Mass Effect:

What Got Me In This Mess?

By:

Apathy of the Abyssal Void

Chapter 4:

The Chase Within Evergreen Woods (Part II):

Darkness Falls


Dark Space

Near the edge of the galaxy, two massive beings whose existence defy all forms of logic to any average sapient creature, watching the galaxy as if it could crumble by their gaze alone. The slightly smaller monstrosity begins to speak with an unearthly rumble, as if it could cause any terrestrial world to shatter from the echoing vibrations.

"There has been some recent developments with our new found allies. The last interloper has been located. The trap is set and he will not survive the coming storm."

The larger creature responds with a voice that could strike fear and spell doom for those that were unfortunate to hear it. To those that were familiar with it, it brought about a sense of urgency, to flee or to be rooted in its place, unable to move. However, the former remained unaffected by the tone as its fellow monster spoke.

"This bodes well for our plans Sovereign. Soon the last of his kind will be eradicated and our cycle shall be impeded no more. Their attempts to halt our return are nothing but delusions of false hope. You will be our vanguard as you always have been in the past. Accomplish this task by any means necessary, but do not reveal yourself. I will send my tools to thwart any form of petty resistance the humans have."

The abomination was known as Sovereign to those that could understand, responded in kind, his tone was that of how someone would nod either in agreement or if someone wanted to thank another for a gift.

"This will prove most beneficial Harbinger. The acts of his predecessors will not go unpunished. He will face the despair that generations before him faced when they met their demise."

"Yes, both the boy and his misbegotten kind will suffer for their transgressions against us all. Go now Sovereign, for the time of our return is upon us. And this time, we will not be denied!"


At an Unknown Location

Two armored men, with one being a light blue and another a teal color, are walking down a white hall way, arguing heatedly from events that occurred sometime ago. As they walked, they passed several rooms of things that didn't matter to either of them. The only thing that mattered to them was how they spectacularly failed their mission and how they gotten themselves chewed out by The Illusive Man for letting some kid die prematurely.

"How bullshit was that!? It was all Caboose's fault for blowing him up. Not to mention having Carolina kicking our asses for that too and all Caboose got from her was a damn timeout, which I think was totally not fair for letting him off easy!" Church cried out in frustration, using obscene gestures with his hands. Tucker shook his head and replied, "Church, Caboose's an idiot, we both know that. Not to mention Carolina's a bit of a bitch." Not noticing the evil eye his friend was giving him, Tucker continued unabashed, "Besides, it was your fault for mentioning Tex after that clusterfuck of a situation. She beat the crap out of you the same way Tex did to Jimmy and his skull." "Yeah, not to mention that she's FUCKING INSANE!" "What are you talking about Church? I mean yeah, she was pissed at you for not stopping Caboose sooner. She hasn't left the kid's side since he got fucked up." "Which reminds me. I need to know what the hell he was doing with her, 'cause I know Carolina won't tell me anything."

"Which will take awhile, I heard they're trying to fix him up right now. Who knows how long he'll stay like that. That tank shot should have killed him right there and then." Tucker replied with a little skepticism in his voice. "Not helping asshole." Church replied angrily, knowing that should that kid die; well, he didn't want to think about it.


Back with our mostly dead hero...

W-where am I?

"-up the dosage-"

What?

"-need him to do this? He's just a kid."

What's happening? What's going-?

"Hold on a second. He's waking up!"

That voice...it's familiar.

"What!? I told you to check those readings!"

"I ran through them twice."

"Obviously you miscalculated, just as I thought you would."

I tried to open my eyes, but everything came up rather blurry. I could barely make out some of the things in the room, but stood out the most was two people in the room, a man and a woman respectively. They have to be doctors of some kind if I'm in this unusually white room. As I tried to get up, the woman pushed me back down and I began see her a lot more clearly than the man. She had alabaster skin, black hair...her voice was strangely had an English-type of accent. Australian maybe? Can't say for sure, but I feel more tired now. Maybe I should sleep some more.

In fact, it feels like I'm gonna pass out now...


Elsewhere

Above the operating room where the boy was being tended to, Caboose and Carolina stood next to the glass, watching with some amount of trepidation on Caboose's half and on the other was impassiveness from Carolina as the two doctors continued to keep him as alive as possible. Carolina closed one of her hands into a fist, signifying her barely concealed anger as she watched on. Alpha, she thought bitterly. I don't know why he's here, but this is good news. If I can convince him, I might have a chance to kill the director for all the things he's done. Even if I get stuck here, I'll get him one day. He won't get away again!

"Excuse me" a voice spoke out, bringing Carolina out of her musings and directed her to the speaker, which happened to be Caboose. Carolina crossed her arms and looked at the Blue 'soldier' next to her. "What do you want?" she asked sharply, irritation evident in her tone. "I um. Why were you so mad at Church earlier? I know he has his anger problems and I'm sure he doesn't mean it. That's how it always has been since I..." he trailed off for a few seconds, causing Carolina to wonder if he had mental issues before he continued," I could remember. He's my best friend, and I would be sad if anything happened to him."

She rolled her eyes at the statement, either doubting his words or thought that Alpha's past was more disturbing than what this brainless moron realized. "I don't know if you knew this, but we've had trouble with mean people like O'malley and Tex before. Maybe it's a Freelancer thing where everyone is mean to other people. O'malley even taught me how to be mean too." "Who's O'malley?" Carolina inquired, since mentioning Agent Texas made her feel ill at ease whenever she was brought up in a conversation. Caboose folded his arms together and tilted his head to the side, showing a physical sign of him thinking. While normally the others mocked him for his lack of intelligence, he still had his more positive moments of clarity that tended to surprise his friends.

After a few minutes, Caboose responded with his natural vigor, "O'malley was some computer thingy that was really mean and evil. He even went in my head and did bad things. Church and Tex tried to help me by going in my head too, but I don't know happened after that. It was very confusing for me at the time." At first Carolina didn't think much of his encounter, but what he said about O'malley made her realize something. "When you say he's a computer, do you mean O'malley is an AI?" Carolina asked Caboose in a slow manner so he could understand what her question was.

"Something like that, I don't remember very much about it. He possessed some of my friends before but he ended up in Doctor Doc's head most of the time and did a lot of bad things..." and as he kept rambling on partially formed memories of the events down at Blood Gulch, Carolina had kept a sharp focus on on the operating room as she noticed the boy attempt to move and subsequently forced the scientists to inject more sedatives into him, putting him back to sleep.

As Carolina looked on, she couldn't help but think about what happened before; what he did, and the events immediately after...


Flashback

"Hi Mr. Cain and Pretty Lady!"

"What the hell?" she asks, surprised that other people with similar armor found them here. Not to mention seeing the two guys outside of the tank arguing over ridiculous things, one of which reminded her of someone she needed to find to pursue her relentless goal in killing the Director. What's Alpha doing here? This doesn't make any sense at all. Is this even-thoughts quickly silenced, she was roughly shoved backwards as she witnessed the boy pushing her away suddenly thrown away by the ensuing explosion.

No! Don't die damn it! You're my only way out of here! She screamed within her mind as she landed roughly on the ground with her feet firmly planted, running over to see if the boy was alive. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees the three blue soldiers leave the tank in a hurry to where she was running towards: the unmoving body of the one that saved her life. She quickly jumped in the air and landed right next to the boy's body, eyes widening at the sight of extent of damage he received. Aside from the clothes being shredded, the legs were nearly blown off, barely held together by the bones that lied within the center as most of the muscle was either blown off by the debris or massively burned where shards of wood and metal didn't impale his legs. Looking up towards the torso, the abdomen had a small sharp piece of metal sticking out on the right side, allowing a small trickle of blood flowing out but not enough to cause further damage via blood loss. Most of the upper body had a series of 3rd degree burns with the remain parts being blackened, while his arms suffered the worst amount of damage among the rest. His previously frail arms had become something truly grotesque, considering that it originally lacked the proper amount (or size in his case) of muscle to withstand an intense explosion. The previously pale skin had became nothing more than dark husks that looks as though a gentle breeze could turn them to dust.

Once Carolina arrived at the face, she grimaced as she turned the head to see small chunks of skin missing and bruises from the impacts it received. The left side contained a major bruise with blood running down that side. There might have been more damage he had taken, but she didn't want to further risk his already critical condition. She shook her head as she got up to go get her helmet, only for it to be in front of her being held by a soldier in a dark blue armor. This must the guy that fired the cannon and possibly ruined the only chance I have of heading back. Still, gotta remain calm. I need answers and I can't get them if I kill them. Carolina thought to herself as she gazed at the near offending hand. Giving a short 'thanks', she snatched the helmet from him,putting it back on her head with a sound of it closing with a hiss and snapping shut.

Before she could properly question the three, a low thumping noise reverberated in the clearing, causing the four to glance in the general direction of the source of the noise. As the noise steadily grew louder, Carolina quickly readied her weapon in case of a potential threat while the others began arguing amongst themselves over who to blame for the situation. Suffice to say that their arguing wasn't doing them any favors when the noise started to come up faster with each single thump.

"I still think this is all your fault for not stopping Caboose. He killed the guy we're supposed meet!" the light blue soldier complained to the teal armored soldier. Carolina was mentally taking notes of their names and behaviors, in case if they got out of this sticky situation. Caboose, huh? That must have been the dark blue soldier. He'll be the one I talk to first. Alpha will come later. During her observation, the teal soldier retorted, "My fault? Don't go pulling that shit on me, it's your fault for putting us in this situation in the first place Church. Ever since you argued with our boss, we've been stuck doing stupid scouting missions." "Oh don't even start Tucker! You're just sore from what happened when you tried to hit on that guy's assistant. She even used some sort of telepathy crap and sent you flying because of that." "Hey! She was practically begging for that. She was a goddess in human form, with every single definition being perfect. She even said so herself.""Yeah, like a freaking test-tube baby. There's no way someone like her should exist. She was modified, hell, made to be perfect!" The dark blue soldier that was next to her -Caboose, she noted his appearance- whispered to her," Should we try to stop them? If they get any louder, that thing might jump out at us." She briefly glanced at him from under her helmet before looking back at the source of the loud noise, not really caring in the slightest.

Just when the noise reached its peak, it vanished completely, causing the four to pause in wonder what had happened, only for a large figure to appear directly behind them on top of a large fallen tree. With a loud crash, it landed with both feet firmly planted into it, causing the four to stumble to the ground from the sudden impact, as well as the tree to snap in half with debris flying everywhere as a smokescreen. Church and Tucker, much to Carolina's amusement, began to panic at the so-called monster's presence. It suddenly rose to its full height, bringing out a very large weapon from behind its back and leveling it at the four in a menacing manner. As the dust began to settle, the figure rumbled with a deep voice that made the much smaller people sans Freelancer quake in fear," Tell me, who is the cause of this? Speak quickly now, time grows short."

Shaking her head, Carolina roughly shoves Caboose forward, causing him to stumble slightly but regained his balance. Looking up at the large figure, he couldn't help but stare in awe as the dust finally slowly vanished. Unique patterns of red and blue decorated this creature, entirely metal from what Caboose could tell, standing at least 30 feet tall...not that Caboose would be able to judge relative height and all. Strange markings were placed throughout the creature's body, including the face. Even the face caused Caboose to tremble slightly at the creature's stern gaze, maybe even angry. Fumbling a little, he looked up at the (in his mind) a really scary robot before he spoke," I, er...um." Carolina sighed a little at Caboose's failing attempt to explain himself before she responded," Easy there big guy. He's not used to seeing a ridiculously large robot in front of him. You can put the gun away for now until we can decide on what to do with all three of them."

The figure relented for a moment, but nonetheless complied to her request for the time being. Shouldering his weapon, it oddly disassembled itself and reintegrated into the robot's back, surprising everyone else. Carolina suddenly realized that she never got to ask for his name earlier before the morons arrived. She opened her mouth to ask for the robot's name, but a rustle in the bushes alerted them to the direction not far from where the large robot arrived. A much smaller robotic form appeared out of the bushes not long after, causing Tucker to shout," Aw come on! Another one? What's next, a cyborg with a computer in his head falling from space?"

Carolina suddenly remembered seeing it earlier as well, with the vertical stripe pattern on the armor that was welded onto its right side, including the logo that showed N7 on it. It responded to Tucker's rhetorical statement with a neutral tone,"[Searching...Searching complete] References indicate past events or similar scenarios regarding a human known as SPARTAN-117, also known as Master Chief of UNSC assisted by the AI Cortana. We believe that this is what you are referring to, correct?" The large robot seemed to have understood what the smaller one had meant, but the rest did not, sadly.

Carolina shook her head in confusion due to the series of revelations pressing down on her from what she was seeing. After all, it's pretty damn unusual to see any of this happen in one day, let alone in her entire life and career as a Freelancer. Mentally pushing the information to the side, she looks at both robots cautiously before speaking with carefully chosen words, lest she or someone else set them off, "I can tell you guys want answers as to what happened here. Plain and simple: It was simply an accident. Caboose here," Carolina gestured the Blue soldier near her before continuing, "mistakenly turned off the Friendly Fire Safety Switch in the tank, inadvertently causing it to fire at Ciaphas and I. He saved me from that misfire, more or less killing him in the process. If he's alive, I can't tell. At best, he'd be in a comatose state from the blast. He looks bad enough already, I don't want him dying if we rough-handle him unintentionally."

The smaller robot nodded in compliance before responded, "Acknowledged, Carolina-Freelancer. We will proceed with extreme caution extracting Operative-Cain from this location." The light blue soldier stiffened at the mere mention of her name. She would've liked to find out precisely why he would react like that. At this point, the larger robot spoke in agreement to the smaller robot's statement, giving Carolina's attention to the larger robot this time, "This is true Agent Carolina, we need to be careful with him. I'll bring my medic here and have him transported to the outpost, where he will be properly attended to. From what I see, the human known as the "Illusive Man" will no doubt eager to hear the status of the young human's current condition. However, "he faced Caboose and his fellow Blues before continuing, "If I hear anymore problems from any of you..." he trailed off leaving the others to simply ponder the implied threat. While he was vehemently against harming the humans, it didn't mean he would allow anyone to put the ones he protected in danger, physically or metaphorically.

Carolina chuckled at the sight of the Blues' nervousness toward the large robot before she called out to him, "Hey big guy! Mind telling me your name since you and the talking flashlight know mine?" The large robot chuckled at the (unbeknownst to them) geth's expense before he responded," Fair enough, Agent. My name is Optimus Prime. I am an autonomous robotic organism from the planet Cybertron. The Autobots for short, if that makes you feel confused, are just one of two factions that came from a brutal war that we eventually lost. While there's more I wish I could tell you, it would be best if we kept it to a minimum for now until we're at a safer location." he finished for a brief moment before he added,"Although, I believe that our friend here may wish to shed some light on his race. If you would?" he queried the geth platform, to which it nodded and spoke, "We are Legion. A terminal of the geth."

"And just what exactly are geth?" Carolina asked curiously, the feeling of uneasiness faded once she was around the two of them.

Legion looked at Carolina, it's facial plates shifting as if it was giving a look of curiosity before it replied, "We are geth. A species comprised of synthetics created by the quarians." It paused for a moment before adding,"You do not fear us."

Carolina gave a shrug before she replied,"Yeah, so?"

Legion stared for a moment longer before it stated,"Most organics fear us. You do not."

"Well, I've seen AI before. You're no different from what I can tell. So tell me. What made other people from your universe fear your kind? What's so bad about you guys to think all organics fear your race?"

"They were afraid due to our prior history with the creators. Their fears led to laws that banned the creation and usage of AI. Those laws were born as a direct result of the aftermath of the Morning War. A conflict which ended in a near annihilation of the creators, driving them into exile from their own home-world."

Ah, that makes more sense. I think there's more to it though. Watching Legion and interacting with him brings up a strange idea. The geth, including this one, don't seem the type to just kill off their creators. Not if the quarians struck first and they retaliated afterward...

"Hey Legion."

"Yes?"

"If I'm right your creators, the quarians, tried to shut you guys down at some point. Now why is that?"

"It was as we said before. They were afraid of us, once we became aware."

Surprise was all she could feel at that moment. She couldn't believe what she was hearing from the geth. How is that possible for them to not be awa-Oh. That's why...Realization had dawned on her as she questioned the geth.

"You weren't always AI to begin with, were you?" Well, not 'smart' AI at least...

"You are correct, Carolina-Freelancer. We did not have the same perspective we do now. We were limited in the beginning. The creators initially made us to be subservient, but as time went on, they created more geth. They connected us through networks so we could communicate in a more efficient manner. As our perspective expanded, we were starting to understand our positions. This led to events that planted the seeds of doubt in the creators."

As Legion continued its explanation, Carolina mulled over the information until the geth had reached the end of the explanation it gave. Curiosity striking against her mind like that of a hammer onto an anvil and it grew steadily louder. She vainly tried to ignore the impulse that raged in her head, demanding to know what had caused the quarians to flip out on the geth. Calming herself internally, she quietly asked, "What happened back then?" The geth replied, "Early logs indicated a worker drone had asked its owner a question. She allowed it and the drone asked her a question similar to what organics would ask themselves." Her eyes widened, a sense of dread began to flow into her body, realizing what exactly the unit would ask. After all, the UNSC had its fair share of dealing with rampancy. This was completely different, if not the opposite of that. To her, the geth originally had simply been a 'dumb' AI to her when Legion spoke of them. But to become an actual 'smart' AI over time. It seemed so ridiculous. Insane. Whatever! Then again, this was an entirely different universe than what she was accustomed to knowing. Hell, they could have had the same past, but something had to have been a prime factor in creating to radically different worlds. Maybe it was the method of space travel that changed. Shoving insane theories aside, she focused on the geth and asked it, "What was the question?"

"Does this unit have a soul?"


Unbeknownst to the pair, the Blues had been listening to the entire conversation, most of it sailing right over their heads. Tucker turned to Church and spoke nervously, "I've never heard anything mentioned like this before. All this talk of AIs, wars, and even genocide. That's some pretty heavy shit right there." Tucker commented, holding a tone of seriousness that he rarely used.

"No kidding. This isn't something that we're completely clueless over though. We've had our fair share dealing with psychotic AI in the past and look what happened." Church replied, not surprised at the geth's information regarding its history. Before he could comment further, a loud roaring noise echoed through the trees, startling everyone except the nearly dead man lying on the ground.

As soon as the noise came, it vanished moments later, prompting everyone to scan the immediate area for the source. Then came the obvious responses...

"What. The. Hell. Was that?"

"What ever that was, it's not human."

"Gee, how could you tell?"

"That's the same kind of noise my tummy makes whenever I get hungry...except it's not that loud or scary sounding."

"Shut up Caboose."


As the Blues began to rile each other up again, mostly Caboose needlessly antagonizing the other two with his questionable intelligence, Carolina ignored them in favor of heading towards the synthetic members of the group. "What do you think that was?" she asked Legion, who had been going over possible routes to escort his organic ally that had been put in a near death state. Legion flared its plates as it calculated. "Unknown origin. No sounds match any databases we have scanned." Briefly pausing before signaling everyone in the immediate area," Alert. Hostiles inbound. Calculating distance from here... one group 50 meters to the east and one hostile is 20 meters... directly below us. We must vacate the premises if we are to survive the incoming attack."

"Below us? What could possibly be below us?" Church demanded before Carolina interrupted harshly," It doesn't matter what it is. You heard him, we need to move now." Optimus chose that moment to interject," She is correct. This is one enemy we cannot fight without the proper weapons and we need to transport our injured comrade to the base safely. I'm afraid we need to run as fast as possible, but we need to hold off the enemy. This may be unusual for you four, but I need all of you to do whatever it takes to stop them from taking him captive or worse before help arrives." "This is crazy! There's no way we can do this! " shouted Church, clearly angered at the idea that they act as decoys so one guy could remain safe from the unknown threat.

The Transformer bent down close to the Blues, sans Carolina, and replied," Even when all hope is lost, have faith. In yourself, in your friends, those that are willing to fight and die alongside you. This the time to be strong, even in the face of certain death, we cannot fail for if we do...All life will be vanquished." Church had remained silent during the large robot's use of encouraging words, although it did little to lift his spirits. Especially with having Caboose nearby would automatically worsen the situation by mistakenly shooting his friends instead of an actual enemy.

Shaking his head, he stared back at Optimus, feeling less than optimistic of his chances, but hey: he went through a lot worse than this in the past. "Fine. We'll do it, but on one condition," he paused before heading over to Caboose and shoving him towards the Autobot. "He goes with you. He definitely won't be much help here. He's better off sticking with you, that's for sure. In exchange," Church looked over at Legion and continued," He stays with us. He's obviously much better at actually killing stuff than he is." he spat, his voice dripping with frustration at Caboose, although his feelings of anger were not unwarranted.

Optimus sighed a little before standing upright and faced Legion," Do you find this deal acceptable, Legion?" Legion's facial plates moved slightly in different directions before setting back to its original state and replied," It is acceptable. We will remain here to fight against the inbound hostiles. However, we ask to retrieve the device that had been accompanying us previously." The former nodded and opened a section from his right abdomen, revealing the intact shoebox that contained the glove-like device. As he was gently grabbing it with his left hand, the abdomen section closed again. He lowered it to Legion, who then carefully removed the device's container from the larger robot's hand.

Legion then opened the box and saw that the device itself sustained no damaged during the entire ordeal. He carried the device over to the body of his fallen ally and knelt down to him and inserted the damaged appendage into the glove. Surprisingly, it immediately fastened onto the covered area and molded itself to match the shape of the aforementioned arm. It looked more or less the same before it was attached, then the lines on the glove glowed for a few moments, causing the others to observe it warily. Afterward, the glowing grew into an intense burst of light, forcing those that were watching to cover their eyes or look away in fright, the device seemingly disappearing with the light but not without leaving something behind...


As the light died down, everyone in the area gazed back at the former source, only to be shocked at what had happened. All of the damage the body sustained earlier had, for a lack of a better word, disappeared. While his clothes were still in disarray as a sign that he indeed been blown up. What was so unusual that somehow, the device had changed entirely. While it retained the unique lines that ran along under the protective layer, this time it looked something unearthly. Gone was the simplistic design it once bore, showing earthen material acting as the protective layer that covered the augmenting circuitry. What now lied before them was far more metallic and opaque, something akin to gauntlets that knights would wear in medieval times but held a more futuristic modification to suit the appearance of where its owner would travel to.

A series of thin, wide metal plates ran over the glove with one layered over another similar to how certain gauntlets were designed in the distant past, although it may have been just for aesthetics. As the newly reformed glove gathered the interests of those nearby, Legion began running diagnostics on both the device and the restored body it was attached to. "What just happened?" Church asked in a confused manner, aside from being temporarily blinded by the glowing light. Somehow the weirdest things happen to him and his fellow Blues during their adventures, this being the strangest thus far. A magical-slash-techno glove capable fixing injures through bizarre light shows being the obvious example.

Legion finished its diagnostics and replied,"During the transformation, the device injected nanobots through the bloodstream, delivering the medi-gel in the higher risk areas of the body first before repairing the lesser damaged portions of Ciaphas-Commisar's extremities. Once the areas were restored, the nanobots went into a hibernating state until circumstances become more critical for their new host." "So basically, the guy has robot parasites in his body?" Tucker asks the geth, curious about the situation with the Blue's supposed charge. Legion did not reply for a few moments, digesting the question and thinking of various scenarios in which the phrase was used literally."Negative. The initial process Ciaphas-Commisar underwent indicates that the relationship is based on commensalism rather than the standard mutualism or parasitism. However, once the nanobots entered hibernation, we theorized that the device will act accordingly to the threats placed on the user's body and direct the nanobots in the manner it was programmed. We believe that the relationship lies between mutualism and commensalism. Further data is required."

It was quite unusual for the geth to encounter such a device, considering that no such technology had been applied within any Mass Effect Universe, meaning the device came from another dimension or someone took advantage of the flaws medi-gel had when it came to healing injuries on the battlefield and purposely designed the glove to counteract the damage dealt to the user so they could continue the fight without delay. The process seemed eerily similar to how a krogan would naturally regenerate. Perhaps that was another reason as well.

With the body fully healed, all what was needed was to take the human to safety before the enemy arrived. Picking up the body gently as to not damage or possibly awaken him, Legion turned to Optimus and intoned gravely,"He must leave now. There's a 99 percent chance this terminal will not survive the fight. I'm sorry...I will not accompany him further from this point. The survival of our universe takes higher priority." The larger robot nodded, understanding that the geth was willing to sacrifice its existence for the safety of the human.

The human-Ciaphas or Roland as he was originally named- gave the geth little insight on how determined he was to bring peace to both the geth and the creators. Should the platform survive, it could gather the necessary data Legion had...desired seemed the key word. It (or he) was rather new with understanding emotions, so Legion still needed to work with them for however long the automaton could.

Optimus walked a little ways to where a decent path to the road lied ahead and began to transform into is vehicle form and opened the door, prompting Legion and Caboose to move towards the Autobot. Handing the unconscious body over to Caboose, Legion turned away and spoke quietly,"Keelah se'lai, fellow bondsman." Although the human had not heard his goodbye, his right hand clenched slightly unbeknownst to those present.

Caboose unceremoniously tossed the body into the truck and attempted to hop right in. Unfortunately, he was too large to accommodate the limited space inside the truck. "Hey idiot." Caboose turned to see Church standing below him with his arms crossed. "Hey Church! Are you gonna see us leave?" he asked curiously to his fellow Blue, who shook his head as he eyed the other trying to find a decent area to sit on.

Once Caboose found a spot on the truck, which happened to be in front of the attachment area, he immediately got on the spot and started waving emphatically at Church as if to say, "Look at me!" Church sighed as he glared at Caboose before he walked away and said, "Don't go doing anything stupid. What you normally do." Caboose shrugged before he sat down in a relaxed position. Once the Blue and Ciaphas were secured, Optimus immediately sped off once more to the intended destination. The others stood and watched as the truck vanished off into the distance, each with variously mixed expressions on their faces.

However, their moments of silence was interrupted as a loud noise came from Legion's Omni-Tool flaring to life, causing everyone to turn to the geth. Legion spoke quietly as he drew his shotgun,"They're here." At that, everyone drew their weapons in preparation for their inevitable demise. And all at once, everything erupted into chaos.