Interrupting Extinction

Interrupting Extinction: Five

          Alice was warm when she woke up. Cradled gently to Sunsprinter's chest, she guessed she had been asleep maybe an hour. Cybertron's suns looked as if they had hardly moved at all. Alice breathed in deeply, letting out the exhale in a slow and measured manner. She still sort of felt like she should still be passed out. But, she did feel calmer than she had before. So, Alice initiated contact with Sunsprinter by knocking gently onto the guardian mech's chest plates. It quickly got his attention, the mech carefully tilting his chin so that he could peer down at her. Their gazes met as she tilted her head up. Sunsprinter's expression immediately gentled.

"Have you settled your heart, honoured one?" Sunsprinter asked. His voice rumbled from his chest, travelling down Alice's spine in a comforting manner. Similar to Ratchet, Alice thought. This time the thought didn't hurt as much. She nodded slowly.

"I... I think so," Alice was quiet in her reply. She felt quite a bit mellow after her earlier crying session, and her heart and chest felt light. Almost disconnected, but still in touch with her circumstance. Sunsprinter nodded at her and then looked up, the rays of one of Cybertron's suns lighting up the planes of his face.

"Then witness, honoured-one, the Crystal Gardens of Lacon." Sunsprinter's voice reverberated from deep in his chest, seeming to echo as it projected somewhere beyond them. Alice could barely dare to turn, shifting on Sunsprinter's palm as he raised his arm for her to see better. She realised that she had closed her eyes halfway through her movement, knowing that it was because of the fact that she was almost afraid of what she would see. Would it be the beauty that Ratchet had painstakingly described to her despite the heartache the memories brought him? Her heart stuttered for a second. Or would it be a shattered mess leftover from the war?

When Alice was finally able to force her eyes open a few minutes later--at least, seconds that felt like minutes--it would turn out to be neither. Gone was the carefully cultivated outcroppings of crystal. Gone was the winding path Ratchet had described to her. But it wasn't that the Gardens were destroyed. No, what she was witnessing in front of her was far removed from that. It was, to put it simply, overgrown. The canal that divided the Gardens in half continued to babble merry and clear, but the paths had long been overgrown by mischievous protrusions of crystal.

The great towering ones had rougher, medium and small crystal branches sprouting from all of their sides. The previously well-shaven facets were broken up by the extended twigs and branches of crystal. And while Alice could not by any means claim it to be the pride and joy of a cybertronian gardener's lifetime, it was nonetheless still beautiful. In the way that her grandmother's old garden had been. Reclaimed by moss and ivies, and as the younger Alice had so stoutly believed, fairies. With the way the Gardens in front of her were glistening, Alice could almost believe that it was the same here. Despite the millions of lightyears in distance, despite the margin of time, despite not knowing any cybertronian tales to know for sure, her heart still felt the same way at both places.

In fact, she could almost hear the tinkling of their laughter.

Alice could not help the grin that pulled itself onto her lips. Oh, Ratchet would be ecstatic. The Allspark hummed, alighting Alice's nerves in a way that felt almost like a strange hug. Gardens, the Allspark sang to her, these-have-long-been-pride-of-Primus. The Allspark waited for a second, as if deliberating over something. Before-even-the-first. And the admittance means something that Alice doesn't quite understand. But the Allspark offered no more context, instead choosing to settle into the space of her mind that it usually waits in until Alice needs them. Alice shook her head a bit. She would have time to puzzle out the Allspark's vaguely cryptic words later. For now though... A grin broke out on her face again. She couldn't wait to show Ratchet the Gardens.

Alice blinked away the cascade that always followed that line of thinking and stood up. Sunsprinter seemed to sense that she was going to ask to be let down and so before she could even open her mouth, he was already leaning over toward the ground. Once she was close enough, Alice took the short distance down with a small jump. Then, as soon as she was secure on her feet, she turned around to face Sunsprinter. Thankfully the mech stayed kneeling for a bit longer. She appreciated the fact that she wouldn't have to strain her neck.

"Thank you," Alice's voice was soft as she relayed her gratitude. Sunsprinter nodded respectfully toward her.

"Duties away from home often warrant tears. Before the war, there were many younglings who missed their familial units or friends." Sunsprinter told her. Alice could see that it was his way of showing that he understood the reason for her breakdown. Alice rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. That didn't erase her embarrassment though. She nodded at him. Then, Alice glanced to the Gardens.

"I should," she started before taking a breath, "I should walk the Gardens, shouldn't I?" Alice peered up at Sunsprinte. The mech chuckled a bit, one of the few times Alice had heard him laugh. It was warm. It reminded her of home.

"I would assume so, honoured one." Sunsprinter nodded towards her. Alice bobbed her head at him before quickly turning on her heel. She blinked at the view of Gardens, her synapses firing to adjust to change in perspective.

Now that she was on the ground instead of fifteen feet or more in the air, the crystals were even bigger than she had originally thought. They seemed to tower over her by miles, each branching crystal reaching at different angles toward the suns. Alice took a deep breath in, steadying herself. The Allspark offered one last comment before she walked in.

You-too, are-precious.

And it was with those words sinking into her mind that Alice took the first step, her footprints glowing like a trail of light behind her.