These Paths We Tread (Autobot x OC)

XLVI. I Will Be Your Savior

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To say that William Lennox was angry was an understatement. He wasn’t throwing tables or punches, but to those who had known him long enough, he was irrefutably pissed. His lips were set into a firm frown while his arms were tucked tight into his armpits and his eyebrows were scrunched so close together he was gaining wrinkles by the second. Nobody dared make note about it, though. They didn’t even dare think about looking at him like he was mad. He was a ticking time bomb waiting to go off at any second.

Of course, most everyone knew that it was for good reason. Some were still out of the “loop”, but it was no longer a secret thing that Catherine Wolf, the recently suspended Autobot liaison, was his "adopted" daughter. It was also no secret that, about three weeks ago, she had been kidnapped by the Decepticons. That reason was also known, but even after attempts to keep under close wraps, it was nearly common knowledge that she was the Autobot’s Allspark. How hadn’t been mentioned, but a few opinions had definitely changed and quite a bit of confusion had been made.

Worst of all, it had created problems for the Autobots, which in turn, created problems for finding Catherine. Unfortunately, neither Lennox nor Optimus Prime were able to keep her being the Allspark a secret—her teammates had demanded answers and weren’t gullible enough to think it was anything less, and especially not when Galloway harassed them for answers about the “rumors” he’d already been hearing. Needless to say, the man had immediately brought up ethical issues and accused the Autobots of unlawful experiments on human beings and questioned the credibility of Catherine herself. Was she even human? Was she even a real citizen? Were the Autobots creating more of these so-called human-Allsparks?

It wasn’t just Galloway asking, either. Many of the concerns came from the President and other government leaders themselves, and, indeed, the Autobots were losing trust everywhere they looked. Lennox’s own credibility was called in to question, even though he told them everything he himself had been told. There had been talk of suspending him, but General Morshower had put a stop to that. Still, NEST was in a heap of trouble—especially the Autobots, which was why Optimus Prime had arranged for a secret trip to the United States to speak with Samuel Witwicky and obtain his aid in convincing the world leader’s that they could be trusted and that there was something far more terrible to worry about. That, unfortunately, had not worked out.

To make matters worse, with Catherine in Decepticon hands, Megatron could be revived and arrive at their doorstep at any moment. They had tried to rally a team to go after the Decepticons, but the governments stood in their way and they could do nothing. They could not afford to have humanity as their enemy when they were trying to protect them. Still, even doing nothing was almost too hard for some of them. Indeed, many had not taken well to the sudden mistrust and “grounding”—some worse than others—but they heeded their Prime’s orders and did all they could to remain on good footing with the humans. Thankfully, it was only difficult for the more suspicious of the humans, while the rest were eventually convinced that the Autobots were still the good guys and Catherine’s predicament was just a strange, unbelievable string of events.

Regardless of anyone’s opinions, however, NEST has officially been put on hold. Neither Autobot nor human operatives were allowed to leave the island. The President was on the verge of completely dissolving the program if Galloway’s haughty comments were hint enough. Morshower was doing his damned hardest to keep things going smoothly, and after about the second week, they managed to convince the United Kingdom to support NEST’s continuation. It was only one country, but it was one of the major contributors, which was a good sign. Unfortunately, the UK alone wasn’t enough to allow the Autobots to go on a search-and-rescue. Catherine was still at the mercy of the Decepticons, which was worse than her being dead. They could only hope that, soon, they could go find her.