"This is so motherfaxing incredible,"
I sat up straight in my bed, arching a brow. "Motherfaxing?"
Miko grinned. "My euphemism for motherfu—"
"Okay," I held up a hand. "I know now."
Miko just grinned even wider. The girl was at my house because she'd suggested we hang out like best girlfriends and have a girl's night at my house. I obliged to the idea, because one, I didn't want her experience here to end up how it did when I was interviewing Raf. Something told me he would never be comfortable with me around ever again. I had overstepped his boundaries and had basically committed attempted murder.
And second, I had had too much on my mind to consider letting loose, even a little. But in the hours it took for Miko to finally win the argument over, I had come to know that she could be very...persuasive.
Miko was lying down on my king-sized bed on top of velvet sheets that covered my legs. She eventually rested her head in my lap, angling her legs at almost a right angle against the nearest wall.
"So, what shall we do?" The girl angled her head up at me.
"Whatever you want," I looked down at her. "Мой дом - твой дом."
"What's that mean?"
"My house is your house,"
Miko grinned up at me and I mentally sighed. I was so not going to used to this. "So I heard you have a pool..."
✘✘✘
It was especially chilly outside, the wind blowing lightly but cold enough to frost the windows. Miko was swimming laps around my massive pool that split through six different ways, while I sat by the hot tub, waiting for it to heat up. While I waited, something twisted inside me. The more I resisted, the more it hurt. So I let it.
MECH. Silas. Vassily. Me.
There were connections. I was connected to Vassily and Vassily was connected to Silas, or in an even broader aspect, MECH. But how I was possibly connected, no, affiliated with MECH didn't make sense to me. Silas was a shadow. I've never even seen him at one point in my life. Or maybe I have. But where? When?
I raked my brain for details. I delved into my memory banks. But nothing came up. For some reason, I felt like crying. I didn't know why. It's just that growing up, I had heard whispers of this thing called MECH. But never about a person called Silas. The worst part was that Silas seemed to know me.
I saw it back there—the old man and Silas were partners. They were in this operation jointly. Growing up, I also believed that there was always a man in the picture, and that had always been Vassily. I never knew my father, he may have been the man who brought me into this world, but he wasn't the man who raised me. Vassily took me in. He called me one of his own. He was the man in the picture. But discovering that Silas somehow knew me from somewhere made me think that there evidently was a second man in the picture too.
I shook my head, in deep thought. Where the hell did Silas meet me? Was I even mentally capable of remembering what happened all those years ago? Don't tell me my mother was having an affair. Holy Petura, what if I'm his illegitimate child-
"Uhh, Earth to Em? Whatcha thinking about over there? Come swim with me!" Miko's voice snapped me out of my thoughts.
I was too cold to do anything but shed the floor-length robe I was wearing over my swimsuit and slip into the steaming water of my hot tub. My body objected, then relaxed into the sting of the heat. Then I looked down. I had to because suddenly, I became aware of how little of my body the swimsuit covered.
"I'll swim with you in a second," I called out. The thoughts in my mind were becoming too much to handle. I wanted them to sink to the bottom of this hot tub. If Silas knew me then, and I'm affiliated with MECH...
I completely submerged my body, sinking all the way to the floor. I floated to the bottom for seconds. Maybe minutes. I was holding my breath. Maybe not. I didn't think I was breathing. I was floating, eyes closed. Or were they open? I heard muffled voices garbled by the flow of water from up above. I wanted to sink deeper, but the depth of the hot tub could only go so far.
MECH. Silas. Vassily. Me...
Operation Ulovka...Ulovka. Ulovka means subterfuge. Was this operation all a trick? Was my life a lie? Who was I being deceived by?
I stayed submerged for another moment before rising to the surface, gasping for air. I stole a glance at Miko who was still swimming laps. Climbing out of the hot tub, I went over to where it was colder. As promised, I swam with her. I climbed out of the pool fifteen minutes later, wrapping a towel around my body. The fairy lights at the back of the house lit up the patio in a beautiful glow. I watched Miko swim and do a front flip on my diving board. I quirked a smile. She was having the time of her life.
If only she had known.
Back inside and dripping, we left a trail of water as we made a beeline from the kitchen. There, Miko stocked up on all the snacks I had to offer, which was an alarming amount. She followed me to the living room, where she deposited the snacks and then we both headed upstairs to my room to change.
I let her wear a pair of my PJs, but she almost seemed deathly unsettled.
"Do you have any darker clothing choices?" The Japanese girl tossed a pair of silk cerise PJ shorts like it was a disease. "Cause 'pretty in pink' is so not in my style."
My gaze went to a pair of skull-print PJs laid out on my bed. Miko followed my gaze and beamed like an angel had visited her and caressed her face.
✘✘✘
We came back to the living room, switched off the lights, and picked out a movie to watch. Hours ticked by, and while said movie was playing, Miko suddenly leaned her head on my shoulder. Instantly, my whole body went into emergency lockdown. I stiffened, not sure how to react to this. Miko warmed up to me from the moment we first met. Deep down she knew that we would end up being best friends.
But I don't do friends. I looked away, feeling a flush rising on my face. I can't trust anyone. I can't truly let them in. If I did, I would only end up hurting them. I hurt everyone I love. I deceive them.
That was the life of mere Ember Chenkov, a sleeper agent.
I thought back to the time I was kidnapped by the Decepticons. Gregg had died because of me. Because I had called for human assistance in an interstellar alien matter. I then thought of the earliest moments of my life. My mother. She died. Though I didn't specifically know how, I was convinced she died because of me. I thought back to when I interviewed Raf. I hurt him. Choked him. And Wheeljack, I almost killed him.
Miko would be next in line. And so would the others. That's how it was supposed to go, until all the threats had been neutralized. That's just how it was supposed to go.
Miko eventually fell asleep on my shoulder. I carefully laid her down on the couch and drew a blanket up to her shoulders. I took one last look at her, switched off the TV, then headed for the basement. In the moment she was sleeping, I managed to fit in time to log Ultra Magnus' biography into the Autobots' Intelligence file since I had forgotten to do that way earlier.
"What do you have for me, Zara?" I stepped into the subterranean sanctum, the room powering up with mechanic whirrs.
"Besides the coordinates I had supplied to you precisely 17 hours ago, I was able to locate more MECH bases and labs," Zara responded, displaying pinpoints of different areas of the world on a hologram. "One paramilitary base, affiliated with MECH is stationed somewhere in the desert of Al Nufud Al Kabir."
When Zara mentioned paramilitary, my brain put two and two together. After a mental analysis, the results came up as a match. The paramilitary base was linked to MECH's Intelligence Officer, Aiden Mitchell. My eyes moved to another pinpoint on the holographic globe, one in Southern China.
I pointed to the dot. "What MECH base is that?"
"Correction, lab," Zara revamped. "It is one of MECH's top labs, located in Guangzhou, China, and run under the Wraith family."
Again, my brain kicked into high gear, matching the names together; connecting the dots. Wraith as in Octavian Wraith. He owned that lab.
We went through all the pinpointed bases and labs Zara could find. It turned out that those six men I had seen back at the MECH facility—Mitchell, Wraith, Lockwood, Montclair, Naveen Patel, and Raiden Havoc—all had their own designated bases but at a cost, and that was swearing their alliance to MECH.
The way Ruslan worded it, it seemed like Bolshevisk, or should I say—MECH's headquarters—was the head of all the MECH ties flowing throughout the world.
"Wait, what about Dr. Ivanov?" I turned to my AI, which appeared to be nothing, but her voice was omnipresent in this room.
"I am afraid I do not follow,"
"When I breached the MECH base earlier, I saw a Dr. Ivanov there, talking to those six men you warned me to steer clear from. Who is he? Is he identifiable? What base is he stationed at?" I paused, wrinkling my nose at a thought but decided to add, "And what was that about a human augmention project?"
Zara answered my questions in the order I had asked them. "Dr. Maxim Ivanov, also known as Anatoly Danili, also known as Mikhail Yemelyushka, also known as Nikolai Arkadi, also known as Ivan Nikolayevich, also known as..."
My brain backtracked. Ivan Nikolayevich. For some reason, that name stuck out to me. I tried remembering where I heard it. Miraculously, I remembered. Ivan Nikolayevich was the name of that man Gregg was spying on when he was alive. He texted me that one fateful day I was being trolled by a Decepticon. He told me that he was infiltrating a secret gala hosted by Ivan Nikolayevich.
Pulling out my phone, I scrolled through my text messages. On Gregg's contact, it didn't take long to find the text, delivered at 3:45 pm on a Tuesday after school.
Got a juicy one this time. Infiltrating a secret gala hosted by Ivan Nikolayevich, you know, that billionaire with a penchant for rare artifacts? Intel suggests he's got ties to a smuggling ring, Gotta dig up some dirt.
I scrolled further, reading my reply.
Nice! Remember, stealth mode activated. Let me know if you need backup or some distraction fireworks.
Ivan Nikolayevich. I tapped my chin. Was this man a con artist? Because from the many names Zara listed out, it sure sounded like it. Almost absentmindedly, I scrolled to the bottom of my text messages.
Copy that big bro. You too, and don't let any canapes distract you.
That was my last message to him.
I felt tears start to well up in my eyes but blinked them back down. In the past 17 hours, I had discovered much. But the discoveries also left me in tatters. It got so bad that I even started questioning my existence, and for the first time, I didn't know which way to turn or what I would do next.
I conversed with Zara for the time being, ready to receive more updates the following morning. Moments passed, and I stepped out of the basement, feeling the room shut down. This time, I went straight to bed, switching off the lights and pulling over the covers. I lay there, staring blankly at the ceiling.
I wish you were here. I thought. Even though you're a pain in the ass and so ridiculously handsome and quirky and impulsive...I wish you were here...brother.
Nothing made sense anymore.
This operation didn't make sense. I'm pretty sure my life didn't make sense either. My thoughts rambled until they slowed, and eventually, all I saw was darkness.
┌─── ∘°❉°∘ ───┐
Ratchet
└─── °∘❉∘° ───┘
Alone in the dimly lit Autobot base, I stood over by the supercomputer, the only source of illumination in the otherwise dark room. The soft hum of machinery filled the air as my digits danced across the keyboard, the blue light from the screen casting eerie shadows on the walls.
Jack was at home while Miko and Ember were away, having something called a 'girl's night'. The others were on midnight patrol, and they had about thirty arcs left before their patrol was over.
As I worked, my optics flickered with the reflection of the monitor's glow, the only sign of life in the stillness of the base. I was deeply engrossed in my task, analyzing data streams and running diagnostics, when a sudden blip on my scanners caught my attention—a chaos energy reading.
My optics narrowed in curiosity. Chaos energy readings were rare, uncommon occurrences that often signified trouble of the highest magnitude. I knew that Optimus and the others were currently deployed elsewhere, investigating another energy reading.
It seemed that trouble had a knack for spreading itself thin.
Frowning, I mulled over the implications. These energy readings had been persistent lately, cropping up at irregular intervals across the planet. Each time Optimus and his team had gone to investigate, they returned empty-handed, unable to locate the source. The possibility that these energy readings were nothing more than false alarms, and anomalies in our scanners, had crossed my mind before. It simply could've been a glitch in the system. But now, with their increasing frequency, it seemed more plausible than ever.
I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something deeper at play here, something I was missing. And then it struck me like a bolt of lightning—Ember.
The memory of Wheeljack's human charge being captured by the Decepticons resurfaced in my processor. It was around the same time they had first started detecting these strange energy readings.
Could there be a connection?
Leaning back, I pondered the implications. If there was a connection between Ember's abduction and these energy readings, then I couldn't afford to ignore it any longer.
"Ratchet?" I had forgotten that Raf was here.
"Yes, what is it?" I replied grumpily.
There was a brief pause, and then, "Have you ever...felt suspicious of Ember? Felt like something was...I dunno, off?"
That caused me to stop what I was doing, bowing my head in deep thought.
"Ratchet...?" Rafael called out after a moment.
"...yes. Many times," I replied, continuing my work, but then stopped again. "Why do you ask..?" I fully turned my attention to the boy, knowing something was up. Raf seemed surprised but quickly maintained composure. His face contorted into one of worry. He looked down toward the floor, rubbing his arm.
"Well..." the boy began to say. "She...she..."
I raised an optic ridge. "She...?"
"She choked me,"
"WHAT?!" My optics widened in terror.
"But it wasn't on purpose," Raf added rather quickly, waving his hands, trying to defend the girl. "She wasn't feeling well. She...she said she didn't take her medicine that day..."
I stayed silent for some time, thinking.
"What are you thinking?" Raf asked after a little while.
I hadn't been an expert on the human body, but I certainly was not an expert on human mental health.
"Is she..." I looked for the right words. "Troubled...?" Mentally unstable was the word I would've used.
"I...don't know," Raf looked off to the side and there was more silence. All the more reason to fuel my judgment. There was something about Ember I couldn't quite place. And that's why I needed to find out more about her.
Immediately.
┌─── ∘°❉°∘ ───┐
Ember
└─── °∘❉∘° ───┘
I woke up to Miko shaking the shit out of me.
"How long have you been asleep? It's after 1 pm!" The girl teased.
I tiredly rubbed my eyes, trying to fall back asleep. But now I couldn't. Great. I sat up, stretching a bit. It took me a little time to realize I was still in my house, not in some random MECH facility located outside the outskirts of Jasper. My head instantly replayed the scene from yesterday—Silas, Vassily, everything I had thought. I felt an afternoon shadow masking my glare.
A few minutes later, I brushed my teeth and got dressed, walking down the stairs in time to see Miko making breakfast.
"What's this?" I smirked. "Cheffery?"
Miko grinned. Dangerously. "You would know, Ms. Rich Russki. You're lucky I took the time to make you a healthy and nutritious breakfast instead of one of your maids,"
"I don't have any maids," I playfully rolled my eyes, snatching a toaster pastry off the counter. I held it up, smirking. "So healthy."
After breakfast, we were getting ready to head to base. Miko grabbed her things and packed them into a small Slash Monkey bag, while I was in my room grabbing a few things. We both agreed to meet up at the foyer.
In my room, I rummaged through my drawer, searching for my phone. When I found it, I started getting ready to head down the stairs. Suddenly, a sharp headache zapped through my brain. My mind instantly flashed to when I was crossing the groundbridge to get to the Autobots. It was a mere headache, more or less a symptom of my body not getting used to light, radiation, and electromagnetic waves now that I wasn't with my powers. I winced, trying to walk.
But walking only worsened the pain. I stumbled against the doorframe, one hand on my head. I winced, squeezing one eye shut against the sharp agony.
Forget this being a headache, this was an aneurysm.
The pain intensified, booming inside my skull like a relentless drumbeat. I gasped, taking shuttering breaths. Wave after wave, more headaches came zapping agony into my nerve endings. My phone fell out of my hand as I lost track of time and space, wobbling back and feeling my eyes burning when another wave attacked. I fell to my knees, clutching my head and painfully gritting my teeth against the relentless onslaught of pain.
Just when the pain cleared a little, I sat still, waiting for the pain to die and declaring it as a passing thing. Slowly, I got up, picked up my phone, and careened toward the door. But just as it had, the pain came back again, only ten times worse. I let loose a string of swears, in English, Russian, and every other language I could physically speak. Boom. Another wave. I let out a guttural scream, feeling my brain literally emerging from my head. Tears threatened to roll down my cheeks as I clutched my head in misery, recoiling back and forth in chaotic directions.
"Stop hunting them, Ember!" a powerful voice roared, making me scream in agony. "The Autobots are not your enemy!"
I clutched my head, trying to block out the voice, but it reverberated through my consciousness like a thunderclap.
"These are evil times," it boomed, "but you must not be the one to doom the Cybertronian race!"
You're not real. Every fiber in my being was screaming at me to bang my head on a wall. You are not real.
All I could see was black, with a fuzzy glow of pure light in the distance. I thought my time was up. I thought I was going to die. The voice sounded masculine, bleeding with power. I screamed in defiance, my anguish mingling with the voice that seemed to tear through my very soul. Unable to contain the overwhelming pain, I lashed out, spinning in cluttered directions and knocking over anything in my path.
"Ember, listen to me!" The voice persisted, its words haunting me with their intensity."You must find the strength within yourself to resist the darkness!"
You are not REAL. I collapsed to the floor, screaming until my throat was raw, until every fiber of my being ached with agony. You're just a hallucination. And then, with one final, shuddering breath, everything went black.