every mech or femme speaking in bold is speaking through the comlinks
It had been four long days of journey, finally this was the last day, they had let her out whenever she asked, either to eat or to go the bathroom, or even to stretch her legs, and as consequence they drove at very high speeds during the night, something that although she enjoyed wouldn't let her sleep, so day time was best for that.
She got to know them a lot more, who were they, and what kind of things they liked or did for fun, they still avoided the war and fighting subject as much as possible though so she didn't even know what they did . She had her suspicions though, Bumblebee had the strong characteristics of a spy, always alert for being found out and indicating better ways to pass by unnoticed, to which the twins complained quite frequently, blur, although she wasn't sure what he did exactly, was certainly the type of mech you'd need to get somewhere fast without getting caught, sneakiness wasn't his best talent so she suspected he was either a recon mech or a messenger, maybe an intel officer since he was so quiet.
The twins…well you didn't need much to guess they were front of the lines type of warriors, and they obviously worked as a pair.
She was currently in sideswipe, which seemed the most interested in sharing conversations lately, not that Bumblebee wasn't fun, she absolutely loved talking to the bot, but sideswipe knew less of humans and she knew less of cybertronians than bee's charge, so they were trading information.
It was night time and they were estimating 20 minutes until they arrived at their supposed base, she was getting a bit nervous about it, they told her a lot about the autobots at the base and from their descriptions they weren't the easiest personalities to deal with, an intimidating but kind leader, to which they heartedly insisted she showed respect, then there was a trigger happy mech, old warrior according to them, not to be messed with unless you knew you could get away with it, and third a grouchy old medic with a thing to throw wrenches right after he fixed them, but she had a slight suspicion that was mostly sideswipe and sunstreaker since they had gone into a heated conversation when talking about him.
"Relax….we're right with ya" that did nothing to stop her nerves and she was fidgeting with her fingers, something that seemed to bother the red mech quite a lot.
"What am I supposed to do when we get there though?" she asked expectantly at his dashboard.
"Nothing, we'll handle it, you just have to agree not to talk about us to anyone and that you understand the circumstances involving any cybertronian, either be it autobot or decepticon."
"But what if they start making questions?"
"You got something to hide?" he asked playfully, to which she snorted and looked away through his window.
A few minutes later though a deep but soft voice spoke through the radio, it was the first time she heard it, but it was extremely interesting, it transmitted something…
"Bumblebee, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Blurr, what is your ETA?" it said in a calm tone.
"Shouldbethereintenminutesnow…" came Blurr's reply.
"whose that?" she asked sideswipe."before he could answer though the unknown speaker did it for him.
"Is that the human you spoke of?"
"Er…correct Optimus, she's currently inside me." Sideswipe said noting how the girl paled when he mentioned Optimus's name.
"Welcome then, I'm afraid I'll leave introductions from when you arrive, at the moment we're a bit busy, we'll meet you at the entrance shortly."
"Ah….okay? I guess..thanks."
The communication apparently shut off since sideswipe let some air out of his vents, something she recognized as a sigh, and a pretty long one at that.
"Primus he was less angry than I thought he'd be…."
" five days of waiting probably calmed him down " his brother replied also slightly relieved.
"No wonder you guys respect him so much…just his voice was impressive!" Ashley cut in with some interest.
"That's Optimus for you…wait till you see him yourself. He's even more impressive."
"Okay…I don't know if I should be scared or anxious about that… why is he that impressive?"
"Oh…you'll see…just watch out for Ironhide's cannons…"
"Right…trigger happy mech if I remember correctly…."
"We're here" Bumblebee's voice interrupted as they entered what at first looked like a pretty big garage door, but once inside the halls were a lot taller, and they drove a bit more until they parked n a large round room. Sideswipe's door opened and she took that as her lead to get out, the others were already transforming to their bipedal forms. A door a bit taller than Blurr (who was the tallest) opened, and in came something that made Ashley's heart skip a beat, one heck of a large mech, blue and red, an impressive form just by itself even if she had little experience in seeing giant alien robots, one could tell this one was …well there wasn't any word that could describe it. Behind him came pale yellow mech, with a red line along its body, she could almost bet it was an ambulance of some sort and he had a large scowl on his face upon seeing the twins, and next to him was a black mech, completely…buffed, if those were muscles he'd look like a wrestler or something, his expression wasn't anymore pleasing than the light yellow.
She couldn't help but hide halfway behind Sideswipe's feet.
" Welcome to our new home" the larger mech spoke, she recognized the voice now as Optimus Prime's. "I trust the journey back was…uneventful?"
"Notentirelybutwetookcareofthematternomorehumanswereinvolvedoptimusprimesir!" Blurr said giving a quick salute.
"Very well, I'll want a full report on that later on, and where is our young guest?" he asked looking around the ground searching for her, for a moment he seemed fearful as if he thought he had stepped on her.
"Right here sir" Sides said stepping way and taking all cover from the small girl.
"Er…" she glanced at their looks of surprise " hi? This is really awkward…"
A nod from Optimus made her feel a little bit better, as if he was saying she wasn't the only one feeling that way.
"What in Primus name did you do to the child?!" the light yellow bot suddenly shouted walking over a bit too hastily for her liking. A bright blue light ran over her and felt oddly invaded by that
" HEY! Quit that!" she said trying to shoo him away, but he seemed persistant and ignored her protests.
"This human has bruises all over! Some bones are still mending and she doesn't even look well fed. Even without my scanners I can see that!" he said sending a sharp glare to the four autobots behind her.
"woah! Hold up! How the hell did you know I had broken bones?!" she backed away to stand between the twin's legs, she had found them rather protective of her along the journey so it was the first safe place she'd head to, for starters they didn't seem too afraid of the medic.
"Aw c'mon Ratch! Give her a break, your scaring the scrap out of her" Sides said picking her up from the ground, something she seemed quite grateful for. The medic growled at the red twin pointing a threatening finger at both of them.
"Sideswipe you pile of scrap heap do you even know what broken bones are?! It's the equivalent to breaking your main joints! Crude and painful"
Said robot, looked a bit frightened now, he was just a bit shorter than Ratchet but that wasn't what was fazing him right now.
"I –I..didn't know it was t-that bad…" she raised an eyebrow looked up at him with a ' I thought you were going to protect me here?!' look.
"That's because you don't have any medical scanners on you! You worthless net of circuitry!"
"Hey! Don't call him that!" she said holding onto the mech's digit for comfort, he was really looking down right now, and that wasn't very much like sideswipe, he was always happy and cheerful no matter what! "Hes been very protective of me so don't you dare call him a worthless net of circuitry again!" she paused a bit trying to recall something "or scrap head for that matter! They didn't know I had broken my arm and got the cast off early last week!And as for Well fed blame my stupid metabolism!" she glared at the surprised medic, he blinked once before backing up a bit and sighing rubbing was supposedly were forehead platting.
"Fine, bring her along, I'll need to make a full exam in the med bay." They followed him in silence, the twins had both pairs of optics on her and she had a vague feeling they were trying to see what Ratchet had talked about.
"Wait? Full exam? What the hell does he mean by that?!" she hissed in a whisper to the red twin holding her.
"Don't worry, Ratchet's the best when it comes to medical attention"
"Robot medical attention! Not human! How do you expect me not to worry?!"
"You'd be surprised of the miracles that bot can do. Just trust us if you can't trust him."
"Well that makes me feel a whole lot better" she said with a sarcastic tone turning back to face their path.
The feeling only got worse once inside the medbay, the sight alone made her shrink back as much as possible in the open palm, creamy white walls, eerie hospital lights, gigantic metal beds and a whole set of deadly and scary looking tools displayed for the medic's needs.
"You okay? Your colour changed…"Sideswipe asked poking her ribs with a finger to get her attention.
"yeah…its even more disgusting now" Sunstreaker added, and for once she agreed with him, she probably had a sickening white colour right now and she felt her stomach turning.
"Any chance we can go back before it's too late?" they didn't answer her having seen this reaction before around Ratchet.
"Just set her down on the berth" Ratchet ordered not even looking and taking out a tool that looked like a massive vacuum cleaner. "Relax it's just a scanner" he said seeing her obvious fear and adrenaline levels shooting off the scales.
"Why do you even need to scan me?" she asked looking at it wearily while yet another invading feeling hit her as the light passed over her body.
"To make sure these slaggers were careful although I don't really have to worry in Bumblebee's case, he's already used to you humans and your needs."
"Um...yeah…he kinda told me…hence why I'm wearing these…" she refrained form insulting her attire" magnificent clothes…." He just snorted at that.
"I shall never understand why you humans even need such body coverings"
"Er…its kind of like…like…"she fought for the right words, normally she didn't speak so much with people. Hence her difficulty." Like being decent I guess, not wearing them is embarrassing and rude to most people."
"I still don't see why"
"Think of it like…er…like…like one of you guys without armour! How would that feel?" he paused for a bit as if his processor was running on the thought " I take back what I said." He said turning back to his scan.
"About what?" so far the medic was starting to seem a lot nicer.
"About not understanding your reasons"
"Really? I wasn't expecting to have that much success in convincing you…" she admitted as he put down the scanner.
"I'm done for now, apart from you various bruises you seem fairly healthy although a quite underweight…most of your body weight is made of muscle, unlike the vast majority of your species which tends to have fat as a major weight factor." She just raised an eyebrow
"Basically your saying I'm skinny and I work out…" he nodded.
"gee thanks…that's against most girl ideals….well not that many don't want to be skinny but not like me…as for fitness…" she waved the idea away "most of them don't run for their lives on a daily basis and simply avoid sports at all costs."
"You run for your life on a daily basis?" he inquired sounding awfully interested.
"We saw some kids picking on her, that's how we met" Sideswipe said before she could correct herself.
"Does this happen often?" the medic asked with surprisingly piercing optics. She fiddled with her hands looking away intimidated by his gaze.
"N-no…I mean…not all the time…." She said in an extremely low voice and the rest he couldn't even pick up even with his audio receptors at full capacity, which made him doubt if any words came out at all.
"Your lying human, your stress levels are up, your body is producing chemical reactions and your heartbeat just skipped a few beats." Her eyes widened and she cursed mildly, she wasn't the type that cursed often but this was one of those times when no one could possibly resist.
"Well…most of the time I got away…before they'd manage to catch me…but sometimes escape just wasn't possible…" Why was she even telling him? Even if he did find out about her lies she didn't have to tell him anything. He said something in their language that seemed like swearing and she looked back at the Lamborghinis uncertain, they both looked somewhat pissed off as well.
"Look it's really nothing you should be meddling with, it's just the rules of that place, I live that's what matters." Ratchet gave her a menacing glare but left it at that, it was clear the human didn't want to talk about it.
"You two better take her to prime, she needs everything clarified" he said dismissing them, and she was too keen on getting out of there so she had absolutely no objections into going back to sideswipe's palms.
It took her a while to get used to talking to Optimus Prime, considering his massive size and all, but she quickly found the leader was actually nice and incredibly comprehensive, he had guaranteed to her that they would do the best they could in letting her get her life back (to which the teens seemed a bit reluctant now) and ensure her safety since she had unfortunately been involved with them even if just a little for now.
They had gotten her a space in one of the tables of a rather large rec room, or rather, a sleeping bag and an old mattress, which fitted her perfectly for now.
However, for as hard as she tried, she couldn't find herself able to sleep, well who could? It was a massive metallic living room in a base full of gigantic robotic life forms that could easily step on her not to mention they were literally armoured from head toe.
"At least I'm near winter break…won't miss so many classes…" she said out loud, her voice echoing slightly in the empty room, a dim light coming from a window way up in the wall. "Not that I would have learnt anything anyway…at least things seem…interesting here…" she paused for a while then felt herself blush "and once again I am talking to myself…." It was a sad habit actually, one of the only reasons she still had a voice.
It was unsettling, she finally gave up on trying to sleep and crawled over to the edge of the table where the aliens had very thankfully left a chair so she could climb off, it was dark though so she had to be absolutely sure of the place.
Scampering across the rooms she managed to throw a soda can they had given her to drink a while ago and hit the door opening button, quickly getting the said can back she ran out before they closed and found herself in the long corridor.
"Well…let's see what challenge you guys have to offer me…"
Using her cell phone as a source of light she wondered around, finding locked doors most of the time or just rooms with tons of heavy machinery, at some point she reached a hall with lots of doors and she supposed it was their quarters so she cleverly headed away from there. Finaly she was in a seemingly creepier hall, it was awfully clean and it had a sad cold light at the end near the door which was unlocked.
Throwing the can once more she headed inside, only to find a new bed, or as they called it, a berth, and someone was on it, she wondered why this robot was separated from the remaining quarters until she saw strange symbols engraved on the metal under the berth, that's when she realised, she was probably in the presence of a dead being.
Using the cell phone once again as a source of light she searched for any human translation on the metal and was glad she found one in smaller letters.
"In honour of Lieutenant Jazz, who gave his life for our people" signed Senator Kelly.
"Wow…" she said in amazement, staring up at the silver figure, from what she could tell he had probably been a classy car, but his middle had been damaged and repaired as best as possible, though that wasn't perfect it seemed, still he looked almost brand new, and if she hadn't just read it, she would have thought he could possibly still be very much alive.
A soft blue light caught her attention, it was in a glass shelf on the right side of the room, a metallic shard full of the same strange symbols carved on it was giving off the light, and she could have sworn it wasn't doing that when she came in. Slowly she left the deceased autobot to inspect it more carefully.
She stared at it almost hypnotically and was surprised when all of a sudden it stopped glowing, she raised her eyebrows suspiciously, had it known she was coming near? Or was it…
"That is the allspark" a deep and soothing voice said. She rolled on her heels to see the towering form of Optimus at the entrance, his gaze was calm, and he didn't seem mad at all for finding her here.
"Oh…er…sorry for intruding the place sir, I couldn't sleep and…I was just looking around and found this place by accident" she said the last part rather quickly as the nerves started to catch on. His gaze, if possible softened even more.
"Are our accommodations not up to your needs young one?"
"Oh! No no no no! nothing of the sort!" she quickly corrected waving her arms to enhance her meaning. "It was just a little awkward, I mean it is a rather….big… yeah big room…its okay though, I'm just a little nervous that's all." There was a nod as the large robot walked forwards standing beside her to observe the fragment. " So...what exactly is the allspark?"
"The life source of our species…or at least, this is what is left of it." He touched the glass with care, staring at what had once been their hope.
"It gave you guys life? How is that possible?" she was now fully curious about the matter, here in front of her, was one being that actually KNEW the source of life, one of the things humans never could even dream of finding out for it was lost in history.
"We don't know much about it, only that it is raw power and that it gave birth to our race" he said leaning down and offering a hand to which she hesitantly accepted hopping on, he lifted her high enough for her to see the shard at a better proximity.
"Well…where did it come from then?" He gave an odd noise that mildly sounded like chuckling, or at least she thought it was, it was hard to tell, the twin's, bumblebee's and Blurr's chuckles were more easy to tell, it was probably because of the voice and size.
"You ask a lot of hard questions, we don't know where it came from, or even what created it."
" Well that's informative…it kind of reminds me of Rubik's cube…" she said slitting her eyes in thought.
"Rubik's cube?" he asked amusingly.
"Yeah, its like a puzzle, you have to slide the sides in many ways to match the different colours in all sides, its supposed to be hard to figure out, but in the end its just logic. That one looks a bit more complicated though…" she then remembered something " Why are you here though? Shouldn't you be sleeping too?" He averted his gaze from the shard, he had been staring at it intently.
"I suppose that like you, I could not recharge…though for other reasons"
"The shard?"
"Yes…"
"Makes sense, I suppose if it was your source of life that means no more lives are going to appear, so that makes you guys what? The last of your kind?" He winced slightly at that " Sorry…didn't mean to be that blunt."
"It is all right… you have a point in your logic, we tried in vain to at least revive Jazz but our failures were our result, Ratchet has been feeling quite guilty about it thinking he didn't repair him well enough"
"Oh…what happened to him by the way?"
"He died, holding off Megatron from the humans when our battle for the allspark took place, he…ripped the lieutenant in half" now it was her time to wince and even let out a hiss " Eventually Megatron was brought down, Bumblebee's charge set the allspark in his chest, off lining him, and destroying our life source, but it was the only available choice at the time… if it had not been megatron it would have been me, the boy simply chose the first option against my orders."
"Wait… so you're a suicidist?" Again came that gentle chuckle.
"No, unless it is our only salvation, that is, in the end my duty as Prime. Now I believe we should be heading back to try and recharge, tomorrow someone representing the government will be arriving to sort out your situation" he said heading for the exit.
Ashley gave one last glance at Jazz and the shard before it got out of view by Prime's massive body and they were once again in the dark hallways, his optics lightning the way vaguely.
"How did you even manage to open the door? We've been having trouble with the humans on that matter." He asked after a few steps in the dark.
"Oh…I was throwing this can at the buttons…"she said showing it, the now gravely bended soda can in her hands.
"Resourceful" he commented.
"Thank you" replied back feeling content by such a compliment, after all this was the prime, if the leader thought she was resourceful that had to be a highly good compliment right?
"Here we are" he said opening the door to the rec room.
" Thanks, I can go from here on out"
"Can you climb back to the table?"
"Yeah, no problem, I'm a good climber" he nodded and rose back to his full height looking around briefly then turning to leave.
" Very well I bid you good night then"
"Yeah… night." He was about to leave when her voice called him again, "Er… Optimus? Could you just point out which was the table please?" he chuckled indicating the one she had to reach for and closed the door leaving the human to herself.
Good? Bad? I really don't know about this chapter :/ you people give me your opinion, I put Optimus in this last part because it seemed to fit better.
Once again I apologize for any possible grammar errors and typos, but I really have little time and only managed to finish this because I needed to vent some out, I should actually be working right now and its early hours of the morning now. . urgh