I am Broken (TFP) *Rewrite*

Chapter 19

Optimus had been traversing the mountainous terrain for an hour, and he has not yet seen a sign of the location of the lab. His processor was going over what happened back at the base. He was surprised by Beast coming forward through Dahlia when there was nothing stressful or dangerous happening at that time. And what was said made him wonder if Beast really was her own entity within that girl's mind. The very thought of that made him feel sad, as it was not entirely unheard of for one body to contain two entities. It has happened among Cybertronians, but he was not sure the ramifications of it happening with other organisms.

While Optimus did not know much about medical treatment, aside from the necessities and anything extra Ratchet has taught him, he knew nothing about human medicine. He was hopeful Ratchet might be able to figure it out, but he did also fear that to understand Beast, they would actually need to take a closer look at the girl's brain. And to do that, would be asking the very thing she would be afraid of. And Optimus had zero interest in putting that on the girl as he knew it would destroy any foundational trust they had built with the girl, and she will lash out to everyone.

But it could actually be a reason why Dahlia survived the mutations. Having Beast would have made Dahlia stronger, and the combination of the two would have been the reason why she survived. It could be possible Beast's consciousness was an accident in the mutation process, or a deliberate creation. Regardless, it was still a cruel situation for the girl, and Optimus knew that she may never recover mentally or emotionally. But at least she was no longer alone.

Optimus hummed as he looked around curiously while remaining cautious with each step. While he has not seen anything regarding the lab itself, he has seen a lot of different animals. He has seen a few bears, moose and elk, and he has been very cautious about where he has been stepping. He didn't want to kill something accidentally, and he was also doing his best to not destroy the plants around the mountain.

He did admire the beauty of the area though. Despite the fact that it was very mountain, it was a beautiful location. He has already seen a few waterfalls that were made by melting snow, and the many different flowers he has seen has certainly brought a beauty to this place. It was a beauty that was not found on Cybertron, but Optimus has found himself appreciating the beauty that he has seen on this world.

With being here for over an hour, Optimus was starting to doubt this location would prove to be useful. He has not checked in on the others to see if they have made progress yet, but as they have not reported anything, he suspected they were in the same position as him. It would seem that day one would not prove to have anything useful regarding the lab, and that was okay. He guessed it would take days to locate the lab.

That is until Optimus noticed a set of tyre tracks in the ground. He did not notice them until he stepped on them and looked down to see that the tracks had been overgrown. He scanned the tyre tracks and the age of these tracks put them five years old, the exact same time frame from when Dahlia escaped from the lab. He frowned as he looked to see which direction they would have gone, and he looked at the mountain range not far from him.

He stared at it and he hummed as he felt like the shape of the mountain was familiar to him. It seemed to almost match the image Dahlia showed of the mountain that the lab was on. Optimus did not know if he had found it already, but it could be the case. He transformed and carefully followed the tracks up the slope in the hopes to locate where it leads exactly. For the moment, everything was pointing towards this area being the location of the lab.

He knew that Dahlia probably would not be expecting this at all, as none of them had expected it either. He did not know what he expected though. As the tyre marks on the ground were old and the path has not been driven on in a long time, it indicated no one has been here for a while. But if a helicopter was used, no one would know unless they were in the area to witness. Optimus would be able to find evidence of a helicopter soon if he was on the right path.