"Like a thief in the night
I'm coming for your heart"
»«

Dana was immersed in reading her tablet when an insessant tapping noise began to drive her nuts. Looking up, she gave Jack a little glare when she noticed that he was the source of the tapping, hitting some small device against the railing of the catwalk.

"Do you mind?" She inquired. "I'm trying to read."

"Sorry." The boy apologized before he stood a little straighter and stopping his tapping. "I was just lost in thought."

Ratchet glanced over at the talking humans, his optics immediately zooming in on what Jack had in his hand, his mouth opening a little. "Where did you get that?" He asked, almost demanded.

Jack shrugged. "Optimus gave it to me. Though I don't see why I would knee the key to the Groundbridge power supply." He offered the key to Ratchet.

The Autobot refused the offering, shaking his helm. "Jack, there is no key to the Groundbridge power supply."

Dana looked at it quizzically. The key itself looked too small to be anything of Cybertronian origin; what was it?

Ratchet answered the very same question, which had been asked by Jack. "That is one of Cybertron's most important relics: the key to Vector Sigma."

Vector what? Dana began typing away in her tablet, though now she was just as confused as Jack as to why Optimus would entrust such a relic to a human, especially one that wasn't even an adult quite yet. Wouldn't Ratchet be a better candidate?

"Why would Optimus entrust this to me?" Jack asked with a puzzled look on his face.

Ratchet looked away, the disturbing realization sinking in. "Because he doesn't plan on coming back."

Dana paused in her typing, looking up at her guardian. His face was down-turned in an expression of sudden loss, and the weight of the situation suddenly settled on her shoulders. Optimus Prime had not told them that by surrendering the matrix, a negative outcome was the most likely to occur. Death was what she suspected, but did not allow herself to voice.

"Hey, hey." She said softly, setting the tablet aside and walking to the edge of the catwalk. Leaning out a bit more than what was safe, she gently touched the white side piece of Ratchet's helm, getting his attention. "I doubt Optimus wouldn't have said anything if he didn't think there was a chance he could come back. He's hoping to return, just like you are."

Ratchet looked at her, a war-torn field medic gazing through his optics. "But he left the key to Vector Sigma behind."

"Maybe for a back-up plan, or for Jack to safeguard until he gets back." She countered. "Don't lose hope, Ratchet. It's going to be okay."

"Don't say that." He snapped, turning his helm away from her to look back at the monitors, her fingertips leaving his cool metal. "It might not be okay; you shouldn't go around making stupid promises like that."

"And you should learn to look at the positive side of things." She countered, crossing her arms with a frown. "Optimus might come back. Everything might be okay. You can't have hope if you're always looking at the worst possible scenario."

Ratchet gave her a fake laugh. "I'm being realistic. And realistically, Optimus isn't coming back."

The human girl looked at her guardian sadly, not sure how to counter him. The medic went back to gazing at his monitors, his point made, now looking at them with a slight glare. It was times like this where Dana wished she was bigger, or Cybertronian. Perhaps then Ratchet would take her words into better account. But the size and species difference made him more inclined to just listen without really listening, taking her words at face value and thinking nothing more of them.

It would also be much easier to try and comfort him without a fear of being accidentally squashed or crushed. Hugs would also be allotted, because then she could get her arms at least mostly around him. But as a human . . . Hugging his finger was the best option, and not only did he not let her touch his sensitive "digit pads" as he called them, but it was probably the least gesture of affection she could imagine giving, and the least comforting.

"Okay." She said finally, at least wanting the last word in, before she returned to her pad to read. She was currently absorbed in broken lower back struts and how to repair them, including a damaged nerve cord. The science was very interesting, the medicine even more so.

Minutes passed by without any update, the weather seeming to continue at a steady destructive pace for some time. In fact, she was getting used to it, but an every increasing amount of worry was growing. Her parents were probably freaking out, blowing up her phone with messages and calls, trying to reach her at her "science fiction club." Hopefully the weather had knocked out powerlines and communication to give her an excuse; but, she prayed, the storm left her family alone.

Ratchet took a half-surprised step back as the ground began to shake and dust and dirt fall from the ceiling, Dana immediately dropping the tablet as the wheeling chair she was in began to move, scrambling to her now unsteady feet.

"Earthquake!" Ratchet realized, his first instinct to turn to the children. "Take cover!"

Dana sucked underneath his protective arms and hands, covering her head like the school had taught her. Because if there was one thing that was going to save her from debris falling and crushing Ratchet, then her, it was going to be the hands on her neck and head.

"Agent Fowler, Nurse Darby, you too!" Ratchet gestured for them to join the kids, his second arm providing plenty of room for them to hide under, leaving his own neck and head exposed.

It didn't take long for his human to notice. "What about you?" She asked worriedly, shouting about the noise.

"I'll be fine." He answered. "My neck cables are much more durable than yours are. Just stay down."

And so she did.

»«

The earthquake lasted for only five minutes at most, but it felt like forever, the human girl having to watch helplessly every time Ratchet flinched, the Autobot feeling every stone that hit him and bracing for it to be the last before he was crushed beneath the mesa. But that time did not come, and as fast as the earthquake had started, it had stopped.

Beeping indicated that the computers were coming back online, Ratchet uncovering the humans the moment he deemed it was safe, all of them sighing with relief as they dusted themselves off.

"There could be aftershocks." June warned, standing carefully.

Their attention was drawn to the monitors as they signalled they were picking up the Autobot life signals, and Megatron's. A brief silence filled the base before Dana grinned, looking over the railing.

"Does this mean-?" She trailed off, not wanting to be too hopeful.

"That it worked?" Ratchet supplied, nodding and giving her one of his rare smiles. "Yes."

"Woo-hoo!" Miko cheered. "Earth is saved!"

"Do you think they're ready for pick-up?" Jack wondered.

Ratchet frowned just a little, and shrugged. "I don't know. But if they don't contact me soon, I will send a Groundbridge for them regardless."

"But Megatron is still down there with them." Agent Fowler reasoned. "And now that Earth is safe, what's to stop him from storming base?"

The Autobot medic sighed. "I don't know, Agent Fowler. But it is a risk I am willing to take."

Dana nodded silently, imagining what would happen if Megatron did storm the base. Could they stop him? She wanted to trust that he had a mutual fascination with her, and would pause in his tirade to play the game they had unintentionally created between each other, coaxing her to push the boundaries of bravery and absolute idiocy, buying time for the Autobots to counterstrike.

But admittedly, he probably cared little, or not at all, for her. She was a human after all, no larger than his smallest digit. He would think about killing her as much as a human would killing a fly: not at all.

"Ratchet," Arcee contacted them, hope rising for a moment before they all realised that Optimus had not been the one to reach out first. Indeed, now when she looked at the screen, the life signals of both Optimus and Megatron were gone. "We need a Groundbridge."

Ratchet noticed this, his face falling immensely. Without giving Arcee confirmation, he simply opened the Groundbridge, and the humans watched with hope, and horror, as only three Autobots came through the portal.

"Optimus . . ." Ratchet tried to keep his voice from breaking. "Is he . . .?"

"Dead? No." Arcee looked at her feet in shame.

"But he looked right at us and didn't even know our names!" Bulkhead bemoaned, Bumblebee whirring and clicking his confirmation.

Ratchet set his jaw. "It seems that when Optimus surrendered the Matrix, he lost more than the collective wisdom of the Primes. He lost his own memories."

Dana felt her mouth drop. "So now he's . . . Orion Pax? Who he was before the war?"

"Yes." Ratchet confirmed, servos curling into fists. "And I have no doubt Megatron will take full advantage of that."

Dana paused, unsure of what else to say, the same thing on everyone else's minds.

Scrap.