A/N: Writer's block oh how I loathe thee. I wanted to get this done an posted by Friday, but, as you can tell, it didn't happen that way. I couldn't figure out what to write at one point and then I got distracted by my muse demanding I start work on one of my future stories and it wanting to create cat icons of some of the bots, which you can see on my deviantart, which is linked to on my profile. So, I got icons and the start of one of the future stories and now, finally, this update. I won't be posting the new story's beginning anytime soon though, as I am not posting anything aside for updates for AWA, IAPA, YWOB and this story until I get at least one of them completed. Just so you know.
Anyway, now that I've finally got the chapter done, enjoy! After the remainder of my author's note anyway…
Scripture of the Update:
"Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness delivers from death. The Lord will not allow the righteous soul to famish, but he casts away the desire of the wicked." ~Proverbs 10:2-3 New King James Version
Author's Replies:
Top Kicker: Thanks! :D Glad you like it.
Mikaela the Cat: Yeah…I would only trust…Ratchet! Lol. I don't trust other medics…
Sci-Fifan95: Yup! Lol. I figured it'd be a good idea and give a better insight on why the war started in the first place. Glad you liked it! :)
Luna Uchiha666: Haha! The woes of being a girl. Glad you liked it! :)
soundwavesfangirl250: chpt3- I agree. I don't get why people hate, especially if they call themselves Christians. Jesus says we should love even our enemies. :| Mexico! I've heard various opinions of the place… chpt5- Sorry?
Foresthunter: Glad you like it. :D
Vivian Hale: Indeed. Lol. The vote, however, at this point is pointing toward another RatchetxOC story. ^.^' Glad you like it. :) Indeed.
KayleeChiara: Glad you liked it. :)
Oh! Yeah! I almost forgot until I typed my response I had for Viv's review. The poll! The poll I have up for this I am going to keep up until my next update of this story. That means another round of updating between now and when it is closed. The current results are as follows:
Transform or No?
Yes- 20
No- 2
Paired?
Ratchet- 10
Jazz- 5
Wheeljack- 3
Nobody- 2
Sunstreaker- 1
Other- 1(whoever voted this one, could you please inform me who you had in mind?)
Sideswipe- 0
So there you have it. At this rate, Mina will become Cybertronian eventually in the story. The pairing vote has Ratchet winning and Jazz has half the number of votes as he does. Wheeljack comes in third, followed by Nobody, followed by Sunstreaker and Unknown, and Sideswipe is last with zero votes. I would've thought Sides would've gotten more votes than Sunny, but oh well.
As I said, the vote is open till chapter 7 is up for this story. So any of you who has yet to vote, please put in your votes!
And now! On with the story!
Chapter 6: The Start of…Something
Journal Entry #39 Friends
Friend.
A word only few had ever been referred to as by me. I did not let myself get close to anyone easily. But Orion and Jazz had proven to me that they would not harm me even before we could communicate well. That had been enough that I hadn't labeled them as enemies.
Now we could talk and over the past couple days, that's all we did when in each other's presence. Either I would tell them stories from Earth about different things, keeping them happy things, or they would tell me more about what was going on here. Orion told me things he had learned from his long time working in the Hall of Records. Apparently, Cybertron wasn't always the way it was now. It was once a much better place.
Ratchet had even came by, ignoring the odd looks the others in the apartment complex gave him, to check on me. Apparently he was still concerned about that thing I told him about. I repeated that it was nothing to worry about and that I was fine beside mild discomfort. He then hung around to listen to me retell a day of craziness with my high school friends when we were at a flag competition and then comment how I missed the carefree days that I had oh so rarely.
By now I had decided that at least Orion and Jazz were my friends. The others were still up in the air.
~Mina Castina
I looked up and sighed at the sight before me as I placed my notebook and writing utensil down. I crossed my arms and tilted my head in contemplation. Orion, seemingly quite preoccupied with something, had ended up working on his data pad wordlessly as I drew in my sketchpad. He would've forgotten his Energon had I not asked him about it. He did, however, forget to move to his room before falling into recharge, which is what they called sleep. He hadn't even finished the Energon before he fell into a deep slumber of which I couldn't wake him up from. So now I was left with an oversleeping mech at the desk instead of the usual, ready to go by now mech.
Shaking my head, I walked to the mech and poked his head.
"Orion," I said. "Time to wake up." I poked him again.
I got no response. Not even a twitch from the mech.
I frowned, putting my hands on my hips. "Hmm," I wondered. "How does one wake up a fifty-foot tall being of metal?"
I stood there on the desk, thinking for a moment as I looked over the mech. I noticed some exposed wires and cables in his neck that I could probably reach. If their anatomy was anything even remotely similar to humans, those cables and wires might just be sensitive. Maybe if I poked one of those instead of his well armored head or forearms. Sighing, I walked a bit closer, climbed up his limp forearm so I could reach, reached over and poked one of the large cables and braced myself in case it worked.
"…" I glared when it did absolutely nothing. Well, it didn't quite do nothing, he did twitch and roll his head to its other side.
I sighed and shook my head. "Why is it I'm always stuck waking up the heavy sleepers?" I asked myself. "Next thing I know he'll mumble that he'll kill me in his sleep and then wake up to find me missing cause I went and hid in the hole. And then he'll apologize later." I sighed, shaking my head. I knew that was an unlikely series of events.
That didn't solve my problem though. Well, it was more his problem than mine, but he was officially a friend now, so his problems became my problems by default. There had to be some way to wake him up. If I had my laptop back from Wheeljack I would be able to create what would hopefully be a loud enough noise to wake him like that, but I knew I couldn't yell that loud. I was a quiet person. Yelling was not one of my strong suites.
"Dilemma dilemma," I sighed, resting my head in my hand where I stood precariously on Orion's forearm. I shrugged and decided I might as well try yelling and sucked in as much air as my poor lungs could hold, ignoring the slight pain in my chest. "HEY!" I yelled as loud as I could muster.
I decided I should've gotten off his arm before trying that. It worked, but the only thing that saved me from going splat on the floor was a combination of my quick reflexes and his quick reflexes. I reached out and grabbed a finger of his hand that had darted to catch me, but only barely missed and I was left dangling from his finger until he moved me over the desk and I was able to let go. Not bad for a couple of beings who sat in a chair all solar cycle.
"Minah?" Orion asked. "What are you doing?"
"Waking you up," I said with slight irritation. "You are usually out the door by now. And you haven't even drank your morning Energon. Not to mention you still have half a cube from last night left unfinished." I pointed to said half empty cube.
"Oh sl…scrap," Orion said, almost letting out one of those Cybertronian curses when he realized what I said was true. He grabbed the half empty cube and downed it before he began gathering the data pads he had been working on and putting them in his subspace.
"Wait!" I said when he started to move away.
He sighed when he stopped. "Minah, I must get to the Hall of Records," he said.
"I want to go with you," I said. "Something's up and I want to know what. I may have not known you long, but I know you're not one to fall asleep at the desk on a regular basis."
"You're not going, someone could see you," Orion said.
I could've face-palmed. Really? "Orion, I am perfectly capable of remaining out of sight," I said. "I can't just sit here on my butt all day when you're so obviously worried about something."
"You don't need to worry about it," Orion said. "We'll find a way to send you home and you will have no reason to worry about what happens here."
"No reason? Really?" I asked, raising my eyebrows at him. "Then what are you and Jazz, chopped liver?"
He gave me an odd look. "What does a human organ have to do with this matter?" he asked.
I face-palmed this time. "Figure of speech," I said. "I'm saying you and Jazz, and the others that I've met even, are reason enough for me to worry. You are my friend. By default, that means your problems are my problems too."
"Regardless," Orion said. "It is safer for you if you remain here and don't get involved. If one of my fellow Data Clerks saw you, they wouldn't be so quick to keep their mouths shut to the higher ups."
"I'm good at keeping out of sight!" I protested.
"The answer is no," Orion said, his tone leaving no room for any further argument.
I sighed. "Fine, I'll see you later then," I said. "But I still want to know what has you so worried!"
Orion sighed. "Later. Now, I must go to work," he said. He reached over and rubbed the top of my head with a finger. "Stay out of trouble."
"You too," I said. "And tell Alpha Trion that I said 'hi' for me."
Orion chuckled and then he left, leaving me alone to my own devices. Sighing, I sat down with my sketchpad and a pencil and worked on a drawing I had been working on for the past couple of cycles.
~Later, Normal PoV~
Orion's station at the Hall of Records was on the eighteenth floor and third from the northwest corner where he was lucky enough to have a window and a nice cool breeze, along with a nice view of the lights of Iacon. It was from there that he listened to transmissions and filed them away in the appropriate places. And it was from there that he had been picking up the transmissions from Kaon and Slaughter City that were surprisingly philosophical.
Kaon and the Badlands that stretched between it and the Hydrax Plateau were where the materials that drove Cybertronian civilization was both mined and refined. Kaon was also home to the gladiator pits, a place of illegal fighting and death. The High Council turned a blind optic to the illegal pits and to the deaths of the bots in them. They would do so as long as the Badlands continued to fuel the rest of Cybertron.
As Orion listened to the latest transmission from Megatronus, he wondered how long that would continue.
"Are Cybertronians not all made of the same materials? My alloys are the same as those in the frame of a High Councilor; my lubricants are the same as the ones that lubricated the joints of the Thirteen themselves!" Megatronus said, his voice scraped and rasped like one of the machines in the factories of Kaon.
Orion had to admit, that the gladiator brought up a good point. He looked around at his fellow Cybertronians in his caste. They would all spend their careers monitoring and cataloging, simply because they were told to. It had been that way since long before Orion Pax was created. Yet, they were made of the same materials as the High Council members. What reasoning had gone into choosing the jobs of mechs and femmes?
"We are individuals! Once we were free!" Megatronus's voice sounded in Orion's helm.
Orion briefly thought about what his fellow data clerks would do if they were hearing this speech instead of him. They would likely report him to the High Council, who would then likely put a stop to Megatronus's transmissions.
"Soundwave, you and Shockwave will carry on my work if I disappear," Megatron said. "You are my trusted lieutenants."
"Lieutenants?" a second voice piped up. "Are you now the general of an army?"
Orion paused. He had not yet heard this voice before. A peruse of his index he kept proved it, this was a new bot to the conversations. It was neither Shockwave nor Soundwave, for he had records of them, as he had for everybot that he heard in these transmissions. He kept careful track of Megatronus's associates. So who was this new voice?
It was not part of Orion's job to investigate, that was a different caste. What he could do, however, was go to Alpha Trion for advice and guidance. He sampled the new voice and set to work on a report for Alpha Trion. Alpha Trion was his mentor and friend, but he couldn't present himself to him during work without a good reason and without being prepared.
~Meanwhile, Mina's PoV~
I whistled randomly as I worked on my drawing. It was too quiet in my opinion, hence the whistling in an attempt to ignore the quiet. It wasn't any quieter than it usually was when Orion was gone, but I had a feeling that things weren't going to be peaceful for a whole lot longer. It was just a feeling and it could simply be that the silence was starting to get to me, but it made me nervous nonetheless. I had wanted to go with Orion to try to learn what had him so concerned and also to distract me from my feeling of unease. Granted, the feeling stemmed from the fact something was bothering my friend, but trying to get to the bottom of it would've helped me find my own kind of peace.
"You can't have peace without having all the pieces of the puzzle," a friend of mine had once said.
My puzzle was far from complete. I had so many different questions it wasn't funny. What was that odd light that I saw just before arriving here? What brought me here? Why was I here? What had Orion so troubled? Who was this Megatronus guy I heard him and Jazz talk about before? What's going on back home? Are they searching for me or have I been declared dead? Will I ever see my family again? How is my cat fairing without me? What's going to happen next?
My old puzzle is just gone, I thought to myself. Replaced with this new, incomplete one. Of course, I knew what my old friend would say to that.
"Then wait for God to fill in the holes," they would say. "Just make sure you use the answers you find correctly."
I shook my head of my thoughts. How was I supposed to know the correct way to use the answers? Especially when I was so small…I growled a little at the thought as I drew the final line in my picture.
"I'm not small! I'm fun-sized!"
I couldn't help but snort at the thought as I shook my head. It would figure that the thought would lead to hearing my high school friend's words in my head. She had said that every time someone called her small ever since we saw a picture of Yoda from Star Wars that said "Yoda isn't small, he is fun-sized" on it.
I shook my head again. "I sure do have random thoughts when it's too quiet," I said to myself.
I looked at my now completely drawn picture that now only needed to be inked and colored. It was a drawing of all of the bots I had met so far and myself. I was standing on a desk in front, looking up at the mechs with a look of wonder on my face, though it was hard to tell since my back was to the front of the picture. The mech right in front of me was Orion and to his right was Jazz and his left was Alpha Trion. Beside Jazz was Wheeljack, who had Ariel on his other side. On the other side of Alpha Trion was Ratchet. All the bots were either grinning, smiling or looking at me in curiosity. Wheeljack had some ash on him from a recent explosion, reminiscent of what he looked like when I first met him.
The picture wasn't perfect, obviously I hadn't had much practice drawing giant alien robots, or a human as small as I had to draw myself so that scale was right. But it was good enough for a first try. I had done a lot of erasing to get it to look as good as it did.
After being satisfied that at this point in time I wouldn't get it to look any better than it already did, I set my pencil down and picked up my pen. I then started going over the lines with my pen, being careful not to stray from the marked lines and not to mess up the drawing. With pen, there were no second chances. It was either do it well or face a not-as-good picture. Hence, the reason why I always drew pictures in pencil first before going over them with pen.
I was just finishing the inking job when Orion finally returned from the Hall of Records. I looked up from my work as he entered and watched as he walked over to the Energon dispenser before getting a cube and filling it with the substance. He then sat down at the desk and sipped his Energon, looking thoughtful.
"Hey OP," I said.
Orion jerked a little. He must've been deep in thought. "Hello, Minah," he said, nodding his head in my direction. He saw my sketch pad. "What are you working on?"
"A picture," I said. I looked down at it with slight frustration. "It is not the greatest I've ever done, but I don't really have practice drawing giant mechanical beings."
Orion chuckled at that. "May I see it?" he asked, looking curious.
I closed my sketchpad, hiding my work. "It is not done yet," I said. "I have this thing where I don't like showing people uncompleted works, it is nothing against you. But you may see it once it is completed. All that's left really is to color it…with what remains of my colored pencils."
"Perhaps we could see if Wheeljack could create more for you," Orion said, his optics flashing briefly to my ever shrinking pencils.
"I don't really see Wheeljack making something like this," I said, holding up my practically gone purple pencil.
"Hmm," Orion said, taking a sip of his Energon. "He may. We do not know him well enough to know what he would or wouldn't make."
"True," I said, setting the pencil back in my colored pencil box. I looked up at Orion. "So, are you going to tell me what's been bugging you now? Maybe I could give some good outside advice." I shifted so that my legs were crossed in front of me where I sat and folded my hands in my lap.
Orion sighed, probably still thinking I shouldn't be worried about it. "It's these transmissions I have been picking up while monitoring the air waves," he said.
I stared at him a few seconds, the words 'big brother is watching' running through my head for some reason. I figured it was just because my mom used to say that whenever the topic of telephone calls being monitored came up. I blinked and shook the thought out of my head.
"What kind of transmissions?" I asked, my tone both wary and curious.
"They are from a mech who calls himself Megatronus," Orion said. "He is a gladiator in Kaon and, like all them, he began without a name."
"A gladiator? Reminds me of ancient Rome, at least I think it was the Romans…" I said, looking thoughtful. I blinked, noticing Orion's look and sighed. "Nevermind. Please continue. What are these transmissions about?"
Orion shook his head at me. "In one of his most recent transmissions he was talking about how all of us Cybertronians are made from the same alloys and have the same lubricants," he said, then he paused and looked at me.
I nodded. "I understand," I said. "You are all made of the same kind of stuff."
Orion nodded. "He was talking about how even though we are all made from the same materials, we do not all have the freedom that the higher castes do and he referenced the time when Cybertronians were free to make their own decisions," he said.
"It's starting to sound like he wants a revolution," I observed.
"He has referred to two of his followers as his lieutenants," Orion said.
"Hmm," I hummed thoughtfully. "Definitely sounds like he's prepared to go to war for what he wants. Do you know anything else?"
"Alpha Trion has discovered a bit more than I have," Orion said. "Megatronus did not start out planning a revolution, but by taking out the gangs who run the gladiator pits in Kaon and Slaughter City."
"Slaughter City?" I asked, looking incredulous. "That sounds like a place you go to die."
Orion blinked at my observation.
"It does," I said, shrugging. "Sorry, I observe the most random things at times and it is way too quiet here when you are away for me. I am not used to silence. It makes me nervous."
"I apologize," Orion said, reaching over and rubbing my back gently with a finger. "I did not mean for you be nervous."
"It is fine," I said, sighing. "I will just have to get used to it. Anyways, you were explaining what Trion found out?"
"Yes," Orion said and taking his hand away from me. "This Megatronus wants to restore Cybertron to its former greatness, saying this and taking his when he took down one of the low-level crime bosses. He appears to have gathered quite a following as well."
"Hmm," I said. "What does Trion have to say about all of this?" I waved a hand in front of me, not thinking about the fact Orion would have no idea what the gesture meant.
"He says it's the fruit of discouraging ambition," Orion said. "We live in a certain world and few imagine what it would be like to live in another."
"It's the fruit of it alright," I said, sighing. "When you discourage people from doing what they want, after so long someone will stand against it all."
"Alpha Trion says that some still remember a time when things were different and what other worlds were like," Orion said. "He said some are still foolish enough to wish that we might live in such a world again."
I smiled. "Dreams," I said. "No matter how things go, there will always be dreamers. Have you ever wondered what other worlds were like?"
Orion looked at me briefly. "I was…curious," he said.
"Only curious?" I asked, my eyes widening. "Oh man, I used to dream about seeing worlds other than my home, meeting aliens and going on cool adventures through the stars. Growing up I wanted to be those people I saw in movies who literally lived among the stars and explored the unknown reaches of space. Of course, human technology is nowhere near advanced enough for that kind of thing, so it was a dream I never thought would ever happen. And now I'm here." I blinked and looked up at Orion.
Orion chuckled at my excitement while I explained my old dreams. "Looks like you got your dream," he said.
"Yeah, though I wish it didn't seem like you guys are in for a rough ride," I said, making a face.
"What do you mean?" Orion asked, looking concerned and curious.
"You said Megatronus called a couple of his followers lieutenants, right?" I asked and he nodded. "That's a military rank," I pointed out. "It sounds like he's gathering an army. I don't about Cybertron's history, but from what I know of Earth's, whenever a random upstart gathers a lot of followers, a battle breaks out, though it is not always the intention of the person or their fault entirely. From what I hear from you so far, this Megatronus wants freedom for the Cybertronian race. If that's true, it is a cause worth fighting for."
"You doubt it is really what he wants," Orion observed from my tone.
"I'm saying, sometimes things aren't always as they seem," I said, shaking my head and holding my hands out helplessly. "And we do not yet know what his methods to reach his goals are. In the end, only time will tell."
Orion nodded. "I will continue monitoring his transmissions," he said. "In the meantime, let me ask you something."
"Fire away," I said.
"You said something about a 'Rome'?" he sounded so curious that the statement sounded more like a question.
I smiled. "Earth history, my friend," I said. "There's a city back on Earth called Rome. It's different now than it was in the time I mentioned when I absently made a side note out loud earlier. But a very, very long time ago, well, a long time for us humans anyways, the Romans, that is, people who lived in Rome, had gladiatorial arenas. People fought and died in those arenas because they didn't have a choice. The gladiators were slaves to the Roman government."
"Is it still the same way?" Orion asked.
I shook my head. "No," I said. "For one thing, slavery is illegal all over the world now. And Rome is also no longer an empire as it was back in those days. It is now the capital city of the country of Italy."
"Country?" Orion asked.
"Yeah," I said. "Unlike Cybertron, Earth isn't just one big planet. Earth is seventy percent covered in water and what isn't water is land. There are seven continents, which have different countries in them, which have different states or regions in them, which have cities in them. There are some cities that share the same name as other cities, so usually one would have to clarify which one you are talking about. Someone told me once they were from London and I thought they were from half way around the world, but as it turned out they were talking about a London that was in the state I lived in." I shook my head, remembering how confuse I had been cause I had never known that before then.
"That could get confusing," Orion observed.
"I was so confused when I learned there was a city named London in Ohio," I said, shaking my head. "I had always thought there was only one London and it was the capital of Britain. I was never very good at that part of history class to begin with." I rubbed my head sheepishly.
Orion chuckled. "I see," he said.
Journal Entry #40 Developments
Things develop, that's all there is to it.
It's hard to tell how long whatever is going to happen has been developing, but I knew something was developing. And I had a feeling I landed with a bot that was going to be very involved in the coming…whatever it was.
Orion told me more about what this Megatronus said in his transmissions as we continued our evening chat and I told him more about Earth, well, about what I knew about Earth. Living on a planet for twenty years didn't equal knowing everything about said planet. Orion couldn't tell me every detail of Cybertron either as he had never been outside of Iacon.
Jazz and Aerial both popped in for a visit as well and I immediately noticed that Orion seemed to be taking an interest in Aerial, though he hid it well. While Aerial herself didn't notice, Jazz and I both noticed him staring at her when she had her back turned to him when she was talking to me.
What do you know? There is a such thing as love at first sight. Well, maybe it's just a crush at this point, but it was enough for me and Jazz to whisper to each other that maybe someday we'd see a mini-OP or a mini-Aerial running around. Not that either of them seemed to be aware of any of it. But we knew before that could happen, something needed to change.
~Mina Castina