CHAPTER SUMMARY: If you get lost, you can always be found.
And sometimes, you end up finding something you weren't quite looking for, in more ways than one.
CHAPTER NOTES: Two chapters posted within the same day? For this fic? It's more likely than you think!
More bonding time for our duo! Hopefully, Optimus doesn't come across as too OOC here. Not gonna lie, I was wearing my Papa Prime-tinted glasses the whole time I wrote this. Can you blame me though?
Things were finally starting to look up for Ellie that morning. Sure, it was a rough start all around from waking up in a temporary relapse and going to the silo. Bumblebee had helped a little bit; she had no idea where he learned to sign, "May the force be with you," but if she had to guess, probably from Raf. Ratchet was…well, he was Ratchet, but that was to be expected; she just wasn't much in the mood to engage in whatever problem he had with her that time.
But then Optimus had invited her along on a scouting mission. That...never happened. Accompanying him on a safe, routine patrol was one thing, but to actually be out in the field with him was another. Ever since the space bridge incident, Ellie had, for the most part, stayed behind at base when such trips came up—only occasionally tagging along when it was okay for her and the other kids to do so, and they never went anywhere that was too far from the base. But she had only gone on a couple of scouting missions with one of the other Autobots and their human friends. This was her first time being on one with just Optimus.
And it was awesome.
She hadn't realized how much she missed the natural green until she stepped out of the ground bridge and into the Oregon forest. The fresh, crisp air with that earthen scent that came after the rain. The soft, rich dirt beneath her feet. Life, everywhere.
She tried to play it cool, but she couldn't help herself; it was hard to contain her exhilaration when they hiked through the woods. She was sure Optimus had noticed, but she couldn't find it in her to care. She was having too much fun just being out there in the wilderness, with something new to see everywhere she turned. Even the cave was a welcome sight to see.
It was the best distraction she could've asked for. She wished that it would never end...
And then she fell in a hole.
She shrieked as she plummeted into inky blackness. She was barely able to catch Optimus's voice—usually so calm and collected even when stern every time she's heard it until now—screaming her name right before it was promptly drowned out by the howling cold air all around her.
As terrifying as the ordeal was, she only fell for about five seconds until she suddenly caught onto a slope at a certain angle that mostly broke her fall, causing her to tumble the rest of the way down. As if her sense of direction needed even more throwing off. She automatically tucked into herself, arms folded around her face, in an attempt to keep from getting hurt even more.
She rolled downwards for what felt like minutes, but was really only seconds. Eventually, the slope evened out horizontally into ground level. Of course, that didn't quite stop her momentum right away. She skidded across the cold, damp floor until she slowed enough to be able to stop herself—by face-planting.
She would've said, "Ow," if her mouth wasn't full of dirt.
She pushed herself up onto her knees, only to hunch over and immediately start gagging. For the next several seconds, the only sound she could register was her own harsh coughing.
"Blegh! Nasty," she croaked out. She used her fingers to scrape the coarse, grainy texture off her tongue. She shuddered. "How did Gene used to eat this stuff all the time? Freaking gremlin."
After spitting one last time in an attempt to rid herself of the lingering, horrible taste in her mouth, she heaved deep lungfuls of air, wiping the tears out of her stinging eyes with her sleeve. Then she lowered her hands and blinked multiple times to clear her vision as she straightened her back. She stared ahead into…dark. All she could see was dark. But now she had no idea where she was in the dark.
She slumped back on her heels with a heavy sigh. Great. In retrospect, she should've known better than to step closer into that softer, wetter patch of ground back there. Everyone knows that lots of running rain water = mineral erosion. At least Optimus wasn't anywhere near it; otherwise, the whole place might have—
She gasped. "Optimus!"
She scrambled up onto her feet, her now panicked mind blocking out any potential bruising she may have endured in her fall, as well as the fact that some parts of her clothes were all wet and dirty. Whirling around, she yanked her backpack from off her shoulders, feeling around inside of it, until she fished out a flashlight. She turned it on, illuminating the long shadows around her, and hurried over to where she had fallen from, shining the beam of light through it.
"Optimus!" she called up the ascending tunnel. "Can you hear me?"
She strained her ears to pick up anything after her voice bounced off the walls and disappeared above her. After an excruciatingly long moment, she thought she heard something—a low, almost growl-like noise, but she wasn't sure exactly what it was. The way sound traveled in this cave was too incohesive.
Without waiting for anything else, she rushed forward, ready to start climbing. She was just getting a foothold until she heard another cracking, crumbling noise above her. She looked up, aiming her light—only to jerk away from the wall as fast as she possibly could.
"Nope! Nope! Nope!"
She fell back and rolled out of the way before the falling pile of rocks and boulders could crush her as they tumbled down into the room with her. She coughed from the dust that rose from their impact. When her air intake finally cleared up some moments later, she cautiously stood up again, moving away from that particular area.
"Welp," she panted. "Can't go back that way, then. New plan."
Remembering one of the rules that Optimus had told her after arriving in the forest, she pulled out her cell phone. Thankfully, it wasn't damaged from the fall. She hit Optimus's number in her contacts list and put it to her ear. Then she waited.
And waited.
But her call never went through. She checked her phone, then groaned. "Figures."
No signal, no bars, no reception. Nothing to send out even a text message. She must've been too far underground.
So she was stuck down here, by herself, where no one could call for her...
She lowered the hand that held her phone until it hung limply by her side as she stood alone in the dark, hollow cavern, the reality of the situation fully sinking in. She could feel her heartbeat beginning to pick up again, any and all noise from the cavern gradually being drowned out by a growing ringing in her ears. Then she closed her eyes and focused intently on her breathing pattern.
"Okay, okay," she whispered to herself. "Don't panic. This isn't the first time you got lost in a cave."
But this is the first time you got lost in a cave all alone.
She snarled, letting her frustration and fear take hold like a predator catching its prey in a vice-like grip—but only for five seconds. That was all she was going to give it. Then she took a deep, cleansing breath in and released it, the tension in her muscles smoothing away. She opened her eyes.
"I'm not alone," she reminded herself evenly, beginning to look around. "Optimus is still around here somewhere. I just need to..."
She trailed off as the beam of her flashlight zeroed in on a new pathway on the other side of the chamber. She scrutinized it with furrowed brows. Then, after looking around the area some more and finding that there was no other way, she looked at it again. The more she stared it, the more her intuition was telling her that she needed to follow that path; it felt like a very faint, but insistent tug in her gut, her head.
Well, it's not like you have many other options here.
But before she could do anything else, she checked herself over to ensure she was able to walk a possible long distance on a hard, uneven surface that was difficult to see—now that the panic-induced adrenaline had finally worn off. She moved each limb, twitched each finger and toe. Other than a little soreness along her abdomen area from hitting the wall, as well as some bruising in other places here and there, everything seemed accounted for. Honestly, the worst thing she endured from that fall was accidentally swallowing some dirt.
In fairness, you have endured a lot worse than a little tumble.
Instinctively, her eyes flickered down to her prosthetic, which was lightly smeared with mud along with her denim capris. She sighed wearily. But a moment later, she glared ahead, steeling herself.
"Right," she said with resolve. "New, new plan."
Without further preamble, she started down the tunnel.
The first few minutes were quiet and dreary. Ellie kept her eyes and ears on alert, but there wasn't really much to see or hear. Occasionally, she would hear the squeaking of a bat fluttering nearby, but otherwise the only noises that remained constant were drips of water and small rock debris dropping from somewhere in the distance, the sounds bouncing off the jagged walls surrounding her. Once in a while, some of the ice-cold water dropped right onto her head, making her flinch every time before wiping it off. Under her feet, a thin stream of water trickled on by ahead of her.
Once, she aimed her flashlight up a little too high and shined it onto a flock of bats hanging upside down from the ceiling and trying to sleep. A couple of them unfurled their leathery wings and let out an offended screech at her.
"Whoops," she whispered as she quickly lowered the light. "Sorry, little sky pups. Just passing through."
She braced herself, ready to run with her head down if needed. Sure, she liked bats fine, but she also liked not having rabies.
She heard a small string of clicks above her, but nothing else afterwards; she could imagine that was their way of carping, 'Yeah, you better be,' before going back to ignoring her. With a soft exhale, she kept moving, leaving them behind. The pathway occasionally got too rough even for her, making her stumble a couple of times. Still, she kept going.
Then a cold chill ran up her body when a breeze passed through, and she shivered. Her now damp clothes didn't exactly help with the matter. She inhaled shakily, watching as the shadows all around her seemed to stretch on for infinity the further down she went. With that thought, another lightning bolt of anxiety flashed through her veins. Automatically, she started humming one of her favorite songs to herself—an old song she vaguely remembered being sung to her when she was a little girl. It was one of the few coping mechanisms that helped to calm her nerves whenever the stress became too much for her—at least, whenever she was alone and a panic attack wasn't hindering her breathing pattern.
She shivered again only half a minute later, her body still rigid. She quieted for a moment, considering. Then she started to sing the lyrics aloud, low and soft.
"Stars shining bright above you
Night breezes seem to whisper, 'I love you'
Birds singing in the sycamore tree
Dream a little dream of me"
She continued singing into the rest of the song as she pressed on, even when she heard a distant, indecipherable rumbling from somewhere in the distance. The further she walked, the more her voice would ever so slightly grow louder, and in turn, her muscles began to relax more. She stopped walking about a minute later when she came to a split in the path. She took a moment to look between the two tunnels once before her gaze was pulled, almost like a magnet, to the one on the right, which she noticed was where the water flowed down. Her face wrinkled thoughtfully. Then, with careful steps, she took the right passageway. She picked back up on her singing shortly after. She didn't stop whenever she came across a couple of more splits along the way, opting to keep taking the one where the water went.
"Sweet dreams 'til sunbeams find you
Sweet dreams to leave all worries behind you
But in your dreams, whatever they be
Dream a little dream of me
Dream a little dream of—"
She stopped abruptly when the beam of her flashlight caught onto something just ahead of her: a soft, blue glow reflecting off her light from another passageway around a corner. She squinted at it before she picked up her pace, not removing the light from the glow. She rounded the corner until she found herself in another large cavern.
Then her breath was stolen from her lungs as she stared, awestruck, at the sight that awaited her, her eyes wide and mouth open. Growing out of the ground, as well as adorning parts of the walls and ceiling, stood great, ginormous conglomerations of glittering, blue, crystal-like formations. Their stunning hue illuminated the entire room. They almost looked to her like huge mounds of sapphire, or aquamarine gemstones, but they couldn't be—not with the bright, otherworldly luminescence emanating from their forms.
Ellie stared in absolute wonder, her flashlight slipping from her loosened fingers and clattering to the ground. "Oh, wow!" she exclaimed, her voice carrying across the entire cavern.
"Ellie!"
She was instantly jolted out of her stupor by that voice calling for her—a voice she couldn't have been happier to hear right then. Followed by that, there came a rumble of thudding but easily recognizable footsteps getting closer. She spun around and darted out of the room, back into the tunnel. She turned into the direction she heard him—the direction opposite of where she had come from. And there Optimus was. His headlights, as well as his bright cerulean optics, stood out in the darkness and fixated right onto her with pinpoint accuracy.
Ellie couldn't help it; her mouth split into a wide, beaming grin as a rush of joy and relief flooded all throughout her body. "Optimus!"
"Ellie!"
She bounded straight toward him, and he moved with a shade more urgency than she's normally seen him use toward her. Then he sank to his knees, the ground shaking dully from the impact, dropping his scanner off to the side as he reached out for her.
"Little one…" The words came out of him in a low, sonorous whisper the moment she ran into his waiting hands, and he brought her close. His optics painstakingly searched her up and down while his fingers gently wrapped up and around her, as though he were expecting her to dissipate into smoke any second.
"Are you alright? Are you hurt?"
She shook her head, clutching onto his thumb. "I'm fine, Optimus. Really."
After Optimus looked her over once more to be absolutely sure, Ellie felt as much as heard a hydraulic-like hiss exuding from his frame—a sound very similar to the one his air brakes made when settling in vehicle form after a long drive. At the same time, the armor plating around his shoulders shifted with a small creak. The entire action gave off a distinctive, robot-equivalent impression of someone sagging in relief after a prolonged amount of tension.
I...I actually made him worried.
That staggering realization caused Ellie's smile to fade away. She only had a small moment to fully recognize the difference in how she was seeing him now to how she saw him when they first met—from a robotic alien who came off as so stoic and jaded, to an old but gentle soul who actually cared so much. A part of her questioned what had changed since then; was he beginning to show more of his caring side, or has she just been around him long enough now to where she could start to see the signs better?
Either way, the notion that them being unwillingly separated had caused him such stress made the happiness drain out of her. In its place, her insides grew heavy, wracked with guilt.
"I'm so sorry!" she burst out.
Optimus blinked his optics with a faint click before they widened a touch, his lip-plates parting. But Ellie didn't notice as she started to ramble on without any sense of forethought, "I—I tried going back the way I came! I tried to call you! But I couldn't reach you! I should've—I didn't know what—"
"Ellie. Ellie, stop," Optimus cut in with a voice that was somehow both assertive and tender in a way that only he could accomplish with his baritone.
She fell quiet, leaving her nearly breathless. From behind her, she could feel his fingers lightly pressing against her back, and almost immediately, her muscles started to loosen.
"Calm down, it's alright," he assured her. "I'm not upset with you, and you have absolutely nothing to be sorry for. I…" He paused, looking away as his facial expression became both rigid and somber at the same time. "If anyone is at fault for what happened, it's me."
"What?" she said in a loud whisper, her guilt quickly being replaced with incredulity.
"I thought the structural integrity of the cave was stable, but I was wrong."
"You couldn't have known that for sure."
His optics shuttered momentarily. "Even so, I should've made certain that every inch of the area was secure before allowing us to proceed."
Ellie's mouth opened, but words failed her at first, thrown by the sudden role reversal between them in regards to blaming themselves. She looked down, chewing on her lower lip in thought. Then she looked back up. When she spoke again, she lightened her tone a touch.
"Yeah, that's the thing about nature and the environment here on Earth: as beautiful as it is, it can also be unpredictable and uncontrollable, even for us Earthlings. Which, in a lot of ways...makes it kind of scary."
Optimus's eyes flicked back to her, the tightness around them just barely starting to ease. A long moment later, he finally replied, "I know what you mean."
"You do?"
He nodded. "You should've seen us Autobots when we found ourselves driving on ice and snow for the first time."
Her eyes went big at the implication. "Ohhh. That bad, huh?"
He released a small hum of confirmation. "We were not aware of how hazardous the roads could be in your winter conditions. We had to request Agent Fowler's help in navigating our way through it."
Ellie felt a smile creeping up at that, but she promptly forced it back down to not come across as rude. She could imagine it now: the Autobots, completely unsuspecting of how slick icy roads were, suddenly careening out of control in different directions, and then Fowler saying through the comm link, "You gotta steer into the skid!"
She quickly shook her head, keeping from getting completely off topic. "Well, I guess what I'm saying here is, if we're gonna blame someone here, let's blame mother nature. I mean, I respect her and all, but…" she took a second to sweep some ground up rock dust from her hair, "…yeah, she can be a jerk sometimes."
For a long moment, Optimus did not respond, glancing away reflectively. Based on how the blue in his optics dilated with a faint whir, he seemed to be looking somewhere far away. But when he finally focused back onto her, it was like whatever had been afflicting his thoughts gradually melted away, his features softening. Then, in a delicate and almost hesitant manner, he lifted a finger and smoothed back some of her hair that had fallen over her face, gently caressing her head—an action that surprised her almost as much as it soothed her. Her shoulders relaxed as she felt a wave of warmth flow through her previously chilled body.
"I'm just glad that you're safe now," he rumbled lowly.
After releasing whatever tension that remained in her body through a long exhale, she smiled up at him. "Yeah…I'm glad you're okay too."
One of his metal brows raised a touch, as well as a corner of his lips, as though he were wondering what she could've possibly been worried about in regard to his well-being, but appreciating the sentiment nonetheless.
"Did you truly find your way through these tunnels all by yourself?" he then asked her, sounding like he almost couldn't believe it.
She chuckled sheepishly. "Well, it wasn't like I knew exactly where I was going."
Then she suddenly perked up with a gasp, remembering. Her grin instantly returned with eagerness. "Oh, right! Optimus, you gotta come see what I found!"
She pointed back the way she had come from, shifting in his hands to indicate that she wanted down.
"Ellie..?" he said uncertainly, reluctant to comply.
"Trust me, you wanna see this! I promise you'll like it!"
His metal brows furrowed questioningly, but in the end he decided to indulge her, setting her back down to the ground.
"Come on, it's just this way!"
She hurried back down the tunnel, Optimus already following closely behind, ensuring she remained within reaching distance. He clearly did not want a repeat of earlier events; she couldn't blame him one bit. In no time, she was back in the cavern full of the giant, blue crystals. She swiped up her flashlight from off the floor before she stopped in the middle and turned to face Optimus. He had come to a halt at the entrance of the chamber, staring all around him with an unreadable expression. When he finally settled his gaze onto Ellie, she spread her arms wide with a smile.
"Well? Are these the rocks we're looking for?"
At first, all he did was blink his optics at her, something passing through them in under a second. But it wasn't long until he stepped further into the room, looking around once more before regarding Ellie with a small but genuine smile.
"Yes. Yes, they are."
Her own smile widened, elated that her little misadventure in the cave wasn't for nothing.
They then approached the nearest glowing cluster. Ellie stood a couple of yards in front of it, the mound stacked at nearly fifteen feet high. Meanwhile, Optimus crouched down behind her, the upper half of his body looming over her.
"So this is energon," she mused aloud as she inspected it. "The fuel and lifeblood of all Cybertronians."
"Indeed."
With wrinkled eyebrows, she stepped forward and rested a hand against it, the texture of the crystal-like matter surprisingly smooth and warm beneath her skin. And…was it just her, or did it feel like the rock was vibrating a little? Like a very faint, but consistent pulse. She looked back at Optimus, who was watching her with sharpened optics.
"I take it you don't actually use it like this, right? It's too solid," she surmised.
He shook his head. "This is energon in its most raw form. Much like how the energy sources of your planet are utilized, it must first be purified and refined. And in this state…" he slid a servo between her and the energon, gently coaxing her to take a step back while he gave her a warning look, "…it is highly combustible."
"Oh, right. Giant explosion from the mines," she muttered, holding back a shudder as she remembered her first day at the Autobot base, with the raging blue wall of fire nearly infiltrating the ground bridge before it was cut off. She didn't want a front-row repeat of that if she could help it.
After mentally shaking away the memory, she asked Optimus, "So, how long does it take for energon to take form in the ground?"
"Thousands of years. Sometimes millions, depending on the density of the vein." He reached his own hand out and placed it atop the cluster, feeling along its surface. "This one seems a bit younger than some I have seen on this world."
"Really?" She paused unsurely before asking, "How can you tell?"
He looked down at her once, then placed his open hand down to the ground in front of her. "Here."
Curious, she climbed on, and he slowly lifted her up until he had her suspended right over the energon. She leaned over his curled fingers a little to get a better look.
"See the shapes along the end?" He guided her gaze by pointing to the edges of the cluster, where it appeared to be more triclinic. "The more angles it has, the younger they are. Over time, it becomes affected by weathering within its growing space, becoming more tetragonal. Eventually, it would turn more cubic, if we were to leave it be."
Ellie stared raptly. "Cool, it transforms its shape like you," she said in a hushed voice.
She felt Optimus's hand shaking faintly underneath her while a low, deep hum came from behind, but it was more resounding than usual. She glimpsed back in astonishment just as his smile settled back down.
If she didn't know any better, she'd say that almost sounded like a legitimate laugh.
Wordlessly, he put her back down beside him.
"You say this is a younger deposit?" she asked.
"It seems so."
She moved away a few paces as she looked around her, contemplating. A few moments later, she noticed the small stream of water that had guided her to the energon in the first place, flowing toward the far side of the room, where she could see another opening, well as a few shallow pools of water scattered here and there. It was also running through a wide, muddy groove in the ground, indicating that not too long ago, the water level had been much higher and moved with more force through the cavern.
"All the rainwater from the storm must've eroded away some of the rock walls around them," she deduced.
"Hmm..." Optimus consulted his scanner. "That would account for the faint pulse we were able to pick up back at base. The subterranean mineral compositions on Earth often conceal energon signatures from our sensors."
"Until the flood came."
"Precisely."
She regarded the mounds of energon once more with a small smile. "So, that's it, then? You guys can make more fuel for yourselves now?"
He turned to her and nodded. "First things first, though..." with a metallic noise, his right hand broke apart, changing into a razor-sharp blade, "...we will bring back a sample for Ratchet to scan, to fully ensure it is safe for proper use."
In one swift motion, he sliced clear through the top of the cluster, catching the chunk of energon easily with his other hand as it fell.
She let out a soft sigh, relieved that they were finally about to leave the cave. She went to stand by Optimus just as his blade retracted back into a hand.
"Once we are back outside, I will contact Ratchet and notify him of our find."
Hearing this, her smile turned wry. "Yeah, you can tell him we found his special rocks."
Optimus shot her a pointed look that didn't quite come across as serious as one would initially gather—at least, not to her. "I will not be using those words," he said in his most neutral tone.
Ellie snorted. "Yeah, I know," she replied, her voice coming out strained from having to hold in her laughter while she mentally added, Wouldn't want Ratchet leaving a wrench-sized dent in your armor.
In turn, Optimus appraised her with a subtle tilt of his head, his features easing into a more pensive, yet soft expression. But he said nothing more on the matter as he stood up to his full height, both of them preparing to head for the exit.
But then Optimus took a step as he turned, shifting his weight onto his foot at just the right spot close to the wall, and a dull crack resounded. A large chunk of rock broke off from the wall, falling toward them.
Ellie felt her heart stop momentarily, but then the next thing she knew, she was scooped right up from the ground by Optimus, the Autobot leader moving with much quicker reflexes than she'd ever seen him, as he flipped out of the way within a second. He had her tucked close to his chest as he landed in a crouching position, away from the crumbling debris.
For a long moment, they were quiet and still, simply watching as the dust settled around the rubble. Both of their bodies were wound tight, as if expecting more danger to follow right after. Ellie's heart raced, and she may have been imagining it, but she could've sworn that even felt Optimus's spark beating from right behind her in his protective hold; at least, that had to be what that thrumming vibration was coming from against his chassis.
Dang it, mother nature, Ellie thought grudgingly.
The two then looked at each other, unblinking.
"Um, do you think it'd be better if you just carried—"
"Yes."
The sun had fully risen into the eastern sky when Ellie and Optimus finally emerged from the cave, indicating that it was midmorning. Once Ratchet had them bridged back to base to scan the energon sample like Optimus had said, Ellie used that time to retreat to the communal washroom on the other side of the main room to clean herself up as best she could. She scrubbed any remaining dirt off her face and clothes, then dried them off under one of those automatic hand driers.
As she stepped out of the washroom some minutes later, pulling her now warm, dry hoodie back on over her head, she heard her phone alerting her of a text message. After pushing her arms into the sleeves and sweeping her hair back, she pulled her phone out as she stepped further into the main area. In the background, she could vaguely hear Optimus and Ratchet speaking quietly among themselves while she unlocked her phone.
Since becoming regular visitors at the Autobot base (or, as Optimus dubbed it officially: Autobot Outpost Omega One), Ellie and the other kids not only had their phones patched into the base's comm link system, but they had been made to where they could send out calls and messages while still residing within the safety of the silo walls. It was a technological feat that Ratchet—and with much help from Raf, to the medic's grudging acceptance—had managed to make easier for communication between them without risk of being tracked by potential threats. Ellie wasn't going to pretend to fully understand the details; she was just glad for the convenience.
Not to mention, extremely lucky, considering the text she was currently receiving was from her grandmother. Ellie checked the time, seeing that it was around the time the elder woman would be on her first break. She read the message:
Not dead in a ditch somewhere? –Isla
Ellie couldn't help but let out a light scoff. Of course that was how Isla checked in to make sure she was alright, in reference to their talk that first week they moved in. She texted back:
Nope. Out with friends. You? –Ellie
She only had to wait ten seconds before she got a reply:
No, but getting there. Today is hell. Going to be home late. –Isla
Ellie frowned a little as she stopped walking, biting her lip as an indistinct feeling of disappointment fluttered in her stomach for a passing moment. In the end, though, she wasn't all that surprised. Weekends were usually when vet clinics were at their busiest, and Isla has been picking up more hours then—to the point where the only time they really interacted with each other lately was on some mornings and weeknights at around meal times.
Then again, it wasn't like Ellie was helping by spending most of her time with alien robots on her end, so did she really have room to feel even a little bit discouraged? Not to mention, there wasn't much for them to talk about with each other when they did interact. Just a couple of questions regarding what happened to each other that day and the occasional blunt comment from Isla. It was pretty much always like that between them, even before Ellie was sent to live with her over four years ago.
Still…
The buzz of her phone alerting her of a new message tore her out of her thoughts, and she looked down to read it:
Leftover lasagna is in the fridge if you get hungry –Isla
And that was it.
Ellie sighed before she sent an affirmative text. Then she put her phone away, knowing that was likely the last she was going to hear from Isla for the rest of the day. She made her way back to Optimus and Ratchet, the former sparing her a searching but overall gentle glance at her approach. While Ratchet finished examining the energon sample and deeming it fit for use, the negative thoughts and feelings that Ellie had gradually drifted away. And by the time Ratchet summoned the rest of the Autobots to assist in extracting the rest of the energon, any feelings of discomfort were gone, out of sight and out of mind.
It was a quarter past eleven in the morning when Ellie found herself back in Oregon. She was perched comfortably on Optimus's red shoulder plating, her shoes braced against the top frame of the windshield located on his chassis. She finished drinking the rest of her (now lukewarm) tea from her thermos while she watched Arcee, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee haul the last of the mineable energon out of the cave.
"This is all we could salvage without risking a total cave-in, boss," Bulkhead informed.
"It is more than enough, Bulkhead," Optimus assured him.
"Kinda surprised Miko's not here with you, running headlong into the cave," Ellie remarked.
Bulkhead barked out a laugh. "Nah, she's spending the day with her host parents."
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah, but not by choice. She made that very clear when she called me earlier, begging me to come 'save' her."
Ellie said nothing in response to that, taking the last sip of tea. She hasn't met Miko's host parents yet, but from the stories the transfer student has told, they could be nagging and overbearing, just like Miko's real parents back in Tokyo—wanting her to follow rules and making sure she did all her schoolwork. Which, if you knew Miko, didn't exactly mix well.
From the sounds of it, though, and despite Miko's blatant complaining, they sounded to Ellie like…well, like normal parents. Normal parents who were just looking out for their kid and wanted what was best for them.
But what did she know? It's been a good while since she's interacted with anything remotely close to what would be considered a "nuclear family." And from the stories Raf had told her, he had a rather big nuclear family himself, albeit she hasn't met any of them yet either.
Must be nice, though...
Abruptly shaking away those thoughts, Ellie put her thermos away before she looked to Optimus and asked him, "How long do you think this energon will last you guys?"
Optimus took a moment to consider, calculating. "Based on how much we've mined, and how we usually keep track of our reserve usage barring no complications, we should be fine for...approximately one month before we will need to restock."
She brightened a little. "Yeah? That's great."
"Yes, it is."
Then Arcee told her with a dry smirk, "Way to literally stumble into it, kid."
Ellie averted her gaze with a diffident smile. "Yep. Just dumb luck, I guess," she muttered.
But then Bumblebee reached up and lightly poked her while emitting a high buzz, followed by a lower one. She didn't know what he said, but just by the tones, she could easily tell that it was something teasing.
It was years of Isla influence that made her automatically yelp, "Oi!" while batting at his finger on reflex, only for her to shut her mouth immediately afterwards and retract her hand, her face heating up. But it was hard to stay embarrassed with Bumblebee's unique but contagious laughter making her ease up and snicker quietly along.
And if she thought she felt a low, scarcely perceptible rumble coming from Optimus, she kept that to herself while the others' attention was diverted away from her, going back to finishing up collecting the energon.
Ellie watched as the three Autobots eventually carted off the last of the energon through the ground bridge. "I guess we'd better head back too, huh?" she said.
There was a brief silence before Optimus spoke up in response, "We could…"
Ellie turned to meet his gaze, puzzled by the slightly imploring tone in his voice as he continued, "Or, if you wish, we could drive somewhere."
Her eyebrows rose, bewildered. "Drive somewhere?" she echoed carefully.
"Yes. I believe you call it a road trip, and there is a road approximately two miles southeast from here. We would start there."
"And go where?"
His optics flicked away for a second before he replied with a strange elusiveness, "A place I have in mind, but it's up to you."
For a long moment, she was quiet, mulling over what he was offering her. She supposed it wouldn't be much different from their drives around Jasper and the surrounding desert, only in a completely different place than they were used to. Not to mention, a chance to spend more time with Optimus? That was impossible to turn down.
Still, she couldn't help but ask uncertainly, "You really want to? Even after, you know..." she glanced back at the cave, "...after what happened back there?"
To her surprise, the answer he provided had a lilt of shrewdness to it, "As I recall, we agreed to blame mother nature for that."
A startled chuckle escaped her. "Right, we did."
His expression gradually warmed. "Is that a yes?"
After collecting herself, she nodded once. "Yeah. I do like road trips."
He gave her one of those nearly-there smiles of his before notifying Ratchet of their plans via comm link, and shortly afterwards the ground bridge shrank into nothingness. Then Optimus looked out in the direction he'd proclaimed the road was, inspecting the area for a moment, before looking back to her inquiringly. "Do you wish to be set down to walk?"
She hesitated for a moment, shifting feebly in her spot. "Actually, if it's alright with you...I'd like to stay up here."
This time, he actually did smile; it was small, but still filled with boundless reassurance. "Of course it's alright."
With that, he started walking. He made sure to keep his movements smooth—especially when crossing some rough terrain—so as not to jostle Ellie, who kept a steady grip on his armor plating from the swaying motion.
"Are you comfortable?" he asked her a few minutes later.
"Yeah, I'm good," she replied truthfully. She had to admit, being brought up so high had been intimidating to her at first—such as humans would naturally feel while being so far from the safety of the ground. But it didn't take long for her to get used to the experience. In fact, she's grown to really enjoy it, being able to see out farther than she ever could at her shorter-than-average height of five feet one inch. It was always a breathtaking sight, and the world looked so different from his perspective.
Plus, who else could say that they got to get a ride on a thirty-foot tall robot? A thirty-foot tall robot who she knew would never let her fall—would always make sure she was safe up there with him.
"It's still hard to believe," Ellie said aloud, regaining Optimus's attention, as she stared down at the ground below her, with Optimus's pedes making it quake slightly with each step. Then she looked out into the forest around them. "That you get to see everything from way up here all the time. I mean, I know it's normal for you and all, but for me?" She grinned. "I feel like a giant."
"Hmm, indeed," he replied with faint amusement. Then he too looked outward, and his expression changed into one of wistfulness. "I must say, it took some time for us Autobots to grow accustomed to the difference in scale here—to the fact that, upon this world, we are considered titans."
Ellie tilted her head at the comparison. She tried to imagine what it'd be like if their roles were reversed; to have her be on a planet where she was considered too big. She'd have to watch her step and be on her guard every second of every day—like in Gulliver's Travels.
"Everything must seem so small and fragile to you here," she said softly.
Optimus turned his head toward her once more with a knowing look that she couldn't quite place. "Not everything. And while most are in appearance, they are not without their own surprises and merit."
She blinked, unsure of how to respond to that. Luckily, she didn't have to; Optimus returned his gaze to the path ahead of them and continued onwards, seemingly content with her silence.
Soon, Ellie could see the long, grey stretch of an empty, two-way road through the line of trees ahead of them. Optimus spotted it too and stopped. His optics moved to and fro, as though scanning for something—most likely checking for any oncoming cars, she had to guess. Then, with a quiet nod to himself, he reached up and gently wrapped his fingers entirely around Ellie's midsection, carefully removing her from his shoulder. But instead of setting her down like she expected him to do, he told her, "Hold on."
She was just starting to ask what he meant by that, but her words were promptly drowned out by the familiar sound of a transformation, which was exactly what Optimus was doing while holding her. Before she knew it, she was being moved swiftly yet harmlessly through a tunnel of interchanging mechanical parts all around her, making her feel disoriented. The sensation didn't last long, thankfully, and soon she was safely placed into the passenger seat of Optimus's semi-truck form.
She blinked a few times, looking around her as the last bits of metal Cybertronian alloy set themselves into their designated places for his alt mode. "Whoa," she murmured to herself, getting her bearings back. "So that's what it's like."
His engine revved, causing the interior to vibrate slightly, as she removed her backpack and placed it down by her feet.
"Are you ready?" Optimus asked her after she buckled her seatbelt.
She sat back with a growing smile. "Mm-hm. Let's roll out."
She could almost hear the smile in his own voice when he replied to that with, "I couldn't have said it better myself."
He started moving slowly. It was a little bumpy at first, driving on uneven ground, but soon he passed through the trees. And once they were on the open road, he increased his speed, and they were off.
"Where are we going?" Ellie questioned a few minutes later. She knew she had pretty much already asked that question, with little results. But she felt she ought to ask again on the off chance he'd give her a straight answer this time.
He didn't.
"You'll see," was all he said.
Her eyes narrowed a bit as she sat in reluctant silence, curious as to why he was suddenly so secretive, but also not wanting to annoy him by pressing even further.
Before she could ponder any further on the matter, however, Optimus asked her, "Would you like to listen to the radio?"
At first, all she did was stare at the dashboard with raised eyebrows. Okay, that's new. They didn't normally listen to the radio while on a drive, opting to either talk amongst each other, or remain in companionable silence.
"Uh, sure," she said, still thrown. With some hesitance, she reached for the tuning knob on the console.
"Do you...have a preference?" she felt the need to ask. After all, it was his radio; technically, it was a literal part of him, but she digressed. And according to most people's rules of the road, the driver always picked the music—no arguments.
"Not particularly," Optimus answered. "Though I have to admire how diverse your planet's genres of music are. We never had such variety back on Cybertron."
"Yeah, there's a lot to choose from here, depending on what you like. Like Raf and Bumblebee are into that techno mix stuff. Jack likes some of the rock music from the nineties and two-thousands—at least, that's what I usually hear him playing on his phone while helping out Arcee with chores at base."
"Yes. I'm also aware that Miko and Bulkhead are more partial to what is called...screech metal?"
Ellie couldn't help the grimace her face pulled. "Yeah, but that's not really for me."
He hummed thoughtfully. "How about you pick something that you like?"
She bit her lip, idly turning the knob and getting some static and indistinct voices as feedback at first. "Well, I don't know. A lot of stations don't really play what I—"
She stopped when she picked up familiar instrumental music playing, followed by the vocals of Creedence Clearwater Revival.
"Someone told me long ago
There's a calm before the storm
I know, it's been coming for some time
When it's over, so they say
It'll rain a sunny day
I know, shining down like water..."
Ellie retracted her hand and sat back in her seat again, letting the song continue to play. I guess that'll work, she thought. If the station she had stopped at played this song, then it was likely they played more like it, from that era. She would've preferred a little further back, but that would've been too reaching. Her eyes briefly flickered to the dashboard, waiting for Optimus to say something, either in approval or even criticism at her choice. But Optimus had fallen silent, making her unsure of whether he was listening for himself, or simply had no qualms at all and drove on while not even registering what was playing.
With a soft sigh, she shifted a little so that most of her weight settled against the door on her right side, propping her elbow onto the armrest and resting her chin in her hand as she stared out the window.
That was how it was for the next hour and a half or so, with Optimus driving along the long, winding road to only he knew where, and Ellie listening (and absentmindedly humming along) to whatever song played on the radio while she watched the scenery roll by them—which often switched from forests, to rock walls surrounding them, or small towns that consisted of rest stops, gas stations, and strange little tourist attractions.
It was a long while later when she finally started to suspect where they were going. It was when she noticed a sign directing them onto US Route 199, heading south, southeast. She stopped humming along to U2's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, and sat up straighter with anticipation, but otherwise made no indication that she had any idea. She didn't want to get her hopes up too high.
But it was hard not to—not when the woodsy terrain started to gradually get denser whenever they weren't passing through a town. The trees seemed to get taller and thicker the further they went.
It wasn't until they passed a sign welcoming them to California, along with other signs that notified them of various national parks the state had to offer, that Ellie finally spoke up.
"Hey, Optimus?" Her voice was small, riddled with caution.
His voice, in contrast, was the epitome of serene. "Yes, Ellie?"
"We wouldn't happen to be on the Redwood Highway, would we?"
He had the audacity to delay his answer for a long, suspenseful moment, his tone unchanging, "We would."
It took a tremendous amount of willpower for Ellie to keep back the squeal that threatened to rise up from her chest and into her throat. She swallowed it down forcefully an embarrassingly long moment later.
"Oh…" She hated that her voice came out more high-pitched than normal. "Cool. Cool, cool, cool, cool…"
She didn't know why she was only able to say that one word over and over; it was like the rest of her vocabulary had completely abandoned her. Shut up. Just—stop talking now.
"You had said once that you wanted to see this place someday," Optimus explained, seemingly unperturbed by her less-than-formal response. "And I figured that, since we were already around in the area, we would go and see it together."
Ellie just stared at the dashboard, but deep down, her heart was swelling until it felt like it might burst right out of her chest. So many things were going through her head at that moment, but the most notable was, He remembers that? That was a couple of days after the Science Fair Incident at school, and he was helping her plant the primrose seeds for her second science project on the rooftop of the base. They had gotten onto the topic of plant growth during that time, and how tall some of them can become. And she had said, mainly just in passing, "If you really want to see how tall some plants on Earth can get, you should check out the Redwood Forest over in California. I've never seen them in person, but they're supposed to be some of the tallest trees in the world. It'd be amazing to see just how tall they are someday."
It was astounding. She barely remembered saying that. The fact that he did, and actually went out of his way, taking time out of his (probably busy) schedule to take her was...well, she was flabbergasted, to say the least.
But she was also extremely touched. She couldn't recall the last time anyone had made an effort to do something like this just because. For her.
"You...you didn't have to—" she started to say, but the rearview mirror tilted toward her, and she shut her mouth.
"I wanted to," was all he said, but the gentle, profound way he said it told much more than he could convey in his current form. At least, that was what she could sense, somehow.
Then, to her horror, she felt her throat begin to close up, along with a familiar, stinging sensation starting behind her eyes. She internally panicked as she frantically tried to recompose herself before he could notice anything was wrong, clearing her throat.
Eventually, after having managed to put a rein on her emotions, her lips twitched up into a slightly shaky smile while she uttered, "Heh...cool."
Good God, what is wrong with you?
Fortunately for her, that was enough for him. He drove on, passing through Crescent City as they moved onto US Route 101 southbound. Ellie turned back to look out the window in silence again—only this time with a barely restrained grin forming on her face.
And by the time they finally reached the heart of Redwood Country several minutes later, there was absolutely no chance of holding back her unbridled awe.
"Ho-ly Moses," she drew out breathily as she leaned out of her now rolled down window, Optimus having slowed his speed. She had to crane her head back to see way up at the tall, thick redwoods surrounding them on all sides. They seemed to stretch on straight into the sky, heavenward. "The pictures do not do them justice."
"No, they do not," Optimus agreed.
A few minutes later, Ellie's attention was grabbed by his side-view mirror shifting next to her, as though he were checking to see if there was anyone behind him, in which there was not; they had been lucky not to come across much traffic while on the road. Then Optimus carefully turned off the road and into an open clearing between some of the trees. He went as far as he could until the road was out of sight. He slowed to a stop, his air brakes hissing.
At Ellie's questioning look, Optimus said, "I thought you might like to walk around and see them up close. This is the most remote area I scanned. It should be suitable for both of us," The seatbelt around her unfastened itself, sliding back into place, while the passenger door opened.
Ellie grinned, elation bubbling in her chest, as she grabbed for her backpack and all but threw herself out of his cab—which only resulted in her accidentally skipping one of his steps and nearly losing her footing. Her hand instinctively shot out and grabbed onto the railing before she could completely fall—and possibly eat more dirt.
"Easy now," Optimus gently chastened as the step beneath her automatically rearranged itself with a hydraulic-like noise to accommodate her.
"Sorry, sorry! Got a little excited," she said with an awkward giggle.
"I can see that."
She removed herself from his vehicle mode, and once she was a good distance away, he finally allowed himself to transform, rising to his full height. He loosely rolled his limbs, his joints clacking, like one would usually do after sitting down or being cooped up for too long. She smiled, glad that he could take in the sights with her in his true form. Hopefully, the remote area that they were in would stay that way. She figured it'd be fine; most places such as this were not as busy during the school year. And even if that wasn't the case, the Redwood Highway was also notorious for its various tourist traps along its road to lure in other travelers.
Ellie looked all around her, just basking in the grandness of where she was while deeply inhaling that old, but strong wooden scent that wafted in the air. Then she made her way over to one of the larger redwoods some ways away. She was right earlier: looking at photographs of them simply did not compare to standing before them, in person. The trunk alone dwarfed her by being almost twenty feet wide in diameter, while reaching for the sky at what she estimated to be about two hundred feet.
She stepped closer, carefully climbing over one of the large roots that no doubt burrowed deep into the earth. Then she reached out and placed a hand onto the trunk, feeling the rough, solid bark against her palm. It was almost hard for her to believe; she was used to dealing with small plants that lived to be only a few months old at the longest. But these massive behemoths have been around for longer than she was ever going to live, and will be around for even longer, most likely.
She was pulled out of her thoughts by Optimus's approach from behind. She looked over her shoulder at him. He was gazing straight up at the top of the redwood. Even for him, it was huge.
I guess the same could be said about him, right? she mused wistfully, as she watched one of the oldest, tallest sentient beings she's ever seen take in one of the oldest, tallest natural phenomenon's of Earth.
"You were right," Optimus said, breaking the calm silence, although his voice came out remarkably hushed. He placed his own servo onto the trunk at his level of height. "They are...monumental."
Ellie looked closer at him, and was startled to see his optics a touch wider than they usually were, mouth parted slightly.
If there was a look that perfectly portrayed quiet wonder, Optimus would be doing it.
Then he lowered his gaze onto her. "What can you tell me about them?"
Ellie stared back inquisitively. "What do you want to know?"
"For starters..." he looked up at the top of the redwood once more, "...how tall are they capable of growing?"
She took a moment to rack her brain for what she'd learned from reading all about redwood trees, back from when she had done a research paper on them in school the year before she moved to Jasper.
"Um...as tall as around three hundred, to three hundred and fifty feet," she recited. "I once read that they may have grown even taller than that in the past, when they used to be able to live much longer—before people started cutting them down and stuff like that."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah. These things can live to be hundreds of years old. And I think the oldest known one is said to be over three thousand, even though it's not technically alive anymore. Pretty wild, right?"
A corner of Optimus's lips curled up. "I suppose it would be to you."
Recognizing the implication of his words, she couldn't help but smirk humorously back. "Right. I sometimes forget you're, like, a bazillion years old."
He quirked a metal brow as he regarded her astutely. "I am actually five million."
There was a beat of silence where every muscle in Ellie's face slackened, just staring vacantly back at him because Good Lord five million?! She knew he was old compared to humans, of course—ancient, even—but to put an actual age on him was...mind-boggling, to say the least. It was probably something to delicately unpack for much later. Not that it was cause for existential conflict. Or anything like that.
But for now, having let that sink in, she smoothed herself over with a lighthearted scoff. "Oh, is that all?"
He merely let out a deep, but good-natured rumble in response to that.
Then they both froze when they heard a different sort of rumbling suddenly emerge, only this time it came from Ellie's stomach. She inhaled sharply, placing a hand over it, while Optimus frowned in concern.
"Ah...whoops," she mumbled, blushing, as her stomach finally settled.
"Was that...your internal tank?" Optimus asked. He knelt down and gently turned her around to fully face him to get a better look, his concern unwavering.
"My internal...? Oh, you mean my stomach? Yeah, I guess it was," she said, even though deep down, she wasn't surprised. She hadn't eaten anything since the night before. And with everything that went on today, food was basically last priority. It just...slipped her mind.
But that wasn't all. Whenever she had bad nights, she tended to not eat as much the following day, her appetite nearly nonexistent, her stomach twisting into knots whenever she tried. It was a bad habit, she knew, and she's tried to break it over the years. But that was the thing about bad habits: they were difficult to break.
Then she blinked and looked up at Optimus curiously. "Wait, your guys', um, internal tanks make noises too?"
"Yes, they do..." he paused, a thought seeming to have occurred to him, before his eyes slowly narrowed, his frown deepening at her, "...but only when we are in dire need of fuel and sustenance."
Somehow, she knew what he was getting at. And worse, now he was giving her The Look, except this time the limitations of his alt mode couldn't save her from its full force. She quickly tried to quell his worries, though falteringly, "It—It's okay. Hunger isn't the only reason human stomachs growl."
"Is it not the reason yours just did?" He said it like he already knew the answer, and the unbending look he had trained onto her left absolutely no room for denial.
She stiffened, then looked away, abashed. "Well, yeah..." but she quickly recomposed herself and looked back at him, "...but don't worry! I brought food with me in case something like this happened."
For a moment, his stern gaze remained intact. Then he lifted his head, the lenses in his optics retracting and then dilating as he scanned the area around him. Ellie watched him in confusion. Whatever he was looking for, he must've found it, his eyes blinking back into focus shortly afterwards. He looked down at her in consideration, before he held his open hand out to her in offering.
"Come, then," he said, his expression lifting to make way for a look that seemed more imploring. Pleading, even.
Still a little confused, but knowing he didn't have any ill intentions, she lightly shrugged and crawled on.
He didn't take her too far from where they were, walking for only two minutes or so before they came across a giant, dead tree that had fallen over on its side a long time ago, laying horizontally across the ground with moss and plants growing over and around it. Optimus approached it and gently deposited her on top of it, warning her to be careful as she sat herself down.
"We will take a break here. In the meantime, please try to eat something," he said.
Something told her that there was going to be no talking her way out of this one—especially when her stomach decided to take that time to growl once more, wordlessly agreeing with him.
Alright, fine, she thought to it grudgingly.
Ellie took her backpack and opened it up, beginning to rummage through it. She stopped momentarily when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye, followed by the log shaking and creaking underneath her. She snuck a glance up to see that Optimus had—very carefully—sat down beside her. As big as their perch was, it was still a little low for him, his knees drawn up. Ducking her head before he could notice her staring, she refocused on her task, moving her first aid kit and medicine container aside to pull out her lunchbox and water bottle. She didn't have anything spectacular in the way of food on the go; a basic peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich, a bag of classic potato chips, some green apple slices, and a chocolate-caramel bar. But it was enough to stop her stomach from being rude to her, and that was all that mattered.
She had just taken a couple of bites into her sandwich when she heard a metallic clanging noise from next to her, making her jump a little. She looked up to see that Optimus had opened up the outer armor plating on his chassis, exposing the space within; Optimus had explained to her once that it was his subspace compartment, where he kept certain items while in bipedal form, so he didn't have to carry them around.
Ellie liked to think of it as his version of a backpack—except on his front.
Anyway, Optimus pulled out a blue, cube-shaped item from his compartment, his armor plating reverting back into place. The thing was small enough to fit in his hand, but it looked to be roughly bigger than her, and it was glowing.
Ellie leaned forward slightly, her head tilted to the side as she watched Optimus raise the cube to his mouth, tip it toward him, and take a sip of the blue liquid inside. Her eyes widened a little with intrigue.
Then Optimus glanced down, eyes locking onto hers. She quickly straightened and looked away, clearing her throat awkwardly.
"Is that...refined energon?" she broke the silence a moment later, pointing at the cube.
"It is," he replied easily, apparently unbothered by her obvious curiosity.
"Hmm…" she looked down at her sandwich, her eyebrows creased contemplatively, before she looked back up to him. "I didn't know you guys drink it."
"This is but one of the ways energon can be consumed."
"Really?"
He nodded. "Two ways it can be taken are orally; by drinking it in a liquid form or by eating it in a solid but edible form. Not unlike how you take in your foods and drinks. Another way is through injection."
"Oh..." she said, though more out of puzzlement this time. She thought for a moment, then perked up lightly. "Like an IV?"
He gave her a small smile. "Yes."
"So, does it matter how it's taken? Is there a better way? Or...?"
"It depends on how the energon is processed, but essentially, it is a personal preference. Cybertronians simply favor one way over another."
"And you prefer to drink it?"
"I do."
"Huh. Neat."
When they fell into another small stretch of silence, Ellie finished her sandwich and reached for her water bottle, taking a drink to wash it down. After swallowing, she spoke up again, "What does energon taste like to you?"
Optimus's optical ridges furrowed a little. "Taste?"
"Yeah. What flavor is it? Is it sweet? Savory? Bitter?"
"Hmm..." Optimus stared down at his energon cube for a moment. Then he looked back at her. "May I ask you a question now?"
"Sure."
"What does water taste like to you?"
That made her pause for a long moment, her mind drawing up a huge blank. "Um, well..." she struggled to answer. "It's hard to explain. Water doesn't really have a specific taste—actually, it's tasteless. But, at the same time, there is a difference between certain types of water, depending on where it's from. Like water from the tap can be a bit sour. And this kind—" she held up her own water bottle, "— the kind you can get from the store has a kind of metallic aftertaste to it. And of course, you can add your own flavoring to it if you want to. Not to mention, pretty much every other drink out there that's basically water, but mixed in with a bunch of other ingredients I can't pronounce."
Optimus nodded, looking thoughtful. "That is how energon is to us. It has a neutral taste, but that can vary depending on how it is processed."
Ellie looked between her bottle of water and his cube of energon with a smile. "Again, neat."
Wordlessly, they both lifted their own containers to their mouths and each took a sip of their respected contents simultaneously.
Then, after trading her water bottle for the rest of her food, Ellie asked him tentatively, "So, energon...it's bad for humans to eat or drink, right?"
She thought she'd heard him and the others mention it once, and since it was a glowing rock originating from another planet, she could only assume that it didn't exactly agree with the human body. But she wanted to be sure.
At her question, Optimus's entire frame suddenly stiffened mid-drink. Then he slowly lowered the energon cube from his mouth, only to fully fixate his now serious gaze onto her. "Yes. On its own—in its natural, solid state—energon does not pose much of a threat to humans. But if ingested, it is devastatingly toxic. Its direct radiation will poison you and send your biological system into complete shutdown."
Ellie was taken aback. "Whoa, for real?"
"Yes. So please, do not try to consume energon, ever."
"I won't. Promise."
His expression gradually lessened. "Good."
Ellie absentmindedly shook her bag of chips back and forth, frowning. "And I take it human food doesn't agree with you either, huh?"
He merely shook his head.
"Yeah, I thought so."
They fell into silence once again, content to sit together, filling themselves up on their own fuel sources. After a little while, Ellie claimed that she was finished, even though she didn't eat everything she'd brought with her, putting the rest of it back in her lunchbox. But Optimus just seemed satisfied that she ate something, at least. After putting away his now empty cube, he helped her down from the log and they went on their way.
They walked along the long, never-ending row of redwoods, towering hundreds of feet above them and the rest of the world.
"It's still quite overwhelming," Optimus spoke in that quiet yet enthralled voice of his again, gazing up at the high canopies above him. "I know you have told me about such wonders of Earth, but to see it for myself..."
"Yeah," Ellie said, smiling in understanding. "It's one of those things you just have to see to believe."
He hummed in agreement.
"Didn't you have anything like this back on Cybertron, though?"
At that question, Optimus lowered his gaze. "Not exactly," he said with a distant, wistful pensiveness. "The Cybertron I had lived on most of my life was solely a technological world, consisting of towering cities beyond what the optics could see. Anything leftover was merely barren plains or bottomless chasms." Then he blinked and looked down at Ellie, his demeanor brightening slightly. "Although, I have heard stories and read documentations of botanical life that once existed in the eras before me—like your own, only mechanical."
Ellie's eyes went huge; they were practically sparkling at that revelation. "Whaaat?" she breathed, captivated. "You wouldn't still happen to have those documents, do you? It'd be so awesome to read about metal plants!"
In that moment, he not only smiled down at her; the corners around his optics crinkled in genuine mirth. She didn't know what she'd said to warrant that look, but she had to admit it was a new, yet welcome sight as he answered, "Perhaps. I will keep that in mind for you. In the meantime..." he returned his gaze to the redwoods before them, "...I would like to take comfort in learning more of this thriving world we are currently trekking."
Ellie followed his gaze, sharing in admiring the view. "Yeah, there's nothing quite like this anywhere else that I know of." She stopped briefly, reconsidering. "Well, no, I take that back. The sequoias are just as impressive."
"Sequoias?" Optimus repeated curiously.
"They're ginormous trees too—not exactly the same as redwoods, but they are related to each other. Redwoods are taller and slimmer, but sequoias are a lot bigger in volume." She spread her hands apart for emphasis.
"Are they now?" Optimus said with mild intrigue. "Are they near here?"
She shook her head. "No, they're a pretty long way south from here—a bit further inland."
"Hmm, noted."
Ellie's eyebrows rose at that. Was he implying what she thought he was? Before she got the chance to ask, though, her phone buzzed from her pocket, alerting her to a text message. She stopped to pull it out, and saw that it was from Raf:
Haven't seen you all day? Where are you? —Raf
Smiling a little as an idea came to her, she switched her phone to camera mode, aimed it to where she had a row of the giant redwoods, as well as Optimus, behind her in the background, and snapped a selfie. She sent the picture to Raf, followed by the text:
Out with Optimus –Ellie
Ellie waited maybe ten seconds before she got a reply, and it did not disappoint:
YOU'RE ON ENDOR!? :O —Raf
She snorted, unsurprised but still greatly amused that that was how Raf put that together; the scenes on the forest moon of Endor were filmed in parts of the Redwood Forest for Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.
Yep. Not pictured are a bunch of ewoks. 'Cause you know, they're so short —Ellie
ASDFGHJKKLKLKLKLKLKLKLKGJGJHJG! —Raf
You okay there bud? —Ellie
NO –Raf
Sorry. Maybe next time we'll bring you? –Ellie
That'd be awesome! :D —Raf
"What is it?" Optimus asked as he turned back upon realizing that she'd stopped. She looked up from her phone.
"Oh, it's Raf. He was just wondering where we are, and is now expressing a lot of envy about it."
Before anymore could be said, her phone vibrated with another message. She looked down and read it:
BTW just wanted to let you know Miko's been calling me and Jack, pestering us to come pick her up despite her being home for the day. She might call you too. So watch out –Raf
No sooner than she read that all the way through, her phone started ringing. Sure enough, it was Miko. Ellie hesitated before answering the call, putting it on speaker.
"Hello?"
"ELLLLLSS! SAVE ME!"
Ellie stared flatly at her phone, despite Miko not seeing it. "Hey, Mo. Wanna try that again?" she deadpanned.
She heard Miko take deep breaths before speaking again. And the way she was begging, Ellie could imagine the older girl was on her knees. "Please! I've been stuck playing house with my host parents all day! And it's torture! Right now they're getting things ready for...family game night!"
She said that like it was the most gruesome, inhumane thing you could possibly inflict onto someone.
"Um...sorry to hear that?" Ellie replied insincerely.
"I'm dying over here, Ells! I need to get out of here and be with the 'Bots! I tried calling Bulkhead but he's busy helping Ratchet with some energon-related junk or whatever, and the others won't help! You're my last hope! I'll even take doing whatever nerd thing you and Optimus got going on!"
Ellie's face blanched, eyes flickering up to Optimus. But before she could come up with something to say, Optimus knelt closer to her and spoke up in his default neutral tone, "Hello, Miko."
It got deadly quiet on the other end for a few seconds, and then, "Heeeyyy, Optimus! Did I say nerd? I meant cool!"
Ellie and Optimus shared an unconvinced look.
"Can you guys please come and get me? I'll do anything! I'll give you my blood!"
Disregarding her obviously exaggerated offer, Optimus answered, "Miko, it sounds to me like your…"
"Host parents," Ellie provided in a whisper.
"…host parents, simply wish to spend time with you and get to know you better. Is that truly so bad?"
"Well, no, but—"
"One day with them will not hurt you in the long run. You may even grow to appreciate it in time. And we will still be there when you return."
Miko let loose a long, dramatic groan at his reasoning. "I knew you'd say something like that. Why'd I even bother?"
Then Ellie told her, "Even if we wanted to come, we're not even in the same state right now."
"Wait, really? Where are you guys?"
"California."
An excited gasp came through the other line. "California? As in LA? Hollywood and Beverly Hills?"
Ellie made a face. "Ew, no. We're in the Redwood Forest."
"What! You're in Cali and you're looking at trees?!" Miko sounded outraged. "Okay, I reclaim my previous statement: you two are ultra nerds!"
Ellie couldn't help but chuckle. "Yeah, maybe we are, but…" she looked back at Optimus with a gentle smile, one in which he returned, "…I'm having fun."
But then she heard Miko grumble, "Didn't realize you were spending the day with your parent too."
She turned back to her phone, her smile faded. "What?"
Before Miko could answer, a feminine-sounding voice was saying something indistinguishable from somewhere in the background. Miko whined. "Aw, scrap. That's my host mom. I better go before she completely blows a gasket."
"Good luck, then."
"Thanks. I'll need it."
With that, the line went dead.
Optimus released a soft sigh. "It seems that the way the young tend to act towards parental units is universal," he remarked, mostly as an observation to himself.
Ellie put her phone away before answering in a quiet, noncommittal murmur, "Yeah, seems that way."
She started walking again, then glanced back at Optimus, some of her earnestness gradually returning into her demeanor. "Want to keep going?"
After a moment's pause, Optimus mutely stood and followed suit.
For the rest of the afternoon—which seemed to go by quickly in Ellie's eyes—the two spent much of their time exploring the titanic forest. Ellie was content to move briskly from one place to another, taking in everything she possibly could. Occasionally, whenever Optimus wasn't gently redirecting her away from the more public and populated trails, he would ask her something about the area, and Ellie was happy to answer as best she could. After some time, she started to simply point out certain facts without him even asking for it, and Optimus would listen intently while remaining just within her vicinity—not too close into her personal space, but not too far out of his reach either.
And sometimes, whenever Ellie would look back at him while explaining something to him, she'd find his eyes locked onto her with an expression that was inscrutable, yet soft at the same time, somehow. She was unsure why, but nothing seemed to be wrong or bothering him, so she would just internally shrug and move on.
Then, by the time they were making their way back to where they had come in from, Ellie started to feel fatigued. Her steps slowed and she stopped once to lean most of her weight against a tree, giving her residual limb a small chance to rest for a bit.
The action did not go unnoticed by Optimus.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
She pushed off the tree and started to move again. "Yeah, just a little tired, that's all. I'll be fine for now."
"Perhaps we should take this trip back onto the road," he considered.
"That's fine with me," she said with an uncaring shrug, but internally, she was relieved.
Eventually, they were back to where they had started. Optimus transformed into his vehicle mode, allowing Ellie to climb in, and he drove back toward the road. Then, at Ellie's tentative request, he headed to the nearest public place a few minutes later so that she could use the restroom. She made quick work of using the facilities—as well as taking another dosage of her medicine—at the little roadside attraction they stopped at. When she was on her way out, making her way through the gift shop, she stopped. Her eye caught a shelf of journals with pictures of the redwood forest for the covers, as well as some redwood-themed pens. She's been in need of a new journal; she was reaching the end of her old one.
And she already had a lot to write about just from today.
She picked one up and flipped through the blank, recycled parchment, then checked the price.
Yikes, eighteen dollars? That's highway robbery, she thought, but she took it, along with a pen, and bought them anyway. Because apparently capitalism was everywhere whether anyone liked it or not.
After stuffing them into her bag, she left the shop and hurried back to Optimus, and in no time, they were back on the road again. They weren't driving anywhere specific—just moving along, unbidden, to wherever the road took them.
Ellie didn't know what it was as they traveled along the Redwood Highway. Perhaps it was just the myriad of the day's events finally catching up to her—the fact that she was sitting back in the comfort and warmth of Optimus's interior after a morning of traversing a cave and then an afternoon of running around in the forest. But as she languidly watched the tranquil landscape fly by her through the window, she started to feel even more tired than before, her body and eyes growing heavy. However, it was a different kind of tiredness—the pleasant kind, if that was possible. Like when you've had a long, hard day and then you finally settle down into a nice, cozy place to relax and rest.
She rubbed her eyes and tried to blink away the feeling. Then she turned her attention to the console. "So...Cybertron really had botanical life at one point, huh?" she spoke up in the hopes that talking to him would help keep away the pull of exhaustion.
"Still on that, are you?" he asked with amusement.
Oh, like you didn't know that would happen the second you said it, she thought with a small smile of her own before answering aloud, "Can't help it. The idea of flora? Made of metal?" She made an exploding motion with her hands next to her head to imitate her mind being blown before resting them back into her lap. "And, well—not just that. Did you say that Cybertron is mostly cities?"
"Yes," he confirmed. "Hundreds of cities coinciding—each with their own laws, cultures, and dialects."
"Kind of like our cities and nations."
"Yes. And like your own, ours had a variety of establishments and sights to see. We had transit systems, parks for recreation, areas for sports, theatres for the arts, factories, scientific laboratories, hospitals, schools, museums...archives."
"That sounds wonderful."
"Yes, it was. The city I hailed from was called Iacon."
"Iacon," Ellie repeated the word softly, making sure to pronounce it right. She turned her gaze to the passing nature outside. "I'm not so sure I could handle living in a big, bustling city for too long. I mean, it's nice to visit for a little while, but permanently? Uh, no offense."
"None taken. To each their own," Optimus replied. "I can tell that you prefer the far less urban areas."
She nodded quietly. What she didn't mention was that there was a time when she technically did live in a city at one point. She and Isla had moved to Brooklyn in New York City once when she was eleven. She wasn't sure if that counted as living in it, though; they only stayed there for six months before they packed up and moved again. But it was long enough for Ellie to realize that, no, she was not much for city life. Too noisy, too crowded, too chaotic.
"What else would you like to know about Cybertron?" Optimus's question pulled her gaze back to him.
"Um, anything? Everything? Whatever you can tell me, please—if that's okay," she said hesitantly.
"Hmm...well, in that case, I will start at the very beginning."
For a moment, Ellie was taken aback. Wow, he doesn't do things halfway, does he? Then she sat back when he started to speak again, ready to listen and ask if needed.
"Our history dates back billions of years, and begins with the Allspark, a mysterious, ancient object with unlimited, life-giving energies. No one knows its exact age or where it came from, but many believed that it is older than the universe itself."
"Allspark," Ellie echoed thoughtfully. Now she could understand where the phrase, "By the Allspark," came from whenever she'd hear Ratchet exclaim it while under stress.
"According to Cybertronian elders and historians, it was Primus, the ancient life-god of creation, who used the power of the Allspark to create the planet Cybertron. Eventually, Primus drew from his own spark, his own life force, to create Cybertronians. Inside every one of us, there is a spark of life—a piece of the Allspark itself—and powered by energon, remnants of Primus..."
Optimus continued to tell her about the beginnings of Cybertron's history—including the creation of the first Cybertronians, the original Thirteen Primes who preceded Optimus—and about how Primus became one with the planet's core, creating even more life through the Well of Allsparks—life that soon evolved into the Cybertronians the likes of which she knew of today. There were some parts in his storytelling where Ellie could tell that he was not giving her every single, intricate detail—that he was merely giving her an abridged version. Like when he mentioned that one of the original Primes—having grown consumed by pride and ambition—had betrayed the others, branding himself The Fallen, and led to the eventual downfall of their reign. It sounded to her like it wasn't easy for him to talk about; probably because it sounded strikingly similar to what happened between him and Megatron. She didn't blame him, though. There were a lot of things in human history she wasn't too proud of either. Even so, it was still fascinating to hear about.
And despite that, she could also tell that, overall, he enjoyed talking to her about his homeworld. The sound of his voice hadn't changed—he still spoke in that calm, deep timbre—but it had a different energy to it that just resonated. He talked like that of a well-versed professor who was giving a lecture in a classroom, and she was his sole student.
Ellie was enjoying it too.
She nestled back more comfortably, her body sinking to the seat, as she listened to Optimus talk. The more she did, though, the more she could feel her weariness creeping back up on her. She blinked slowly, yet more frequently, each time making it harder for her to keep her eyes open. Her head grew foggy with drowsiness with every minute. Eventually, her eyes drifted shut completely, unable to keep them open any longer. She rested her head against the backrest with a long, heavy sigh, relaxing further. She took solace in simply listening to Optimus's soothing voice—alongside the alluring hum of his engine—radiating throughout his cab, while she rested her eyes. Just for a minute or two, she reasoned to herself.
That turned out to be the last coherent thought she had that afternoon, being unknowingly swept up by the comforting warmth surrounding her like a blanket, before she dozed off into unconsciousness.
Optimus had just gotten into the age of Predacons before he realized that Ellie had gone silent, her occasional questioning having been replaced by slow, long, and heavy intakes of air. He looked back through the rearview mirror and saw her now limp form slumped back, her arms draped over her middle, which rose and fell with each breath she took. Her head was turned slightly to the side with her eyes shut, and all the tension that usually adorned her facial features had been completely wiped away.
She had finally fallen asleep.
He fell quiet at the sight—a sight that he was not entirely surprised by, given how little sleep she'd had the night before and all that they've both done today. It was only a matter of time until she drifted off.
He was honestly more surprised by the fact that it took her this long. And the fact that this was the first time he has actually seen her this way. She looked so peaceful, so vulnerable.
He refocused onto the road. Then, after consulting his navigation scanners, he turned onto a small backroad some minutes later. It was winding in some areas, to the point where Optimus slowed his speed so as not to jostle Ellie awake when he turned. He tightened the seatbelt around her slightly, just enough so that she wouldn't fall over in her sleep.
Eventually, he emerged into a small, remote alcove. Twenty feet away, the ground dropped off into a shallow cliff over a never-ending blue body of water which waves rolled against the rocky shore—the Pacific Ocean, it was called. After he stopped in front of the edge of the cliff, he slowly and gently reclined Ellie's seat until she was laying back more comfortably. Ellie drew in a deep breath, shifting a little in her new position but not stirring, then went still again with a sigh.
Optimus felt his spark soften. Then he carefully allowed himself to settle on his tires, his systems slowing down into a more idle state. The bio-lights on his consoles dimmed as it went even quieter. He would let Ellie sleep for as long as she liked; they both could use some time for a little rest, in fact.
He focused his gaze outward toward the ocean ahead of him, letting the silence take over as his thoughts wandered to the events that had transpired throughout the day with him and Ellie. Highlights replayed themselves in his processor. Watching the light fill Ellie's face the moment she entered the forest, full of wonder and life—so entirely different from the way she had looked when he picked her up that morning. Seeing that look increase tenfold when they arrived at the Redwood Forest, and her feeble attempts to contain it at first, only let it loose when she was given free reign to wander the woods alongside him. Her soft humming along to whatever song was playing over the radio. Her contentedness when she would explain something to him about whatever they encountered in the woods. Her innocent curiosity whenever she asked him something about his planet or his biology...
Her frightened scream as she fell into darkness, disappearing from his view in a flash.
Optimus winced internally, his spark clenching at the reminder of what happened while they were in the cave.
Sixteen minutes and forty-nine seconds. The timespan of which they were separated was sixteen minutes and forty-nine seconds. But they were the most circuit-wracking minutes that seemed to stretch on for cycles. It felt like his protective protocols were working in overdrive the entire time. Rational thought had nearly abandoned him when he'd instinctively moved toward the crevasse, only to freeze at the cracking noise beneath him and quickly draw back again before more chunks of the earth fell in, widening the hole. That had only made his apprehensiveness intensify as he'd called down for her, only to not receive a reply—at least, not one that his audio receptors could pick up. He'd tried contacting her through her phone, only to get static instead; the mineral composition around them was causing interference. Another jolt of worry had shot through him, striking his systems like lightning.
But only for five seconds; that was all he would allow, before logic returned to him and he composed himself. It would not do for him to lose his head.
Not when Ellie needed him most.
He couldn't follow her down the way she had gone, so the best thing for him to do was to use the only path available to him and figure out where she was from there. After that, it was a matter of finding her through calculation of mapping out the cave, and occasionally using the energon scanner. Although, if he was being completely honest with himself, he mostly searched for her through sheer, unbridled intuition; a certain...pull in his circuitry. He was unsure how to explain it, but it felt not quite unlike a similar tug the Matrix of Leadership would sometimes induce whenever he was in need of guidance—only this felt more...specific, somehow. Whatever it was, he followed it.
But in the end, it wasn't really any of that which ultimately led him straight to Ellie.
It was her singing. Her soft, melancholy-sounding voice. When he'd first heard it, he was uncertain if it was truly her, but the more he followed, and the more profoundly its almost haunting echoes reverberated off the cave walls, there was no longer any doubt—not calling out until he heard her suddenly stop, followed by a cry of exclamation.
It had felt like a crushing weight was lifted off his shoulders the moment he'd laid eyes on her again and had her back in his embrace. She was alright. She was bruised and bedraggled, but she was alright.
He gave a long ex-vent. Even after they'd found each other, even after getting away from that cave for good once they were done with it, his protective protocols never truly went back to normal. It was partially why he ensured that she never strayed too far from him for the rest of the day. He knew he should not dwell too much on it, but he could not help but think of all the ways it could've gone very wrong. Her fall could've been fatal. She could've gotten crushed by rocks. She could've gotten swept up and drowned in an underwater river. She could've just continued to be lost and alone in the darkness, forever.
He mentally shook himself out of that grim train of thought, willing his sparkbeat's frequency to decrease in speed. Nonplussed, he cast a glance back at Ellie, who was still fast asleep, safe and sound, and blissfully unaware of his conflicting thoughts. Almost of its own volition, the seatbelt drew more snugly around her, as though making sure she stayed that way.
Things truly have changed since she came along. His processor never had the need to consider possible eventualities such as that before—to think about worse-case scenarios that made his neural net act up, even though said eventuality was already past. And this was not the first occurrence in the time he's known her either. If he could pinpoint when it had truly started, now that he thought more closely on it, it had to be the incident with her and that machinery that was corrupted by dark energon, though faint as it was back then. And in time, after getting to know her on a more personal level, and seeing all the danger that surrounded her in the time they have known each other—from infiltrating the Nemesis to straight-up fighting against Soundwave—it's only grown stronger. Strong enough for him to finally take proper notice.
It was a phenomenon to be certain. He worried for his fellow Autobots and was protective of them as well, yes, but not to a degree such as this. They were all highly capable warriors—been so for centuries. They were his soldiers, and he had to keep a level head in order to maintain a calm order among his ranks. Even Ellie and the rest of their human allies have proven that, when push came to shove, they could take care of themselves.
But Ellie was still different, somehow. She was not one of his soldiers, nor was she just another one of his allies. She was his...his—
"Ratchet to Optimus. Do you read?"
If Optimus had any less self-control, he might have jumped out of his armor plating from the Autobot medic's voice suddenly blaring through his comm link. He quickly decreased the radio's volume before answering in a low voice, "I read you, Ratchet."
He checked to make sure that the noise didn't disturb Ellie. Her hand had twitched, her face giving a light grimace, but after Optimus had spoken, she gradually relaxed once more. Relieved, he turned his attention back to Ratchet.
"I wanted to inform you that the energon we extracted from the cave has been completely processed for use," Ratchet informed him. "I recommend you return to base so that we may determine how to equally divide it among our preserves."
"Ah..." Optimus took a long moment to ponder, looking back at the slumbering girl in his cab. Then he asked carefully, "Is it imperative that it is to be done immediately?"
There was a slight pause before Ratchet answered, "Well, no. It's not that urgent. Why do you ask?"
"Because we cannot return at this time."
"What? Why? Are you trapped somewhere? Are you under attack?"
"No, nothing like that," Optimus quickly quelled Ratchet's worries. "We are both fine. Ellie has just fallen asleep."
"Oh. Well, if that's all, then…wake her up?" Ratchet suggested, his voice clearly betraying confusion, not understanding what the problem was.
Then again, the problem itself was rather difficult to explain.
"I…do not wish to," Optimus said, almost haltingly. "She needs her rest, and this is the best solution for the time being."
There was a long, heavy moment of silence. Optimus couldn't currently see Ratchet, but he could just feel the judgmental stare coming from the medic's end. Eventually the silence was broken by an exhausted-sounding groan.
"Primus, you truly have gone soft for that girl," Ratchet grumbled lowly. "Oh, what am I saying? You've always had a soft spot for younglings."
Optimus said nothing, neither confirming nor denying the accusation.
"None of us can still quite believe it, you know," Ratchet said a moment later, thankfully changing the subject. "That she's the one who found the energon on her own."
Optimus internally smiled. "It's true, she did."
In truth, even he was still trying to wrap his head around it, and he was actually there for the end result; that not only had she picked herself back up and brushed herself off from the fall, but she navigated her way through the tunnels with only her wits. And in doing so, she found the energon and met him halfway.
One would think that he would not be so surprised by the things she did by now, but evidently, that was a specialty of hers.
"Hmph. She got lucky, is what happened," Ratchet said in that skeptical way of his when it came to their human friends.
"Perhaps, but it led us to a much-needed supply," Optimus reasoned. "Is that not what you wanted?"
"Yes, yes. And…it's good that you both are alright," Ratchet said falteringly.
"Yes, it is," Optimus replied in a subtle, knowing tone that only Ratchet knew to pick up.
That only brought the medic's gruffness right back. "Of course, I can do without some of her smart-aft comments."
Optimus just managed to suppress an amused noise in time. "You know she only says them in retaliation."
"Oh, and as if you're so innocent," Ratchet retorted. "Don't think I never notice you getting a kick out of them."
There was a small but noticeable stretch of silence before Optimus said plainly, "I do not grasp what you mean."
The only response he received was an exasperated mix of a scoff and growl that only Ratchet could accomplish while muttering something that was not decipherable enough through their link.
"Is there anything else you need?" Optimus asked in the hopes of putting them back on track once it got quiet between them again.
"No, we are fine here for now, all things considered." After a long moment, Ratchet added in an ever so slightly easier tone than before, "Let me know when you two need a bridge back."
"Will do. Thank you, old friend."
Their communication link disconnected, leaving Optimus alone (mostly) with his thoughts again. He shut the radio off, making the only sounds to be heard were the ocean waves crashing against the rocks below them and Ellie's rhythmic breathing as she slept on. He allowed his mind to roam once more—barring it didn't return to anymore dark places—wanting to savor this uncommon time of peace for him for as long as he could.
It was a long while later—well into the evening—when Ellie began to slowly stir. She curled in on herself, her face scrunching up as she let out a groan. She blinked her eyes open. At first, she had a dazed, faraway look. But then, after blinking a few more times, her gaze suddenly sharpened with awareness. She shot up into a sitting position, her eyes darting around her in alarm.
"What—?"
"Easy there, little one," Optimus soothed, keeping his voice low so as not to startle her further. He readjusted her seat back into its original position, the seatbelt loosening to accommodate her. "It's alright, you are with me."
That only seemed to help a little, as her uneasy disposition did not fully diminish. Then her gaze slid downward, zeroing in on her right leg—her prosthetic and residual limb. Her expression slowly grew more bewildered the more she stared.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
For a long moment, she didn't answer, continuing to stare distantly at her leg, which she moved back and forth ever so slightly, as though testing its use. Then, with a shake of her head, she replied in a hushed voice that still sounded somewhat raspy with sleep, "I...I'm fine."
The way she said it gave off the impression that she almost couldn't believe it herself. But he wasn't going to press her after having just woken up in a seemingly vulnerable state.
Then she lifted her gaze up to the open ocean before them. Her eyes widened a fraction, her breath intake ceasing for the briefest of moments.
"Where are we?" she asked quietly.
"Somewhere along the Pacific coast, not far from the road we were on previously."
Upon hearing this, her expression turned into one of mortified realization. She shut her eyes tight as she fell back against the seat.
"Oh, Optimus. You were talking," she said through a stressed moan, burying her face in her hands. "You were talking, and I fell asleep on you. I'm sorry."
"That's quite alright, Ellie," Optimus reassured her, feeling touched that she felt the need to apologize even though she didn't mean to. "There is too much of Cybertron's history to be covered in only one afternoon, after all. And besides…" his voice turned gentler, "…it seemed like you needed the rest far more than you needed a history lesson."
Ellie went very still for a long moment. Then she gingerly rubbed her eyes before she finally lowered her hands back into her lap. She lifted her head up with a deep exhale, revealing a worn, weary expression that adorned her facial features.
For the next few minutes, neither of them spoke. Ellie continued to watch the waves roll in and out of the shoreline, her eyes glazed over, lost in thought. She still had a rather somber manner about her, but there was something else in the way she held herself now—like she was carefully considering something important.
At last, she spoke up in a small, unsure voice, "Optimus, can I ask you something?"
"Of course."
For a moment, she stared down at her lap with a conflicted frown, struggling internally with herself. Optimus merely waited patiently, not knowing what she was going to say, only that it would come eventually.
"Do you…do Cybertronians ever have trouble falling asleep—er, powering down? And staying that way for the right amount of time?"
Optimus was quiet as he took her words into account, cross-referencing her described symptoms and comparing it to his own biology. It certainly sounded familiar…and it certainly explained some things.
"You are referring to the disorder called insomnia, are you not?"
Ellie sat up a little straighter, genuinely taken aback. "You know about it? Or—you guys have it too?"
"That's not what it is initially called, but the descriptions are so similar to each other that it might as well be. In other words: yes, Cybertronians can have insomnia, where power-down can often elude us due to various factors that include mental stress, injury, or an insufficient environment."
He wasn't going to go into detail about how every single member of Team Prime had this problem in one way or another; they were all refugees on a far-off alien planet, fighting in an eons-long war, after all. It didn't need to be said, however, mainly because this wasn't about them at the moment.
Ellie looked down at her hands for a moment in thought. "Do you have a way to stop it?" She lifted her gaze to the dashboard once more. "Do you have a cure?"
Optimus didn't answer at first, taking a moment to quietly appraise the imploring look she had. Then he replied in terms she would understand, "There is medically induced stasis, but I wouldn't exactly call that a cure. To the best of my knowledge, the most consistent way of handling it is to try and keep a calm, sound mind, maintain proper energon consumption, and ensure upmost comfort."
It was fleeting, but the barest hint of disappointment passed over her features, before she turned to look out the window. "It really is just like our version of insomnia," she muttered with a ghost of a sad smile. "Just another way of seeing how similar we are, right?"
"Yes…but that is not the reason you asked, is it, little one?"
Any trace of her smile slowly disappeared, her hands curling in her lap. She exhaled heavily before she shook her head with an air of defeat.
"No, it's not," she confessed. "Sleep doesn't come easy to me. And even if it does, it doesn't last long—not as long as it should, I mean. It's been a problem for…for a while now. I can't even remember the last time I had a full night's sleep. Most days, I'm okay. It can be manageable, but it's still hard sometimes."
"Hmm..." Optimus hummed pensively when she finished. While she had all but confirmed his theory on why she tended to be up earlier than the other children, there were still some things that needed filled in.
"Will you please tell me why that is?" he asked. "Why it is more difficult for you on some days?"
Once again, she looked uncertain, not answering at first. Meanwhile, her left hand started to slowly run up and down her right arm seemingly without her even noticing. It was one of the habits he'd noticed that she did whenever she started to feel nervous, or had something heavy on her mind.
"Ellie, I am only concerned for your well-being, and wish to help you," he told her kindly, yet earnestly. "But if you are not comfortable with telling me, I will respect that."
Her hand stopped as she blinked at him with disbelief. She looked down at her lap in a moment of clear internal confliction of thought.
Eventually, after she made the action of swallowing thickly, she cleared her voice and said hesitantly, "It...it's mostly the usual stuff that causes insomnia. Sometimes I just can't calm my mind enough to fall asleep, and when I wake up in the middle of the night, I'm too restless to go back to sleep."
Then her face began to tighten. "But mostly, it's when my phantom feelings get triggered, and I just can't get comfortable anymore; they bother me for the rest of the night unless I take something to help it."
"Phantom feelings," Optimus repeated ponderingly. "I have heard you mention this before. I take it that it is not like that of the discomfort you usually endure after prolonged exertion."
While he had also come across the term and those adjacent to it a few times in his previous research, he still wanted to hear her own input on it.
"Yeah. It's pretty common with amputees," she explained. "It's basically your body reacting to the loss of a limb. The nervous system and brain are trying to rearrange all those sensory malfunctions to catch up with you, even if they don't get it quite right sometimes." She paused, looking away with a frown. "At least, that's how one of the doctors tried to explain it to nine-year-old me. I won't pretend to know all the ins and outs of how the human body works."
"I see," Optimus said softly. But deep down, he was reeling because Dear Primus she was only nine years old? Then he swiftly calmed himself again. He sometimes had to remind himself that human life cycles were different from Cybertronians—even though he tried not to dwell on it too much.
Even so, to be that young for something like that to happen, however it happened...
He forced himself to refocus onto the present. "If I may ask, what does it feel like to you, personally?"
Like before, she didn't answer for some time, the tension in her features remaining. Then she released a frustrated huff as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Sorry. It's just—well, it's one of those things that you just know and feel for a fact, but it's hard to actually put into words out loud. Do you know what I mean?"
"Strangely enough, I do."
"Yeah, so, um…" She took another moment to think it over before saying tentatively, "It's like, all the sudden, out of nowhere, every nerve ending in my limb just…short-circuits. They start sending all these scrambled signals into my brain, convincing me that I still have my real leg, and that it's hurting. I mean, I clearly don't. I know that. I can see that. But I can't help it. It just feels like it's still there. It feels so real."
Optimus felt a certain heaviness weighing down on him from the familiarity of the way she described it. "You say that it hurts…?" he let the question hang in the air.
"Well, you'd think I'd be used to it by now, but yeah. It's just that…" she fell quiet for a moment, lips thinning and shoulders tensing, before she finished quietly, "…sometimes, my body makes me forget that I'm safe."
Hearing this, his spark lurched at the thought, the reminder—that there was ever a time where Ellie didn't feel safe at all. But he chose not to pry any further. Instead, he said solemnly, "Yes, I had a feeling that would be the case for you as well."
Ellie merely looked at him questioningly.
"It may not be my place to tell you this, but Bumblebee has described a sensation very similar to your phantom pain before, shortly after he lost his voice box. Some days, he was near inconsolable—to the point where even his need to refuel on energon eluded him."
Comprehension dawned on her face. Seemingly unconsciously, she raised a hand to the base of her throat. "Oh," she whispered. "That must've been awful."
"Yes, but with consistent help from me, Ratchet, and many others, he was able to overcome it. He still gets the sensation on the rare occasion, but it is manageable for him now."
She slowly lowered her hand to rest on her arm once more. "That's good," she said, but her voice still came out weaker than usual.
That brought a rather urgent matter to his attention—one that has been on his mind for some time. And he hoped that he would be wrong.
"Have you talked to anyone else about this? Do you receive help from them?" Then, after a moment's pause, he asked carefully, "Does your grandmother know, at least?"
Ellie averted her gaze as she shifted uncomfortably in the seat. "Yeah, she knows," she answered warily, "and she helped me at first, when I was still new to being an amputee. Took me to doctors who showed me some of the basic treatments to practice at home. Now...I mean, she still helps in her own way. She'll get me my prescription meds if I ask for it. But other than that, for everything else…" her fingers tightened around her arm momentarily, "…for the most part, I take care of it myself."
When there was nothing but heavy silence between them for several seconds too long, Ellie stiffened while the hue of her face darkened a little, as though realizing that she may have said something she shouldn't have. Then she put on a tight smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.
"But it's okay. All things considered, I've been doing fine so far. I know how to treat any pain I have by myself now. Sure, I have some off days, but who doesn't have those from time to time, right? And besides, Gran's already got enough to worry about, working full-time and making sure we both have food and a place to live and all. So this is just one less thing for her to deal with. It's the least I can do."
She said all that with barely a break to take a breath. And it might have been convincing, had it not been for the small crack in her voice.
Optimus just sat there in his alt mode, mulling over all she had said to him, what he uncovered. And to put it simply: he was at somewhat of a loss, and for more than one reason. For starters, this might be the most she has ever told him about herself since that night she revealed she was an amputee. She was usually so private when it came to her home life and the problems that came with her condition. So to tell him as much as she had, it was a big deal for her. There was a small part of him that felt honored that she trusted him enough now to confide in him with more of her struggles, and that was not something to be taken lightly.
But the rest of him was still absolutely brimming with concern. He remembered something Ellie had said to him once, right after the incident with the science fair. She had written it off as dismissive at the time, but after what he learned today, he couldn't help but recall it in a new light.
"I'm so used to doing things on my own now."
It was true. Since he met her, he's come to see that she was more reclusive than the rest of the children, not wanting to stay in the company of others for too long—although she has slowly grown to embrace their companionship more than she had in time. And she was always so self-reliant, sometimes to a fault. She was so quick to help anyone else in need, but when it came to receiving help herself? She wouldn't outright ask for it, not unless all other options have been exhausted. And even then, it seemed to take some effort just for her to surrender herself to it at times, having the notion that she would just be a bother to anyone she asked.
Just like when she had kept her first science project from him while he was otherwise occupied with other matters, he realized with a slight jolt.
But it wasn't just because that was what she preferred, or that it was the way she was, was it?
It was because that was how she was taught to be over time, whether intentionally or not.
Optimus released a heavy ex-vent. Then he said evenly, "Hold on."
Before she had the chance to ask, he willed himself to transform slowly, the metal and gears that made up the sum of him shifting all around a now wide-eyed Ellie. In the most meticulous way that he could, he transferred her out of the passenger seat, and into his awaiting servo mid-transformation. He temporarily held her close after he fully turned into his true form, maneuvering himself until he sat down close to the edge of the cliff. Once situated, he carefully pulled Ellie away from him until he had her sitting in his open palm in his lap, her facing him, his digits curled up loosely behind her.
For some time, neither of them said anything, quietly taking one another in. The waves crashed into the shore just below them; they could feel the light, cold spray of sea water misting in the air.
It was Ellie who finally broke the tense silence. She lowered her head with a tired, resigned sigh. She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, inadvertently making herself look smaller.
"Look, I know what you're going to say," she said listlessly. "I know you've already told me that I can tell you anything, no matter what. And I appreciate that, I really do. It's just…I don't…"
"Elinor," he intoned when she began to stumble over her words, compelling her to slowly lift her gaze up to meet his again. "While I do still stand by that, I also understand that this is still new territory for you, and that's perfectly alright. We all have our own loads to bear, and the only person who can make you share them is you, and no one else. However, I am glad that you told me about this. I know that is not an easy thing for you to do."
When she still regarded him in a solemn manner, he sighed. "I know how self-sufficient you are—how you always manage to prevail over certain adversities despite the odds. It's how you are able to do the things that surprise me at every turn—learning and adapting to whatever you face. There are not very many beings I know who are so capable even without the burdens you carry, and that is to be commended."
When he momentarily stopped in his speech, she slowly unfurled herself from her current position. Then, clearly aware that there was going to be more to the point he was trying to make, she quietly prompted, "But…?"
"But," he continued, "that often makes it easy to forget that even one as capable as yourself can still have off days, as you put it. And I would very much appreciate it if you were to let me know when you are on one of your off days, so that you would not have to suffer through it by yourself—so that you would not have to suffer through it at all."
Ellie's eyebrows rose with genuine bemusement, but didn't say anything, at a loss for words. He brought her closer ever so slightly.
"Ellie, the last thing I want is for you to feel like you must hide your pain from me, or that you must go through it alone—because you are not alone anymore. When I told you that you could come to me for anything that is troubling you—no matter what it is—I meant it. I will help you however I can. And that includes getting you the rest and nourishment that you need…even when it feels like a real challenge for you."
Ellie continued to merely stare back at him in utter astonishment. Then she quickly averted her gaze, blinking rapidly as she swallowed. "That's not—I—you..." she struggled over whatever it was she was trying to articulate, her voice coming out thicker than usual. She looked so...lost in how to react, what to think of someone offering her support so openly and unconditionally.
This truly was new territory for her.
Recalling the gesture he had done in the cave to help comfort her, he slowly lifted his free hand and, with a single fingertip, he gently stroked her soft, golden-colored hair. He had seen human creators do it to their distressed sparklings in his time observing humanity, and while he was unsure of it at first, it seemed to have the right effect on Ellie.
He felt her give a faint start from the contact, but only for a second before the tension in her body lessened, her shoulders sagging. She blinked back up at him, and in turn, he allowed his expression to soften, making way for small, but tender smile.
"I have seen you go out of your way to help the others and be kind to them, and I greatly admire that about you," he said warmly, letting his digit linger. "Just don't forget to be kind to yourself as well, little one."
After a long moment, her torn expression started to slowly but surely fade away. She looked off to the side, eyes squeezing shut, as though fiercely trying to will away any more doubts that she had. But then she reopened her eyes and turned back to him. There was still a hint of uncertainty lingering in the way she looked—it might always be there, small as it was, at least for a while—but then she lifted a hesitant, tremulous hand and reached for his digit, delicately wrapping her own fingers around it. Once again, he found himself taken in by the surprising warmth that came from her soft hand into the one part of his that it touched.
Perhaps there was a part of him that would always be caught off guard by just how small she was whenever their hands made contact. Small...but impactful.
Ellie released a long but cleansing breath as her features alleviated into a still tired, but more relaxed demeanor. Then she finally spoke up, her voice still faintly subdued but more coherent than earlier.
"Okay. I'll...try to do better in letting you know about my bad days."
"That is all I can ask of you. Thank you."
Ellie looked taken aback by that. "I should be thanking you."
Optimus couldn't help but smile. He would've said there was no need, but he knew that would be no use.
"Not just for what you said, but also for today," she continued, managing a small smile back up at him. "I had a really good time."
"So did I. It's not often I get the chance to truly enjoy the things that Earth has to offer. It's a good reminder of why we strive to defend it."
"Well, there's still a lot of Earth to see...if you ever feel up for something like this again."
"I would like that."
Her smile widened as a thought occurred to her. "In that case, I better make sure I get enough sleep at night, so I won't accidently drop off on you again."
"I did not mind. But if you are serious about it..." his gaze shifted to somewhere between knowing and stern, "...you could start by not doing anymore late-night reading. And especially no all-night reading whatsoever."
Her smile dropped. "Aw, what? Not even on the weekends?"
"If you want to try to reclaim a healthy sleep cycle, then yes. No exceptions."
Ellie then looked up at him with a pleading expression. "Not even if it's a really good book?"
For just the briefest of moments, Optimus hesitated at the look she was giving him. Did all humans have the ability to make their eyes shine like that or was it just her? But he quickly regained his resolve by simply looking right back down at her with a partially raised optical ridge, steady gaze unyielding.
After a moment of staring at one another, Ellie broke away first with a sigh. "Fine. I'll keep my reading schedule to before my bedtime."
"Good," he replied, though it came out fondly. It was remarkable how much she would remind him of his former self every day with some of her tendencies and quirks.
And Ratchet as well, sometimes, he mused with a small frown—not only because of her less-than-ideal sleep cycle, but also when he realized earlier that she had been all but starving herself before he had her refuel on some food. Then he pushed away the thought for now. One thing at a time.
"So..." Ellie spoke up again, regaining his attention, "you guys can have insomnia for your power-downs too?"
He nodded.
She looked down ponderingly for a moment. Then, with a hint of uncertainty, she asked, "Do you guys ever have dreams?"
Optimus tilted his head slightly at the question. "Yes, we do. Why do you ask?"
She shrugged offhandedly. "Just curious."
"To clarify, we don't dream in the same way you do, where images and sounds can become distorted and unexplainable. It's more that of our neural nets replaying certain memories in our processors while our bodies recharge, where nearly nothing is changed."
"Really?"
"Yes. Some memories chosen for us to relive are good, some…are not."
Something flashed across Ellie's eyes at that, her face clouding over. She lowered her gaze to her lap, her grip on his digit tightening. It was not painful by any means, but he could still acutely feel it.
"Yeah...no one likes nightmares," she then muttered.
Optimus's gaze sharpened down at her. He never specifically said nightmares.
He could feel the questions beginning to bloom from his vocalizer, but knowing better, he suppressed them before they could fully take form. Instead, he responded in a low, gentle rumble in solemn agreement, "No, we do not."
A silence had fallen between them for what felt like several minutes. In that time, Ellie had shifted in his palm just enough so that she was now able to properly look out into the vast sea before them. She stared, and stared, and stared at it the entire time.
Until finally, she said in a quiet, still faraway-sounding voice, "I used to live by the ocean."
Optimus's metal brows shot up. Of all the things he'd been expecting her to say, it certainly wasn't that.
"Not this one," she clarified. "The Atlantic Ocean—the one all the way on the other side of the country."
"Did you now?" he said with interest.
She gave a single, tiny nod. "It was nice, being able to see the ocean every day. And there was also a forest nearby too, which was even better. There was a lot of stuff to see and explore there."
A corner of Optimus's lip-plates inched up. That certainly explained her change in attitude when they first stepped foot into the Oregon forest. She looked so...at home.
"That sounds like a wonderful place to live," he remarked.
Almost unconsciously, it seemed, she grew a distant smile. "Yeah, we used to run around there all the time, sometimes well into the night," she murmured wistfully.
Optimus narrowed his optics curiously. We?
A long moment later, when Ellie didn't elaborate any further, Optimus then asked her, "So you and your grandmother lived along the east coast before you traveled westward?"
Ellie's expression cleared at the question. Then she looked down, suddenly looking self-conscious. "Um...yes and no," she answered falteringly. "We moved around quite a few times before we settled in Jasper."
Optimus hummed thoughtfully at this new information—however little it was—before his expression softened. "Well, regardless of where you originally hailed from, I'm glad that you eventually found your way out here...to us."
She blinked, as if taken aback, before she allowed herself to smile again. "Me too."
Then, seeing that the grey horizon ahead of them darken even more, Optimus checked his internal chronometer. "Speaking of, we should consider heading back to base and getting you home. It's getting late."
Ellie looked vaguely disappointed. "We don't have to hurry. Gran's working late tonight again."
After a moment's pause, Optimus settled himself back into his original position. "If that is what you wish." Then he shot her a pointed look. "But we must head back soon if you are to achieve a full sleep cycle in time."
"Yes, I know," she sighed with a sliver of exasperation in her tone, but going by the smile she was trying to hide, she took his words seriously and to heart.
"And Ellie?"
She looked up at him inquiringly.
"If you ever have trouble sleeping, please don't hesitate to call me. I will be there."
She didn't answer at first, contemplating for a moment. Then she gently rubbed her eyes before she told him, "You know...you have a really good storytelling voice."
He lifted an optical ridge a fraction. "You believe so?"
"Mm-hm. If you guys ever fall on hard times, you should totally get a job as an audiobook narrator. Doesn't matter if you're reading from an encyclopedia, I'll still listen to it." She gave a light shrug. "Just saying...that might help."
Optimus couldn't help the amused yet genuine smile, along with the barely perceptible chuckle that escaped his lip-plates. "Thank you. I will take that into consideration."
They sat in companionable silence once more. With the temperature dropping in the evening air, Ellie began to curl in on herself, her body giving a faint shiver. Seeing this, Optimus pulled her closer, his digits curling gently around her, until he had her cradled right over his spark chamber, allowing its warmth to subtly emit outward. Then, at nearly the same time, he could feel the Matrix residing within his spark chamber begin to react as well. It was as though it, too, was trying to reach out and radiate some warmth for the girl. His frame went still at the sensation, hardly able to keep back his intrigue. He has felt it react whenever Ellie was within close proximity before, but they were very few and far in between, and it was usually so faint that he thought it was his mind playing tricks on him. But now, it seemed more prominent, a firm but steady pulse. The power of the ancient relic worked in mysterious ways. He knew this, has known this for as long as he's had it bestowed upon him. But this—this was an occurrence of which he had yet to completely understand.
Whether Ellie was even fully aware of its presence or not was a mystery as well. However, he watched as her body began to relax again as she nestled more comfortably against him in his hold with a soft sigh. That was enough for him for the time being.
"Hey, Optimus?" Ellie spoke up softly.
"Yes, Ellie?"
After a moment's hesitation, she looked back up at him through half-lidded eyes. "I know you said it was okay earlier, but I'm still sorry I made you worry today."
At first, he didn't respond, caught up in his own thoughts. That seemed to be another odd habit of hers that he recognized: apologizing for things she had little to no control over. But while he had given her his reassurances earlier, as she said, he supposed it wasn't quite unwarranted either. He once again recalled how every instinct seemed to activate inside him the second Ellie went missing—the intense sensations stirring through his veins. It wasn't exactly a pleasant experience. In fact, one could even argue that it was torturous.
It was moments and feelings like such that made him think back to those words Ratchet had said after they lost Cliffjumper, about how helping humans would only lead to more tragedy. And admittedly, there was a miniscule part of Optimus, deep down, with the notion he couldn't shake that perhaps Ratchet had a point—that perhaps there was some truth to that logic.
But by the Allspark, if he hasn't felt this alive and full of purpose since Cybertron fell...
Coming out of his reverie, he looked down at his human charge. His companion.
His little one.
"As long as you are alright…" he uttered profoundly, drawing her ever so closer, "…then I am as well."
If going through all that meant seeing the same blinding smile she gave him when they found each other again, and seeing the joy and openness she was finally able to express throughout the rest of their day together...then he would go through it again a million times over. If it meant that she would be safe, happy, and cared for.
And Primus help anything, or anyone, that would dare try to stand in his way.
A/N- I'm honestly disgusted. You mean to tell me that the TFP creators made Optimus's alt mode this giantass semi-truck, complete with cup holders and plenty of storage/resting space…and not ONCE did they consider at least a B-story where Optimus takes the kids on a road trip?! SICK! WE COULD'VE HAD IT ALL!
-The collective wisdom of the Primes stored inside the Matrix of Leadership is a sacred, wondrous entity, not to be taken lightly. Optimus Prime, the current bearer of the Matrix, uses its wisdom to protect all life, guide him through a world still quite unknown to him, and lead his people toward peace…
The fact that he can also use it to be a good dad just happens to be a major perk because I said so.
The Matrix: 'Ah, yes. A foundling. Proceed.'
-Ellie: "SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK"
-Also Ellie, teary-eyed: "And I am weak. I am very weak."
As someone who's suffered from insomnia for as long as I can remember, I usually rely on other means to help me fall and stay asleep. One of them is the Calm app, where you can listen to a variety of things to soothe your mind, whether it's soundscapes, music, sleep stories, and so on. And guess what? There are TWO sleep stories on there that are narrated by Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime! And not only are they amazing, but they actually work! I still have yet to hear both of them all the way through to the end.
I'm telling you, there's nothing quite like falling asleep to Optimus Prime personally telling you all about the history of the Transformers.
I hope you guys enjoyed! I just wanna give a huge thanks to all of you who have been so loving and supportive! This is a story I've been wanting to write for years and it's just so awesome to see others who share that same love for stories like this too! You guys are amazing!
See you next time, where things get a little hairy as our friends find themselves in quite the…Scrapheap. *ba dum TSSSS*
