Infected

Chapter 38

Eclipse POV.

"Wavelength!!" I hiss catching up to him.

"Eclipse? What are you doing here?" He looked up from his hiding place.

"I heard you leave. Thought you were asleep so I got worried." I crouched down next to him.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." He sighed.

"You didn't. I hadn't left the control room yet." I answer honestly.

Wavelength nodded, keeping his optics focused on the sensor not far ahead of us.

"I was worried your simulations picked something up." I add a few minutes later.

"My simulations? Oh no." He smiled slightly. "Not a thing from those!"

I breath relieved at his confident smile. There was nothing to worry about.

"I just don't like that thing." He frowned.

"It's creepy isn't it? Especially with all the dusty safes."

"Definitely. That safes we could pass of as activity from years ago. But this? This counts as recent. Very recent."

"Could they be connected?" I muse curiously.

"Possibly? I've been trying to run the two variables together, plus theories about neutral refugees or the cons. But even still. Two of four variables are pure theory and the other two aren't enough for anything solid. The simulations are coming out jumbled and messy." Wavelength tapped his visor, soundwaves rising and falling as he spoke.

"Helpful." I shake my helm. I could only guess how frustrating that was for him. He kept at least ten simulations running at all times. Most of the time they flip low the same, if not simpler, line of events.

"Thanks for joining me though."

"Anytime." I chuckle.

We talk quietly for a small while, mostly ideal talk.

"What of it was the pirates?" Wavelength joked with a quiet snort.

I laugh slightly. "All the way out here? On Earth?"

"Hey you never know! But our new security system?"

"We're invincible!" I laugh, thinking of Harmony's little space mouse.

Wavelength smiled, before falling quiet again.

"Hey, are you ok?" I ask worried. He was paranoid about something. I know he mentioned the sensor but there was something more. I knew there was.

"Not really." He admitted, leaning his back into a tree.

"Then what's the matter?"

Wavelength didn't answer for a moment.

"I stole something from Magness..." He sighed heavily.

"Stole? He doesn't have anything you could care about?" I lean forward, curious and confused.

"Not until all of this." His tone changed slightly. I could vaguely make out his optics narrowing to a sharp slit.

"What does that mean?"

"He- had this relic. I figured if we were hunting for a relic already, having another one might help it respond." He mused. "But knowing Magness? If he finds out where we went he'd beat me and brand the rest of you as federal thieves. I'm worried he followed us and set that thing up."

I take a moment to process his words. "Why go through the trouble of a sensor then?"

"He wouldn't. He'd storm in and drag me out by the helm fins. I think I'm telling myself it's him because at least then I know what I'm dealing with. Not some unknown shadow of mystery."

"I doubt the simulations lack of information isn't helping?" I shift closer to lean into his side.

"No. Not in the slightest." Wavelength lay his helm onto my own.

"What if it was Magness?" I ask.

"No one would know." He chuckled.

"Wavelength!" I gasp. "We can't kill him!!"

"Why not!!" He laughed.

"That's murder! A crime!" I protest.

"And thrift isn't?! We've already broken so many laws!"

"List them!" I huffed. It wasn't that many.

"Theft of relics on two accounts, the relic and the ship, flying without a license, breaking quarantine, unlicensed space travel, breaking and entering the safes, use of explosives without a licensed Captain, unauthorized use of a ground bridge, theft of library property, technically kidnapping Harmony, landing on a colonized moon without proper clearing, breaking and entering, and misuse of military information." Wavelength grinned.

"Most of those are federal crimes." I chuckle.

"It'll be worth it." He smiled.

"Yeah. I think it will be." I laugh.

"Magness might actually be proud for once." Wavelength sighed.

I pause for a moment.

"I don't think you should focus on his approval, but maybe on someone else's?" I reach over and take his servo.

"Then who's?" I heard him chuckle.

"The teams. Mine." I nudge him, trying to carry a message.

"I think yours in important." Wavelength smiled. "Thanks for checking on me tonight."

"What else would I have done?"

We both fall silent again, watching the sensor for seemingly nothing. An hour ticked by and only a few animals went by. Another hour and still nothing noteworthy.

"Maybe I was nervous for nothing?" Wavelenght barely spoke up in a whisper.

"Maybe?" The wind brush against my wings, almost laughing at our anxiety.

We listened to the nocturnal animals around us. Maybe we were out here for nothing.

"Eclipse!" Wavelength whispered in a panic.

"What?" I barely breath out.

"Look." My audios almost didn't pick up his voice.

I look at what he was pointing at and freeze. A large shadow had walked into the forest. Seeker build, roughly the size of Flare. My energon ran cold. There are other cybertronians on Earth. The seeker walked towards the sensor and picked it up. We watched as the tiny flashing red light went dark. The bots shadow kept shifting, the shapes of his metal moved and warped as if something was in front of it, or on its metal? Wavelength looked over at me. Was the bot a threat? Where they just trying to survive like us? Wavelength pointed back to the ship. It was best we leave.

The two of us slowly stood, Wavelength stepping in front to provide me cover. Being the color of sand and rust wasn't the best camouflage for sneaking around in a forest at night. I crept backwards, making sure my wings don't brush against any leaves or trees. Wavelength kept his visor dark, dim simulations flashing in the corner still. My wings twitch, dialing into the pedsteps walking away from us.