Saphira finally arrived back at the apartment building and she carried her groceries up to her apartment. She couldn't stop thinking who could have possibly been watching her. She hated the fact that she could have been followed through the store, and she didn't even notice. But she definitely didn't want to be followed, so she was nervous. She could only think of a few possibilities of who has been following her. She didn't think it could be a decepticon, but she would find out very shortly once she returned to the apartment. And she expected to be followed by the same person over the next couple days as well.
Once she walked into the apartment, Wheelie rolled over to her as he saw her carrying the bags. "You bought a lot of stuff," The scrap bot commented with a smile. "Maybe you should let me carry some and I'll get them to the counter."
"Thanks, Wheelie, but I think I can manage on my own, thanks," Saphira responded to him politely. "You can help me put things away though once I place them down." She walked into the kitchen and sighed as she placed the bags down. "The worst part about apartments, getting all the groceries for a single trip just makes sense."
Wheelie chuckled as he rolled over and began snooping into the bags and Saphira opened the fridge. "You got a few things, hmm? This seems to be a lot."
"It will all be enough, Wheelie. It might look like a lot, but it isn't really." She began to put stuff away, and Wheelie followed. She looked over at Brains as he was still at the laptop with a frown. "So what did you exactly see?"
Brains looked at Saphira for a moment before he let out a sigh. "There's some kind of fellow that's following you. It would seem he is definitely keeping an eye on you on when you leave the apartment."
Saphira shuddered a little as she listened to him. "Okay, is it someone I know?"
"How would I know?" Brains shrugged before turning the laptop around for Saphira to see. She saw it was a middle aged, Asian man with slightly untidy hair, brown eyes and glasses. He seemed to have an anxious expression on his face. She saw the image was taken in the supermarket. "This guy was following you, Saphira. He seemed to get out of some beat up Prius, and he has been following you."
"I definitely don't know him," Saphira said as she looked at the image. "Are you able to figure out who he is?"
"Yep, sure have," Brains responded affirmatively, pushing his finger into the USB port and a few files showed up on the screen. "This guy works at Accuretta Systems, he's been there for years, from my understanding. Anyway, I got the dig on his work files from the company…" More files showed up on the screen. "And apparently he's on his way to being fired for strange behavior and lacking in his work. The guy's called Jerry Wang."
Saphira hummed softly before frowning. "Huh…Accuretta Systems isn't a place I would think to worry about."
"I don't think the company itself is the concern, Saphira. It is this guy. According to some reports in the company, Jerry started to act strange three months ago, to be exact." She raised an eyebrow as she put the last item away and walked over to Brains. Wheelie jumped onto a chair to climb back onto the table. "The reports include the man talking to himself in his office, acting jumpy and snapping at staff. On top of that, the boss appears to be getting annoyed with the man slacking in his work and getting assignments sent in after the deadlines. Seems like this guy could be working with the decepticons."
"Interesting." Saphira was intrigued as she listened. "Accuretta Systems is here in Washington…but I didn't feel like I was being watched until I got back from Texas this week. Would that mean Jerry has been forced to follow me?"
"Or the guy is following you for something else," Wheelie said with a shrug. "He doesn't seem like the kind of guy who could stand up to the cons anyway. He seems like a wimp."
"I would act wimpy too if I was working for the decepticons," Saphira said with a light chuckle.
"I suppose that is also true, but it is concerning that this guy is stalking you, Saphira. I really think this needs to be brought to NEST." She quickly shook her head at Brains's suggestion. "Why not, Saphira? He could hurt you."
"I am not sure if he will," Saphira said thoughtfully. "Do you have more images of him creeping in the store?" Brains nodded and brought them up. She looked at the images curiously before looking at the bots. "Why would he be nervous if he intended to hurt me? I am afraid that makes little sense to me."
"He could be nervous because he has to do something he doesn't want," Wheelie said bluntly. "I don't think you are thinking very clearly here, Mrs Prime. You should inform NEST of this. You don't need to be a detective and go looking for trouble. You don't need to be doing something stupid."
"I won't do anything stupid, but I also don't want to rely on the government. They did kick me put after Galloway was no longer considered a threat to me. I hope you can understand."
Brains and Wheelie look at each other before Wheelie responded. "Wellll…I guess I understand. But you do realize that if you get hurt, Optimus will probably kill the both of us because we let you do something stupid, right?"
"I suppose he would, but I will be fine, Wheelie," Saphira reassured the bot with a smile. "I won't do anything stupid. Besides, I do want to shop and get my hair done this week, so the next few days will be interesting."
"You are hoping to provoke this Jerry guy, aren't you?" Brains asked with a frown. She nodded. "You are one crazy girl. I never thought you would do something crazy like that. But I guess we underestimate you a lot." He shrugged a little and looked at the laptop. "I wonder if it is possible to find any kind of connections between this guy and the decepticons. He might have a spicy chatroom that we can spy on."
She chuckled a little as that sounded quite funny to her. "I do not think he would have anything like that. And I also do not think the decepticons would use human technology in that way, that just seems super funny to me."
"You are right. But I still think I could find something, unless they keep things very confidential. The decepticons aren't exactly dumb." Brains hummed softly as he focused on searching. "Hmm…not finding anything yet…he did receive a message from Galloway one time." She raised an eyebrow in surprise. "But looks like the man ignored Galloway since that loser had asked Jerry to follow you around. I guess the decepticons might have enforced that rule."
"Huh…makes me think Galloway was told to tell him…and now I wonder if decepticon operatives know each other." Saphira wasn't too sure and she looked at Brains curiously. "Does Jerry have any kind of communication with Hotchkiss Gould Investments, or at least, Dylan Gould?"
Brains took a moment as he checked for that information. "Nope. Not seeing any kind of communication. I think that the operatives either know some of each other, or just do what the decepticons want without the others." He sighed with a slight grin. "Man, it feels good to actually do something that doesn't involve advancing human technology."
"I thought you enjoyed that."
"It was fun at first, but Wheeljack is mainly the one making the new advancements," Brains responded softly. "Not me, nope. My brain is better suited to this sort of thing, ya know. I enjoy investigating things and helping you out, Saphira. Especially since this seems more important. And I must admit, it does seem strange with the current mission that boys are on."
She widened her eyes in surprise. "How do you mean?"
"Well…I am not sure if I should say."
"Aw, who even cares?" Wheelie said bluntly with a frown. "Why should we have to keep things to ourselves, when Saphira has every right to know what is happening with William and Optimus Prime."
Brains listened to him and shrugged. "Yeah, you are right." He turned his body to Saphira as she listened intently to what has been happening. "He's what I do know, Saphira. Somebody reached out to the military and said there was something that they wanted to here. And he specified that it had to do with the transformers."
She frowned as she listened to him as that did seem very odd. "Why would they not see that as weird?"
"They did, the only problem is, it seems like those human leaders are stupid!" Wheelie exclaimed, raising his hands and shaking his head. "We tried telling them that going over to Ukraine was a bad idea. But nope, they decided to anyway. Barricade was very suspicious as well."
"Speaking of Barricade, I received confirmation that Barricade will be allowed to visit you today," Brains said happily, making Saphira gasp in surprise and excitement. "I think he should be here very soon, actually. Chances are we will hear a knock at the door and we will see him."
"Wonderful! We can then ask him some questions when he arrives. Especially since it sounds like Barricade seems to be suspicious as well." Saphira was so excited as she knew that Barricade had better insight on what is going on within the decepticons, and maybe ask him more about what could be on the moon.
"Don't expect Barricade to know anything about the decepticons anymore," Wheelie warned gently. "Both Brains and me were with the decepticons for a long time, and we never got the respect we deserved. And after we both abandoned the cause, we have been completely cut off from them. Barricade is lucky that Megatron seems to not care enough that he is working with the autobots."
"That is true. His priorities are something else." Saphira still knew that Megatron had been obsessed with her ever since Sector Seven. She was not ever going to forget that fact. "I guess that means we need to figure out what we are going to do until Barricade arrives."
"Why not figure out a plan for this Jerry guy?" Brains asked curiously.
"Because I would rather have Barricade here and get in on the knowledge as well," She responded with a smile. "He is also a bit more likely to keep this to himself. He might be an autobot now, he isn't by the book like Ratchet or Optimus."
"Ah, I see…and nor are we, that is why you are willing to talk about this with us," Wheelie said thoughtfully as Saphira nodded with a smile. "Well then, that makes things a lot more sense. Once Barricade arrives, and we tell him what has been happening, we will come up with a plan. However…" He gave Saphira a slightly worried look. "You do know that Optimus will find out at some point, right? He may not be totally happy that you kept this kind of information from him."
"I am aware, but I also hope he will understand. He himself is tired of the military and government over his head and giving him orders. He has noticed things had changed a lot since Egypt, and there are a lot of people that could possibly be up to no good. And I am not talking about human spies for the decepticons." Brains and Wheelie glance at each other as they were also aware of this. But they don't say it much. Saphira could see they seemed to notice too. "Even though Galloway was an operative, if he wasn't, he was dumb enough to assume the decepticons were here to hunt autobots. Even though they seemed to have come here first…even though history is kind of fuzzy."
"History? Do you mean the Seekers aren't the only ones who have been on Earth since the Fallen?" Wheelie asked in surprise, and Saphira just realized she let it slip she knew a bit about the history of humans and transformers on this planet. "Bah, what I am talking about? That sounds stupid! As far as I know, nobody has been on Earth since the Fallen until he sent his Seekers here many years ago. And while I know Optimus had Bumblebee leave Cybertron for Earth many years ago too, that was for a different reason."
"Yeah, how long as Bee been on Earth anyway?" She asked curiously. "Bee seemed to know a lot about humans before Optimus arrived. It makes me think he's been here long enough to know about us."
"Hmm…well, human vehicles didn't really get made good until the 1920's, at least that is what I think…" Wheelie shrugged a little as he thought about it. "I think he's been on this planet since…rrrr…I would like to think since the forties, but…you would have to ask Bee."
"And if Megatron came here in the 1800's…things are just interesting that is all. Still…this does seem to be making me wonder if this has anything to do with what could be on the moon." She looked at Wheelie curiously. "I do distinctly remember you saying something about the Sentinel project. I know you said you don't know much, but…"
"Okay, okay, I know a little bit. But you have to understand, I don't say it because Optimus would not want to hear it, possibly not believe it." Saphira was immediately curious as she listened to Wheelie respond to her. "Plus, I wasn't really sure if I should say anything with some NEST people around me."
"I know a bit about it too," Brains said, raising his hand like a kid in a classroom. "All I know is that the Sentinal project has something to do with Sentinel Prime, he was Optimus's mentor back on Cybertron, and he fled the planet in a ship, called the Ark, with something within its hull that he and Megatron had actually agreed upon."
Saphira stared at Brains in surprise as she didn't believe what she was hearing. "I'm sorry, what?"
"That's actually about as much as I know," Wheelie said with a nod. "We know only just a little bit, but we don't know if Sentinel Prime and Megatron even had some kind of agreement. That was just a rumor floating around." Saphira hoped that was true, but Barricade might be able to clear that up. "All I can say is, Barricade knows a bit more on this than we do. And if he has concerns about it, we should be concerned. He may not be Starscream or Soundwave, but Barricade used to be very loyal and Megatron respected him before he changed sides."
"But Megatron obviously didn't trust him enough to tell him," Saphira said thoughtfully.
"I think the only ones who know are Starscream, Soundwave and Shockwave…" She was immediately curious as she has not met or seen Shockwave before. Wheelie smiled at her as he could see the curiosity on her face. "Trust me, you do not want to meet Shockwave. Nor do you want to meet Soundwave. Those two are fiercely loyal to Megatron, and Megatron himself has some fear for the two of them, which is why he treats them with more respect than he does with his bitch, Starscream."
She chuckled a little at his brief description on how Starscream is seen and treated as. "Good to know." She heard a gentle, playful knock on the front door and she immediately turned excitedly. "Barricade!" She skipped over to the door and looked through the peep hole and spotted his holoform. She opened the door for him. "Hello, stranger! It has been so many months!"
Barricade grinned at her as he stepped through the door. "I know. I think it has been about four months since we last saw each other." He looked ahead to see the two scrap bots standing on the table with a laptop open. "I got told you wanted to spend time with me, and I was given two days."
"Two days is more than enough, Barricade. You are going to wanna see this." Brains typed on the keyboard and turned the laptop around as he and Saphira walked over. The former decepticon frowned slightly when he saw a running video of Saphira walking through the supermarket with Jerry following him. "Saphira's been sensing she has been followed. We managed to figure out who he is, and potentially link him to decepticons."
Barricade stared at the image before looking at Saphira. "Have you informed Optimus yet?" She shook her head and he raised an eyebrow at her. "And why you? You do know you could be in danger?"
"I have been in danger ever since you all came to this planet," Saphira responded nonchalantly. "And I haven't informed Optimus because he is doing something important. But we didn't really want you to come here because I have a decepticon operative spying on me. These two think that the Ukraine missions seems odd." He looked at the scrap bots with a frown as he knew they knew how he felt. "And they think it has something to do with Sentinel Prime. You have mentioned it more than once, Barricade, I think now is the time to really talk about it."
"Yeah, now that we do not have any of NEST's people around, we can talk about it freely," Wheelie said confidently with a cocky grin. "Brains and I only know a little bit. That Sentinel Prime and Megatron had some kind of an agreement. And we believe that Optimus's former mentor may not be on our side anymore."
Barricade listened quietly and took a seat at the table as he pondered on how he should respond. "I see…" He looked at Saphira as she sat down next to him. "So I guess the scrap bots told you the Ukraine mission seemed odd." She nodded affirmatively. "I guess it was a good thing I didn't get added to the mission. It is true that I have found it strange since someone reached out to NEST letting us know something has been found and asked specifically for transformers to travel over to Ukraine. It just did not sit well with me." He shrugged a little as he thought about it and his frown deepened. "And yet, no one seemed to listen to my concerns. Optimus took it into consideration though, as he also seems to notice how strange it was."
"I guess that means he will be extra cautious and let Lennox know about it." Barricade nodded and that made Saphira feel a little better. "That's good. Anyway, back to Sentinel…" He groaned a little and looked away from her. "Come on, Barricade. I don't know if they will still go through with their Sentinel plan or not, but I think it would be good if you told me what you know. Even if NEST doesn't care for what you say, I am your friend." He looked back at her as she spoke to him. "And I am happy that you turned away from the decepticons, because I would never have known how good of a person you would be."
He was silent for a few minutes as he processed what she had said. He eventually just sighed deeply and rubbed his forehead. "Alright, I will tell you what I know. It is true that Sentinel Prime and Megatron made some kind of deal on Cybertron. This happened after the All Spark was sent to this planet. I am not actually sure what the deal was, but I think the two came to some kind of an agreement, maybe some kind of truce between each other."
"But aren't Primes supposed to be wise and good?" Saphira asked Barricade curiously. "Or, I know this will make you laugh, because he saw that the war was lost on Cybertron, he decided to join with Megatron because there was no victory again like Saruman joined with Sauron in the Lord of the Rings."
The scrap bots laugh lightly and Barricade rolled his eyes at her. "I guess that is one way to look at it." She giggled softly and Barricade continued with his explanation. "Unfortunately, even though I was a good warrior for Megatron, I wasn't considered high enough to know the intricate details of the plan. It is true that Sentinel Prime fled Cybertron on the Ark many years ago. He had some technology, pillars or something, that was apparently part of the plan. I think Megatron and Sentinel were supposed to meet each other on this planet to go ahead with the plan, but as you know, that didn't happen."
"So why do you talk about something on the moon?" Saphira asked curiously.
"Because the chatter between the decepticons seem to indicate that there is a ship or something on that rock." She blinked in surprise and frowned as she knew that if there was something there, it might have already been located by humans. But she listened to Barricade as he continued. "But it was never confirmed to me. I left the decepticons before I knew more. I think it is possible the Ark is on that rock, but…to be honest, that ship did get damaged when it left Cybertron and Sentinel could have been thrown off course."
"Right." Saphira guessed that this was all Barricade knew, but she was still curious. She tapped her fingers on the table. "But why would Sentinel and Megatron come here? Aside for the All Spark."
"I don't actually think that the All Spark was actually a huge part of the plan," Barricade said softly. "And Sentinel Prime was left out of the knowledge about the Fallen, so I think Megatron actually would have handed him over to the Fallen if they both met up. As you already know, the plan to destroy or takeover this planet has been a theme among decepticons for a while."
"I still don't get why Earth is a target of all planets. There are millions of planets out there, I don't know how many even support life out there." She could see Barricade being amused by her comment and she frowned at him. "I know when the All Spark was sent away, you probably didn't know it would end up on Earth. And I don't know if it was even on Earth when Sentinel left Cybertron."
"Mmm, I am not sure on that one," Barricade said thoughtfully. "Do you think that this could be something that the decepticons are planning on next?"
"Well, unless they know of some other energon source on this planet, I am not sure why else they would be here," Saphira responded with a shrug. "If there is something on the moon, but the decepticons haven't done anything with it, it seems to me that it could be a lure. A bait. Optimus would want to rescue his mentor, and you already know how he feels about the idea of Sentinel working with Megatron."
"Yeah…I have tried to tell him more than once. But you can't really blame Optimus, Saphira. Sentinel was the one who taught Optimus the wisdom he has today, and to even think that for a moment that his mentor could betray him would not be something he wants to consider." Barricade's expression softened as Saphira seemed to understand what he meant. "Optimus and Megatron used to be close, like brothers, many years ago. He's already experienced betrayal in the worst possible way. And again, when Megatron destroyed Elita. It is why he hits the decepticons very hard now."
"That definitely makes sense. And it also makes things worse in the fact that Megatron is obsessed with me." She shivered at the very thought. She knew in her heart she could never betray Optimus. He's already been so much and she would hate to cause pain in him. "I guess maybe because you were a decepticon, he might believe you aren't telling the truth."
"If that is the case, why would I remain as an autobot? And if I was still a decepticon acting as an autobot, I could take you to Megatron right now. But I earned the right to be known as an autobot, and I am proud to be one. But with all I have said, Sentinel Prime means a lot to Optimus. However…" Barricade grabbed Saphira's hand gently and she looked at him in surprise. "I think if they did find Sentinel, you might be the only one who can warn Optimus. But I think Optimus will be hurt anyway. And he will need you."
She smiled at him at Barricade's encouragement to support Optimus. She knew that Barricade still liked her deep down, but he's accepted she was Optimus's sparkmate. And that he was encouraging her to stand by Optimus was really great to see. "Thanks for the support, Barricade. I will do my best for Optimus."
"I know you will." He smiled at her before looking at the scrap bots. "Onto the other issue, do you have a plan to deal with this Jerry?"
"Not a complete one just yet," Saphira responded quickly.
"Since I can be here for a couple days, I think I might stick around to help you." She raised an eyebrow at him as Brains brought up the image of the man on the laptop again. Barricade frowned at the image in disgust. "If this man is going to be following you, I want to help while we have the time to."
"He's not the only one she has to deal with," Wheelie said bluntly. Barricade looked at him in surprise while Saphira glared at him. "The CEO of a fancy, business, corporation spoke to Saphira at the nearby café earlier. He seemed to be trying to lure her in with some dodgy job opportunity."
"Yeah, emphasis on the tried part, though." Barricade looked at Saphira with a worried expression. "I have my suspicion he's another decepticon operative. But I am not sure. However, I have decided to remain in Washington for a while."
"Huh, the plan to go back home has been wiped I see," Barricade said in a thoughtful tone. "Sounds like there is a lot I need to know about. But if you think NEST won't need to know yet, I can keep this to myself. I am not as loyal to the human military as one might think."
Saphira was happy with that. She was glad that Barricade came over and he spoke a bit more of Sentinel Prime. It definitely seemed like there was a plan in play at the moment, and Saphira felt as though they were falling for it. She hoped that wasn't the case, even though a part of her felt that is what is happening. Nonetheless, Barricade and the scrap bots work with Saphira on her plans to deal with Jerry Wang and Dylan Gould, even though Barricade wasn't sure what they could do about the CEO as he was in a high position of power. But they got to planning anyway as they felt it was the best course of action.
