The room was silent. Alice didn't know what to say, but she should have seen it coming when a military agent wanted to see her full ability. She had just been trying to be helpful to the autobots and now it looked like she would be locked up for a while, or even used for military gain. This was a thought that Alice didn't like one bit, she simply closed her eyes, wishing that she could undo what she did, but even with witchcraft, such a thing wasn't possible.
Agent Fowler argued with Optimus for a while, leaving Alice to walk off, set her things down and sit on the couch with a huff, listening to them go back and forth. Fowler was adamant about taking her to a secret military base where she could be interrogated and such, but wouldn't go into much detail about any of that, which made her nervous, while Optimus was advocating to have her stay with them and Fowler could conduct anything he needed in front of them. After a while, Miko started piping in about why Alice would get to stay with the bots full time but the rest of the kids couldn't, and Jack began arguing with her about that instead of Optimus, all with Ratchet piping up here and there to stick up for Optimus, and also because he wanted some time to research the science behind Alice's abilities. Almost everyone was arguing.
The only ones who didn't get involved in some way was Bumblebee, Raf, and Alice, but eventually, she had enough and just looked to Bee, grabbing her things as she walked over to him. "Let's go, Bee." Alice said calmly, though she was gripping her things tightly in her hands so she didn't yell. As bee transformed and Alice got in, Fowler could be heard shouting to stop her, but she would open the window and shout back, "Call me when you've reached a verdict, you're arguing worse than my grandparents did!" That was all she would say before Bee drove off. Optimus wanted to order his scout back, but she was right, all this arguing wasn't good for anyone's health, and she was right to remove herself from it for now.
Alice had Bee drive her back home with her things and she went inside, trying not to cry as her father was likely to be home, she didn't want him to know that something was wrong, as she wouldn't be able to explain it to him. When she got in, she would go and put her things away in her room, reluctantly keeping her phone on her. She was quiet though, even her hello to her father was quiet enough for him to miss it, causing him to come by her room. "Hey kiddo, what's up?" Alan asked his daughter, concerned as to why she was being quiet and didn't even say hello to him, or why he didn't hear it.
"Nothing dad, just a bunch of friends are having an argument." Alice replied, putting the last of her things away. Her father noted that she was putting away a bunch of magic supplies, and figured it had to be something about that. He knew his daughter was a powerful witch, but he also knew what kind of controversy it could cause in conversation.
"I see, do you want to talk about it?" Alan asked, only to be met with her shaking her head, looking like she was about to cry. "Alright, I'll make dinner tonight." Alan said with a smile, offering his daughter a hug before going off to cook. Even though it had been a long day for him, his daughter wasn't some kind of slave to him. He closed the door as he left and Alice erupted into silent tears, knowing that he would likely be making dinner for himself a lot with her needing to either stay with the bots, or with the military at some outpost in god knows where.
Alice hugged herself as she flopped onto her bed, curling up in her sheets as she cried. This would be the last time she was home for a long time, and she didn't know what her father would do without her, she was all he had left. She stayed like this for hours, the tears slowly subsiding into nothing, but she still laid there, dreading what was to come next. This was her last visit home, and she dreaded leaving her father alone for so long.
When Alice's phone started to ring, she jumped a bit, but continued to sit there, feeling like she was going to cry again. Her phone ringing meant that they had come to a decision. She had almost hoped that they would never come to one. They would be pulling her out of her final year of high school, away from her father, and away from her life, and all she could think of was how she partially did this to herself, trying to help someone she barely knew. She would hesitantly pick up her phone and answer it, placing it to her ear, not even giving a greeting to whoever was on the other line.
"Someone will be at your home to pick you up in an hour. Have your things ready." It seemed that Optimus lost the argument, and she was going to be shipped off to an unknown location, or so she thought. She began packing up her things in what bags she could find, both her witchy and non-witchy things were being unceremoniously tossed into bags quickly. She grabbed what she could before she would head out of her room with the bags and her box of jars, placing them by the door before she was going to talk to her father, only to see that he was already asleep, he had left her some dinner on the table, not having wanted to disturb her if she wasn't feeling well.
She would eat a little bit and dispose of the rest before she wrote a letter to her father, beginning to cry as she did so. She hated having to say goodbye to her father for an undetermined amount of time, especially having to blow it off saying that there was a camp thing that she had signed up for and somehow paid for all on her own, despite what little money the two of them made together. She knew that her father would have questions, so a part of her was happy that she would be gone by the time he woke up, but at the same time, she hated that she wouldn't be able to be home for a while.
When it reached close to an hour, Alice brought her things outside to wait for whoever was coming to pick her up, though, to her surprise, it was Optimus himself. She would smile a little, knowing now that she was still going to be relatively close to home, she hoped that she would be allowed to check in with her father here and there, at least by calling him. Alice would load her bags up into Optimus' cab and then hop in herself, smiling sadly as she watched her home disappear into the distance as he began to drive.
"I'm glad you're the one who showed up, not some military vehicle." Alice said, she was scared of the military being the ones to come and get her, as she didn't know what they would do with her and her abilities. Optimus' mirror would turn so he could see her for a moment as he drove back out of town to take a bridge back to base and he would smile internally, though sadly as well. He was glad that he was able to protect her from the government's clutches for now, but there were terms that he would have to brief her on before she could get settled.
"I too am glad." Optimus would say simply as he drove back, going through the portal and appearing back at base, letting Alice take out her things before transforming and helping her get her things up to the human area. "There are a few things that Agent Fowler deemed necessary." Optimus would say, getting her attention as she got up the stairs, wondering where exactly she would be staying, or if the couch would be her home from now on. "He will be coming in once a week to check in with you, though I fear he will be doing more than simply this. Agent Fowler would not go into much detail. You are also to be under constant surveillance so that you can be monitored when doing any witchcraft. These instances are also to be documented by whoever is watching you at the time, which unless dire circumstances appear, will be myself or Ratchet."
Optimus explained what he had been told by Agent Fowler, there was a part of him that didn't want her to be watched constantly, but she seemed to understand. Alice would nod and sigh as she looked at the couch. "Will I be getting a bed or a cot or something? Or will I be sleeping on the couch for the next however long?" Alice asked, to which Arcee would request to come back through the ground bridge, when she did, she had a foldable cot with her, which she would give to Optimus to place in the human area for Alice.
"I believe this will do." Optimus said as she took it, to which Alice would nod and begin finding a place for it that offered some mild privacy, even though she had to be under constant surveillance, she wanted as much privacy as they would let her have. She would then set up her other things and get ready for bed, it was getting late and she was exhausted from the ritual before. After setting her things up, she would lay down and close her eyes, trying to sleep with the heavy footfalls of the bots and the various other noises of the base, and knowing that she had none of her wards set up didn't help either. She was not going to get much sleep, and it annoyed her to no end.