Chapter Five: Connections

As the Groundbridge opened to Omega One, Annabeth came flying into the room in the grip of terror. Ratchet and Bulkhead glanced at the young blonde in confusion on two fronts: Where demigods not to be fearless, unbreakable heroes? Second to that, what had the girl done with Miko, Jack, Bumblebee, and Arcee? Seconds later, Arcee and Bee walked through the portal with Miko gliding along currents of air as she tried to get a good look at Jack, a goal she had yet to achieve with the two-wheeler's protectiveness of a limp Jack. All movement stopped as Optimus turned and looked at a worried and slightly frightened Miko.

When he spoke, Optimus turned to Arcee and, for the moment, ignored everyone but the Autobot femme and her "junior" partner, "What happened?"

Arcee shook her head and glared at the daughter of Athena. "Later, Optimus, please." She walked over to a medical berth and began to draw her own Energon into the infusion chamber. "My neglect gave your mom to MECH," Arcee whispered as her voice shook. "Damn me to The Pit if I'll let you go, Jack." She promised. "With Cliffjumper and Tailgate, I had no power to change, but…" The femme looked at the relatively small form of her latest partner and shuttered her optics, a small laugh escaped her. "…you don't know how much you've changed me, Jack." With a quick scan of her surroundings, Arcee put her right servo on the glass that separated Arcee from him. Get well soon, Smooth Operator.

With the two-wheeler's focus solely on Jack at the moment, Optimus turned to Miko and Annabeth. The demigod still seemed shaken by the whole situation, so Miko spoke for the team. "There was a vein of Dark Energon in the mine," the kitsune reported as she kept an eye on Annabeth out of corner of her field of view. "I don't understand why MECH would bother gathering the cursed shit. They barely understand Energon." She pointed out. "Why would they bother with a substance they know even less about?" Miko then nodded to herself as her mind made a harrowing connection. "Excuse me, Optimus."

As the leader of the Autobots watched Miko walk over to the daughter of Athena, he felt a sense of foreboding and dire warning from The Matrix in that moment. "Arcee, would you follow me to my quarters for a few moments?"

Arcee looked over at a motionless Jack barely visible in the haze of Energon vapor around him. Then, she reluctantly nodded to Optimus. As they walked out of audio range, Optimus turned to her. "There were others there besides MECH operatives. Correct?"

Arcee felt like her spark was ready to rip in two. "Yes, frag it! There were monsters mingled in with the soldiers. What does any of this have to do with why Jack could be dying on Ratchet's medical berth right now?!"

"I have read much about the gods Annabeth and presumably others claim as sire or carrier. We know The Dark Twin is the Earth. Therefore, the gods of Earth gain power from The Chaos Bringer unwittingly."

Arcee shook her helm. "That would explain what Miko told me before we followed the trio back here," The two-wheeler gave a visible shutter across her chassis. "According to her, Blondie ran for the Dark Energon and started screaming about something she called Nectar. Miko had to scare her witless to get the girl to leave the mine."

Optimus' faceplate never moved a nanometer, but his optics held a worry that hadn't been there a moment before. Then, he put a servo on her shoulder. "There are powers stirring in this world that may dwarf the Decepticon threat. However, we cannot remain ignorant of that power any longer." Optimus vented. Rarely seen weariness crept into his voice at his next words. "I would like you and young Jackson to to escort Annabeth back to this 'camp' to determine what threats beyond Decepticons may loom over this world. Until Cybertron shines again, this world stands as our home, and I shall not ignore a possible incursion against it."

While Optimus and Arcee talked, Annabeth looked at her hand and shivered. She could still see traces of the iridescent purple substance which at best made the automatons motors twitch in something approximating unease and at worst, as in Jack's case, suffer temporary shutdown. The golden liquid of what the gods for eons past termed Nectar dropped into a cup from a cut she received when the hardlight platform exploded in her sparring match with Jack. Annabeth watched in morbid fascination as red blood and purple substance fused into the tarnished gold of Nectar. Once the liquid stopped dripping from her hand, Annabeth sighed and looked at the metamorphosed fluid in the cup for a moment. Then, she looked over at the small boy who sat with his face in front of his laptop. "Raf, right?"

The young computer genius looked up at Annabeth's voice and nodded slowly. Then, Raf closed his laptop and put it to the side. "What do you need?" Raf asked politely, part of him great up for the distraction. As Annabeth walked up to Raf with the cup in her right hand, the boy's eyes zeroed on the cup. Then, the newcomer sat the cup down next to him and waited. A shiver crawled up Raf's spine and he saw flashes of when Megatron shot Bee while headed home for the night. The young man could feel his pulse quicken. Faintest whispers leaked from the cup into Raf's ears. With a yell of defiance quite unlike the calm and meek young man, Raf picked up the cup and sent it careening across the room until it smashed into a piece of Ratchet's equipment.

"BULKHEAD! I-" The tirade died in Ratchet's processor, terminated as soon as his optics caught the small cup. The trace elements around the rim made Ratchet's spark nearly freeze with fear. A second spike impaled itself on top of the first a moment after. Primus, that was Raphael's voice! With a quick calculation based on incoming angle and speed of the cup when it hit the machine, Ratchet turned towards the Human area and gently offered a servo to the trembling boy to help Raf down before he could hurt himself in his terrified state.

"R-Ratchet?" Raf asked quietly when he began to come out of his terror-induced delirium. "Last thing I remember, Annabeth tried to give me a strange apple juice drink."

The Autobot CMO turned his fiery glare on the blonde. Before Ratchet could release his fury though, an alert pinged on his life sign monitor, specifically the one for Jack. Ratchet shuttered his optics and mentally summoned June's cell phone frequency. "June, we have a situation with Jack," the old medbot said as calmly as he could. "I have him stable for the moment, but…" Ratchet glanced at Annabeth uneasily. "There may be an unforeseen problem with him."

A twinge of pain in Arcee's spark surprised her right as Optimus dismissed the femme. It wasn't like a blaster bolt to the chest, so she could hide the flash of pain well. As Arcee neared Jack's berth, she felt the pain ease up until she could no longer feel it and knelt next to him. "Hey, Partner."

Jack smiled at her weakly and tried to sit up only for his head to spin. "Hey, Cee. Where's Optimus?" The young man took on a look of worry that belonged on someone forty years his senior. "I need to talk to him. The Dark Energon…"

Arcee put a digit to his lips. "I know. You've been out for a while. Once you're cleared, Optimus wants us to go back to the Camp you and Annabeth bridged from." The two-wheeler squeezed Jack's hand lightly when she felt him tense. "I'm not going anywhere once we're on assignment." For a moment, she wanted to lean down and kiss him but ultimately decided against it. Where did that thought come from anyway? To hide her confusion, the femme smirked as she stood. "I heard Ratchet call June earlier as I was walking into the medbay to see you."

"Frag me..." Jack groaned as his head thudded roughly against the pillow. "Please, stay for a little while longer, Cee. This is nice. I'd like to enjoy my last few minutes before Mom offlines me."

Arcee shook her helm and looked at him. "If she tries, she'll have to go through e." The femme promised in a half-joking tone.

Arcee then looked up and over towards the main entrance to see June come in with tires screaming. Even with the car still rolling, June stepped out and timed her reach to take her bag from the back of the car in a single motion and walked with purpose towards the berth that held her son. "What is my son's status, doctor?'

Ratchet nodded to her and handed her a Human-sized tablet. One side had live feeds from Jack's vitals which looked normal, if a bit elevated. A wave of relief rolled through June with this knowledge, but her mind went to the obvious concern and checked the concentrations of Dark Energon. She smiled when the readouts indicated the blood of Unicron nearly gone from Jack's body and dropping even as she looked at the readout. If Jack is on the mend, why did Ratchet…?

The thought faded from the nurse's mind when she noted the other half of the screens on the tablet.

Due to lessons from Primus, June could read Cybertronian like Latin. The other half of the screen held a composition readout labeled "Nectar". June went bug-eyed and looked at the doctor in shock. He only gave a slight nod and glared at a strange girl. First thought: She's a Roman. However, as soon as the thought crossed her mind, June struck it down. She's far too undisciplined to be of Roman. The only other possibility settled a large boulder in the mother's stomach. Under normal circumstances, it would be strange to pray to one's sparkmate, but the situation almost demanded it. After all, the last time Greeks and Romans met, it led to four years of previously unknown death. Primus, give me strength.

A joyous laugh seemed to be her answer.

In the calming laugh, June found peace, but the old rivalry still tickled at the back of her mind.

The grey eyes and blonde hair made June nervous. Minerva hated Rome, so if her daughter was here, that could be trouble. As June walked up to the strange girl, her old tattoo started to burn with such intensity June could nearly trace the lyre and the lines on her right arm. Ten years… Unconsciously, June fell back to legionnaire training. Her back straitened slightly, and June felt her hand twitch for the gladius in its Walkman form at her side. The former Praetor of the 10th Legion walked over to Annabeth and shook her head, "Graeca, what brings you here?"

"Miss Darby…"

The baritone of Optimus cut into June's thoughts, and she relaxed her grip on the Walkman. However, as June relaxed, she saw Annabeth jump and stifled a laugh. June tuned to see Optimus towering over her. The bot always reminded her of Primus. As such, the nurse pushed down a blush as she remembered her first sight of the noble leader. "Optimus, do you know who she is?"

"I know a gate when I see one, Miss Darby," he said calmly. "Besides this, from what I understand, Annabeth took care of young Jackson while we were unable to locate him." The large Bot knelt and projected a message in Cybertronian script.

June smiled at the Prime and nodded after her eyes scanned over the message. Then, the mother moved to Arcee as the femme helped Jack out of the medical area. Much to her relief, Jack looked much better than he had when she glimpsed him through the infusion chamber. The woman smiled slightly and gave a nod to Arcee then to her son. The confusion on Jack's face only lasted for a moment when she gestured to her right arm above the tattoo and to Annabeth.

Jack looked at Arcee in slight fear after the mine but pushed it down. The boy felt surprise run through him when Arcee smiled nervously at him and transformed. "Annabeth, the Bots want to return us to Camp on the condition Arcee comes along."

Annabeth's head snapped up at Jack's voice. Then, she saw Arcee in her alternate mode Anne gulped. The last time she rode a bike was when she and Luke charged through a wall of monsters that stood between them and Camp. It was the night Thalia… The daughter of Athena squashed the memory. She betrayed me. Annabeth thought before she saddled Arcee and raced back through the groundbridge with grim determination set in her features.

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