Hello everyone! Long delay, I know I'm sorry. But I have a nice long chapter to make up for it. There has been a slight change of plans in the Bee/Alise plot line. As you all know, the main plot of this story was supposed to be Alise's kidnapping because that was what it was supposed to be. However, in order for the story to really make sense and for Alise to be incorporated into the story, I had to go along the plotline of the movies. If I were to add the kidnapping plot to this story, there would have to be a long, weird time skip, and everything I currently have written would outweigh that plot, and it would look like it was just tacked on to make the story longer. So after the events of ROTF, this story will be ending.
HOWEVER, I am going to create a new story after this one where Alise's kidnapping is the main plot! Don't worry! Everything is really the same, only the plots are now divided. And I will be changing the summary on this story. On a side note, please excuse anything that may be a bit off in this chapter! That's all for now! Please review and tell me what you think!
As always, I own nothing!
~Mel
For a few moments, Alise was present in mind but she couldn't feel anything. Though the feeling was terrifying, she was very calm. She couldn't explain why, but she knew she wasn't dying or going to be injured by her current state. However, this feeling very abruptly disappeared, and she was suddenly flying. She opened her eyes.
All around her was sand and rock, and it stretched on for miles. The only change in the scenery was the flying of her friends' forms threw the air, like her. She heard their cries as they did this, and she sailed in the air for about five seconds before adrenaline kicked in, and her mind finally realized her situation.
"Holy shit!" she yelled as she flailed a bit, her hair going into her face as as she started to fall towards the ground. She looked and saw that her location of impact wasn't a bed of sand like all the other places she could have landed were, but a pile of large rocks sticking out of the sand. Her eyes widened, and then she closed them tightly, not wanting to watch herself get impaled on the rocks. She couldn't think, and only waited for herself to hit them.
Suddenly, Alise didn't feel as as though she was flying anymore, and instead of feeling nothing but air around her, she felt like she was on something solid. She opened her eyes, and was shocked to see that she was surrounded by a giant metal hand. Bee's.
They were still in the air, Alise could tell, and her suspicions were confirmed when the two hit the ground and started to roll. Alise was jostled a little in his hand as she clung to the insides of his closed hand, but other than that, she wasn't harmed. She felt them rolling for a few seconds before they slowed down and stopped. When she knew they were no longer moving, Alise released her death grip on his hand and slid down the side if his palm, letting out a long sigh of relief and closing her eyes. She was lying down in his hand when he opened it and she opened her eyes to see the bright blue sky above them. She looked over and realized he was lying on his back as well in the sand. The two of them were panting slightly, both of their chests rising and dropping at a slowly pace.
"Nice... catch... Bee..." Alise told him through labored breaths. As she said this, she slowly patted the finger closest to her and a few times. In response he gave her an exhausted electric sigh.
Bee slowly started to get up with Alise in his hand, and to two looked over to see Jetfire standing on a large rock in the distance, looking bored. A small dot that looked like Simmons was a few yards away from him in the sand below. He raised a hand to acknowledge them, and then started to climb the large rocks to Jetfire.
A few meters to their left, Alise could see Skids and Mudflap starting to walk towards them. Starting to walk up from a hill of sand, she saw Mikaela and Leo starting to come towards them. Then in the distance, Alise saw Sam starting to walk down from a sand dune, clutching his hand to himself.
"Where are we?" Sam yelled across to the rest of the group. "Simmons!" Then, upon seeing each other, Mikaela and Sam started to run towards each other, Leo following closely behind. Bee, Alise still in his hand, started to walk over to the small group.
"You guys okay?" Sam called over as he ran.
"Yeah," Mikaela answered for them.
"Hey, I think we're in Vegas!" Leo added, sounding out of breath as the three humans met up. When Bee and Alise arrived, Bee set her on the sand and she raced over to the others.
"Everyone okay?" she asked as she came over. The three all answered 'yeah', though Sam was still clutching his hand. As she got a closer look at it, she saw that it looked burnt. It was black and scorched, and his fingers weren't sitting right, "Dammit, Sam, what happened?"
He looked weakly at his hand and shrugged, not really knowing what happened or how they got there. None of them did.
Bee placed his hands on the ground and the small group climbed into them, Sam and Leo sitting in one and Mik and Alise in the other. He then started to walk over to the large rock where Jetfire, and now Simmons chewing his ears out, were standing. Carefully waiting until all of them had gotten on the rock safely, he started to walk away towards the twins. When Simmons saw that the four had arrived on the rock, he looked over at them quickly.
"You all okay?" he asked quickly. They all nodded at him before taking a seat on the rock. Mikaela started to wrap Sam's hand as Simmons continued his ranting.
"That really, really hurt," he started to say. "You're just lucky that I didn't get hurt. People could have gotten killed, okay? And if I would have gotten hurt, you would have heard from my at-"
"Oh, shut up," Jetfire told him. "I told you I was opening a space bridge. It's the fastest way to travel to Egypt."
Egypt? Alise thought suddenly. Were they really in Egypt?In five seconds?
"When did you... when did you tell us?" Sam started to add, standing up. "You didn't tell us anything! You didn't tell us anything! Why are we in Egypt?"
"Don't you get snippy with me, fleshling! You were duly informed!"
"Can you just stop for a second? Can you focus? Can you tell us why we're in Egypt so we can all have a little bit of semblance of peace of mind?"
Jetfire's eyes narrowed for a moment before he started to explain.
"This planet was visited by our race once before, by our earliest ancestors, a millennium ago. They were on an exploratory mission to harvest Energon, the lifeblood of our race. Without it, we'll all perish, oxidize and rust, like my wretched self! Do you have any idea what it's like to slowly fall apart and die?"
"Let's not get episodic, okay? Old-timer?" Simmons cut in, bored with the fluff of the story already. "Beginning. Middle. End. Facts. Details. Condense. Plot. Tell it."
Jetfire grumbled before he continued. "Somewhere buried in this desert, our ancestors built a great machine. It harvests Energon... by destroying suns."
"Destroy suns?" Sam questioned.
"You mean blow them up?" Leo added.
"Yes," Jetfire answered. "You see, in the beginning, there were seven Primes, our original leaders. And they set out into the universe, seeking distant suns to harvest. The Primes set out with one rule: never destroy a planet with life. Until one of them tried to defy this rule. And his name forevermore was... the Fallen." Just then, a projection came from Jetfire's hand, and Alise watched as the frightening image of a Cybertronian appeared in front of them. It was the Fallen, and he looked menacing. As Jetfire continued to speak, so did the images in front of them. "He despised the human race and he wanted to kill you all by turning on that machine! The only way to activate it is with a legendary key called the Matrix of Leadership.
"A great battle took place over possession of the Matrix. The Fallen was stronger than his brothers, so they had no choice but to steal... and hide it from him. In the ultimate sacrifice, they gave their lives to seal the Matrix away in a tomb made of their very own bodies, a tomb we cannot find." The holograph ended with the Primes sealing the tomb with themselves, and then it ended, leaving the group stunned. "Somewhere, buried in this desert, that- deadly machine remains. The Fallen knows where it is and if he finds the tomb of the Primes, your world will be no more."
"Wonderful," Alise commented sarcastically.
"Okay, so how do we stop him?" Mikaela asked next.
"Only a Prime can defeat the Fallen."
Everyone looked up at the aging bot, eyes wide.
"Optimus Prime?" Sam asked softly.
Jetfire perked up, his red eyes glowing. He dipped his head closer to Sam. "So, you've met a Prime? Why, you must have met a great descendant. Is he alive, here on this planet?"
Sam lowered his head with sadness, as did the rest of the group. "He sacrificed himself to save me."
Jetfire became solemn once more. "So, he's dead. Without a Prime, it's impossible. No one else could stop the Fallen."
Everyone was silence for a moment, the weight of what Jetfire had said on them. It wasn't hard to deduce what everyone was thinking. They all had looks of slight despair, the thought of there being no way to stop the Fallen affecting them. They couldn't be out of options...
Sam's head suddenly shot up.
"So, the same energy that's gonna be used to reactivate the machine..." he asked, "could that energy somehow be used to reactivate Optimus and bring him back to life?"
Jetfire looked at him for a moment before answering. "It was never designed for that purpose, but it's an energy like no other."
"So then how do you get us to the Matrix before the Decepticons get to me?"
"Follow your mind, your map, your symbols!" Jetfire tapped his head and began to get very excited at the thought that Optimus could be brought back. "What you carved in the sand, it's your clue! When dawn alights the Dagger's Tip, Three Kings will reveal the doorway! Find the doorway! Go now! Go!"
"Okay, we'll all go!" Simmons told him.
"That was my mission! It's your mission now! Go before the Decepticons find me and find you."
"Okay, here's what my CIA contact says," Simmons started, as he snapped his cell phone shut. "Ancient Sumerians used to call the Gulf of Aqaba the 'Dagger's Tip.' It's part of the Red Sea. Divides Egypt and Jordan like the tip of a blade. 29.5 degrees north, 35 east."
They had been driving around for a little, waiting as Simmons tried to get in contact with someone at the CIA he believed could help them. When he did, he had spent a good half an hour on the phone with them, and it got to the point where Alise was ready to forcibly take the phone away from him and demand to know what they were talking about. She wanted to know what the next plan of action was, and now.
"First thing we've got to do is get Optimus to the Dagger's Tip," Sam said.
"How are you gonna get him halfway around the world?" Leo questioned. In truth, it was a good question. How were they gonna get him over here?
"I'm gonna make a call," Sam said. Sam was about to continue when all of a sudden a police vehicle started to drive near them. "We got cops..." Sam ducked in the back near Mikaela and Leo, making himself not able to be seen. The two other occupants of the back just sat up straight, trying not to look suspicious. Alise, who was in the driver's seat, and Simmons, who was in the passenger's seat, did the same, Alise putting her hands on the steering wheel to look as if she was controlling the car.
"I can't go to prison, guys," Leo commented from the backseat with a straight face.
"Shut up!" Alise hissed at him. They watched as the policeman in the car looked over at them for a moment.
"Sam, we got to get off this road and lay low," Simmons said, not turning his head. Just then the officer glanced at them once more before speeding up slightly and passing them. All of the occupants of the Camaro breathed a sigh of relief. Just then Bee started to pull into a little village in the middle of nowhere.
"They're gone," Mikaela said a little breathlessly.
"Okay," Sam said, sitting up, "we're running out of time. I gotta make the call to Lennox-"
"You're on the Worldwide Wanted List!" Simmons interjected. "Try calling one base, they'll track you here in seconds. CIA is all over this place!"
"Then Alise'll call." Alise shot up in her seat. She turned around and looked over at Sam. "Lennox'll listen to you, and you know his cell. Simmons will tell you what to say. You up for it?" Alise smiled and nodded.
"Okay," Simmons said. "That's a good idea."
"All right."
"I mean, I just had my mind on other things... like winding up in an Egyptian prison..."
With Alise using the minimal knowledge of Arabic she learned from Wash, they were able to find a payphone that somehow accepted American currency on the side of the street. When Bee stopped, all the occupants of the Camaro exited and walked over to the machine. Bee stayed in front of them, a few feet away. Mikaela and Sam kept watch around the corner, and Leo started to walk down the street, turning a corner. Alise thought that it was a dumb idea to leave the group considering their situation, but she had other things to worry about at the moment. Placing a few coins in, Alise punched in Will's number and hoped, prayed, that he would pick up. After a couple of rings, there was an answer.
"Hello?" a confused William Lennox answered, most likely because of the number that was contacting him.
"Hey, Cap," Alise said lightly, relieved to hear his voice. "It's G.T. We need to talk."
Will was silent for a moment before giving out a sigh of relief and muttering a, "Hold on," into the phone. Alise heard him rustling in the background and talking quickly to someone who's voice she didn't hear. After a few minutes, he spoke back to her on the line.
"Lise, we're on a secure line now," he told her quickly. "Where the hell are you?"
"Well, it's a long story," Alise said, "but to sum it all up, Sam and I are in the middle of the Egyptian desert after being teleported here by a rusty Decepticon turned Autobot, and now we're trying to find an ancient Matrix that may or may not bring Optimus back to life with Simmons, Mikaela, and Sam's college roommate. So how has your day been?"
Lennox didn't answer for a moment, obviously trying to take all of what she said in before he answered, "Well, I'm with Galloway."
Alise cringed. "Fine, your day was worse."
"Sam's with you?"
"Yeah. I have a message-"
"Wait, wait, wait. Did you say Simmons?!"
"Yeah, I know right?"
"Ugh," Simmons groaned loudly. "This is no time for chit chat!" With that he took the phone out of Alise's hand. Alise glared at the man, but he didn't care in the slightest. He spoke into the phone. "Yeah, Lennox. We need the truck. The truck.We got a possible resurrection going on over here. Code Tut, as in King Tutankhamen. Back of a one dollar bill. Coordinates for airdrop, 29.5 north, 34.88 east. Write it down. Write it!"
"Give me that!" Alise said, grabbing the phone back. "You got all that, Will?"
"You could bring him back?" Will questioned, hope in his voice.
"Possibly. But we need him here so that to happen."
Suddenly, they saw a masked figure start to run towards them. They didn't know the person's identity because of his covered face, but it was easy enough to tell that he was running towards them specifically. The closer he got, the more nervous they became. Mikaela and Sam exchanged worried glances, Sam standing a bit in front of Mikaela. Simmons did the same, going in front of all three of them.
"Shit, Will, we've got trouble," Alise said quickly. "Get him here as soon as you can."
"Wait, Lise-" Alise cut him off by quickly hanging up the phone. The man had come up to them and stopped, out of breath but not taking off his mask.
"Whoa, wait, who are you?" Sam demanded quickly. The four posed to make a break for Bee as he started to flash his headlights.
"Wait!" the man said, taking off his mask, and headpiece. "It's me! Leo!" Leo looked at the three wildly. "Me! Leo! Leo! Leo! Cops are coming right now. We need to go!" The four others breathed a sigh of relief. It was only him.
"Where did you get that headpiece?" Alise asked off topic, giving him a questioning look and cocking her head to the side a little.
Leo started gesturing wildly. "Did you not hear me?! Cops!" He pointed as they saw a group of official types rounding the corner he had just come from.
"Move, move, move, move," Sam started to yell at the group. "Let's go!"
The group piled into Bee, immediately closing the doors behind them as they did. No one was really sitting before he drove off. Everyone, including Wheelie who was now walking freely about, lurched forward in the car. With Skids and Mudflap racing behind, Bee started off into the desert once more, as Sam and Simmons, who were both in the front seats, started to go over everything they had learned. Bee hit a road as they did this, and he continued down it.
"Okay, let's go over it again," Sam started.
"When the dawn alights-"
"-the Dagger's Tip-"
"-the Three Kings-"
"-will reveal the doorway."
"That's what he said. You know what that means?"
"No, what does it mean?"
"I have no idea."
Suddenly, Leo broke in on their conversation and started to point at the front window.
"Oh my God. Oh my God," he starting panicking. Mikaela and Alise who were watching Sam and Simmons looked up. "Checkpoint. Checkpoint. I don't have my passport."
None of us do, Alise said in her head, panicking a bit now. In front of them was a run down looking checkpoint station, uniformed guards walking around it with a gate in front of the road, blocking their path. They could have easily ran through the old aging gate, but that wouldn't really help their remaining inconspicuous cause. It was too late to turn around now. Bee was already too close to turn around without it looking suspicious. What were they going to do? With no other options, Bee pulled up to the checkpoint, a large wooden gate stopping them from going any further.
The group watched as an officer with a mean looking face appeared at the top of the checkpoint platform. Like the other officers standing around him, he was wearing official looking garb and looked to be carrying a weapon on him.
"Passport!" he barked at them from the top of the wooden platform he was on. When they didn't move, he then started to yell at them more, this time in Arabic, and Alise was able to pick up on it. "Present your passports or you will be taken into custody!"He then continued his way down the stairs.
"They got cameras at the top," Sam whispered to the group.
"Stop -!" one of the men shouted at them, again in Arabic. Alise flinched at his tone. To make matters worse, she didn't understand what he was trying to tell them, something that she wasn't used to. The feeling made her uncomfortable, especially in this situation.
"Alright, chill," Simmons said calmly to the group in the car. "This is espionage now. I can handle it. These are my people."
"Yeah," Wheelie said sarcastically from the back of the car.
"I'm one-thirty-sixth Arab!" Simmons said defensively. Just then the customs officer that was walking down the stairs appeared in front of Bee, and started to walk to Simmons's window.
"Oh great, a fricking Munchkin," Wheelie said. "Little people are mean. Tell him he's tall."
"Wheelie!" Alise whispered harshly, smacking him in the head.
The officer came over to Simmons's window, looking Simmons straight in the eye.
"Passports," he said once again in Arabic. Simmons nodded once, obviously not knowing what the man was saying.
"Ashu-fanah..." Simmons started, as Alise gave him a questioning look. He made his hands into the shape of a triangle. "The Dagger's... Tip? Right? Egypt, Jordan. We want to go there. Me and my family." He gestured to the occupants of the car and took Sam under his arm. "This is my family. This is my son, my other son, my daughter, my..."
"His girlfriend!" Sam added in for him cheekily, when he got to Alise. Alise's eyes got huge, and they felt Bee grow very still around them. She noticed that the seatbelt around Sam had tightened significantly, and he hacked a little as he was pulled back to the seat. Alise felt the need to reach out and strangle him.
"Oh, no, don't say that..." Alise whispered to Sam.
Simmons however kept going on. "Yeah, my girlfriend-" He cut himself off. "My girlfriend?" He turned and looked at Sam pointedly. "Do you want big yellow to kill me?"
"Well he's not gonna believe that you have four grown kids that want to go to on a trip with you!"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"UGH!" Alise said loudly, causing all the members of the Camaro and the officer to jump in surprised. Alise stuck her head up from the back seat and smiled at the officer.
"Hello," she said in Arabic. Wash don't fail me now, Alise pleaded silently. All the occupants of the car just stared at her as she did her best to say something, anything. "We trying to go to the... Dagger's Tip? On the Red Sea? Our passports back at our inn. We were not told we need them to get there. We tourists from New York."
"New York?" the officer asked, looking over the group once more.
"Yes."
The officer looked torn for a moment. Alise smiled hopefully at him, and he just shook his head in defeat.
"Fifty kilometers," he told her. She smiled once more.
"Thank you very much!" she told the officer, and he nodded and smiled as she sat back down in her seat.
"Go Yankees!" he said in English, which made Simmons perk up.
"Yeah!" he said. "Go Yankees!" With that, that man turned around and waved his hand. The gate in front of them lifted, and all three cars were able to go through. The occupants of the Camaro breathed a simultaneous sigh of relief before all turning their heads to look at Alise. Though she was currently looking out the window, she noticed their glances and looked up. She saw four pairs of eyes on her.
"What?" she asked, confused.
"When in the hell did you start speaking Arabic?" Simmons asked her pointedly. "That wasn't in your file?"
Alise was about to continue before she stopped short and looked at him.
"File? You have a file on me?"
"Don't feel so special, sweetheart," he answered back. "Sector-7 had files on all of you. Except for you, Spazz Master," he added after Leo gave him a wide eyed look.
"You only knew us for less than a day," Mikaela said with a raised brow.
"We worked fast." He turned back to Alise. "We had you down for five languages, not six, and none were Arabic." He gave her a look that bordered pissed off. Apparently Arabic was supposed to mean something to him.
"What, afraid of a little competition, Simmons?" she said with a smirk. She then turned to the rest of the group. "I don't speak it fluently. In fact, I don't think I said one complete sentence back there. The interpreters like to teach each other languages in our off time. Just for fun. One of the interpreters Wash has been teaching me Arabic for the last year and a half. In return I've been teaching him French for same amount of time. I've been doing the same with another interpreter and learning Swahili, too." After this, she turned back to Simmons. "Put that on your damn file."
Simmons rolled his eyes at her and turned back to face the road.
Then, before anyone could tell what was happening, Alise reached up and smacked Sam in the back of the head.
"Ow!" he yelled, looking back at her. "What was that for?!"
She pointed at him sharply, cringing a bit. "I am not his girlfriend."
"OW! Dammit!"
"Ssh! We're undercover, yo! You got to blend in with your surroundings. You know, you got to be part of the landscape. OW!"
Out in the open, the five humans and four Autobots tried to sneak over to an old maintenance building of the Pyramids of Giza, the bots all in their bipedal forms. Knowing that they needed somewhere to hide until they could determine where the Matrix was they decided to drive north until they came across anywhere that looked like a place to hide out, and they just happened to drive to the pyramids. When they found that there was an abandoned building in front of the pyramids that the workers used to use, they decided it would be the best place to hide out in the wide open desert.
"Awesome!" Simmons exclaimed as they ran towards the building. He was looking up at the ancient pyramids. "I think aliens built that. Yeah! Yeah, yeah." Looking behind himself, he tried ushering everyone along. "Come on. Move it! Move it! Move out!" He then opened the door to the building, coughing as a large cloud of dust came in his face. Sam turned around and looked at the three larger Autobots.
"Guard us," he told them. "Low profile. Don't make a scene, okay?" Skids and Mudflap nodded and transformed into their vehicle forms, driving to the entrance way they had previously came through. As they did this, Alise heard the rest of the humans walk into the building, but she stayed outside for a moment with Bee, who had not yet left to join the twins.
"Came back around later, okay?" she told him. "I don't think we're leaving tonight."
He nodded once and bent down, tracing one of his large fingertips across her cheek. She leaned into his touch a bit, smiling up at him. His metallic face grinned down at her a bit too. He then retracted his hand and transformed into his Camaro form, slowly driving away to be with the twins. Alise watched him leave with a cloud of dust following behind him, and she then walked into the building, closing the door behind her.
Alise was right. They had been in the building for hours now, and they weren't any closer to finding where the Matrix were. They tried going through all the possible mountains in Egypt where it could be hidden, but none of them made sense or related to Sam's 'clues.' They were all tired, so they thought it would be best to settle down for the night and continue early in the morning. If NEST brought Optimus to Egypt and they had nothing to show for it, there would be hell to pay.
Mikaela and Sam had decided to sleep outside by themselves and watch the stars to relax, and Skids and Mudflap were still down by the entrance guarding it. This left Leo, Simmons, Wheelie, Alise, and now Bee in the bottom part of the old building. There was a large door in the back of the building that Alise had opened up for Bee to bring his Camaro form in and park. Currently, Alise and Bee's holoform were lying together on his hood, and Leo, Simmons, and Wheelie were on the ground. It was relatively cool out, but the two men were able to find old blankets to stay warm. Alise was with Bee so she was warm also.
"So tell me you two," Simmons suddenly said, looking at them on Bee's hood. The two looked at each other and then back at him. Leo, who was behind Simmons, just watched him. "How does this thing between you two work?"
There was a moment of silence.
"Excuse me?" Alise questioned him pointedly.
"You know, you two. Your relationship." He sat up and looked at them. Alise looked up at Bee, not understanding what Simmons was saying.
"We don't know what you're saying, Simmons," Bee answered next. Simmons scoffed at him.
"Oh come on!" he shouted. "You're an ancient, giant, yellow robot, and she's just a tiny human who won't even live to be a fraction of your age." As he said his, Bee sat up and started to stare intently at Simmons. "What're you doing? You can really expect this to work!"
Bee was speechless. He just continued to send a death glare at Simmons. At one point, he started to get up and go towards him, but Alise stopped him with a touch on the arm.
"You know what Simmons," Alise spat at him. "You can go to hell."
"Like you haven't thought of this before!"
"Why the hell are you even asking?!"
"I'm just curious, I guess. This kind of stuff used to be my specialty. It still is!"
"Dammit Simmons!" Alise shouted, jumping off the hood and standing. "What is your problem with us?! You haven't liked us since the day we met! I can understand that, but you go out of your way, even now, to make our lives horrible! What is your deal?"
"What's my deal?" he retorted, standing up also. "What's your deal?! I try and act civilized but you! You spit it all back in my face!"
"Well, sorry if I can't be civilized to the person who kidnapped and tortured my boyfriend, arrested my best friends and I, and then threatened to send me back to a place that was going to tear me to pieces!"
"Will you stop it with that already?!" Simmons yelled back at her. "What's the worse that could have happened to you? And what, Mommy and Daddy would get mad? Punish you maybe? You wouldn't be their little princess anymore for running off with the boyfriend? Or so what if your friends wouldn't talk to you or your town was a little pissed. What would that have really meant?"
Alise was silenced. Obviously he hadn't looked at that file close enough. Aside of her, Bee was fuming. He started to march over to him in a rage before Alise caught his arm, stopping him for the second time.
"It would have meant everything, Simmons. My friends were all I had," Alise said to him quietly. "My parents died years ago. I have no brothers, or sisters, or any family in general. All I had was them." Simmons's face fell as she said this. "So would that be a big deal if the only people I had left didn't talk to or trust me anymore? Yes, I'd say so.
"And what's the worse that could have happened to me?" she continued. She looked to be considering this for a moment. "Well, if you take my small Spanish community, who like to take the law into their very extreme and worried hands, and couple it with the violent mob mentality lead by my very charismatic and soldierlike ex friend, I would have to say that my chances of being thrown into the middle of the desert and left there with no one able to rally behind me were very high. My only true friend there had to move away because she realized that the town wasn't as accepting as she thought it was and she was being harassed for being the best friend of the girl stood up for the big mechanical man, something that absolutely horrifies me." Alise took a deep, shaky breath.
"So tell me, Simmons. What do you believe my chances were?"
Simmons just stared at her for a long time, not saying anything. Guilt was obvious on his face, but it took him a few moments to say anything. When he did, it took a moment to get out.
"I'm sorry," he said after a few moments. "I truly am." His tone was sincere and serious, something Alise had never really heard in his voice before, and his face was one of repentance. Even though she had come to hate the man in front of her, she couldn't help but feel as though something had been lifted from the room, a tense atmosphere she hadn't noticed before. She believed him.
"I forgive you," Alise told him. "And I'm sorry too."
The two looked at each other and nodded. Before anything else was said, Sam came bursting into the room, Mikaela behind him, looking slightly annoyed.
"Leo," Sam said, looking at him friend. "Listen, astronomy class, page 47. Remember the class?"
"No," Leo said pointedly. "No, I was only in college for two days. Remember that?"
"Here. Get up. Up, up!" The group quickly opened the front door and went outside. Sam pointed up at the sky. Shining in the dark night were three bright stars, all looking to be in a straight line.
"What are you talking about?" Leo asked.
"Okay, you see those three stars?" Sam asked. "You see how the last one touches the horizon? That's Orion's belt, but it's also called the Three Kings. And the reason for that is the three Egyptian kings who built the pyramids of Giza built them to mirror those stars, so it's like an arrow staring us straight in the face."
Realization came on the faces of everyone in the group.
"They all point due east, towards Jordan," Simmons stated. "The mountains of Petra."