𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐙𝐞𝐫𝐨 ⬈ ᵒᵖᵗⁱᵐᵘˢ ᵖʳⁱᵐᵉ

━𝐭𝐰𝐨

—the fallen star—

Astraea Maxxine Mayweather had graduated with a double master's in both archaeology and anthropology a few months prior; a bright-eyed young woman barely turned twenty-four.

However, this was not the Astraea from the dimension where the Autobots destroyed the Earth.

This was the original Astraea of this universe.

The Astraea born of this reality was a normal woman without any supreme speed.

She was born loved, the oldest of three in an apple-pie family. She was born in North Dakota on a rainy day in May at the end of the 80s'. She grew up in the suburbs where barely anything ever happened: as much as she loved her family and they loved her, she grew up bored with dreams that seemed far too big.

Yet, she accomplished many of her dreams when she went to college on the other side of the country and graduated with her master's degree. Astraea had always dreamt of being an explorer, so it seemed a nice fit for her to study both archaeology and anthropology with a minor in history.

She intended to one day garner a place on the excavation team in Egypt, the ancient Egyptian history had always fascinated her. She wanted to be the person who found the lost tomb of Cleopatra—even if it most likely was submerged along with the rest of ancient Alexandria.

However, for the moment, as a new graduate, she settled for taking smaller jobs around the United States.

Currently, as fate would have it, she was hired by a small research team to take samples of rather odd glowing crystals in a cave just off the coast of Astoria, Oregon.

It lay in the heart of a rugged mountain range, nestled amidst towering cliffs and veiled by the whispering mist, its depths concealing secrets from ages long past.

Astraea had tilted her head in wonder when she made it far enough in the large and wet cavern. It was teeming with blue glowing crystals: rocks that she had never seen before. She had no clue what type of rocks these even were—igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic? It did not look like any of the main rock types.

And they were glowing at that. She had so many questions: did they glow in the sunlight as they did in the dark of the cave? Were they only local to Oregon?

As she delved deeper, the glimmer of the rocks illuminated her path, casting an ethereal glow upon the ancient rock formations. Astraea surged forward, eyes excited as she immediately began chipping away to get samples. Perhaps this boring little job would turn out to be much more exciting than she thought.

It was old, she could tell that these rocks had been here for thousands and thousands of years.

She was not able to get far in her process of chipping for the next moment the entire cave quaked as two titans came from around a corner and emerged in a tussle. They were not alone for Astraea was barely able to process the large cavern filling with the giant robotic titan within seconds.

They were all fighting, blaster shots firing every which direction as they attempted to tear each other apart piece by piece.

She screamed, barely able to scramble the substance into her backpack before desperately running toward the entrance that she came in from. As curious as she was about these metal beings, considering the fight they were in and how small she was compared to them, it would not be wise to ask questions.

Not when to them—stepping on her would be like stepping on an ant. Not when they had blastors the size of human missile launchers that could incinerate her in milliseconds. And certainly not when she had no clue if they were friendly or not.