He needed a change of scenery and the invitation to accompany Trent DeMarco to Warehouse 13 was something Lennox didn't decline. Getting away from the base, from the mechs, even from his bonded, might be drastic, but it helped in settling him time and again. Lennox also needed something else to do. He was military, even now, but he wasn't on active duty. His days had no clear plans. He had no meetings, no training units, nothing at all to attend, aside from the occasional conference call for the Primes. And even that didn't give him any kind of regularity.
So the Warehouse was very tempting, especially since the task to categorize the artifacts according to Allspark or Cybertronian influence was more than just a day assignment. This meant weeks, months, maybe more. Trent, with his background as a first rate logistician, had become a permanent fixture at the Warehouse and while he couldn't communicate with Thirteen, he made a lot of headway concerning the inventory of the gigantic, seemingly endless building. Arthur Nielsen, the senior agent and boss of the others, had grudgingly accepted the soldier in their midst, though he still acted gruff and mostly unfriendly around him. Claudia in turn had adopted Trent and given him a big tour through the building. It was Claudia who also worked with him most of the time.
Lennox's arrival was greeted by suspicious looks from Artie and a careful approach by Claudia. She quickly warmed to him when it became clear that Will reacted with varying intensity to some of the artifacts. The runes had her run for some kind of device that looked like oversized spectacles with differently colored lenses, and then study what was crawling over the lightly tanned skin.
"Rad!" she exclaimed after a while.
Will chuckled. "One way of putting it."
Even Nielsen was gazing at him with a curious expression. The other two agents, Bering and Lattimer, were on assignment.
Stepping out onto the balcony that gave him the best view into the cavernous room, the hybrid let everything settle on him. The size, the sheer number of rows upon rows, the knowledge that this was the largest collection of artifacts that had been influenced by Cybertronian tech outside of Sector Seven archives, and the feeling of 'something'. Runes rose to the surface and swirled over his skin.
"May I?" Will asked, gesturing at the vastness before him.
Artie frowned. "Don't touch anything," he only said.
Claudia scowled. "Don't take him too seriously. He's protective of the Warehouse. And you've got clearance."
They both were protective, Lennox noted, just in different ways. Now especially since they knew that the building was actually sentient and aware, though unable to interact or prevent any kind of accident from happening. Artie had been with the organization for decades and Claudia was the self-proclaimed 'next generation'. She loved this place and Will could see it in her every move and hear it in her words.
Lennox walked into the maze of shelves, heading nowhere specific, just… going. This was more like a town inside a mountain than a warehouse. You would need days to reach the other end on foot. Some shelves were too close together for a car to pass between them, but others had enough distance and seemed to function like main roads. He had seen a map that gave the rows street names, quadrants and places, just like a city. Some mechs would be able to walk easily in here. All of them would have no problem standing upright – unless they got tangled in the power lines.
He went past a house – full size, not a doll house – a helicopter that sizzled and sparked as he came near, several motor vehicles, and even a good-sized cruise ship. Will wondered how it had ended up in here and why. All artifacts were here for a reason, because of their influence on humanity or the environment. They all had residual energy that sparked to life at the wrong moment. Some were malevolent, some more benign, but all took something out of the user or the owner.
When he stopped in front of a door that said 'Dark Vault' he felt something almost push him along. The whole area was creepy, like in a very well executed horror movie, and the heavy duty security door told him that this was a dangerous place.
Will let Thirteen guide him on, curious as to how far the contact would go. It was like a stroll through a deserted town. He knew the history of the Warehouses, from 1 to the current one, number 13. He knew why they had come into existence. He just wondered where artifacts had been stored before the first one had been established. Probably with spiritual guides, churches or something close to that. Mystical events described in legends and stories mostly came back to an artifact. Every time a Warehouse was destroyed or closed down, hidden from humanity, the artifacts inside were lost with it. Some were transferred when the close-down procedure was a controlled one, but that had been rare.
He stopped at an intersection between rows, gazing at the ceiling very far above. In the distance he saw a silver cylindrical object. An airship. Lennox didn't have Sam's sensitivity for another mind, but he knew there was something here. Set apart from the wiring of the computer system that ran the Warehouse's basic functions, its security and the computers, was a presence. It had always been there.
"Hello," he said quietly.
The presence was closer, but he heard no words.
"Thanks for letting me wander."
There was no reply. Will hadn't expected one. Instead he looked around and discovered what looked like an old wooden box. He approached it and when he didn't get a wordless warning, he sat down. It contained nothing and there was no warning label. It was a simple box. Closing his eyes he tried to get a sense of the being running the Warehouse in the background, but there was nothing but the sounds he had heard before. A subtle humming from the electricity and the occasional sizzle of an artifact.
"You can hear me, right?" he asked.
The presence seemed to increase.
"You can see me."
Another brief increase.
"Any way we could talk?"
Above him something creaked and there was a new sizzle. It sounded like the building was settling down, an ominous groan echoing through the cavern.
"You can't control anything here, right?"
There was a slightly heavy feeling on his right side.
"That means no?"
Now the feeling was on his left side.
Lennox smiled. "Let's try this again. This is Warehouse 13?"
Left side. So left meant 'yes'.
"Hello, Thirteen. I'm Will Lennox. My Cybertronian name is Avatar Prime."
Left side, brief brush over his body.
"Do you mind me sitting here for a while?"
Right side. No.
"I know Sam can speak to you and he probably asked you already, but is there a way to see your central processor?"
Right side. No.
"You're everywhere?"
Left side. Yes.
Weird. Mechs had a spark and a processor. Thirteen wasn't a normal Cybertronian and because of it general rules couldn't be applied. But the programming had to be somewhere. The heart and soul had to be here; somewhere.
"Are you within the artifacts?"
Right side. No.
"Are you an artifact?"
Right side. No.
"Is there a safe place for me to touch a part of the wall?"
There was nothing, like Thirteen was mulling it over, then a gentle brush and Will got up. He followed the touch only he could feel and after a while he reached a massive support pillar. When he placed his hand onto the metal the runes flared to the surface and Lennox's eyes widened at the rush of energy that coursed through him.
Whoa! Sam hadn't told him about the strength of the presence, nor had it felt like Thirteen could have such an impact. Geez!
So much for a watered down version!
Blinking, Will looked at the ceiling so far above and almost laughed as he saw lines of energy snaking across what looked like an old shed roof with corrugated metal, steel and wooden beams. There was a network of lines, veins, pulsing. They ran toward different areas, intersecting, forming knots. Some crawled down the support structure underneath, some formed thick clusters over the areas Thirteen had steered him away from. And everywhere in the space around him, thick clouds of energy hovered, absorbing whatever the artifacts exuded.
"You live off the energy fields," Will whispered.
Left side. Yes.
"And when the Warehouse collapses, the energy restarts you the moment a new Warehouse is built?"
Left side, right side. Indecision. Thirteen wasn't sure what happened after it ceased to exist. Since Two still existed, it wasn't just a rebirth. It was a paste-and-copy effect.
More runes coalesced at his fingers and they seemed to explore the contact of skin against metal like burned-golden ants crawling over an interesting meal.
Suddenly one of the energy lines detached itself from the net above and whisked toward him. There was a moment of hesitation and when Will didn't pull back, the line touched him.
In a split second he was rushed through a history of Thirteen and he almost laughed at the child-like enthusiasm he sensed. Thirteen loved its agents, wanted the humans to be with it, and it had a great fondness of Claudia Donovan. Apparently she was the stand-in and Caretaker-in-waiting. It loved its current Caretaker and it was sad about every agent lost within the decades it had existed. But it was also delighted in meeting someone it could talk to: Sam Witwicky. And now Will.
"My pleasure," Will said softly, smiling.
Thirteen echoed the sentiment.
It pulled back a little, like making an invitation, and Will followed. In the mind-scape that was now shared by Thirteen he was easily walking among the almost holographic appearing shelves. Deeper and deeper, without any effort, he explored. When he was shown the Quarantine Area he understood that he wasn't physically there. Thirteen was using the connection to give him a rough idea of the important spots and their meaning. Like the Dark Vault and the Bronze Sector. The surrounding shelves were dangerous as well, but in this state he could look and remain unaffected.
And Lennox understood just what kind of a dangerous powder keg this was. He understood that the security measures were varied and extreme. He understood they were necessary. And he understood that should the Warehouse need to be shut down, nothing could stop that process. Centuries of warehouses had shown that the death of an agent or civilian was acceptable under these circumstances.
"Mr. Lennox."
Will jumped and lost the connection, whirling to face a woman of undefined age. Dark-skinned, glasses, hair pulled back in an elaborate bun, Mrs. Irene Frederic looked at the hybrid with a fine smile.
"Welcome to the Warehouse, Mr. Lennox."
"Thank you."
He wondered how she had come here without him noticing. Sure, he had been absorbed in the tentative connection to Thirteen, but she had apparently just popped up.
"I see you are getting acquainted with the layout."
"Kinda. I didn't want to intrude… in case…" Will made a general gesture.
Mrs. Frederic smiled slightly. "No intrusion, Mr. Lennox. I'm both fascinated and slightly terrified by your ability to connect to something I wasn't even aware of being an entity."
Will looked into the intense, dark eyes. Mrs. Frederic had been the Caretaker for a lot longer than he could imagine, but like all her predecessors in all the other Warehouses, she had never known what she was bonded to. And Thirteen was unable to use that bond to communicate.
"I won't hurt what you have with Thirteen. Neither will Sam. The Warehouse, the artifacts… it's something that alarms us, too. In a different way. Sam and I are trying to understand where the entities came from, who the original being was, how they work since there doesn't seem to be a spark or a central processing unit. And how they can bond with a human and stop your aging process."
Mrs. Frederic inclined her head. "The answers would be interesting to the Regents as well."
"And you?"
She smiled. "Yes."
"Would you want to be aware of Thirteen?" Lennox probed carefully.
The woman was silent, her eyes briefly roaming over the warehouse area they were in. "I don't know what it would mean, Mr. Lennox, so I can't answer truthfully."
Will nodded.
"You are bonded," she stated.
"Yes."
"Would you see it as a bad thing, Mr. Lennox?"
The hybrid smiled briefly. "Twenty years ago I was freaking out now and then. It wasn't a sudden occurrence, more like a slow process, and I can see the one I'm bonded to. We can talk. Today I see it as normal."
"Normal changed rather long ago," she said and gazed at the Warehouse ceiling. "Walk with me?"
He did. Down an aisle, following her lead. Mrs. Frederic moved like she knew every pebble in this place. She probably did. She had been here since the earliest days.
"The bond created between me and the Warehouse is very different from yours. We both show the same effects. Unlike you, I'm replaceable and have to be replaced for the Warehouse to continue existing. The semi-organic nature of this place demands it."
"You volunteered?"
"I didn't know what it entailed. You can't unless you fulfill the bond." Another brief smile. "I knew it was a commitment, though. One that excluded everything else."
"Thirteen appreciates you."
"It said so?"
"To Sam. In those words."
She was silent for a long time as they navigated the rows and aisles.
"This is my life, Mr. Lennox. This Warehouse, its existence, its protection, and the agents hired to gather the artifacts. Unlike them, I never change."
"You chose it."
"Yes."
"What if you had said no? Would there have been someone else?"
Mrs. Frederic stopped beside an innocent looking wardrobe. "There might have been."
"What about your future? Worst case scenario?"
"It was close already once. A solution was found." She turned and walked on and Will followed, feeling the soft brush of Thirteen's presence.
They walked in silence for a while. Lennox looked over the shelves, surprised at some things, puzzling over others.
"I hope my trust in you and your colleagues is not misplaced."
Lennox watched her, saw the tension in her frame, and he met the even look with a neutral one of his own.
"We won't harm the Warehouse or take this away from you, Mrs. Frederic," he said calmly.
"You can make this promise." It wasn't even half a question.
"Yes," he still answered. "I can."
And he could. He was a Prime. It was in his power.
"Think about your words, Mr. Lennox," the Caretaker said. "The Warehouse has been in existence a lot longer than this alliance of yours. I protect this place. With everything at my disposal."
"I understand. So will I."
She silently looked at him for a very long time. "It trusts you." Another half-statement.
"Yes."
"So I should trust you, too."
"That is completely up to you."
She inclined her head. "It is." Mrs. Frederic walked on.
When Will turned the corner she had just taken, he found nothing but an empty aisle. Puzzled, he stopped and looked around. Not a sign of the Caretaker. He didn't even hear any steps.
Weird.
"Mrs. Frederic?" he called.
But he was alone.
"Cool trick," Will muttered.
tbc...##