Achelois

Chapter 23: Cybertron

Faria grinned as Dahlia placed her backpack in Smokescreen's back seat. Two weeks later, and she was completely healed up. She was still a bit weak, but she was definitely getting her strength back. Faria climbed into Smokescreen's passenger seat, and they drove out of base. Smokescreen made sure she had fun on the way to school by listening a bunch of upbeat music from the remake of the movie Aladdin. Her favorite song was definitely Friend Like Me.

Faria was quick to hop out of the car when Smokescreen finally rolled to a stop outside her school. She grabbed her backpack from the backseat, and bid Smokescreen adieu. She rushed up the stairs into the school, and quickly found her first hour class to turn in the homework she had been given by Jack and Miko a couple days ago. Her teacher was surprised to see her.

"Faria?" the teacher said. "You're here?"

Faria nodded. "Yep!"

"But your guardian said that you had been severely injured and probably wouldn't be back for a while."

Faria laughed. "She said that a while ago. I've been healing for the past several months."

Her teacher tilted her head in confusion. "Oh... Well, it's good to have you back, Faria. Let's just hope you don't get up to your old habits again."

Faria smiled softly, remembering all the times she would point out a mistake the teacher would make, somewhat embarrassing the teacher. Faria took the seat the teacher directed to her to and waited for the bell to ring.

Faria was in her final period of the day, and was watching out the window for the bots, but none of them showed up, confusing her. The bell rang soon after, and she hurried outside, meeting up with Jack, Miko, and Raf outside.

They sat outside for a while, just talking about random stuff, until they noticed that an hour had passed. Jack called Ratchet, seeing as he was the one most likely to pick up. Faria listened intently, but was unable to hear what he was saying.

"What's he saying?" Miko asked.

"The bots are busy", Jack responded. Faria sighed, and took the phone, ignoring the other three. She walked away a bit and spoke to him.

"Ratchet, it's Faria", she paused for a second, holding back her tears. She hadn't talked to him for two weeks. He had been avoiding her. "Does this have anything to do with the Omega Keys?"

Ratchet was silent for a moment, and Faria knew that she was right. "They're... they're on Cybertron, aren't they?"

"Yes", Ratchet responded softly. "I may have to go help them... and if I do, I just want you to know..."

Faria's breath caught in her throat at his next four words.

"Faria, I love you."

Anger rose up in her, and she yelled at him. "You can't just tell me that now! I waited for months for you to tell me that, and now when lives are at risk, you're finally telling me? How am I even supposed to believe you?!" Faria scoffed. "How am I supposed to believe you when you told me something different when I first confessed to you?" Faria didn't give him a chance to answer. "Whatever. I'm giving the phone back to Jack seeing as I don't want to talk to you."

She handed the phone back to Jack, and glared at the ground, fighting back tears. Jack snapped the phone shut in exasperation.

"He hung up", he said.

"Good for him", Faria growled.

"What crawled up his tailpipe and died? And why is Faria so angry all of the sudden?"

Raf blinked at her. "Did you not here her yelling at Ratchet? He said something that she's been waiting to hear for months, and now he's only telling her when lives are at risk."