this planet for a few short months, my grasp of all things humans is still very much… developing." He tried to word.

Prowl chuckled. "Sorry sorry… I was the same back in the early days… So… what now? There's so much I don't know or remember." He glanced to Molly. "And as much as they've kept me safe from human discovery… my friends…"

"We can't protect him from things like the one that attacked him and Annie." Molly finished, glancing at Prowl with a haunted and worried expression before looking to Optimus. "He's one of yours, right? You'll look after him... right? That's why we brought him to Monaco, to try and find you."

He nodded. "I will do all that is within my power, to discover that Prowl is online… after so many eons of him being missing, I will admit it is quite a shock… and who is this Annie, she was caught in the crossfire when you were attacked?"

Both Molly and Prowl's countenances shifted then, Molly's to remorse, Prowl's to a deep seated worry.

"She's… she's still in the ICU… intensive care unit…" Prowl explained, left hand drifting to his right to run over two gold bands, one of which had a diamond inlaid. "She was… badly burned… in the explosion that destroyed our home… I had to leave her behind to come here…"

Optimus glanced to the ring, now he'd watched enough human media at this point to know that those rings had a significant importance… linked to the union of two… oh.

"Oh… you and this Annie? You're engaged?"

Molly snorted, Prowl answered. "No… um… we've been married for twenty five years… actually…"

Prowl shuffled awkwardly as Optimus tried to process that. "You're… you're not disgusted?"

That jolted the Prime back to attention. "What? No. No. You love her I assume?"

Prowl gave him a sad but love struck smile. "More than anything else in this universe…"

He nodded and tried not to focus on his spark twisting as he spoke. "I… I know that feeling intimately… come, I think it would be wise to bring you to where I and Ironhide are currently residing. Our hosts only recently retired so they shouldn't be too hard to rouse."

"Hosts?" Molly inquired.

Optimus nodded. "Yes, they were the ones who made contact with us when we arrived, and have aided us in staying… out of the public eye."

Molly leaned to the left to look past him at his bright red and deep blue alt-mode, and raised a questioning eyebrow at him.

He gave an awkward chuckle back. "They are my colours."

Molly glanced to Prowl, who'd raised his own eyebrow at her, and they both shrugged in tandem.

With that seemingly dealt with, Optimus took a moment to com Ironhide, asking him if he could see if the Harpies still in Monaco could be roused.

Ironhide replied that he would try, and enquired as to why.

Optimus decided against being vague, and gave him, and by proxy Ratchet, a run down of what had occurred.

Choice words followed, but Optimus was hardly surprised this was a very sudden and very unexpected situation that they were now having to react to, this was going likely going to be a shock to Bumblebee and Jazz when they too were informed as well.

Jazz more so than Bumblebee, the scout was still a youngling clinging to Ratchet when Prowl vanished.

With that dealt with, he and Prowl departed from the hotel, leaving Molly to return to her room to send out her own communications to the rest of their small in the loop group that Prowl had made contact.

Optimus had found himself somewhat put out when Molly had informed him that Narrisa and Selena had departed Monaco a few days prior, and were now in the Swiss Alps somewhere.


Twenty minutes of driving later, the gates of the Orichiono manor were opening before them, and he was leading Prowl up the winding driveway.

His third in command hadn't figured out how to use his com-link, hadn't even known what it was when Optimus asked him, so the journey had been relatively quiet, even as he pulled into the garage and Prowl parked to his right.

Prowl's holoform jumped out, looking around in awe.

He had his driver side door open, and he looked down from the seat to Prowl. "They're going to lower us into the bunker now." He remarked, gesturing with his holoforms head to the butler already going to the hidden control panel.

Prowl regarded him in surprise. "Oh… okay?"

Soon enough Ironhide was in sight, waiting in the main area and taking periodic looks behind him to where the doors to the private rooms are.

Once the lift finished moving, Optimus allowed himself to return to his bipedal mode, Prowl watching with rapt attention before looking over at Ironhide, a bug eyed expression on his holoforms features before it flickered out of existence and his actual form slowly transformed itself once more.

Ironhide stepped forwards. "Prowl? Is that really you?" The weapons specialist enquired, looking over the completely black coloured mech in cautious curiosity.

Prowl nodded. "I… I guess so? Sorry… who are you?"

Ironhide regarded him in surprise. "You really don't remember anything?"

Prowl shook his helm, doorwings drooping behind him. "No… I don't remember anything before waking up in the Messas of Nevada."

Ironhide glanced to Optimus, who Prowl had somewhat shuffled behind out of nerves, the Prime had been right, Prowl was… drastically different now, though some of that should probably be chalked up to the fact he had been attacked.

Another glance behind him reminded him of the thing Optimus had asked him to do. "Oh, Prime, I tried to rouse them, but… they weren't enthused at that idea, we'll have to bring Prowl to their attention tomorrow when they wake up."

Optimus nodded. "That is fine, it gives us time to talk." He looked at his amnesiac second. "Correct, Prowl?"

The smaller Praxian nodded. "Yup! I've got so many questions to ask!" Then he deflated a bit. "Just wish Annie was here with me to learn too…"

Optimus glanced to Ironhide, who looked to him in confusion. "Prowl… married a human woman, she was caught in the crossfire and is in hospital back in the USA."

Ironhide nodded in understanding before huffing. "The twins will probably be able to work something out." He remarked.

Prowl's helm tilted to the side. "Twins? The hosts who are letting you stay here are twins?"

Both of them nodded. "Yes." Optimus confirmed. "They retired for the night with their younger brother just before I began my patrol, which was how I located you, they will meet you in the morning, they'll likely insist on a patient transfer."

Prowl shifted nervously. "Are they… nice?"

Ironhide snorted. "So long as you watch what you say, they're rather… emotionally volatile."

Prowl nodded. "I'm familiar with the type, Sophia often has trouble keeping her emotions in check, it's why she moved out to the middle of Siberia, keeps her head cool is what she says."

Optimus and Ironhide looked at him in surprise, Prowl just shrugged. "If it is better to save this discussion for the morning, I'm more than happy to return to my rest… do you have any mats here? I've gotten rather tired of sleeping in my car form."

"Well… no we don't have… mats, we have berths." Optimus replied

"Are they squishy?"

"Um… no, they're solid."

Prowl sighed, and slumped somewhat dejectedly. "Guess it's car form again… we're under a massive manor, do you think there'd be a spare room to have my human projection sleep in? If I click the right things in front of my eyes, it transfers all tactile senses too it."

Ironhide answered. "Didn't get half of that, but the manor has more than enough spare rooms, I doubt anyone would notice."

"Perfect! Well, goodnight!" Prowl practically chirped, shifting back into his alt mode, and letting his holoform out to run over to where he'd spotted a lift that looked to go back up to the manor above.

Once the lift doors were closed, Ironhide walked over to Optimus and gestured him to lean down so he could whisper to the Prime's audio. "Any ideas which combiner hit him hard enough to cause him to be like… that?"

Optimus shrugged. "I am more concerned with something I realised not long after discovering him."

Ironhide nodded for him to continue.

Optimus steadied himself with a vent for a moment. "I have reason to believe Prowl came to Earth aboard the Polaris."

It took a moment for the weapons specialist to process that statement, before he regarded the Prime with a look of sympathy. "Prime…"

"The Polaris broke it's moorings not a cycle after the Tarn Refinery, Jazz reported Prowl missing when he realised he hadn't seen him in the number of cycles after the Refinery...They both vanished without a trace in less than half an orn Ironhide, tell me there isn't a high chance that with Prowl being on Earth with no other known way of getting here, because I know all other ships were accounted for… the Polaris is here too Ironhide."

Ironhide allowed himself a few moments to think this over. "The Polaris was a… one of a kind ship Prime, it needed… it needed two pilots to fly… only Prowl was accounted missing from the main HeadQuarters in Iacon... "

Optimus nodded. "I am well aware of that Ironhide, but the Polaris did have an auto-pilot for emergency situations, not an advanced one, but it had one."

"You think Prowl boarded the Polaris?"

"Likely to check the feasibility of new pilots being trained to operate it…"

"...And it triggered the emergency protocols and blasted off in a random direction that just so happened to leave it landing, or likely crashing, on the one planet we find ourselves living on?"

"We already found the Allspark and Megatron here, not to mention the relic the twins located… Earth seems to be a magnet to anything related to our species."

Ironhide sighed, Optimus was set on this now, there was a chance the Polaris was on Earth, and it would explain how Prowl got here…

And if it was here, and they did find it, the Polaris would be the greatest of assets, a trans galactic class battleship with offensive capabilities that simply were never replicated due to their complexity…

A complexity that required two pilots who were very in tune to operate to its full potential.

"We'll continue this discussion at a later point Prime, it's late, Ratchet's already asked Kia to get him a plane here to give Prowl a once over in the morning, I think it's time we both retire for the night."

Optimus nodded, patting his weapons specialist on the shoulder, it was late, and it had been a long cycle for them all. "Recharge well then old friend."

They went their separate ways, and entered their berthrooms, allowing quiet to fall over the bunker.


Rome

"Jazz… come to bed." Maggie mumbled, already changed and ready to retire for the night.

Jazz's holoform didn't really respond, he was pacing in their room, his holoform already changed into just a set of tight fitting boxers.

Ira had arrived back about twenty minutes ago, and had given them a more detailed run down on what had happened the last few days.

More detailed, as in, she'd explained that the Monochrome twins younger brother Derrick had appeared out of seemingly slag all nowhere on a beach in Portugal.

Apparently the twins were still getting the story from him about how he wound up as he was.

No matter how Jazz tried to process this, something wasn't adding up.

Yes the Harpies obviously had families back in their own realities, Kia and Fernando were proof of that, and proof that the four Harpies they'd aligned with weren't the only ones… but for another to just, pop up out of nowhere?

He was happy for the twins getting their sibling back within reach, but the wider question of why, and why now was pulling at his processor like an insistent itch, and it was going to drive him up the wall.

Maggie watched him continue to pace, trying to crack open the situation with the little information he had.

Evidently it was going to take more than just words to convince him to drop the topic for the night.

Pushing the duvette back off, she rose back and put her feet down on the soft carpet. "Jazz." She called again, trying to get his attention.

He was still pacing.

Pouting, she thought for a moment, before an idea struck, and she reached up to Scitter, stroking the little thing to coax him off what was left of her ear, it didn't hurt as much any more, especially since Ira thought to bring out a metal file and take the edge off of his legs.

Scitter moved into the stroking, rolling out and into his carriers palm, looking up at her in confusion with his one bright green optic. Pouting she started to talk to the sparkling. "Can you believe your papa Scitter?" She nodded to him, still pacing. "So lost in thought I bet he wouldn't even notice you clinging to his face."

Scitter, for his size, and lack of features outside one unblinking green optic, pipped and chirped as he bounced up and down in the palm of her hand, excited at the suggestion.

Smirk forming, she strode over to where Jazz was pacing, and put her palm with Scitter on it in the way.

The sparkling tensed, then jumped and landed straight on the holoforms face, the sudden appearance of the sparkling jolting Jazz back to the present with a startled noise as he stumbled backwards before pitching back and landing heavy on his ass.

Maggie couldn't help it, she was clutching her middle and laughing while Jazz came fully back to his senses and registered the tiny sparkling now happily jumping around on his holoforms bare chest, slowly his gaze moved up to see his mate laughing, and after a moment he huffed a laugh out too.

They all shared a laugh for a few more moments before Maggie sighed, wiping a tear from her eye. "Now, will you come to bed? It's late."

Jazz nodded, scooping up Scitter and moving over to the vanity unit that sat between two sets of shelves, all built into the wall opposite the door out. "Sure thin' sweetspark, jus' gonna put the tyke down." He remarked, setting the sparkling down on the small bed Maggie had made out of an old necklace jewelry box, the top of the box had a soft padding added to it, and when closed, allowed Scitter to be kept warm through the night, while not waking Maggie up if he woke early and decided to transform, as he had done a number of times before they realised the sparkling was going to need his own place to recharge.

Scitter jumped the final few inches between Jazz's hands to the box, and Jazz in turn gave the tiny bot a soft pat on the head with a single finger. "Night yah little terror." He remarked, slowly closing the lid of the box as Scitter shifted back into the shape of a memory stick.

Maggie's arms wound around him from behind, and pressed herself flush to his back. "You know you can talk to me when something's weighing on your mind… right?" She mumbled into his right shoulder.

Jazz reached up, unwound her arms, and turned to embrace her properly, chin coming to rest on top of her golden locks. "Ah know sweetspark… but... "

"But?" She pressed, arms going around his middle to feel the contours of his back.

"Ah… Hmm… Just me over thinkin' things ah don' need tah be over thinkin'."

"That new Harpy?"

"Yup."

"You're worried he's dangerous?"

"Considerin' we both saw them tear at that Fernando mech like pit spawns possessed by Unicron, Ah'm surprised you ain' worried as much as ah am."

"They saved Mikaela's life doing that."

"Yeah, that's my point, they'd known Mikaela at most a week, and they did that to save her, now they got energon and metal in the game? Primus I don't even want to know what those two might be capable of."

"Ohhh… Maybe… tomorrow morning we ask Ira? She's known those two and their brother for years, she'll have a good idea… considering how tired she looked, I'm shocked we got as much out of her as we did without her snapping at us."

Jazz nodded. "'Hide commed me earlier today, told me the lil' lady had a bit of a breakdown from stress, Optimus and 'Hide helped her through it, my guess, she finally just let all the slag that had been making her so…"

"Bitchy?"

"Not the word ah'd use, but yeah, got that wrench out of her pistons so now she's in a better mood."

"Makes sense…" Maggie cut herself off with a yawn. "Bed? Please?"

Jazz chuckled, pulling his chin back away from her hair and dipping enough to press a quick kiss to her forehead. "Sure thing sweetspark, c'mon, Scitter's already out cold."

Maggie chuckled at the implication, but shook her head. "You horn dog."

Jazz joined the chuckle and pressed their foreheads together. "Ah'm your horn dog sweetspark, and frag do I love it."

Two doors down, Glen groaned, rolled over in bed, and buried his head under his pillow.

At least Ira didn't make a sound.


Triage Earth Atlantic Ocean

The bridge was quiet.

Ivan's hands held the ships wheel, keeping the ship as steady as he could against the rolling waves.

Moira O'Dorian Halloran was also on the bridge, well within his line of sight, bent over a nautical map and mumbling away silently as she plotted their course.

On the distant horizon was Iceland, but that was no longer their destination.

Moira had stated her final destination had been Greenland, and that she had a contact waiting to collect her on a barren stretch of the frozen lands coast.

From there, the contact would get them to the airport, and they'd fly to Canada, where Ivan was going to locate one of the Estrada Safehouses, and confirm his location.

He was long overdue for a report in…

"Still absolutely certain you don't know my daughter?" Moira called from the navigation table, pushing herself up and throwing her interlocked hands over her head, arching her back which gave an audible crack as she gave a little sigh of satisfaction, before turning and resting her hip on the table to regard him, drawing that dubiously small notebook and pen out, flipping to a page Ivan couldn't see from his position.

"Yup." He replied.

"Hmm… Yet you were taking care of the Orichiono Heir… dangerous considering who is still hunting him. They won't believe you if you claim he's dead."

"I know."

"The Orichiono's took in my daughter when she fled the bunker."

"Never heard of that. I met the kid after the Orichiono's and Kia vanished."

"And you've made a lot of enemies for your employers by becoming his guard… the Aunts have a bounty on your head… I know for a fact my immunity as the head Scientist of the International Rot Association won't save you if they catch you. Before you reach a safe harbor."

Ivan grit his teeth. "Those rats can go die in a sewer for all I care."

"Hmm, same brutish view of the world as ever. The Aunts are holding the line on the Triage, they've made the vast majority of global leaders believe you kidnapped the boy."

One of the handles of the wheel snapped off, Moira raised an eyebrow, and jotted something down on that stupid notebook.

She flicked the pen shut, set the notebook back in her breast pocket, and regarded him with such a neutral look he had to double check to make sure she still had features on her face. "Ivan. I know you think you're protecting my daughter from me, by pretending you don't know her. I know that the disappearance of all four Harpies goes beyond what science and rational explanation can provide an answer for." He regarded her with a cold expression, dropping the broken handle on the floor and letting the rocking motion of the waves dictate which direction it rolled away.

She took her silence as clearance to continue. "I know you think my… actions towards my daughter, and my other children are callous… despicable… vile… tortourus and cruel… and you are... correct…" She listed off each one with a finger, and then scowled down at them. "And I am fully to blame for the state my daughter was in when she fled the Bunker… believing death in the Siberian Tundra was better than… staying… with a corpse…"

He paused. "What?"

"Hmm… she never mentioned that it seems…"

"Yeah no, she didn't."

He wanted to kick himself the moment he realised what he'd said.

She just huffed, a sense of melancholy falling over her. "It's funny… the moment I lost her… those strings binding me were cut… and I regained myself…"

His expression shifted to distrust. "What are you going on about?"

Moira shifted, the confidence and poise sliding off her. "When… when I was very young… I was one of the first born after the sickness became globally known… I was the youngest in my year…" She gestured to her blood red eye. "I was… a target… of a lot of prejudice… and fear… and I became… so… so driven to find a way to… make my eyes match…" She paused again and sighed. "Looking back… I really should of been thankful."

Ivan nodded. He could see where this was going.

"The years passed, I threw myself into research, my drive for a cure drove me further and further… and… I left everything else behind… my mother… she was a single mother in Ireland trying to raise a child mutated by the sickness in a time before we knew the truth… I left her behind and… and I never looked back…"

Ivan sighed. "But then the first rot cases…"

"Sixteen is the average age… I knew in statistics I wasn't alone… Enough autopsies on murdered mutates was more than enough to show the population was split down the middle… Half got a physical mutation… Half got the rot…"

"And those like me?"

"Those like you? With bodies and minds already fully developed before the bombs dropped? You're immune. My mother is immune… I know that as a fact… I don't know… if she's still alive… Though."

"O'dorian…"

"I know… my daughter isn't dead… I know it was under drastically different circumstances… but when she ran… Just as I did from my own mother… it brought a painful clarity to my life… and I… Let her go too… Because… Because I know… That she will never feel safe with me..."

Ivan wetted his lips, took in a deep breath, and spoke. "She fell in love."

Moira's ground aimed gaze lifted to him, sapphire blue and crimson red eyes locking on him like he was a lifeline, standing tall and imposing like a mountain promising shelter from a violent storm. "She… She did?"

Ivan nodded. "Smart kid… knew his way around computers almost as well as she did… real quiet… never muttered a peep when anyone but her was with him… Only met him twice."

"I… I never found any records…"

"She proposed… He said yes… Two months later… He was dead. That was three years ago now… A year before the disappearance."

"Oh… that would explain… the lack of documents…"

Ivan nodded. "Ira… She didn't… She didn't take it well… The Orichiono's had people living with her, and got her a therapy bird because she developed… Certain tendencies, and tried to keep her distracted with her anarchistic side."

Moira nodded along to all of this, before sighing and pressing her palms to her face, and slowly slid down to sit on the ground, clutching at her face.

He glanced to the wheel, locked the heading, and stepped away from the wheel, and over to the woman. "O'Dorian?"

"Please… Let me wallow in my self loathing… Focus on keeping the ship on course."

Ivan shook his head, and despite all his instincts telling him this was the stupidest thing he'd arguably done, a rather high bar to top, he did it anyway, moving to sit down next to her, and carefully dropped a hand on her shoulder. "I know for a fact that that wallowing ain't going to help you any."

Moira shrugged his hand off. "Considering the current situation, it is the only thing I feel capable of doing… My life is a ruin… The only family I have is gone… The world at large has gone to shite… And my drive for life feels like it was cut a long time ago now… I kept doing my research… I still am… Outside of the bunkers… I'm trying to find cases where the rules of the Rot and Mutations are broken… But I can't get her eyes out of my head… How she looked at me when she escaped… I'll never forget those… How I could I? An eye mutation born from an eye mutation… Like iridescent hellfire… The fear in them… It branded me Ivan… And I will have that brand on my heart until the day I die. Maybe even beyond."

Ivan nodded along. "Once I report into the Estrada's… We can get back on the road, and keep looking."

Moira looked to him and pulled her face out of her hands then, and gave him a tentative smile. "Thank you, Ivan… I'm sorry about my first… Introductions… I'm… Still getting used to being… Human again… And not just a frozen hearted scientist."

He nodded, and offered his hand to her.

Her smile grew somewhat, and she lifted her own hand taking his and shaking. "Moira O'Dorian Halloran."

"Ivan Matar."

He got back up, pulling her up too. "We'll weigh anchor at sundown, after that, dinner, and then, maybe you can share some of your research? You probably don't get to talk to people about it much, do you?"

She gave an awkward chuckle. "Yes… And my hand writing is atrocious."

"Moira, I was raised in the outback, the nearest book was a hundred miles away I can assure you it won't be anywhere near as bad as mine."

"Oh? A wager?"

"Nasty habit I picked up from the Orichiono's, the twins were always in the mood for betting."

Moira regarded him in confusion. "Twins? The last generation didn't have twins?"

"Oh no, they did. They did and they hated it."


Alright! This one is kinda a filler chapter/catch up with some of the cast that hasn't got much attention recently chapter, but I digress, it has to happen sometimes, hope you all enjoyed it!

See you all next time!

Moon