Life as many knew it was simple, life as very few knew was chaotic and one wrong choice away from the end of the world. Following the path her father had left behind led Trace down a lot of rabbit holes, ones that left her digging herself out no mat...
I lay against Bee's human body in the back seat, soaking each other in after a rather unexpected turn of events. "Are you sure you... had a good time?" I mumble shyly. I can feel Bee's body shake in silent laughter. "Trust me honey— I gotta be—Leakin' fluids—outside." The radio buzzed out, my cheeks continued to flare from embarrassment but I felt slightly comforted by the fact I wasn't the only one who got something out of it.
"TRACE!" I can hear Sam scream, jumping both me and Bee out of our love sick haze. Sam comes up to the window bagging on it three to four times before Bee even has the chance to role the window down. "I figured it out! The Three Kings! The pyramids!" He rambles, "Okay! Okay!" I groan sitting up to get out of the car. "Hey Bee, are leaking fluid?" Sam questions looking down at the ground, I felt my face flare up as Bumblebee's engine rumbles with laughter. "Sam Dagger's Tip?" I remind, Sam's attention is then redirected back to the subject at hand.
Once out of the car I follow Sam to where he had gathered everyone else, dawn just barely breaking the surface over the horizon. "Okay, you see those three stars? You see how the last one touches the horizon? That's Orion's belt, but it's also called the Three Kings. And the reason for that is the three Egyptian kings who built the pyramids of Giza built them to mirror those stars, so it's like an arrow staring us straight in the face." Sam explains pointing to three bright stars in the sky. I watch as they a line and the last one barely touch the tip of a far off mountain. "They all point due east, towards Jordan. The mountains of Petra." Simmons points out, "Great, then lets get a move on." I nod.
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"Got to be around here somewhere. I-" Simmons mumbles as he spins around, only to come face to face with a mausoleum carved into the side of the mountain. "You see the size of this? You see this? Huh?" He calls over to us pointing, "Yep we see it." I call back, "Spec-tacular." Skids adds. "Amazing. Look at that." The older man continues to awes, "It's here somewhere, guys." Sam nods along. "Yeah, why? 'Cause, uh, we're trusting grandpa blackbird who doesn't even know what planet he's on?" Leo sassed, "That blackbird could still knock you on your ass." I gruff gazing around at the giant collabs, "In his defense, this is the biggest doorway I've ever seen in my entire life." Simmons points out.
"Oh. Okay. Well, that's great. Let me do a quick search, all right? Uh... Nope. Ever cross your mind, guys, that archaeologists have been here before? There's nothing here." Leo argues throwing his arms up to gesture to the empty space inside this carved out monument. "Real life is heartbreak, despair, kid. Sometimes you get to the end of the rainbow and the leprechauns went and booby-trapped it!" Simmons argues back. Not even three minutes in and half of us has already given up and started a fight. "Why am I listening to you? You live with your mother!" Leo snaps, "It's not over." Sam declares.
"It is over. It's done." Leo scoffs, "Why are we still listening to you, little punk-ass? I mean, what you ever done for us except ding my rim?" Mudflap decides to butt in. "Killed Megatron. How about that?" Skids argues. Fuck I knew this was gonna happen, "Well, he didn't get the job done, you know what I mean, 'cause he's back now, and he's-" Mudflaps starts only for the twins to start bickering. "Are you scared?" Skid teases, "Scared? Scared of your ugly face!" Mudflap argues shoving his twin. "Oh shit." I groan, "I'm ugly? Well, we're twins, you stupid genius!" Skids berates.
"Bring it, then- get off me! Now I'll change your face around!" Mudflap challenges and just like that the twins are fighting, "I'll get all up in that ass!" Mudflap laughs flipping the the air as I druck down to try and get the hell out of dodge. "Bring it!" skids shot back as they continued to fight in the fight space. Everyone yelling at the two as they try to dodge the fighting. Skids gets a hold of Mudflap and shoves him into the wall but it was a second later Mudflap throws his twin into that same wall.
"You like the way that feels?" He gloats, "Bumblebee!" I call, the yellow robot steps up, "That didn't hurt." Skids brushes off ready to go again. "You like that, don't you? I'm getting up-" Mudflap starts again before being cut off by Bumblebee grabbing both him and his brother. "Oh, come on, Bumblebee!" Skids pleads, "Bumblebee, listen." Mudflap begs, but he isn't listening. The bigger robot knocks their head into each other before throwing them out of the monument. I stand at the entrance with my arms crossed and a glare on my face, "Now, that's rude." Skid grumbles.
"Is it?" I question, both robots turn on their ass to look up at me. "I warned you that if you kept acting up I was gonna have Bumblebee deal with you." I lecture, "And what happened? You guys almost crushed us getting into a petty fight. From now on if you insist on fighting, do it where you're not going to break anything and kill anyone in the process." I continue to scold the two. I can feel Bee over the top me nodding along with everything I'm saying, the twins look like two children being scolded for breaking the cookie jar. It's oddly... domestic.
"Trace could you and Bee stop parenting for a second! I found the Symbols. Bee! Shoot it. Check this out. Look at it." Sam calls, I turn sharply and walk over to where Sam was kneeling. He backs away as Bee's cannon powers up, it only takes one shot for the painting to break off the wall and reveal a doorway. My jaw falls open as the catacomb hallway is nothing but ancient crypton bodies, "These are the bodies Jetfire was talking about." Sam whispers. "The tomb of the Primes." I whisper tracing my fingers over the skeletal remains of the robots. "Yo!" Leo calls, only to hear an echo in return. "Yo!" He calls again, this time I slap him on the back of the head before crawling into the tunnel.
My heart rattles in my chest when a blade like object sits on a pedestal made from the hand of a prime. "The Matrix..." I whisper looking at it in awe, I look over at Sam and he looks over at me, both of us wondering who's gonna pick it up. I swallow the nerves and gently lift the key up with my fingers, but then it shifts and slowly crumbles into dust. My heart drops into a pit at the bottom of my stomach. I sat in complete shock, "No- No. No.... no." Sam mumbles cupping the dust that remained. "Thousands of years, turned to dust." Simmons mutters, "It can't be." I mumble, wondering how previous alien technology lasted just as long without crumbling into dusk yet the one thing we need does exactly that. "This isn't how it's supposed to end." Sam whispers, I hear the cutting of airplanes outside and immediately Simmons perks up. Him and Leo take off out of the cave to see it, leaving me, Sam, and Mikaela to look down at the pile of dust.
"We're not gonna let it end like this." I steel over, the thought of leaving Optimus to die hardens my resolve. "Take off your sock Sam." I order gathering the dust into one big pile. "What are you two going to do?" Mikaela questions, "I don't know—" I start cupping the dust and pouring it into the sock Sam held open, "—But if I have to shove this pixie dust up Optimus's nose then that's exactly what we're gonna do." I affirm shoving more dust into the sock. When the dust is gone Sam ties off the sock and we all scurry out of the hole, determined to get to Optimus. "Dropping the big boy. You kids think you can bring him back to life with that pixie dust?" Simmons questions as he watches the plane fly over, "Abso-fucking-lutely. Let's go." I order storming right past him.
