Ep. 2 - Calico - (Closed) - Finis

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Set on Week 1, Day 2, at night!

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During the day, the Calico hills rose up from the alkali flats of Nevada. They stood against blue sky in bands of deep color. Golds, reds, bright orange and muted bronzes, all lifted and swirled together, worn into smooth flows by the constant blow of grit on the wind. Thorny brush dug a toehold into the stones where it could and grew low and short, gleaning as much moisture as it could from the daily soak of dawn, and holding on tight when the torrential thunderstorms rocked the area.

Tonight, the grey alkali flats gleamed silver under a waning moon. Stars gleamed overhead, spattered across the expanse of dark sky. In the cities you never saw the wide band of the Milky Way, it was hidden by all the ambient light that constantly flooded those places. Silent and still the desert stretched for hundreds of miles, flat and smooth.

Places like this were easy to run.

Easy to lope along that white dust. Nothing to worry about ahead of you. You could see everything for miles and miles. No surprises, nothing leaping out of the shadows that you didn't expect or worry about. They tested supercars in places like these -- they also tested atomic weapons, but hey, who was counting.

Up on the hills though, that was a different story. It was important to carefully seek out toeholds, test the stone for your weight. Thorny little scrub trees showed you safe places; you can step here and here, that will work. Like the goats, you turned your nose into the wind and kept an eye out for danger. That was automatic.

She'd been on assigment. Run through, drop off the item, and bring another back for Pyrotech. Easily done, but...

In her hip carrier something tiny rattled.

The courier remembered this place. A long time ago she'd come up here and trotted the trails. Along them, the pictographs; art from those long gone. An area where the fossils were; dinosaur footprints so ancient that she couldn't even fathom the time. That's where she was headed tonight.

For once, the night was a balm.

Fortress Maximus sat with his back against a shallow outcropping of rock and let the evening air seep the worst of the heat from his idling engine. It had been a climb getting up into the hills, but the view out over the flats was worth it. Beneath the moon the cracked earth and sand was nearly white.

The tracks of his tank mode gripped into the rock and held him in place, despite the shallow incline. He kept his turret pointed towards the flats, but let his machine guns swivel on their mounts to warily cover his flanks. He wasn't really expecting to see anything this night, nothing living - but then again, he had been caught here once by a Deception cassette. It would be foolish to lower his guard simply because he had been lulled into inactivity by the isolation and the cool night air.

One whip antenna flicked back and forth, absently. It was the only indicator of Maximus' thoughts.

They roamed, restlessly.

The day had gone past in a blur of activity as the Black Rock military base prepared for the attack northeast of Salt Lake City. The 19th Special Forces Group B Company had flown in by transport earlier that evening, which meant briefings. A lot of them, as everyone was brought up to speed on the rapid flow of logistical planning. The Green Berets had been polite, formal, and remarkably untroubled by his presence. Maximus had been impressed by that.

It had been a little overwhelming to be so abruptly returned to a military environment, but good. The base, the tactical organization, the discipline and order - all of it was more familiar to him than the silo had been. For a few hours Maximus had been a soldier again, and it had been like the prison had never happened.

Felt good.

Perhaps that was why the night now held no horrors for him. Maximus scanned the flats below idly. Nothing. He tried a sweep of the hills and -

Something pinged. A glimpse. There and gone.

Maximus tensed. His engine settled into gear; the low rumble echoed through the nearby hills.

A geocache.

Dart had found it on line while looking through the website logs. A click to the picture and and it had sparked that memory.

After that she'd been unable to get it out of her head. Once she'd remembered it, she had to go. To see it for herself, to note that things were still there after all that time away. Changeless moments in what felt like a changeless landscape. She'd been up to Saint Helens not too long ago, and that- well, that was always changing. Grey ash and burned trees being reclaimed by live things, by green and growth and wildlife. Nature found its way back to all those places and reclaimed it. The Pacific Northwest did that; rain and water and plant overgrew everything. Places vanished under the weight of invasive blackberry canes and sharp thorns, under hillsides full of Scotch Broom that made you have to clear your systems a thousand times just to get the pollen out.

She'd been up there on the mountain to leave a cache when she'd found that other thing. The smell. You couldn't forget it once you smelled it. Even that one little shard had turned her internals. Dangerous. Dead. Leave it be. Stay away. It must have been uncovered in the explosion of the mountain and sat under that layer of grey ash for thirty years, waiting.

Dart had wanted to cover it. To dig and dig until it disappeared under the packed ash, to drag rocks over it and bury it for good and hope the mountain blew up and buried it again. But...she didn't dare. She had her orders. You find it. You tell me and me alone.

Ugh. Awful. All she'd thought was no no no don't lick the happy fun ball.

... not that she'd ever say that, but she'd been thinking it. Only because it kept her from turning around in a panic and fleeing. Get away as far and as fast as she could. Ah well. A shake of her head; she snorted out the cool air in a short huff to clear her nose and her mind.

Maybe that's why she was up here tonight doing this. Going somewhere where the chances of running across anything like that were remote. Where running across anyone was remote. Quiet and clear and open sky and the distant flat silver sea of the flats.

Or maybe it was because she just- the game had been on her mind. And how it had stopped, sudden and abrupt.

The blip was faint, and it flickered in and out of detection. The rock shielded most of the surrounding hills from his scanners, which were mostly limited to short-range use. But now and then the rock would reflect rather than block, and he would pick up the echo of - something.

Still rumbling, Maximus transformed.

He ended in a crouch, even as his treads swivelled and slammed into place on his back and shoulders. When the last of the plating had clamped across his chest he rose to his feet, his joints softly whirring. His expression intent, he scanned the nearby rock slopes. Saw nothing, just loose dirt and a few tufts of grass and brush.

Grimly, the big mech reached back for his rifle.

The signal had not been a large reflection, at least. Cybertronian, but a small one. Or at least from a mech that did not throw back a large profile. Stealth-bots were like that. So were a lot of fliers. But a flier would not be travelling by foot, unless it was looking for something.

He felt like cursing. Like blistering the air above him with oaths. God damn it. This was his desert. All he wanted to do was come here and - clear his head. Put his thoughts into order before retiring for the night to prepare for the attack the next morning. But every time he tried it something cropped up. An Autobot. A Decepticon. Hell.

Scowling, Maximus stepped out of his niche and onto a slab of rock. He climbed it, his tall frame and long legs eating ground as he picked his way up the outcrop. He stood boldly at the top and scanned the hills. He could see a lot from this vantage point. Anything could spot him as well, but Maximus was willing to bet that whatever was out there would have a worse night than he would if their paths were to cross.

Dart didn't want to dwell on that too hard. She admitted it, she'd gone up to Vantage a lot in those weeks, trotting back and forth; it was on the way in from a wide patrol, no reasons not to cross that area constantly, nothing that might ping to someone that well, she wasn't where she was supposed to be. That was at least one good thing about her job; she could run a lot of places and say - no, I couldn't go this way or that, the ground was this or there was human activity, and well, it was believable.

Just checking on that bucket. She never expected really for the rock to be gone. When it was, she seriously had to do a double-take. Then even more at his solid handwriting in the book, and then as they'd gone along it had been...

Then it had stopped. Just stopped. Her first thought had been a bad one. Then her second had been worse, and-

A rattle of her spoiler. She wanted to leave those musings behind and so she just stuffed it into motion. Climb up, bound, leap here, touch off this - hit the ridge, and it wasn't far to the cache from there, just on the other side and down an old trail with the gully, she remembered.

Up on the top though, she paused. The courier sidestepped and then turned in place, then glanced around automatically, went to sniff, and-

Nobody. Just herself and the stone and the ridge and sky, and she settled back. Stars were gorgeous tonight, and she couldn't help it and trotted to a stop, looking upwards.

As always, no, she had no idea where Cybertron was. Well that was to be expected, and she couldn't help the little laugh that rolled out of her chest. Why do you even bother to look? But hey, she did. One of these days it might come back to her.

From his elevated position Maximus was able to scan the hills a little more clearly. Nothing reflected back at him, but that was fine - because now he could see what had created the blip.

It stood on a ridge above him. It was not much higher up than he was, perhaps a hundred feet or so. The moon and the stars were bright enough to cast its silhouette against the night sky. Had he not climbed onto the outcrop he never would have spotted it.

Maximus went stiff. He raised his rifle to his eye and took careful aim, but did not place his finger on the trigger. Instead he sighted down the scope. It focused in on the figure, which did not appear to have spotted him. The scope revealed it to be a dark and slender robot, with two odd points pricked over its back. It was not the silhouette of an Autobot he recognised, but nor was it a Vehicon either. Then -

All at once it hit him. Stunned, the warden lowered his rifle.

What in the pit was she doing here?

Shouting did not seem right. Maximus licked his lips. Then, curtly, he whistled - a single sharp blast, like he'd used to gather the attention of his officers.

Obviously she'd totally not suspected for a moment that he was there.

Not in the slightest.

Her reaction was rather comical in a way. Well, to anyone else who happened to be watching.

The courier hopped straight into the air. She spooked and bounced nearly right over the side of the ledge before she curvetted like a rodeo pony somehow, twisting to get her feet back on solid ground. All limb and leg and not the most graceful of moments as she flailed into a immediate stop. The tips of her spoiler over her shoulders and pricked forward as she tried to pinpoint the sound. Automatically she trotted forward a step or two.

Her nose lifted, her brain was somewhere else; focused on a whistle, sharp in the audial and she froze. Dumbly, she just stared for a moment. Here? How did he - oh, how as she going to explain herself to him, but then she realized something else. She was still standing, she wasn't already bounding forward to answer - So, no, that couldn't be- who-

Her nose swung into the air, and then...

A blink as she gathered the outline of the mech. Tank treads against the sky, high over his shoulders. Bulky and heavy and solid and- oh. Oh. The absolute last mech she expected to see and then she just rocked back on her heel and tucked her hands to the small of her back, instantly, obviously polite. Her spoiler was creeping up though, and the tips peeked over her shoulders.

Now she saw him. Maximus lowered his rifle. Then he reached back and hooked it back upon the clips at the small of his back. He didn't need it.

For an instant he was uncertain what to do next. The last time he had seen the courier had been in the wake of a Decepticon raid. She might not have been the one who shot Bulkhead, but she had been a participant in the raid nonetheless. It was clear that she worked for her faction. But she had also stayed behind to help the Wrecker return safely to the Autobots - and Miko too.

She also roamed the west coast burying harmless items for humans to find. She had left him messages, personal ones - little trinkets. It was hard to see her as a threat. But he told himself it would still be wise to find out what she was doing here. Of all places.

Maximus shook his head.

The distance that separated them - him on the outcrop and her on the ridge - was not far. Maximus eyed the gulf and did a mental calculation. He held up one big hand, signalling for her to wait. Then he lunged, took one step, two steps -

- and sprang into flight.

He crossed the span in two leaps. His first landing planted him upon a slab of rock, which he vaulted off of before it could crumble beneath his weight. When he hit the ridge he simply reared back one hand and drove it into the rock face to anchor him while he hung from the sheer slope, braced on one extended leg. Then he reached up with his other hand and swung himself onto the top of the ridge.

As Maximus approached the courier he brushed the dirt and dust from his hands. He frowned down at her.

"What are you doing here?" he said.

Dart was utterly baffled by his appearance as well. Then all of a sudden, her spoiler gave the tiniest little side-to-side motion that was half hidden by her frame.

Not dead.

She'd wondered. Well, you started to fear those things, she supposed. He'd stopped so abruptly that she'd been afraid that that's what it was. Frontliners, that was their job. This was a war. They died. She'd been around many that had. His notes had started out a bit stiff and then just slowly turned just ever so slightly, drawn to the environments, the places. She'd read them.

Dart watched as he slowly lowered his rifle. His body language changed from being wary to being confident in the situation now; she lifted her nose just enough to watch him sling the massive gun over his shoulder and clip it down.

Body language understood, he was here and she was there and he'd asked her to stand and stay. A more sensible Decepticon might have immediately thrown their hands up at that and prayed to whatever deity they happened to be following just so that they'd have a better trip back next time on the karma wheel and not be turned into a blender or some awkward appliance in the next life.

When he lunged into motion she couldn't help but just - whoa. She'd seen him move fast before, back down at the Canyon but... time and space and she'd never seen him in an open space like this. For something so broad and large, he carried himself effortlessly. The courier was astounded; the leap, the weight, the move. Fighter. All she could think of for a second was how had those Vehicons actually managed to even hurt him so badly in the first place, and-

Then he asked the question. It was a totally logical one.

She looked up at him from under the brim of her helm. "Geocaching," she admitted with a little sheepish smile.

And not paying attention apparently but she figured he'd figured that out all for himself. Erk.

Her answer took Maximus by surprise.

"Geocaching?" he said.

He stared at her blankly. He hadn't expected her to admit she was on patrol, or scouting - Black Rock was nearby, and as a military facility it was always a potential target for the Decepticons. He had thought he would get an evasive answer. He certainly hadn't expected this one.

Maximus gave her a funny look. It had just occurred to him that this was the first good look he had ever gotten of the courier. It had been dark in the train tunnel, and he had been too hunched over and preoccupied with Bulkhead and Miko to give her his full attention. And before that, in the canyon - the haze of pain had fogged his mind and made it difficult to focus. Now he could see clearly, and realise that she was tall and slim, scuffy. All skittish leg. Carriers on her hips, and no visible weapons that he could detect. Travelling light, like a courier would.

Those slanted blue optics. He did remember those.

"Geocaching," he said again. Maximus lifted his head and looked around the desert, still frowning. "There's a - a cache location near here?"

Dart nodded. Her spoiler had pricked up again and she'd drawn a tiny little sneak of air; he smelled... well, better. Not that that was perhaps the thing you said in polite company; but he no longer smelled of blood - er, fuel, and pain and all those things. His body language wasn't the cramped hunch of the tunnel or the drawn in shoulders of the cave where he'd been running on pure survival.

"Yeah, it's down by the dino-" she started to say and then caught herself, realizing, well, hey, look, she'd just given that location away in an instant. "Down below, I mean."

She tipped her head and looked up at him. "I was... well, you know," she said, even as she fumbled with the explanation.

He did. She was leaving something at the cache, as she had before.

Maximus looked back at her and furrowed his brow. He said nothing at first, but simply studied her. There was the possibility that she was lying. But her manner was not one of someone concealing the truth. She seemed genuinely sheepish about being caught out in the desert, not guilty or frightened of simply being caught.

In all likelihood she was on patrol and had deviated from it enough to make this visit to the cache. He could not imagine that Decepticons were given much off-duty time to spend on their own devices.

Maximus scrounged for something to say.

"I made it out to those first coordinates you provided," he said abruptly. He nodded vaguely with his chin. "To Vantage. With the horses."

Dart looked up at him and her spoiler came ever so slightly forward. "I know," she said, and her voice was surprisingly earnest at that. She did. The up on her toes posture relaxed just a bit; she was still in a quiet, formal stance but her arms shifted slightly. In the moonlight, it was easy to see the new weld mark burned into the metal of her shoulder. Not a clean repair or a neat one; there were beads of metal that hadn't been smoothed into her finish.

"I mean, I saw you'd written in the log book, sir," she smiled, catching herself. "I- I just... I was wondering. If you would."

"I know, it's not a fancy monument, or a big one." she told him. It wasn't. Not by the standards this mech had seen. Probably even built. "Thank you though. For going, I mean."

"It was interesting," said Maximus. "That monument."

He frowned. That wasn't a good explanation of his impressions. He was not an eloquent speaker, and was conscious of the need to guard anything he said in front of a - a - this courier. But he collected his thoughts and elaborated, "More organic than anything I've seen before. No surprise there. Pretty rough. The elements had gotten at it. But they were well-constructed, the horses. Very..."

He rolled one hand as he groped for the word. There was nothing in his vocabulary that described what he was trying to say. "Artistic? No. Aesthetic. No. Imagi- no! I don't know. I liked them."

A huff of air escaped him. Maximus narrowed his optics, silently daring her to smile. "Anyway, yeah. I found the logbook too. Wasn't sure if I was expected to write in it or not, but it seemed appropriate. Found your next set of coordinates too. And... the rock."

[Deleted]

"Me too," she echoed. Her eyes were drawn to his fingers, that roll of his hand as he struggled to put it to words. She understood that; sometimes she had a hard time with those as well. Dart knew what she wanted to say... but not how to string it together. She simply listened and nodded, her spoiler falling thoughtfully down a notch.

"I mean I like them. I go by there a lot. Organic works - I mean, it works with the way they are, sir. They're- it's the motion that makes me think that, I guess. The organic part, I mean, they're not exact, none of them are, but that's like almost everything here on Earth, you know?"

She settled a bit back on her heels. "I wrote in it too, sir," she agreed, "It's neat, seeing what everyone writes before you... and oh. The rock."

"I thought you'd appreciate it," she said finally. "I mean, I just - if you decided to go look I just sort of didn't want to leave you that awful brochure by itself, sir."

Then her spoiler pricked up again, as did her chin. "... I know," she said. "I- I just... wanted to make sure it was you. Who got it. Not that people usually take things out of boxes addressed to folks, they really don't. They're good about that."

That really had been a terrible brochure, though Maximus absently.

He still had the rock. It was tucked away somewhere in his frame - he kept it in one of the many compartments that made up the interior of his tank mode. He did not have subspace to store things in, but didn't need it. He owned nothing to store, aside from his rifle. And the items that the courier had left for him.

Maximus nodded, slowly. "I noticed they had left a lot of different things behind. In those caches. I took the rock. The horse. The pin."

He frowned and lifted his gaze to her face. "Crater Lake. That was the last place I made it to. It was interesting. The view was impressive. I got the pin from the cache there. Still have it with me."

He lifted a hand and touched his chest. Somewhere the pin rested inside an internal compartment. His expression grew faintly amused. "I recognised the name of the organization printed on it."

Dart's spoiler lifted ever so slightly. She shifted her weight again as if she wanted to untuck her hands from behind her back, but she understood prototcol too. Was he on patrol, coming back from a patrol -probably. Or maybe he was just out for a run; there were very few places that he could go and simply walk or drive and not be worried about being spotted by anyone or anything. A car didn't draw attention. A tank would draw all sorts, both human and...

Well, yes. That too. This time she met his gaze for just a fraction of a second; a bit of delight had snuck through. It really had. He'd kept all the little things, he'd understood - well, she thought he'd understood. A story, a trail, one place to the next, a memory of each place in some way or form, a path that you could look back on and remember the moment.

"I love Crater Lake," she agreed. "At night, in the summer, there's a meteor shower. It's amazing to watch it there. It's quiet, too, not many people at night at all, they stick to the campsites, and- oh- you do? Oh, I'm glad you knew what it was, I- thought if anyone deserved it, you did, sir."

"I mean, just in case if you ever get stuck in the Grand Canyon again and need a cover story, sir, it's a bit more authentic. They don't make those any more, they're old."

This time her hands crept out from behind her back. She looked at him and her voice held that fascinated note once again, like it had from their trip down the river at times.

A pause. "Earth old, I mean. Like ninteen seventy. I guess that's really not old, sir, but - they don't make those in brass any more. Actually, you have to be part of the USGS to get them - well, to officially get them. That's a twenty year pin. I've had it a while."

The corner of Maximus' mouth twitched. His gaze grew distant. Trapped in the Grand Canyon again. It wouldn't be that bad. Perhaps it would be worth it to go back one day - without injury, without the Vehicons in pursuit. He hadn't had much of a chance to take in the scenery the last time he was there. And he was getting better at using his holo avatar too.

His mind returned to the present.

"It looked old," he said. "Worn. And official. It's the symbol printed on it, I suppose. The stamping. I recognised the name right away. So, it really is an official pin."

Maximus nodded at that, satisfied. "In that case... thanks. It has to be rare. Where did you get it? From the humans?"

The courier looked up for a moment, up at the sky and the stars and the quiet landscape. She tucked her hands a bit more behind her back. As his gaze grew distant, hers was a bit wistful and thoughtful. "Yes," she said after a moment. "I did. A professor and a team were out working on a survey, and... well..."

"It got lost. I- I found it but... they were gone by the time I did."

Maximus nodded again with a frown. He turned her story over in his mind, an automatic habit from his time as a warden. It made sense. The courier did seem well-travelled, at least across the western coast. She was sharp and observant. She liked humans. It did not seem unlikely that she could have stumbled across something tiny and lost that they had left behind them, and picked it up.

"I see," he said. "And you picked it up, and held on to it."

He narrowed his optics at her. There was no hostility in his voice when he spoke however, only brusque curiosity. "And you gave it to me. Why?"

There was that small, lopsided little smile. "Because you visited those places," she said after a moment. "And appreciated them, and... you-"

You didn't think the cover story was worthless - was what Dart wanted to say. It was tough to explain what she was thinking right now. Everything she could say might send them on uncomfortable ground, about- well, things. Like what side they were on, and what they were doing out here and yet neither of them had asked those pointed questions. Because, sir, because out here we're just a couple of geocachers. She'd read the logbooks - she'd watched his stiff voice in those three places smooth out a little each time he wrote.

"Because you'd appreciate it, sir," she said. "It meant something to that Professor. I'm sure he would have thought it was neat that it went to another, after all these years, and it's useful."

"Well, sort of," she clarified as a very logical thought that had escaped her this whole time suddenly reared up and cleared its throat. "I... um, I guess you can't pin it to a holo. Oh."

Maximus almost smiled, grimly. Not, it probably couldn't be pinned to a holo. But he could carry it, at least.

He fell silent for a moment, thinking. He wanted to tell her that he was not a professor like the pin's original owner, nor a member of the geological society that the man had been a part of. He was a frontliner, and quite probably the last person the professor would have expected to end up with his pin. But he kept quiet. If he ever use the alias and cover story the courier had given him down in the Canyon, the pin could very well prove its worth, just like she had suggested.

Maximus glanced aside. He couldn't think of a response to give her that would not sound awkward. So he took a step back and turned and surveyed the rocky hills and desert that surrounded them.

"You said there was another cache nearby?" he said. "Something about it being down below. And a dino..."

Maximus trailed off at the unfamiliar word.

Immediately the courier nodded. "Yes sir," she replied. "It's actually down below... a couple of miles in. There's a hiking trail to the petroglyphs, and -- oh, dinosaur tracks. Fossils, up on the ridge. This state used to be under water, way, way back, it's hard to think about now. It's funny, all this desert and their state fossil is an ichthyosaur."

Very little of what she said Maximus understood.

He frowned. Half the words were unfamiliar to him. The courier seemed to understand them, however. Another odd reminder of how comfortable she was on this planet among its human population, and how much he was - not.

"Petroglyphs and ichthyosaurs," he said. He shook his head. "I have no idea what either are. You're saying they're out here in the desert?"

Dart started to step forward as if to look down over the drop off she'd nearly bounced over earlier. In the dark, the only thing on her that glowed softly were her optics. No other lights, no flash, no bright plating or shining chrome. Like him, she was matte and dull; in this terrain they didn't reflect much of the moonlight. Only hers was years of hard service in remote places; it was running across Earth's terrain at speed, rocks and sticks and little pebbles bouncing off of her when she skidded to a stop.

"Rock drawings," she said. "Petroglyphs were done by ancient humans. There's a lot of them in Nevada, it's so dry out here they last. Some of them are chipped into the stone, others are painted, and the other..."

"Dinosaur. Sort of," she explained. "A marine reptile."

She glanced up at him again and then hesitated. She started to slide her hands out from behind her back, rested them on her hip carriers. Her fingers toyed with the little latches the same way as her avatar had stuffed her hands in her jeans pockets. "Well, I guess you know this next set of co-ordinates, sir... so I guess surprising you with them is out of the question. Do- would you like to go with me to find it?"

Maximus reared back, surprised.

He hadn't been expecting an invitation to join her. He had figured they would exchange cautious greetings and go on their own separate ways. A wary part of him said to refuse, that despite her soft-spoken manner she was still a Decepticon with unknown motives - and he had sworn to give his enemies no quarter.

But then he reminded himself that the courier had shown no sign of antagonism towards him, only respect and civility. She didn't speak a word about the war - only the places she had seen and the people she had encountered. He wondered if this was what the end of the war would be like: two soldiers from each faction speaking carefully of neutral subjects upon which a mutual interest was shared.

Maximus shook his head. He didn't know.

He looked out over the desert, then back to the courier. He thought of the gun on his back, clipped securely. If this was a trap of some sort, he felt confident he could power through it. But... he suspected it wasn't.

"All right," he said. "Do the co-ordinates lead somewhere very far from this location?"

Body language.

He hadn't been expecting that at all.

To give her credit, she held perfectly still. Well, all of her except that little strip of metal across her shoulders that flew forward and framed him for a second between it.

Then again, Dart was still having a hard time with the fact that she'd actually asked anything. It had been automatic to invite him along. Maybe -- maybe it was because she just didn't want him thinking anything but the truth. She really had veered from her course home just to do this. There was no ulterior motive to her being here - well okay, there was but it involved looking at a place she'd not seen in years and seeing it again and hoping that maybe it might jog a little something, a memory she'd forgotten and tucked away somewhere. One of those sorts you thought long lost but really just needed a sniff, a sound, the way the stars moved overhead.

A soft little thrum of air escaped her intakes as she mused over his question. "It's not far," she said. "Two miles. Maybe three by foot." She wasn't even about to suggest driving. His alt mode might have clambered over this sort of terrain. Hers would find all the sharp ones at the bottom. She had an honest moment of tank tread envy. There were times she really wondered who had the grand idea to make her into a sports car and not a Jeep.

A thought gently nudged its way out. Dart tried to figure out how to phrase it, and then settled on just being truthful and concerned. "You're not going to get in trouble if you go, are you sir?" she asked carefully. "I- I don't want that."

Two miles - three by foot. That wasn't bad. Maximus' tank mode was powerful and built to tackle rough terrain, but it wasn't exactly very fast. But three miles was not far, even if they were to walk it.

Maximus nodded slowly as he digested that.

"No, it's fine," he said. "This is - I'm on a wide patrol myself. No one is expecting me back until later. I've got time to go out on a wider loop than usual. It's fine."

That he was patrolling for the humans and not for the Autobots was not something he was going to bring up. Maximus stepped up to the edge of the ridge and looked down to the rock slope below. He frowned, then lifted his gaze to the desert. Lastly, he looked back over his shoulder at the courier. His red optics were calm and steady.

"Two or three miles, you said?" he said. "Lead the way. I'll follow."

[Deleted]

Wide patrols were... well, they were one of those things. You could sort of get away with a bit of time to yourself sometimes. Dart could respect his answer, she herself did it all the time. It also made sense that he was out on one out here; out in this place he could move easily in both tank and robot form, and there was minimal chance that a human would spot him. Or if they did, well, they were probably out here experimenting with mushrooms or other illicit drugs.

Her spoiler notched up just a bit when he invited her to lead the way. His expression was quiet, not like the last two times she'd met - well, that wasn't true. It had been quiet there at the end both times - his nod goodbye in the Canyon and then that gruff, honest word of thanks.

Which brought up something that had been nagging at her for a bit. She wanted to ask about it, but didn't; it would bring back the fact that they were on opposite sides, and really, right now, she didn't want that.

So instead, she simply nodded. "Two or three," she agreed. "It's not that far."

Her hands unclasped from behind her back, and immediately, she swung out and trotted lightly past him. Once they'd started to walk, she kept that polite, careful a bit off the shoulder lead - a position that she naturally fell into. It had been hammered home where to walk, how to keep your nose ahead for trouble, how to watch for traps and sniff an ambush or a trip wire or a hidden bit of explosive. She moved to the edge of the stone, glanced down, and then carefully eyed it to see what would hold their weight before she picked the path for both of them to head downward.

Maximus followed her quietly, neither speaking nor going out of his way to make a disturbance that would break the hush that had fallen over them both. He was not the sort of person who found prolonged silences awkward in conversations; rather, he was grateful for them. These days more than ever.

The courier was good - he watched her as she picked a safe path for them to walk. She had a sense for her footing and kept a wary eye about herself to remain aware of her surroundings. Maximus grudgingly approved that, even as he trod down the ridge behind her. He knew that he could have easily leapt to the desert below, just as he knew he could take advantage of his longer strides to shoulder past her at any time. But Maximus kept his gait short and patiently kept to the rear. He said she would lead, and he meant it.

And besides...

It was good to just walk for a change, unhurried, without a need to say a word.

It was only near the bottom of the slope that Maximus acted out. He planted one foot and sprang off it, allowing himself to drop the remaining distance to the bottom of the ridge. He hit the desert floor with a thud and a cloud of dust. The impact reverberated up his legs with a jolt, and Maximus squared back his shoulders in satisfaction. Sometimes, it felt good to just hit something hard; it was like a clap on the back to reaffirm that you were still alive.

He looked back around for the courier. "Sorry. Which direction? Keep on going. I'll fall in behind you."

Overhead, the moon shone down. The stones around them threw sharp shadows. Underfoot, there was pale dirt that had been blown up into small ridges by the wind that funneled through this area. It was grey and drab under their feet.

Dart had carefully made her way downward, unsure about the mech's footing. Some of them just didn't seem comfortable out among this terrain; the ups, the downs, the lack of stability. He had though, once he got his feet under him in the Canyon, he'd not slid or fallen or stumbled. For someone so tall and broad he didn't just power through things, trust that his size and sheer strength would shove him through any situation.

That last bit of silence, the scrape of rock against their feet. She dug her heels in, locked her knees, slid down. Her spoiler flicked up and back; she used it as much for balance and a rudder as she used her feet and her hands.

Maximus been so quiet and careful that to all of a sudden catch the shadow a moment after he'd launched into the air just made her come to a dead stop. Immediately, she spooked and drew a draught of air - no, no one was here, just them, well no one she could scent. Before she could even put a toe down to figure out where it was she might want to bolt to, he landed. Dust swirled up around him and shone silver to match the vast expanse of stars overhead before it eddied around his legs and drifted back to the earth. The echoes bounced around them and then settled among the landscape, muffled by the stone and soil.

His body language though was what she immediately focused on - it wasn't wary or tight. That that relaxed her in an instant as she keyed in on it. Instead, it was almost - it was like a good stretch after a hard hike or a slow jog. It was a relaxed gesture. Surprisingly so.

Immediately she hopped down the rest of the way after him and loped a few strides forward again to retake the point. "Oh, it's okay," she reassured him with a slightly amazed note to her voice as she set her heels in and stopped easily back just so, right off his left shoulder. "I just - I keep forgetting how fast you are, sir. Er, ah..."

She lifted her nose, then looked up at the sky, focusing on the stars for a moment. North was- okay, follow the dipper, there we go, got it. "Okay, I know it's down this way."

The space in front of them was comfortably open between the ridges of rock they'd just traversed. "It's different," she admitted. "Last time I came out here, it was up the park road."

Maximus almost let out a bark of laughter. A lot of people didn't expect him to be fast. If he had been designed to be a defensive unit, maybe he wouldn't be.

He rolled one shoulder and then the other, easing out the kinks. When the courier looked north he did also. He could have consulted his navigation suite, but instead allowed himself to fall back and trust her sense of direction. It was fine, he told himself firmly. It would be fine. She knew where she was going. She was not going to lead them astray.

The open desert lay ahead of them. Maximus fell in stride behind her, letting her set the pace.

"The park road?" he said. "There's a park around here?"

Dart paced quietly off of his shoulder. She seemed to have figured out where she was going and her spoiler was pricked up. The tips were slightly splayed out, a bit relaxed and un moving for the moment. "Well, yes and no," she said after a moment. "A lot of Nevada has parks tucked in all over, it's kind of interesting. There's so much land here that doesn't have private ownership. I mean, there's the Valley of Fire over by Lake Mead, sure, and Red Rock and uh, well, part of the Calico Hills up here. It's... I think like eighty percent of the land here is managed by the Federal Government."

She looked thoughtful. "I think. Something like that. There's a couple little parks tucked in here, yeah, mostly sites that have historical significance, like the petroglyphs or trails. Or old silver mines."

The mention of Lake Mead pricked his interest. Maximus glanced in her direction. He had landed his drop ship in that lake. To his knowledge it still remained there, silent and hidden within the depths. He still went to check on it from time to time, to reassure himself that it was still there.

He narrowed his optics as he mulled over what she had told him.

Huh. That much of the state controlled by the government. Maximus wondered if that was why Agent Fowler and his superiors had arranged to have the Autobots sheltered here, of all places on the continent.

"How do you know all of this?" he said. "Yeah, I could get you've visited the parks. But knowing who manages the land, knowing what does or doesn't have private ownership - where did you learn that? It can't be printed on all that many signs."

The courier's spoiler shifted a little; a tiny side to side motion that stilled almost instantly. "I listen a lot to the humans," she offered and ducked her head slightly as she lifted her hands and spread them before they fell back to her sides. "I'm pretty quiet, and they're out in the backcountry a lot. In this case it's because of the BLM - er, the Bureau of Land Management, right? They oversee a lot of states. The guys talk a lot about assigments."

"Also, Google is useful," she admitted. "Except for the maps. Those sometimes really need updating."

The Bureau of Land Management. Maximus frowned. It was not a name that he was familiar with. He did not get the opportunity to lay low and eavesdrop upon the humans, and what Agent Fowler did discuss with him was mostly restricted to defensive matters. He was learning a little more about the state and the surrounding desert now that he was living on the Black Rock base - but even then what he was told still had a distinctly military leaning.

Maximus hummed. It had just occurred to him that thanks to his recent loss of access to the Autobot base and its computers, he really was dependent on the soldiers on the base for his education these days. Huh.

Listening to humans. Maybe he could relate.

"I see," he said. "So you sit in disguise when they're out here and, what... listen in on their conversations? And back up information using their internet."

Dart glanced over at that soft little sound that purled out the mech. It was thoughtful. She honestly didn't know how else to explain it without nudging a foot out into what might prove uncomfortable territory, or that might be misconstrued. "Mmm hmm," she decided on. "It's- you learn a lot more, listening to them. I mean, about this world, these places. The internet's useful... but..."

A shake of her head. That was a lot of buts. How could you explain it. Full of cats, maybe? Use safe search? Appropriate. "I'd rather listen to the people. It's more... direct, I guess. Hands on? I don't know how to explain it, sir."

Dart was used to working on her own. Hours. Days. Long times where she was patrolling with no one else, just her, trotting an endless loop. Pyrotech was neurotic about that. He always had been. Sensors could be fooled. Scent was often overlooked. It was one of the areas where she was actually... well, pretty useful.

She didn't think he would understand if she said it made things a little less lonely. It would sound odd. Maybe it was odd, sitting there and just letting that flow of conversation go past her. Included in it, somehow, even if she was no more included than the rocks or the trees or the car in the parking lot next to her.

Maximus fell silent for a moment. He turned his gaze to the desert ahead, his brow furrowed.

Easier said than done, was his first bitter thought.

He was well suited for his alternate mode. The big tank was armoured, it was rugged, it was well-equipped with every form of imaging and radar needed to turn it into an efficient killer under all conditions. It was practical. And it was powerful. Maximus could not think of another Autobot on Earth who could fire a round over four miles at speeds in excess of a thousand miles an hour and have it strike a target with such force its armour wasn't simply penetrated, but liquified. It was a vehicle designed and bred specifically for combat.

What it was not designed to do was sit on a street somewhere and listen to humans - talk. Not without drawing attention, not without drawing alarm. Maximus couldn't even get near enough to a settlement to send his avatar in to mingle. It didn't have the range, and he didn't have the luxury of a disguise that would not draw notice even when it was parked two miles from town.

That meant he had sat back home in the Autobot base a lot. Even the damn fliers got out more than he did. They didn't have ordinary alternate modes either, but the sheer unfettered freedom of flight made up for that, and then some. Meanwhile Maximus sat and cooled his heels in the silo, waiting for a fight or a shuttle crash in a remote location that he could bridge to. And every time someone had complained about human drivers, or traffic in the city, or being stuck with the chore of picking up the children from school Maximus had silently resisted the urge to plant his fist into the side of their head. They took so much for granted.

Looking put out, the warden grunted. He didn't know why it irritated him so much. Maybe it was the move to Black Rock that had done it. Being able to exist with few restrictions among a small population of human soldiers was both a weight off his shoulders and a frustrating reminder of the larger world he was missing. And now this.

"Hm," he said shortly. "Wouldn't know anything about that. Though... I will say this."

Maximus gave her a sidelong glance. "I do - appreciate - the locations you picked for the caches. The coordinates. They worked out - well. Nobody spotted me. It was - good."

There was a blink and then a little lopsided grin. "You're welcome, sir," said Dart, and settled her hands on her hip carriers, fiddling with the little latches. Her chin ducked under that bit of praise, the left side of her spoiler shifted slightly as if it was caught in the breeze coming down off the hills. "I- I trot a lot like..." she waved a hand at herself, "this. I knew, I mean, it's..."

She frowned. "Most of the places are parks, because I know that once you're off the trail, you don't get spotted. You... well, you went in the first place. I had to make sure it was safe as possible for you, if you did. Humans tend to stick to most of the groomed trails in the wilderness and... well, even cities. If you go off the path a little, and use cover, you'll be all right. Night is best. Like now."

She glanced around them. "I- I thought you'd appreciate the space here too."

The quick, friendly grin took Maximus aback. He hadn't been looked at that way in - well, not since before the penitentiary, anyway.

"They were good," he said. "Those coordinates, I mean. I was able to hide myself away at all three of the first caches. Only spotted humans at the second location. They did stick to the trails," he added as he remembered the hikers he had encountered on the climb. "Huh."

Maximus studied her thoughtfully from the corner of his eye. She really had considered each location carefully, with a mind for his size and his alternate mode and the necessity of good cover. Even this desert was so open and empty that he could walk it as a robot without fear of detection. And for that, he did appreciate the space. It wasn't often that he encountered a place on this planet that succeeded in making him feel small and insignificant, in a good way.

"You put a lot of thought into this," he said slowly.

Dart's toes kicked up a little puff of dust. The courier toyed with the latches on her hip carriers. She looked both thoughtful and a bit wistful at the same time. Finally she fiddled them open and stuck her hands into them a bit, hooking her thumbs over the front edge. "Yeah," she said finally. "I found them, a long time ago, the caches. I figured out what they were. I just- never had a way to do it before, sir. My holo's... not the best. It's not like yours, but..."

"Not to mention no one really ever just- well, you built monuments," she offered. "Humans do too. I kinda wanted to go see the dam. I've never gotten a chance to. I bet it's pretty amazing."

Maximus had wondered how she had ever stumbled across the caches in the first place. The way they were hidden, he would not have guessed they were something you could find by accident.

"The dam - from the brochure," he said. "Yeah. That's a pretty impressive feat of engineering. I wouldn't mind seeing it either, if it were possible."

He eyed her as his curiosity overcame him. "You never had a way to do it before? Your holomatter generator is a recent installation? I wouldn't have guessed it. You seem to handle your avatar well, despite the glitching."

"I wonder if it's possible..." she mused. She did. There had to be a way to go see it. Well, okay, she knew you were allowed to drive across it. That would be okay, but what she really wanted to do was park and go across it. Go into the museum and look at stuff, there had to be stuff, because dangit, it was in that really awful brochure. Well, if that didn't make you want to go buy a snowglobe, nothing would.

However, at his question, she ducked her chin just a bit. Her spoiler flattened ever so slightly, and then she looked up and hesitated. Then she sighed. Air puffed out of her intakes with a soft thrum. "I didn't. I got the holo recently," she admitted. "I'm..."

"It's aftermarket," she said carefully. "I'd... kinda be in trouble for it."

"It doesn't mesh well," Dart sighed. "Thank you, though. I practice when I can with it."

Maximus frowned at her reaction. She seemed hesitant to speak upon the matter, and picked her wording gingerly when she did.

The old warden stirred. Interrogation had been part of his job once, as had the straightforward procedure of processing new inmates. Their guilt had already been determined by then; his job had been less about dictating punishment as deciding what to do with them once they were in his hands. And that had required an ability to gather information and line up the facts in order to calculate what didn't click.

The courier was odd. But Maximus didn't have the authority or the desire to act on it. She'd helped him and treated him respectfully, for a - for an enemy. He could return that favour.

"Had some targeting software that didn't mesh well after the rebuild," he said. "I know how that goes. Your avatar is good though. Convincing. Seems to me that's the important part."

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"Thank you," Dart replied. Her heels ruffled the sand underfoot; then her toes pressed it flat. They left very little trail behind them since the area was so dry; but even so she seemed to be drawn to the rocky little places and clicked softly across them before sliding back into the sand. "I really am trying. It's been throwing me a bit, I mean, I want to go into places but I've not worked up to that yet. I'm- well, I'm afraid of it glitching at a bad moment and causing issues."

A wistful look crossed her face and her spoiler clicked softly, the tips lowering. "But that's okay, someday. Maybe."

Then she glanced up at him. "Does it do that?" she asked with honest curiosity. "I mean, targeting software? Well, any software after a rebuild?"

Maximus hummed. A certain reserve when it came to interacting with humans made sense. Especially considering how glitchy her projector seemed at times. He had witnessed that for himself in the Canyon. He was leery of mixing with the natives himself, though in his case he did not trust his ability to pass himself off as a human with reasonable authenticity. He was not good at acting.

"Something to look forward to, then," he said gruffly. "And yeah."

Maximus looked over at her, surprised. "It does, at times. Usually it's not that bad. When you get a rebuild you're generally built back to your previous specs. Sometimes you get upgraded, though."

He shrugged. "That was my case. Some of the upgrades didn't synch well with the old software. Mostly just the leg guns. It's fine. In some cases manual targeting is far preferable to automatic anyway. Or manual anything for that matter. I take it you've never had any serious modifications before?"

The courier inclined her head and struggled with that question for a moment. How to answer that one... that was a tough question. A really tough one.

Well, how to answer it in a way that he might understand.

"Not that I remember," she said with a little lopsided smile. "Well, I blew out my knee a while back and that got fixed. It just seemed really stiff for a while until I broke everything in, but... nothing more than that. Well, unless you count the holo parts, I guess. But that's probably not a major modification, is it?"

"Does that happen a lot, not synching to an upgrade correctly?" she asked after a moment. "It makes a lot of sense, on some levels."

A blown knee seemed a logical injury for a courier to suffer. It also answered the question of whether or not she did the bulk of her travelling in her root or alternate mode. Tires or other forms of propulsion were usually the first to go in carbots who did a lot of driving. Same for the suspension.

Satisfied, Maximus nodded. "It happens. It's fairly common. Usually you just upgrade the software. Or you uninstall it, leave it. Went with the latter myself. Not many Cybertronian software specialists here on this planet."

He walked in silence for a moment, his heavy footsteps muted when he trod upon sand. Then Maximus gave her a sidelong glance and said, "Going back to your knee - you're a runner, then?"

A thoughtful nod. That made a lot of sense. Easier to uninstall it and sort of go on manual for targeting. Dart didn't have any weapons systems like that- in her case, everything was pretty much manual. Which was probably good, the idea of kicking on autofire was hilarious and rather a bit like a bad comedy sketch. One of those that probably involved a lot of dead parrots.

"Yes sir," she said. "Runner. Which is good, because my alt mode sure isn't designed for off roading."

Dart's spoiler quirked with obvious amusement at herself. Totally true. She'd found over the years that her alt mode was the absolute worst for a lot of things. Trans AM's were lovely cars... until you hit a pothole going forty. Yep, Pontiac built excitement all right. "Really not designed for it," she admitted with a shake of her head. She looked around them and did a sweep of her hand to indicate the rocks and the high walls around them. "I'd be high centered on half this stuff in no time and then we'd both be laughing about it."

At that, Maximus gave an appreciative look at the landscape that surrounded them. It was very rough. Dramatic. Even more so under the moonlight, which cast hard shadows against the rock and turned ruts in the sand into craters.

"Yes," he said. "I don't think many could tackle this in their alternate modes, no matter what they turned into. It's daunting terrain. Better to walk. That was a good call."

He paused. "I - like it, though. It's quiet out here. Isolated. Hardly anyone comes out this way. Don't even see many humans about. I think you're the only one I've seen here lately."

Who wasn't an Autobot, at least. Maximus dourly shook his head. Aloud, he said, "You get out a lot, don't you? Out here, in the - 'countryside' isn't the word I'm looking for. Off-base, is what I mean."

Dart lifted her nose into the air. A soft sniff, a draw of air into her intakes. As always, she was testing, checking. She'd learned over the years that sometimes you could be in the most remote places and think you were entirely alone, but- you weren't. Humans went all sorts of places; she'd nearly stumbled across a few where she'd least expected it. The oddest had been once in Oregon, a man walking a hundred miles out from any road in the middle of winter. He'd been geared up and he was fine, but to this day she had no idea what he was doing there. She still had gone back to check though, but his trail vanished as easily as that of the elk up there.

There was a tiny drift of her left side of her spoiler before it aligned itself back straight and she tilted her shoulders back. She tilted her head and glanced at him from under the brim of her helm and then nodded. "It's easier on foot on the terrain," she agreed. "Also, if you keep to the rocks and those places, it's tough to track someone. Most folks look for tracks and prints, sir. Water also. Wading in a river, you can move pretty fast and not have anyone think to follow you."

"I like it too," she admitted. "Out here. For the quiet, and... yeah. I do, sir. This is..."

She trailed off and shook her head. "Off base," she agreed. "I've been all over the States, mostly Western, though."

Maximus listened soberly, without speaking. He wasn't a tracker. On the field he could follow a clear trail well enough, and use it to calculate an enemy's route and intentions, but the intricacies of tracking as a skill were beyond him. In a similar fashion he could tread lightly when needed, but knew he would never be able to disappear without leaving a trace behind him like some mechs seemed able to.

Like the courier, perhaps.

"All over the States?" said Maximus. He looked down at her and arched a brow. "That's a lot of walking. Running. I noticed that most of the sites you gave coordinates to fell within the west coast region, but I hadn't guessed you might have gone further east or south than that. Huh."

Maximus flexed his hand and heaved a sigh. In a slightly put-out voice he said, "And I more than anyone else appreciate that this question pushes the boundaries of what is considered safe grounds for discussion based on - on current faction alignments, but I'm curious: was it duty or your own interest that took you across the continent? I ask because I'm wondering where I might end up should I continue following your coordinates."

Dart looked up at him and there was a soft click from her spoiler as it slipped down a notch. They'd been so careful not to touch on those areas. It had been just- it had been pleasant. Her optics watched his hand flex, and the sigh - not aggressive at all, just unsure. At least that's how she translated it, and that was okay. Obviously he didn't want to think about it either.

The courier lifted her hand and then shook her head. "It's totally okay," she assured him after a moment. "You can ask, sir. It was years ago. Back east, I mean. I've not been there in a long time, but yeah, it was duty, sir. I just- I got to see a few things of my own interest along the way. No one else cared about them."

"As for uh, ending up - let's see, oh, California. Washington. Places that I know are safe and I've scouted to make sure of it, for both the humans and us, and... um... Did you get to the desert yet? Or St. Helens?

Maximus nodded, relieved that the courier had not answered with awkward silence. Immediately he he was annoyed with himself - tension in a conversation was not something that had bothered him before.

"To the desert? No, not yet," he said. "Nor to St. Helens. That's the mountain? No. I think the last place I went was -"

He had to stop, to think about it. His frowned deepened. "I ran out of daylight eventually. The last place I went was Crater Lake. I haven't had an opportunity yet to investigate the location that came after it. It was the place you recommended I visit at night, I believe."

"Yes sir, that's the one in California," she told him. She lifted her nose and sniffed again at the air, her hands folding over her hip carriers. "And I just said it was the desert, didn't I. Well, now you know, so... it's the Mojave Desert. At night, it's amazing. Stars overhead, no lights, quiet, no one. There's this awesome stone arch - not human built. Natural. It's- well, it's architecture. Well, nature architecture. At night, it frames the skyline."

Her hands came up, a gesture, following the drift of her soft words with her fingers. Her spoiler tilted, the femme's tone held a bit of awe. "There's more arches in Utah, though. Way more. A whole park. You have to have the right conditions - Sandstone and water and wind and specific layers... salt, I think? I think I remember someone talking about that once."

A little whuffle drifted out of her intakes, a tiny thoughtful thrum. "St. Helens is the mountain. In Washington. Crater Lake's dormant, but Helens is considered active still."

Maximus' expression softened by degrees. The Mojave Desert was a place he knew well. It had been one of the locations deemed suitable for him to patrol, given its size and emptiness. There were deep red rock canyons there that could swallow him from sight no matter what mode he was in. He knew - he had stood within them.

He had never been there at night, however. Nor had he seen an arch like the one she described. Maximus made the silent resolution to visit it once he could, at night. In one day's time he would no longer be an Autobot. And then... perhaps then.

From the corner of his eye Maximus watched the courier trace out the desert and its natural beauty with her fingertips. "An active volcano?" he said. "I wouldn't have thought any existed on this continent. I'll make sure I go there, once I reach its coordinates."

"Yes sir," replied Dart. "There's actually a few on the Pacific Rim. St Helens went in ... ninteen eighty though, it's considered the most likely to go again, dangerous because of proximity. Personally, Rainier, that's the one I'd fear a bit. Hood too. Er, Alaska has several... Pavlof is very, very active."

A faint smile, she was content to drift back into this line of conversation. It was quiet and pleasant and... it felt like solid ground. These were things she knew, answers she could share, and the fact that he wanted to see it just made her smile a little. Maybe it was because he understood forces that built things, and could appreciate it for what it was. Then she totally wondered if there were volcanoes on Cybertron and decided that was something she might have heard about along the way if there was. Her commander had never mentioned it and he'd seen the other one go.

Maximus slowly shook his head.

"I hadn't known that," he admitted. "Particularly about St Helens being potentially dangerous. It and Rainier and Hood... they're not that great a distance from here, are they. I know a little west coast geography. Active volcanoes and their threat levels don't get brought up in very many briefings."

Maximus spoke the words with a touch of wryness. He knew full well what threat most briefings were about, but he was not about to mention it here. Not now. To his surprise he felt oddly relaxed, despite his company - or because of it. Has anyone else noted that he would have put his fist into their face. Admitting it to himself wasn't quite as bad.

Nope, she could honestly agree she'd never been briefed about volcanic activity. Surprisingly, they'd had more than a few weather briefings; Alaska weather in the winter was quick to come up and even quicker to drop into freezing temps. She was fine; Dart didn't mind the cold. Her systems tended to run hot. As long as she could move and keep her vents from icing up, she was far more comfortable than most.

One of the reasons she was used to wide patrol so often compared to the others; running in Earth's weather was far easier than driving in it. She'd been tailored for the planet. It had quirks and so did she, and she respected what it could do and how dangerous it could be.

"It's their proximity to populated areas," Dart explained. "Not so much the main volcano, but lahars. There's areas in Puyallup - er, a city in Washington - where downtown there's signs all along the roads that say volcano escape route. Seriously. If the volcano went, you'd have less than an hour to get to high ground. They have emergency sirens they test once a year."

She glanced around them. "I was driving through when they set one off. Thank goodness all the other drivers were jumping into the air too, I nearly gave myself away that time. Not my most graceful moment."

"Mostly because I was the only car jumping into the air," she mused. "They're loud."

Maximus eyed the courier and wondered if she was subtly pulling his leg on that one. But she did not appear to be joking, or even the joking type.

"Volcano escape routes, seriously?" he said. He laughed once, harshly. "Never heard of them before. Makes sense, I suppose, if the region is as volcanically active as you suggest. I can imagine the sirens would give anyone a jolt. A good one is designed to."

Maximus winced at that as it touched upon a memory, but passed over it. Instead he glanced around himself. Musingly, he said, "I'd like to see that sometime. An eruption, I mean. Obviously not around here. Sounds dangerous, particularly for humans. The force and pressure behind them is interesting though. A good reminder anyone would do well to take the planet seriously."

"Dead serious, sir," she replied automatically. Her shoulders that had been relaxed rolled straight, she lifted her chin a little at the question. Immediately, her hand had come up to touch her chest, a quick salute as if it to assure him of her honesty.

Not even as second later she'd caught herself and immediately stuffed her hand back down across her pannier. "Er, yes sir, totally a jolt, sounded like a raid siren going off or something... ah, er, Alaska. I mean, uh, volcano stuff, there's a volcano in Alaska. If you get a chance, it's active. And yeah, honestly, I think it might do one of us in- and-"

A pause. "Honestly, not many folks take the planet too seriously," she murmured in surprise. "On a lot of levels."

Maximus shrugged. "It'll be their own fault when it catches up to them," he said. "Can't say I have a lot of pity for people who endanger themselves through wilful ignorance or stupidity."

He snorted. Even the Autobots were guilty of underestimating Earth and its inhabitants at times. Maximus was no expert on the planet or on humans, and had never claimed to be. But even he could see the way many of his teammates dismissed the military forces Agent Fowler had at his command. It irritated him. But he did not say it out loud.

Maximus let a little of his annoyance seep away before he spoke again. He frowned. "Alaska. Kind of want to go there. Went up to the Arctic once. Just one trip, didn't even stay an hour. I liked it there. Open and dead quiet."

At that snort, Dart looked over. It huffed out of the big mech, sharp and short across the quiet landscape. She settled her hands over her carriers a bit more, thumb softly playing with the latch. His words were honest, she understood what he meant. But it wasn't those that were often endangered, she wanted to say, it was everyone else around them, and that was the hard part.

That said, she appreciated his honesty, and was reminded of the canyon a bit. He was used to carrying a certain role on his shoulders, and his tone - well, even she'd responded to it. Starscream's mention that he was once a warden made a lot of sense; willful ignorance absolutely could prove dangerous if you were in charge of a volatile situation. Don't ignore dangerous things. Not at all.

"There's beautiful places," she said. "I know of -- you went to the Arctic? Oh wow. I've never been..."

She looked at him. "Did you get to see the lights? Wildlife? Ice breaking? Anything like that? Was it cold?"

Then she laughed. "Okay, maybe not that last one, I'm thinking that was a given, sir. Really cold."

Maximus shook his head a little. He frowned to himself and lowered his gaze as his mind turned inward.

"It wasn't night, so I didn't get to see the lights," he said. "Heard about them. Never saw them. No wildlife either. It was... flat, mostly. Flat, hard-packed snow. The wind beats it down, makes it solid. Almost like ice. There were large drifts - maybe up to here on me."

He laid the flat of his hand against his chest. The height he measured was easily over the top of Dart's head. "Very large, windblown. Made a lot of very strange alien shapes, the drifts. No ice that I could see. The ground bridge didn't put me very close to water. The sky was a very thin, pale blue. Not a lot of cloud. Nothing to see in all directions, save for a line of rock maybe two miles south of my position. Very flat, very empty."

Maximus grimaced. "Very cold. I run warm though. Battle engine. It didn't bother me that badly. I liked it there. Stayed for almost an hour, then had to go. Could have stayed longer."

Dart padded along a bit in front of him, off his shoulder. She'd held that position the whole time as they walked but now she glanced back at him and slowed down a step. She still kept the distance though, but she listened to every word. His voice rumbled across the distance between them, and in that still silence of the red hills, the moon caught the ground and laced their shadows with silver.

She could hear it in the description, she knew the places he meant. She couldn't fathom a place that silent, with absolutely nothing. Dart knew, there were places she'd been where it had the snow he described, snow so hard packed underfoot by wind that it supported even their weight, but- she was nothing compared to the big mech. For him to stand on it, it had to be simply solid for a good distance. No ice, empty and flat and for a second she wondered what it would be like to kick off and run on it, just throttle up and fling herself into a dead gallop in the chill just for the sheer sake of running on it so you could say, "guess what I did once."

"Sounds beautiful," she murmured. "All the space and the drifts. I'd love to see it someday." A wistful look crossed her face. "So neat you got to go, but... oh yeah. I know, running warm's useful in those situations, sir."

Not so much in the bottom of the Grand Canyon, she wanted to add, but... didn't. "Those are some really deep drifts, though. Wow."

"They were big," said Maximus in agreement. "I was taken aback. Only seen snow a few times before that. So I didn't know what to expect."

He squinted across the desert, searching his memory. The landscape had been brilliant, white, alien. Aside from a layer of wind-blown powder on the surface the base of the snow had been thick and hard. It went all the way down into the soil and the rock, as he understood it - as ice, frost, frozen and bitter. The great, untouched drifts had been sculpted into bizarre shapes by the wind. It had been like nothing he had ever seen before. Disturbing.

Maximus walked in silence for a moment, his mouth thin. Then he glanced at the courier and said, "Yeah. It was pretty impressive. Very... different. If the cold won't shut you down, I'd say, go up there sometime. If possible. If you like solitary places - I haven't seen anything to beat it yet."

Their footsteps crunched softly on the sand. His broad shadow shifted along the ribbons of color in the stone walls; red gold, dark brown, even a sliver of white. Layers of time compressed along their pathway. The courier glanced up at the sky, sniffed the air, and then realigned herself, using the stars overhead to gauge things as best she could. She knew the canyon would end up thinning down shortly and they'd have to swing up and over the stones and climb the ridge where the dinosaurs had stepped in a muddy bank ages long gone past...

Then things would be downhill until there was that area where the small path ran up toward the petroglyphs.

A nod. "That's a really different kind of snow," she murmured. "There's hardpack like that up in Alaska. Everything muffles on it, including sound. that's what I remember for some reason, but... still, I don't think it was anything like the scope of what you're describing. Not at all."

"I love them," Dart said after a few strides had passed. She'd been lost in thought, drifting along with his description of places she'd never seen. "I mean, I like busy ones too, but sometimes it's just nice to be able to trot along for a while and not worry about being seen or noticed."

Then she appeared thoughtful. "No, no, I'm okay in the cold. Well mostly. I sometimes have a problem with my vents icing up when it's really cold. It's the moisture, I think, drawn in, warmed up? Pretty sure, but..."

"I don't know if it's possible," she admitted, "but I'll hope it is, someday. Just to take a picture of it, and say I'd been there."

The thought of going into a busy area had not occurred to Maximus. He couldn't do it as a tank, not unless it was one of the scant few places where his alternate mode would blend in, but now that he thought about it there was the possibility that his avatar...

His expression grew pained. No. Even with his avatar he didn't think he would be able to manage it. It wasn't just that he wasn't very good at playing the part of a human. He didn't do well in crowds these days. It was better to just avoid them.

"It's not a place one is commonly sent to," said Maximus absently. "Yeah. I get that. But who knows. Strange assignments crop up. And wait. Take a picture...?"

There was a little flick of her spoiler. "Yeah," said Dart, musing on it. "To keep. Like the people did back at the Grand Canyon. Oh! Oh. They asked how you were doing, by the way, and if everything was okay."

That got Maximus' attention. Startled, he looked over at her. "They did? Why? Or, no."

He frowned, his brow furrowed. "Huh. I didn't think they would ask. They gave you contact information? And - wait." His expression grew a little wary. "What did you tell them?"

"Yah, they did, back at the canyon," she said. "They - they wrote it down, remember? You asked me about it, but... oh. I just said you were fine and back to work, thank you for asking."

"Er, it was- after uh.... you know," she said, trying to lightly pick her way around the details, like uh, that whole tunnel thing down in Portland. It was tough, but things had been so companionable, quiet and oddly comfortable that the courier didn't want to be the one to switch them. His expression relayed that he was quickly on the defensive a bit, over what she might tell them. Dart couldn't blame him for that, because - well, privacy. She understood having things you just wanted to keep to yourself. Oh boy, did she ever...

"After I saw you again," she offered. "I- I didn't mention anything else, sir. Promise."

For a moment Maximus only stared blankly. A lot of the final trip down the Canyon was a vague memory to him thanks to the disorientation of trying to fight off the Vehicons while maintaining his avatar. His recollection of what had happened was disjointed at best - a broken feed of information.

Maximus reached up and pinched gently between his optics. The courier had spoken with the humans after they had reached the shore. And - yes, there was some promise about keeping in touch. He hadn't really thought much of it at the time. His attention had been elsewhere. Fist-deep in a Vehicon's chest.

Her next remarks brought him abruptly back to the present. Maximus scowled as he realised what she was referring to. Bulkhead and that train tunnel in Portland. That had been a tumultuous affair, but at least it had ended well enough.

"The train tunnel - right," he said. "Yeah, I remember. All right. That's fine. Thank you for letting them know. They were... glad to hear it?"

"Yeah, there," Dart replied and was immediately apologetic. She lifted a hand as if to gently nudge the comment aside. His confusion had surprised her though; she'd remembered him grumbling about why they'd given her their contact information. At the time there really hadn't been much to explain; they want to know we're okay. I would have, if I'd just picked up random strangers and one of them had been bleeding through their bandages.

"I mean, yes, there, sir. You're welcome, and yes they were. They're super nice people. Glad we ran into them down there."

Maximus grunted. Inwardly, he felt oddly... he didn't know what. Satisfied that a handful of humans had thought enough of them to inquire as to their status after the events in the Canyon. He was accustomed to damage being filed into a medical log and then put behind you the moment you stepped out of the medical bay.

Still frowning, he slowly nodded. He lowered his gaze as he thought it over. "I see. Yeah. It was a lucky thing we did. It was a lot faster travelling with them than walking would have been. I remember I didn't want to risk trying to project my avatar further downstream. Last thing you want is it to materialize right in the middle of a bunch of people."

Maximus fell silent. Then, reluctantly, "They were - nice. Glad you got in touch with them."

"They're very nice," she replied. She started to mention the pictures they'd linked in the email, but then decided that Maximus might not entirely feel comfortable knowing he was out on Facebook for the whole world to see. Luckily the avatars really did work even on film; she'd been honestly terrified that maybe they didn't, that they'd do something weird with the light. She had been relieved to see that they seemed as solid as anything. His glower was pretty solid, as was her holding the paddle and laughing in delight.

Okay, his glower was a bit more solid. And... in almost every picture that he'd been in.

Well, at least he was consistent throughout the trip.

She nodded, her ponytail scraping a bit on the back of her spoiler. It had settled comfortably into a line across her shoulder; not rattling or making any noise. "I learned a lot about avatars on that trip," she remarked. "I mean, I didn't think we could go that far from the source. That was a long, long distance. It was the raft that made the difference, wasn't it? If we'd tried to walk it the entire time, there's no way we would have been able to keep the projections up as well, right?"

"I'm not sure," said Maximus. He raised one hand and wobbled it. "Might have been a bit touch and go. They're usually fairly robust and don't draw a lot of power. The initial projection is the hardest part, when it's done remotely. Once that's accomplished and visual feedback begins it gets easier. But all of that walking... it would have drained energy faster."

The raft had been very useful in that respect, he reflected. It had allowed them to conserve power as they rode the river, while travelling at a much faster speed than they would have accomplished on foot. And it had been... interesting. Maximus had not been in a good position to enjoy it, but when he hadn't been internally fixated on his injuries he had laid back and tried to take in the river. Overwhelming, was how he remembered it.

"We might have made it on foot," said Maximus distantly. "It was a long way though. Glad I - glad we didn't have to test it."

A smile. "Absolutely, sir," Dart agreed. "I wonder if you could... well, it got me thinking, that's all. I don't even know how you'd project into a random area. Never tried it. But at least I know I can hold it up for a while as long as I don't put it down and try to restart it."

"I mean..." she started to say and trailed off, looking at the path ahead of them. It narrowed significantly over the next bit, and she realized while she might slip through for a while, he'd have a tougher time unless he shifted modes. She stopped and rocked back on her heels, surveying the sides for - there we go, a way up that they could easily climb, a path among the rocks with sturdy footing and good handgrips if needed.

"Okay, over this section and down," she murmured. "After that, it's not far, but... speaking of avatars. We'll have to use them to go up to where the geocache is, sir. The trail's way too narrow, neither of us will fit. Kind of like Multinomah."

Maximus drew to a halt behind her. He eyed the narrow gap, already making a few quiet calculations. It looked like a tight fit, particularly for his own big frame.

"Avatars at the cache site?" he said. He hesitated, then nodded. "All right. That's fine. If that's the way to get there, we can swap to avatars at the bottom of the trail. Is there anywhere nearby we can lay unobserved in our alternate modes?"

While he did not really expect anyone to stray across them this far out into the desert, it did not hurt to be careful.

"There's a couple of spots, if I remember right," the courier mused. She thought back to the last time she'd been out this way. It had been a while. Years? Sometimes it all blended together in a bit of a blur, and no, that wasn't a running joke or even a speed one. "I know there used to be a vehicle pullout. It's sheltered on two sides by the ridges. If that's not safe enough or not there, I'm sure we can find a spot, there's a lot of outcroppings out there down by the trail."

There was a moment of silence from Maximus as he considered it.

"That sounds fine," he said. He glanced up into the night sky, then turned slightly to take in the desert behind them. His red optics swept over the empty plains of rock and sand. "It's a quiet night, and it's dark. There shouldn't be anyone around this area at this time - not any humans anyway. That's all I'm worried about. Lead the way."

The big mech stood back and motioned at the gap.

Dart's head tilted; it took her a second to process that. Not in a bad way, but in a good way - that was all he was worried about. Not... well, the things that they both should worry about. Her spoiler pricked up and over her shoulders, the courier's blue optics shone bright for a second; she shifted her weight from foot to foot but it was as she rolled her shoulders back and looked up and surveyed the area around them. Her intakes drew deep, there was a soft huffing sound as she sniffed and held all the scents around them; tufts of dry grass, sand, a faint touch of water that had collected in some little depression on the rock from an earlier rainstorm but hadn't dried up yet.

"Well then, up we go," the femme said, and indicated the angle of the canyon wall. She trotted forward a few steps to the stone, stretched, hooked her fingers, and then with practiced ease, she pushed off with a foot. Dart heaved herself up, scrabbling upwards to a solid ledge before eyeing the next section to tackle. One of those things; when you didn't fly at all, you sure learned how to climb your way out of a lot of places.

Well, she probably could have bounded out a lot quicker if she'd been running but-- she still was taking that 'no sudden moves' thing to heart. Bolting suddenly up and leaping off points probably was in that category.

Maximus stood alone at the bottom and watched the courier climb. As he waited he shifted his height from foot to foot, warming up the fluid that helped power the bigger pistons and joints in each limb. He eyed the rock wall appreciatively. It was high, but the broken unevenness of the rock and the many lumpy outcroppings that wandered up to the top made for good ledges that would accommodate him. Had it been a flat, sheer wall he would have been in trouble. He was built to fight and leap - not to scale vertical surfaces.

Only when Dart was partway up the rock did he take a step back.

"I'm starting my ascent behind you," he called out. "Just a heads-up."

Maximus took two quick strides towards the wall and leapt.

The first ledge he hit was above the sloping rock at the foot of the wall. Maximus caught it with one hand and slung himself upwards, until he crouched steadily on it. The next outcrop was above his left shoulder, but he was able to kick off and reach it, his hands rammed straight into the rock to anchor himself as he vaulted upon it. His zig-zagging route was chosen deliberately - by staying left of the courier he ensure that no rock or dirt disturbed by his weight slid across her own path.

[Deleted]

When the big mech called out, the courier halted immediately on a narrow shelf of rock. Her spoiler clicked up a few notches, then slipped to the side. She flattened herself against the wall and glanced back down at him; then tipped her head to one side. An expression of quiet curiosity crossed her face; she nodded - understood, yes sir, a heads up...?

Two accelerating strides carried him to the rock face; and then he just pushed off and leapt for a handhold, and swung himself upwards. He made it look easy and effortless, as if he was a much lighter mech.

Sandstone shattered under his hands though and reminded her he was no light frame; he simply punched into the soft strata and created handholds. There was no way she could have done that, nor would she have torn holes with her fingers. A foot, sure. Her hands weren't reinforced like her toes, they didn't have to be. The crunch and clatter of rock echoed around the silent canyon. then Dart just couldn't help watching him climb in quiet awe. She'd been around a lot of big mechs, of mechs that could tear someone in half (yes, present company included.) Dart had always been amazed at the abilities around her; those could fly precisely less than fifty feet off the ground; fighters that could shoot a neat hole in your head from a distance -

Maximus simply sprang upwards; all motion. His body language was not hesitant or wary; nor tightly cautious. They'd been so careful not to step over some line - things not to talk about, careful to avoid that place where he might have to... well, remember where each of them hailed from, and what side they were on. There were things she wanted to ask, that weighed heavy; but Dart was afraid to, not wanting to ruin things, wanting something that she couldn't quite put a finger on, perhaps.

He simply was enjoying the climb right now; out in the open, nothing to see him, nothing to worry about, and that she didn't want to ruin either. Joy of pure motion, of stretching yourself against nothing that shot back at you; like she herself sometimes ran full tilt just because she could. Little pebbles pinged back down; but didn't tap against her dusty and scuffed plating; he was careful to avoid kick back as he drove upwards for the ridge.


Satisfied that he was neither impeding the courier nor inadvertently bringing any of the rock down into her, Maximus turned and looked up. Now that he thought of it, he supposed it was a little arrogant of him to think that he could destroy something like this with anything short of a series of precise blasts from his main turret. The rock was old and impenetrable, and it reared over his head for hundreds of feet still. It was intimidating.

But he could scale it, at least. As rough as it was, hewn only by relentless erosion, it offered him plenty of handholds. The rest he could make himself. Maximus flexed his fingers to shake the pulverized grit from them and backed up. There was another ledge perhaps a hundred feet to the left of his current position that he could likely reach. From there he was within shooting distance of the top of the ridge.

Without hesitation Maximus kicked into motion. A short sprint allowed him to gain the impulsion he needed to launch up and into flight. This time he caught another hold on the way up and, with a heave of his shoulder and one foot braced against the rock, used it to help slingshot himself towards the outcrop. He cleared the edge and stretched out his legs, landing with enough force to drive himself into a crouch.

Tension sang in the tightly packed cables of his frame. Maximus almost grinned. This... wasn't bad.

He stood up casually and dusted himself off. Out of curiosity he turned and stepped to the edge to look for the courier. She had been making good progress herself. With her agility and deft hands and feet she could properly climb, like - like a human, actually.

Once he had cleared the top, the courier shook herself back into her own ascent and followed him up. She had to find fingerholds and toe-holds, lifting herself up hand over hand with a deftness that said she'd done this for years. Dart used her arms to lift; nudged her toes against the wall, scrambled and climbed until she reached a series of ledges. It took her a second to heave herself up and over the first one; there was a soft scraping sound from her mid-section as she wiggled up onto it. Then she gathered herself onto her toes, lifted her nose into the cool night air and sniffed, automatically, constantly keeping an eye on the landscape around her. Then she whuffed out the air and sprang; landed lightly, bounding easily upwards in a quick motion more reminiscent of a mountain goat or a deer than anything on two feet.

Her spoiler flicked and twisted - it was apparent that that little mobile bit of metal was absolutely necessary to her entire way of moving; balance and counter, a twitch here to lean her to one side, a lift as she sprang, a flatten as she landed. Pebbles slipped out from under her, clattered down as she bounced left and right and kicked off and leapt- and a few moments later she'd bounced up and was on the top of the ridge as well. She dug her heels in to stop and shook herself with a bit of a rattle.

In the distance were fissures, the softer stone eroded by time and weather. A little tip of her head, a silent question as her spoiler tilted up and the tips peeked over her shoulders. They could jump them easily with a bit of a running start, no doubt.

Maximus backed up a step to give the courier space. As she straightened back to her full height he nodded once in acknowledgment of her quick ascent - as he had thought, she had managed it with ease. When she motioned with her chin he turned to see what she was indicating.

The fissures stood out starkly against the stone, which stood pale beneath the light of the moon. Maximus frowned as he studied them. They looked deep, but not so wide that neither of them could not manage the leap across them. That must be the direction in which they would go next.

He stepped back and made a gesture with his hand.

"Go ahead and take the lead," he said. "You know the way - and frankly you'll get across those faster than I could. I'll bring up the rear."

There was a nod and then she flashed a quick grin. "Kinda fun to jump them," she admitted. "I do it all the time, sir. I'll lope though, they're not bad."

With that, she swung neatly out again, and true to her word, she settled into a jog. A quick look over her shoulder- she was pretty sure he could keep up easily. Plus it was just them and a wide open space, and she understood. That was one of the reasons she came this way when she traveled sometimes; no one here, no one to see, nothing to worry about except the wildlife at night. Humans didn't usually camp in this section; too dry, and too far in on the hills. Even if they did, she'd sniff them out and avoid them.

Easily she loped to the closest one and then kicked off to spring over it like a steeplechaser. When her toes hit the other side with a clatter, there was a soft whoosh-snort of her vents. Dart collected herself in an instant and settled into a smooth pace before loping across the high ridge and leaping the second gap; she automatically picked the narrowest points to clear. Only a few more miles then they'd go back down and up that narrow trail, but for now... it was good to just travel.

When the courier had taken a long enough lead ahead of him, Maximus broke into a lope behind her. While he was nowhere near her league when it came to speed, his greater height and long legs allowed him to comfortably keep up. His footsteps thudded into the earth, kicking up puffs of dust.

The first gap was easy enough to leap over, as was the second. Maximus fell into a steady pace. He was used to running; he had done enough of it in the military, where his tank form was suitable for long-range combat but less so for manoeuvring in close quarters or sprinting over short ranges. For that, he had operated as a foot soldier. His old build had been designed for it.

And his rebuilt body performed even better. Maximus reveled in the seamless flex of each joint, every rotor - the rapid transition of electrical impulse into smooth action. As he ran he breathed in a long draught of crisp night air and cycled it through his cooling systems. It felt good. Good to just move and enjoy it, without exploding into an action that only ended with a crumpled target under his foot.

Jogging was good for the soul. Or maybe that was just a Reebok commercial. The courier cast a look behind her and realized Maximus had easily settled into a stride that ate up the miles. This was probably not the view that any other Decepticon would have been at all interested to see in the rear view mirror. Especially with the notation on the bottom that objects were closer than they appeared. However, she just offered up a quick smile, a tip of her helm, and led him easily across the ridge. The air over them was clear and cold; deserts were hot during the day but dropped dramatically at night. The stars overhead were bright - thick overhead, something you just didn't see in all the ambient light within the cites.

Dart settled into a long, comfortable stride. She'd been running all night, and part of her just wanted to duck her head, to shove off with a toe, and lower herself into a flat out gallop. No trees. No scrub to catch a toe, a straight path on the stone and dirt that carried both mechs easily across that distance. It was a joy to run here - well, not in the heat, that wasn't her favorite, but at night, in the dark, and it was dry and comfortable. Nothing snagging an unwary step; the sound of their footfalls clattering; but muted quickly by the sheer distance around them. She loved the Pacific Northwest, loved the trees and the water and the places to hide, but...

Australia had had salt flats. Dart didn and she couldn't help but cast a bit of a longing eye to the distant flat plain of sand and dust far below them. That was simply space to run without constantly having to worry about power lines. Those were nasty things, for sure.

(Dart didn't miss much about Australia, honestly. Well, a few things, a whole lot. But most of it could go right into the category of no thanks. She couldn't help but cast -)

Once he had settled into his stride, Maximus allowed himself to glance around himself. His gaze fell upon the landscape beneath the ridge and he studied it. He was very familiar with the deserts that extended to the south and west away from the military base, but this was the first time that he had laid eyes upon them from an elevation like this. It was impressive just how big the Black Rock Desert truly was. Vast and empty, and pale.

He turned his optics to the courier's back. It did not surprise him that she ran with ease, and with a sense of restraint. Most of the couriers he had known were built to be fast, in one form or another. If she wanted to get away from him, he suspected that she could do so with little effort, before he could even react.

Maximus cleared his throat. "How far away is the place we're going?"

"Just a few more miles," she called back. "Almost there. It'll slope down in about a mile and then it flattens out a bit at the edge and then we go down. There's that place to park, hopefully."

There was a soft huff from her intakes as she led him along the top of the red-stone ridge. It felt a little odd in some respects, but good. Pyrotech never ran in this form if he could help it. He drove everywhere, but he preferred not to travel much by foot. That was her job, and well... she was fine with it. It meant time to be away from everyone else, and that was something she quietly held dear. Just a little space.

True to her word, the slope was apparent under his strides fairly quickly - they both had a good length of leg and had easily eaten up the distance. The courier found the edge and picked her path downward. She kept at a good clip, digging her heels in to steady herself, sliding a bit on the loose sand and scree but didn't lose her balance. Dart worked with it though, she half-crouched and touched her fingertips down to steady herself when she reached the bottom. She trotted to a stop and sniffed the air. There was a ribbon of old maintenance road here; worn into the dirt but obviously not traveled often any more. Scraggy grass was growing here and there on it, glad for a smooth foothold.

Maximus did not slow when he reached the slope. Rather, he took a different approach to it.

The loose sand and rock slid out from under him Maximus he planted his feet and coolly hit the slope in a power slide. The big mech dragged a line of dust behind him as he skidded through it, his legs braced, one arm extended back to catch himself if he lost his balance. When he struck rock he stumbled briefly but did not bother to right himself; instead he simply leapt the rest of the way down. He slammed into the ground near Dart, knees bent to absorb the impact.

Maximus was smiling faintly as he rose back up again. He gave the slope one last appreciative glance back over his shoulder before he turned to the courier. "There's a road here," he said in surprise. "It looks rough - any chance of humans using it at this hour?"

This time the courier didn't even twitch at his landing - she just merely looked over at him and huffed a few deep draughts of air to cool herself down. Then she settled in place, hands starting to tuck behind her back politely before she caught herself. "No sir," she replied immediately. "It's safe. It's an access road for land management. See how the grass is coming up in the ruts? If it's traveled all the time or daily, grass doesn't grow up that easily. They do some range patrol on the roads like these, but... more during the day, honest. Too far out, they look closer to the parks for illegal activities."

A pause. "Er, like people defacing property or uh, actually chiseling out petroglyphs or fossils. That's big money, some of it."

Maximus did look at the grass, solemnly. It was something he did not know before, and he tucked the knowledge away for future use.

It sounded as if the chance of them being stumbled upon was slim, and for that he relaxed. He followed the road with his optics, then turned back to the courier with a frown. He was still hazy on what petroglyphs were, and what fossils resembled on this planet, but the meaning of her words was clear enough.

"Vandalism and theft of a historical site?" he said. "I can see why land management enforcers would want to keep a close eye on that kind of activity. Still, if it means that the road is not frequently used, that's all the better for us, I suppose. Which way do we go from here?"

Dart lifted her nose, looked up at the stars. She was obviously using them to orient herself and after a moment she seemed reassured. "Just up this road, it's not far," she replied. "Half a mile or so and then we'll be at the parking place I remember. Then we'll have to switch to avatars, sir, the trail's narrow and - well you'll see."

A little nod. "Yeah," she said, with a shake of her head. "It's hard though for them, they don't have the resources to patrol it all, and they have to pick and choose the sites. They patrol the ones where more people can access, or are more public knowledge. There's some at Red Rock too, but you can drive a car up there."

A chuckle. "Even a car like me," she admitted sheepishly. "They paved the roads to a lot of places, but even the back ones where they didn't are pretty easy for a car if you take it slow. There's a lot of access over by Lake Mead, but that's a huge recreational area, sir."

Maximus grimaced. He had been enjoying the time spent in his robot mode, as well as the opportunity to put it through his paces. He didn't get much of a chance while he was on Earth, at least outside of a fight.

But he nodded slowly and rested his hands on his hips. "An avatar makes sense," he said. "If anyone does come along there are a lot of excuses we can play to explain our presence there, at least. And at least your car mode doesn't attract unwanted attention."

Looking dry, he jerked a thumb over his shoulder, to where the tank treads lay on his back and the turret of his alternate mode sat telescoped between his shoulders. "And Lake Mead, eh? I'm a little familiar with that area. I do remember parks being near it, along the shore. All right. Lead the way to the parking place. Just call out when we should make the switch."

The courier laughed a bit. "Aw, my car mode sometimes attracts attention," she admitted with a little scuff of her toe in the dirt as she began to walk again. Her hands settled over her hip carriers. "Mostly folks who remember the 80's though. It's sort of... well, there are times I sure wish I had treads. Not a snow car. Okay, it's not a rain car either."

"But yeah, the trail's super narrow," she agreed. "I don't expect anyone to be there at night but... oh? Yeah, Lake Mead's one of the big tourist attractions. There's a lot of parks, and a lot of hiking trails."

She looked thoughtful. "You were out there? I know it's behind Hoover Dam, part of it. Did you see the salt line on the rocks? That's because of the drought."

"Er, oh. Will do," she corrected herself. "I mean, tell you when we should make the switch. I just don't want to leave tracks out here. Easier to walk most of the way."

That seemed a sensible precaution. Maximus nodded. He couldn't see or hear a thing besides themselves out here, but there was no point in taking any chances.

"That makes sense," he said. "Our tracks in this mode would be fairly distinct. No point in leaving behind that kind of incriminating evidence. All right. Go ahead and take the lead. I'll follow. And... no."

He shook his head after a moment of thought. "Don't remember seeing- or wait. I do recall seeing what looked like an old water line on the rocks at the lake. Yeah."

A nod. "More worried about overhead folks," Dart admitted sheepishly. "You know? Dry soil like this keeps tracks pretty good until it rains, and- oh, yeah. It's gone down a lot over the years, apparently. Lake Mead's interesting, if you dip a piece of metal or glass in it and let it dry, it'll have salt crust. Super mineralized."

She shook he head slightly as she walked on. "Look at the brochure on the dam," she said. "You can see that big white line in the pictures there too."

Tensely, Maximus glanced upwards. He hadn't thought of the possibility of being spotted from someone with an aerial vantage point.

"Good point," he said. "Didn't even think about the need to disguise our prints from any fliers. I'll keep that in mind. And... no."

He went back over his memories of Lake Mead. He had arrived on the planet at night, and had returned to the lake only once since then, also at night as a precaution. Slowly, he said, "I saw an old water line, but I don't recall anything as distinctive as what you're describing. Then again, it was late and dark when I was at the lake - both times. I never did get a good look at it, or the dam in the distance."

The courier had set her hands on her hip carriers. She was fiddling with the little latch. "Yeah, I- I had to learn that," she murmured. "About the overhead thing. I use trees a lot because of it, but... out here. Stick to the stones, usually. Less of a trail. Also helps for scent - stay on the rocks, if you can. Dirt holds onto stuff like that better, sir..."

She paused, glanced over at him, unsure. Then she took a little draw of air into her intakes. "Can I ask you a question?"

Maximus almost wondered who the courier would need to dodge from the air before he was reminded that the Autobots had more fliers among their ranks these days. He was used to it only being Air Raid, who could not be everywhere at once. They at least were capable of hunting and tracking and scouting from the skies these days. It was good.

He watched as she played with the carriers on her hips. Something about the gesture struck him as nervous. When she asked her question he was surprised before he became wary. She hadn't really asked him any questions yet. Nothing serious, anyway.

"A question?" he said. "No... that's fine. Yeah. Go ahead. What do you want to know?"

Dart had been half expecting him to tense up - and yes, it was there, but maybe that's because she was a bit unsure herself and looking for it. "It's about avatars," she said quickly, as if in reassurance that that's all it was, even though she had another question she desperately wanted to ask and had been wondering about it since he'd first whistled.

"I mean, we went a long way with ours, right?" she said thoughtfully. "Could - could that work like - okay, like if you got into a car and someone else was driving? Would it still work for a distance, or does that mess them up?"

That was a good question. And a harmless one. Maximus relaxed.

"To be honest, I'm not completely sure," he said. He raised one hand and wobbled it back and forth. "I'm not much of an expert when it comes to the technology. But as far as I know... yes, it will work, to a degree. The generator functions a little like a radio transmitter, in that it is designed to broadcast - project - over distances, though the condition of the avatar itself will eventually degrade over a certain point. I think how far away that point in depends on the transmission strength of your generator. I've never tried to test the limits of the projection range of mine, though I've known other bots to project an avatar over miles. I've seen avatars projected from aircraft in flight, for example. The flier would take a station at altitude and project an avatar miles below them."

He frowned, pondering it. "Does that answer your question?"

"I think so," Dart replied. "It's just interesting. I mean, it could be a possible way to get around without... well, driving. Not a great way, but another way to do it. Like I don't think I'd use public transit - well, besides, it costs money for the light rail..."

The courier trailed off at that statement, remembering the last time that they were down in the light rail. Not her shining moment. Not anyone's shining moment. But...

"The aircraft in flight thing... that makes a ton of sense," she said instead of what she wanted to say. Which was - how was the girl, was she okay after that whole mess? In her hip carrier was still the shattered remnants of a guitar, she'd wrapped them up in a scrounged old blanket she'd stolen from a box left by a Goodwill station in Portland. It was good that they were in and out of the city so much lately. Well, good for stealing blankets. Bad for anyone Pyrotech happened to run into. "Thank you. I really don't know how all this works. Can't really ask."

Maximus had actually considered the possibility himself, in his more desperate or irritable moments when he thought the walls of the base were closing in on him. He had wondered if he might project his avatar into a nearby town or city, maybe even Vegas itself - before realising that he as a tank would still likely need to get prohibitively close to maintain the avatar with any fidelity. Fliers definitely had it easier in that respect.

"It's fine," he said. He shrugged. "Asking, I mean. It was a good question. I don't hear that one asked a lot. I suppose that most Autobots, having street-legal alternate modes for the most part, don't think about the possibility of driving anything other than themselves. But that's not always possible. So it's good to know that someone out there has considered that."

Maximus spoke the last part dryly. "Were you thinking of travelling by car soon? Well, by another car, I should say."

The courier tipped her head and offered up an obviously embarrassed smile. Her optics dimmed then brightened a bit, and her spoiler splayed out to the sides, tipping back. "Um, kinda. Actually... you'll probably laugh a bit at what I was thinking."

"I never laugh," said Maximus in a deadpan.

He regarded her with a glimmer of curiosity. She looked abashed. It was an odd expression to see on a Decepticon. Whatever she was considering had to be harmless, if she was discussing it with him.

"What were you thinking?" he said. "Planning on a trip somewhere, via your avatar?"

The courier cocked her head back the other way. No, wait, he had too laughed, over those Volcanic Escape routes and... then she couldn't help but grin. She'd caught his sense of humor a few times throughout their conversation. It was there, just one of those dry, witty ones that he held close. Blink and you might miss it, but... she understood. Humor... well, it could be taken as a sign of softness, of someone thinking you didn't know how to do your job. She held hers close too. Then again, maybe that was a Decepticon thing, where you worried about that being the wrong thing at the wrong moment. Hard to say.

"I wanted to uh, street park out by the zoo sometime," she admitted after a moment. "That's free on Sundays. The lots aren't. Sure, you have to ride the bus down to the zoo, but that's free. I wonder if it will hold."

Dart glanced up at the sky for a second and then back down at him. "There's my very laughable trip."

Maximus had to admit, he had not been expecting that answer. Partly because it seemed so innocent, and partly because he had only a shaky grasp on what exactly a zoo was. Caged animals were involved, that was all he knew. Perhaps one of the children had mentioned it at some point. It sounded like something they would be interested in.

"Street park out by the zoo?" he said. "And... you want to know if your avatar could ride the bus to this place?"

He considered it. Without a hint of amusement he said gravely, "It's possible. So far as I know, at least. You could probably do it. Your avatar managed the trip down the Canyon, after all. That was pretty strenuous. It should handle a trip like that. But... why the zoo?"

"I was scared to death it wouldn't hold that whole time," the femme replied, as she skirted a patch of uneven stone and padded back to where she'd remained. She'd fallen naturally into a place a bit ahead of him, just off his shoulder; pacing quietly. Every few steps there was a soft pull and huff of venting - always testing the air currents, just watching out around them for any change in environment, any whiff of some crazy human out alone in the desert or what have you.

"I think that's why it managed," she chuckled. "But - oh, I just - I like to see animals I probably won't ever get to see out in the wild I guess. They do a good job now with zoos, they're just not boxes..."

She trailed off for a second at that thought. "I don't think I could go to the sort that are. Just boxes, I mean. Now they do a lot of conservation and stuff. I dunno, being human gives you all these... places, I guess. Things. They're awfully lucky. Humans, I mean. I don't think they realize how neat it is, just to get up and go to places."

Maximus grunted. He couldn't argue that.

"Though I suppose it's their right to have that ability, that freedom, given that it's their planet," he said grudgingly. "We are the ones intruding upon it. I suppose that means we need to accept certain limitations as well."

He stifled back a sigh and glanced at her. It was good she stayed ahead; he was more comfortable following, with an eye on her. Not that he expected the courier to pull anything at this point. But it didn't hurt to be wary either.

Judging by the way she was sniffing, she thought the same thing. Maximus frowned. "Anyway. Conservation. You like to see different animals. I can't imagine many other 'Cons share that hobby. You always go out alone, when you do these sorts of trips?"

"I'm on my own a lot," she said carefully. Dart trusted him to understand why. "And yeah no... I- I don't uh... no. No, I don't think that's a safe thing to do, take..."

A pause, because she'd just had an image of Starscream stalking through the zoo. At least he'd maybe like the monkeys.

"I do. I mean, liking the animals... and seeing all these places," she said, and waved a hand to indicate the quiet landscape around them. "This is beautiful out here. Quiet." Her spoiler perked up though, slightly, as she turned his words over.

"Yes," she said suddenly in agreement, and there was a note that crept in, of awe and conviction and amazement. "Yes, I mean yes to... it's their planet. It's this amazing place full of all these amazing things and places and spaces and they're so different, sometimes all you have to do is travel ten miles and you're in a totally different world, and that includes the people. This planet's so diverse and special, I think, well- okay, it's the only one I-"

Dart caught herself. "I think... maybe it takes being among it to appreciate it. On... on all sides, sir."

Her sudden rise in tone surprised him. Maximus looked at her again, taken aback. She certainly seemed to react strongly where humans were concerned. And it wasn't the reaction he had come to expect from Decepticons, which was one of contempt. They tended to treat humans as vermin far beneath them. Some Autobots did as well.

But now that Maximus thought about it, she had always spoken with an unfeigned enthusiasm about humans and their habits. And their planet in general, really. If the stakes had not been so dire he would have sworn she actually enjoyed their trip down the Canyon. It was strange. Most Autobots he knew were accustomed to dealing with humans, but few acknowledged them with the same unbridled fondness that she did - if that was the word for it.

"This is the only planet you've been to?" said Maximus. "Aside from Cybertron, you mean? Fair enough. Not everyone gets stationed across the galaxy. I suppose the first planet you visit always stands apart, providing it's not some slaghole."

He shrugged. "Hm. You don't mind staying here, then? Always figured the 'Cons were keen to leave."

There was a pause, a hesitation. Dart didn't like talking about her shortcomings to most mechs. It wasn't one of those things she wanted to discuss with most mechs. There was always that uncomfortable moment where things got a little sticky. Contempt she could handle. Dismissal, she was used to. What she honestly didn't like was that over-lingering on the situation, where someone tried to figure out just how little memory she had left, and how far they could pull one over on her... how much mopping had she done in her life? A lot. So much cleaning. Talk about a bucket list.

There'd been a few though, who'd... sort of become overtly sympathetic and she didn't like that either. No, she didn't trust it. Not among the Decepticons. She'd learned that at least fast enough.

But... he was here. In the company of a Decepticon walking along, quietly avoiding ugly bits of conversation and taking her thoughts seriously about going to the zoo of all places. Nope, he didn't laugh, and that's why she took a deep rattling breath and shrugged.

"I don't remember Cybertron, sir," she said carefully, and lifted her fingers to her helm to tap lightly on the brim, a cautious gesture on the side to indcate whatever rattled around in her head. "This place is all I know, so... I'm a little skewed about how I feel about it, I guess."

"Have you been to other planets?" she asked suddenly, in an awkward attempt to do something else with the conversation, since immediately after she felt stupidly caught out. Sigh. Always did.

That was another surprise. The courier did not remember Cybertron? Maximus studied her for a moment with a frown. The way she touched her head seemed to indicate that the problem was related to her processor. Some sort of memory storage issue, perhaps. He had heard of them cropping up before, often due to traumatic damage to the brain core. It was difficult to repair, so far as he knew.

Maximus knew that he was the last person in a position to talk about mental troubles. He cleared his throat a little and nodded awkwardly, swallowing back his discomfort. "Not many," he admitted. "Only one other planet in the past thousand years or so. Elba. It was unpleasant. Suited it's chosen function well enough, but not a planet you'd want to live on. Spent most of my time before that stationed on Cybertron."

He glanced at her once before fixing his gaze straight ahead. "Earth is a good planet. I like it. I've seen worse. Cybertron wasn't anything like this towards the end of the war. So... I don't think you're missing out. Not remembering it."

Elba. The way he said chosen function took her back a bit. Dart couldn't quite comprehend that for a moment, and tried to place how... hmm. A thoughtful nod; the shift of his nod, the dip of his chin and that tiny clear of his throat. Immediately she sidestepped, she did not push or pry. Not that she would have. Underneath their feet the sand was giving way to grunching gravel and scattered stone that ground against their metal. She knew that this meant the wash was ending and that they'd be out close to the parking area rather quickly.

"I've overheard that a lot," she said carefully. "About Cybertron at the end not... well, not being all that great."

Understatment. Dart winced to herself. Well, it would have to do. That was like saying 'oh gosh, that toxic waste dump is pretty non-spiffy.'

"I'm glad you like it. Earth, I mean. It's hard, I mean... there's a lot of Cybertronians who don't, who regret being here who hate it with the mud and the dirt and the humans and the wildlife, and frankly... I dunno. I can't explain it. But I'm glad."

"Like I said, back at the canyon, humans are pretty much like us," she offered, lifting her hands and spreading her fingers a bit. "Personalities, I mean. That make sense?"

There were Autobots who didn't like Earth. Maximus understood that. It didn't bother him, Earth was vastly different from home - but it also wasn't his planet. He was more irritated when they chose to underestimate it instead. That was foolish.

"It makes sense," he said. "Based on what I've seen of the humans so far, I agree with you. Different customs, different cultures, but they act and think a lot like we do. Same personalities, like you say."

The big mech thought wryly of Agent Fowler, the one human he tended to deal with. He got on with the stern and authoritative former Ranger better than he did half of the Autobots on base. The man spoke his language. Straightforward. Zero nonsense. Maximus could relate to that.

"Though I can't say I know many humans in general," he said aloud. "They're fine, though, the ones I know. So is Earth. Different. But being able to adapt and acclimate to different conditions is part of what makes a decent soldier. I like the views here. A lot of good views."

"Exactly," the courier said, coming up on her toes. She did a funny little motion, a prancing, light-footed moment of sudden delight, her spoiler coming up and over her shoulders. "Yep yep yep, all the things you learn and adapt to. Humans seem to be better at it than we are sometimes, I think. I mean, they have to be. The here and the now, instead of... sort of caught in that what it used to be, maybe."

"Well, that's not entirely true," she mused, looking a bit apologetic as she settled. "Lots of them dwell in the past too, but... Oh hey, there's the pullout, see? We're here."

She stopped and looked across the end of the wash. She was right, the area they'd been walking through gave way to a wide space, with an ancient road. Brush had grown up in the tire tracks, it was mostly rock. The only things that would love a road like that were a Range Rover and a tank. Luckily Maximus was one of those things. There was an old grey split-rail fence that had once marked a boundary; half of it was washed out and gone. The wood had been obviously brought in years and years ago, dull and drab with age and sun. The lot was packed dirt, and that road stretched out from the area back out across the desert, winding off into the rocks. Around them were high stone crop, red and gold and grey. There was a signpost at the end, along with what appeared to be some sort of odd looking shelter area - a roof and two posts with a board in between.

Maximus had no idea what to expect of the pullout, and so when the courier stopped and gazed out he quickly did likewise. He scanned the desert ahead of them with a faint frown, his hand unconsciously lifted to the brim of his helm.

It was hard to tell where the wash ended and the road began. The terrain looked rough, dirt and rocks and bare, sparsely marked off by an old wooden fence. He saw another wood structure nearby - a lean-to of some sorts perhaps, or what was simply a bit of roof to provide some shelter from the sun and elements. There was a sign as well, though he could not make it out clearly from their current vantage point.

His brow furrowed as he studied it. After a moment he lowered his hand. "This is it? Looks quiet. Good spot - doesn't seem to see much use. What is that shelter used for? I can't make out the sign."

Dart sniffed lightly at the air. There were no recent tire tracks she could see, no ruts in the dirt. It didn't matter; she was cautious stepping out of the shelters of the stones rising high above them. You didn't put yourself out in the open without checking everything a thousand times over, then check it once more.

"It's a notice shelter," she said after a moment. "They pin up things there on the board for tourists and land users. I don't know if it's been used for a long time though, but it's usually things like fire warnings and dangerous issues. Sometimes other stuff, maps and trail closures."

When the courier picked a route away from the wash, Maximus reluctantly followed at a straggling distance. Her caution had put him on his guard. He did not suspect an ambush, not really - the courier seemed more wary of humans than anything. Already ill at ease around humans, Maximus was even more apprehensive of being caught by them while in his robot mode. That was one of the worst disasters he could think of - and he could think of a lot of them.

He eyed the shelter as they made their way out of the rocks. "It looks old. Like it hasn't been used in a while. That's good for us, I suppose. There a lot of trails around here? Seems a pretty desolate area for tourists."

"Yeah," Dart answered. "It hasn't - I mean, I don't smell anyone recently. I haven't been this way in a while. They have all the budget cuts, and some of these areas got sort of... absorbed into others. It's like they have the money to maintain things like Red Rock and Mead Lake, but not these trails. It's too far out to have much in the way of patrols. Grey jurisdiction area between Federal folks, I think."

A tiny puff or her intakes. "Lots of folks do hike out in places like this," she admitted. "Lots of humans. It always amazes me sometimes, you'll be in the absolute middle of nowhere and come across a hunter or a hiker. Lots of times they've hiked in in some of these places sheep don't want to go."

Dart lightly picked her way down across the road and towards the curve of the pullout. Gravel and dust crunched under their feet. The moon overhead threw long shadows behind them, stretched them dark and angular against the ground. "It's pretty impressive," she said, glancing back at him. "It's really hot out here during the day."

Another good reason to be here at night; Maximus was not particularly fond of heat. He didn't mind it, he could cope with it well enough, and he could admit that he did like to rest unseen in his tank mode beneath the desert sun, but... something about the cool night air and the moonlight lent a sense of loneliness to this landscape that he appreciated.

Maximus nodded slowly as he came up beside her. He walked heavily, with careful steps. "I can imagine. Black Rock gets hotter than the Pit under the sun. Come to think of it..."

He narrowed one optic. "I've seen humans out on that desert too. Wouldn't have expected to. It's not often that it happens. It's rare. No idea what they're doing out there. Maybe hiking, maybe digging. But there you go. Hm."

Maximus studied the road. "Where do we go from here?"

Dart nodded. "I'm not keen on the heat either," she replied, and scuffed her toe lightly over a rock. She glanced around them and then pointed to a spot between the rising rocks on the far side of the lot. "Over there," she said. "It's pretty narrow, and it's a bit of a scramble. We'll have to park here though, no way we'd get into it like this."

"That's okay, right?" she asked, careful to reiterate that. It was a bit of trust to park out here in plain sight. She really wasn't worried about the humans, not that she was going to mention that. If anything, her brain was more on the fact that it was open to jets overhead. There were more than a few Autobots that flew. She wasn't as worried about the Decepticons honestly... if one of them spotted her, it was easy enough to quietly say that she'd made a grave mistake going this way, and he had an awfully big rifle. She doubted a single one of them wanted to come toe to toe with Maximus, based on their response at the Canyon. Sending a courier in like a canary in a coal mine was pretty obvious.

Well okay, more like a canary in a skeet shoot, but... hey.

It was more the Autobots she was concerned about. Not because she was worried that they'd dress him down or bark at him about this... more that... well, there were reasons. Selfish ones, where she admitted that she sadly had been enjoying every moment of this scavenger hunt. Those words in a logbook meant a lot; reading his reflections on a world she knew so, so well, seeing it from a viewpoint of someone who didn't know much about Earth... well, that was a pretty amazing bit.

The courier took a few steps towards the flattest spot in the lot. "Our avatars should be totally okay, sir," she reiterated. "It's just not spaced for... well, us. Like this."

Maximus slowly nodded at the question. This seemed an isolated enough place for them to lay low in their alternate modes. The courier likely wouldn't draw attention with hers, but the emptiness of the desert that surrounded the desert was enough to assure Maximus that the chance of anyone even spotting them was slim.

He eased his weight from foot to foot, thinking. He looked out over the plains with a hard gaze, but when he turned it back to the courier a little of the edge had gone from it. "Avatars are fine," he said. "This looks like a good spot to hang back. If you say we won't be seen out here, I'll believe it."

She hadn't lied to him yet. The warden stepped out onto the flat lot and hesitated, his hands flexing. Then, without further pause he abruptly transformed. The tank hit the dirt and rocked on its treads, while a cloud of dust gently fanned away from his point of impact.

Dart was struck at that moment -- okay, he was a big mech. Not thick; the green mech down in the tunnel had been wider across the chest and forearms, like a huge bull. That mech had an awkwardness to his motion; not bad, just - like... well, like Dart had a hard time imagining how all those parts meshed together and allowed him to charge and spin so fast. Then again, his arm had also changed into a mace. Point to him.

Minus the tall treads and broad shoulders, Maximus had a litheness to him that was hard to describe. It was like - well, like a very fit human soldier, Dart decided. Or a football quarterback, all shoulder tapering down to broad leg.

Yes, yes, she knew, she'd spent way too many hours observing the college students down on campus. But it worked.

Until he turned into a freaking huge tank, and then all those thoughts were right out the window and back to - whoa.

Dart had never, ever seen anyone who turned into a tank. A lot of planes, sure, a lot of big planes. Megatron himself was probably one of the most incredible mechs as far as sheer size and intimidation when it came to the air.

His semblance to an Earth vehicle wasn't even close. In fact, Dart had always wondered if he kept that mode not only because of his massive size, but because it kept him apart from those he commanded. The rest of them had to hide. The Warlord would do no such thing. He simply didn't stand in the same place as the rest of them.

Even Maximus. He was a tank, but he was - an ordinary tank, if there was such a thing. Big guns, treads meant to take this sort of terrain. He was well cared for and well-constructed. Dart hesitated for a moment, feeling suddenly awkward with her not so cared for alt mode. Her hand came up as if to wipe some of the grime away off her chestplate; she caught herself and looked away.

A moment later the courier dropped to her fingertips. For a second, it was the crouch of a runner ready to leap off the blocks. Seconds later though, she folded, she ducked and shifted. Her transformation was not as clean as his, nor as smooth. There was a bit of stiffness to it, as if she didn't really go back and forth as often between modes. The Trans-Am's mirrors flicked into a slight wince as the broad, scarred hood thunked against the dirt; the car rocked back, settling weight on the hind tires as Dart resettled herself.

Her engine rumbled and then there was a low rattle, as if the lifters of the sports car were in bad, bad need of tuning. She edged slightly to the left and took the point again to lead them across the lot. At least it was flat. Hooray for no speed bumps. Those things were flat out awful.

The tank was careful to remain stationary as the black Trans-Am pulled out in front of him. The armour plating at the front of his alternate mode left him with a bit of a blind spot directly in front of him. He had learned that the hard way, and since then had taken care not to follow behind another vehicle too closely. It took painfully little effort to roll up and crush the back end of a car beneath his treads, and not even realise it until the last moment.

Once she was a safe distance ahead he fired up his engine with a rumble that reverberated through the ground. The tank rolled forward, its main gun deliberately angled towards the desert. He took care to keep both machine guns turned away as well. Arms training had left him meticulous about not pointing a gun - loaded or not - at anything he did not want to shoot.

Maximus studied the courier as she took the lead. That she turned into a car was not unexpected; car modes were not unheard of among Decepticons. But hers was strange. It was nothing like the flashy high performance vehicles that were common among the Autobots. The black Trans-Am was low slung and sleek and slinky. An older design, maybe. And scuffed with dirt and scratches, but that had been evident in her robot mode as well. It looked weather-beaten and well-travelled.

The road crunched beneath his rattling tracks. The tank loomed in Dart's mirrors. "What kind of car is that?" it said.

"What car?" Dart said, even as her headlights popped up and peeked out from the front of her hood, peering across the lot. They adjusted even as she sniffed at the air in a whoosh-snort.

For a second, she totally looked, expecting a Jeep or a...

"Oh," she said, and crunched down. "Me. My car. This car. Um, a Trans Am. Er, a 1986 Trans Am, sir."

"It's by Pontiac," she told him, and then suddenly realized that probably meant as much as if she'd said she was build by squirrels.

"I mean, the car company is Pontiac. It was part of GM, er, Pontiac was, but during the recession, they had to get a rid of a line when they took the bailout. Pontiac was it, which was sad, it was one of the oldest GM lines. These cars- I mean, Trans AM's, they were really popular in the seventies and eighties."

A pause. The side mirror tilted back to reflect him. "Not so much any more."

Pontiac meant nothing to Maximus, but GM struck a familiar note. It was a company big enough for even him to have heard of it in some form or another.

His rear whip-aerial wagged once thoughtfully. "I see. I wondered. I didn't recognise your alternate mode. I don't see a lot of cars, but it didn't look familiar. Don't think any of the Autobots here have scanned it."

It probably wasn't divulging vital information to say that. "Why pick a vehicle mode from the eighties? Most carbots seem to go for the modern sports cars, no matter how expen..."

The tank trailed off. "Scratch that. I think I get it. Blends in better I'm thinking, your alt?"

The car's front tires slipped outward a bit. I didn't pick it, she wanted to say to him. Part of her had always got a good laugh out of it. What would she have chosen, if she'd gotten to pick? A Jeep? An off road vehicle? A Honda Civic?

He gave her an opening, and like a true courier, she dodged into it. "Yes, sir. It's - well, it's a car that people actually drive, sir," she said. "I mean, there are fancy sports cars and expensive ones and... well, you know, they're pretty obvious."

The headlight perked a bit in soft humor. "It's okay, I would think most mechs wouldn't want to scan it. It's pretty dated."

"Very obvious," said Maximus drily. He had never understood the allure of sports cars himself. No armour, no weapons, attention grabbing, and miserable performance on anything that wasn't asphalt. He did not see a glimpse of practicality in any of that.

"Dated is fine, if it works," he added. The tank swivelled one machine gun in a gesture like a shrug. "And better they don't, as far as I can see it. If most mechs won't scan a vehicle like yours, that just means there are that many fewer mechs out there drawing attention to it. Don't the Vehicons turn into an entire fleet of virtually identical muscle cars? That's going to come back to haunt someone sooner or later. Better to transform into something that fits your function or at least fits in, than make your choice based on nothing but style or performance specs as far as I'm concerned."

Dart replied. "I'm okay with the car. I- I like it. It... well, it fits pretty well. Oh gosh, the Vehicons, uh..."

The car ducked her long hood. "That's... yeah. I don't know why no one's pointed that out along with the whole uh, crew of black planes too. Maybe someone did and it sort of got lost in a memo somewhere. At least for the cars I tend to think the humans believe they're company cars, or some sort of car club maybe. Then again, I don't get the Cybertronians disgusing themselves as racecars on the road, either. Except that, well... it's Nevada, and there's a lot of car clubs here. Among the humans. Lots of casino money."

The main gun on the tank swung back and forth in something like disgust. It privately irked Maximus that he needed to maintain a low profile for transforming into a machine that competently performed a warlike function, while a multi-million dollar sports car that had zero practical use could wallow about in public and be accepted. He would not trade his alternate mode for the world, but still.

"I suppose I could accept that," he said grudgingly. "Car clubs? Hm. Perhaps that could provide a blanket explanation for the proliferation of high performance cars in this region. Do humans truly drive those things? They seem impractical. They're fast. They look good. But they have to be high maintenance for minimal output. I'm high maintenance. I can also fire six rounds per minute with a muzzle velocity of eleven hundred miles per hour at a target four miles away, and thus serve a practical purpose. Primus."

In front of him, the Trans Am tilted her mirror again to catch that gesture. It was as plain as a snort to her- the tank was actually fairly expressive; the main gun keeping carefully away, but the whip of the antenna, the twist of the turret.

"They're utterly impractical," she agreed. "I mean, not that I have anywhere to talk, I'm a two man dog car, but... those cars, humans only drive them to show just how much money they have. Honestly, a real car collector doesn't drive their cars very often. It's too much wear on them, and too expensive. The insurance alone... I guess it's a good thing everyone has a medic, otherwise, rock chips alone would cost thousands to touch up."

"I mean, a real human car collector," she explained. "The car clubs drive theirs out to places like Red Rock though, because it's so dry out here."

Her nose swung slightly towards him. "Personally, if I had to be high maintenance... I think I'd pick the tank, too. Just because at least you can work in most environments without a paved road."

"Actually, I've never, ever seen anyone with your alt mode," she murmured. "Ever. What - what kind of a tank is that?"

"Besides a really big one."

"M1A2," said Maximus. The turret shifted again, a little uncomfortably. As much as he had grown to appreciate his vehicle mode, he had also become accustomed to keeping it out of the centre of attention.

He cleared his throat. "Good solid tank. I like it. Drive train took some getting used to. Anyway. About those cars. I suppose it makes sense they're more a status symbol than a functional vehicle. Can't imagine having an alt mode that would require touch ups for rock chips. You'd never want to transform and drive it anywhere. No wonder those human collectors don't bother doing it often."

The tank paused. "Actually. That reminds me. I've heard it said that flashy alternate modes like that used to be a status thing on Cybertron too. Before the war. Not my thing. Before my time. But I gather it was a fairly weighty indication of your caste importance, having a luxury mode. Or something that could fly. Or was just really fast. Something else we have in common with humans, perhaps."

There was an instant nod of the courier's hood once more. She had no idea what kind of tank that was, but she did understand about getting used to your drive train. More than once she'd popped herself out of gear at the beginning, spun gravel, or... well, flat out stalled out in the middle of the road. Also, getting stuck between transformations was the most embarrassing thing ever. Actually, being kicked out of being stuck was up there too.

"Yes sir," she agreed, immediately following his discussion back off himself and - oh. "Really? They were? I didn't know anything about that. I - I haven't heard a whole lot about Cybertron before the war. That would be similar to Earth though. It's a status point, exactly the same way. Really fast, or super luxurious, or flight."

She turned and parked herself carefully along the far fence. It was just a couple of sagging boards but the courier gave it polite space. "Actually, I take that back," she murmured. "I've heard it used to be nice, and it sure isn't any more. That I hear a lot."

The door on the Trans Am opened a moment later, and her avatar was sitting in the driver's seat, behind the wheel. As before, it was the lanky young woman. She leaned back for a second, before carefully swinging herself out onto the gravel. Her avatar flickered, popped, and she frowned slightly and steadied herself before shutting the car door with a solid thunk.

[Deleted]

After carefully studying the remaining space, the tank slowly rolled into motion. With great awkwardness it backed up until it had positioned itself along the fenceline. Watching a war machine as large and unwieldy as the Autobot gingerly park itself was both odd and humorous. Not that Maximus would have seen the amusement in it.

Its engine fell silent, though its electrical system remained active with a low and steady hum, powered by some auxiliary unit. The main gun pointed forward, neutral and still. After a pause the top hatch wrenched open and a man climbed out. He dropped to the dirt a moment later.

Maximus' avatar looked much as it had back in the canyon, though the bloodstains were gone. It wore the same worn plaid shirt and dusty jeans. The man regarded Dart's avatar impassively as he straightened. "You stick with one human avatar too, I take it?" he said.

Right down to the same clothes, the worn sneakers, jeans with a rip, the faded sweatshirt with the mended sleeve, the stitches off kilter. She looked down at herself at his words, and then smoothed a hand over the old T-shirt with the horse on the left side of her chest. Now that they weren't on a river and things were a little more stable, Max would be able to make out the writing underneath it. 'Runs like a girl,' it said in tiny lavender script. Humans and their silly cursive letters. Not practical like most Cybertronian glyphs, that was for sure.

Her hands slid as if they were going to tuck into the pockets of her jeans, then paused, fingers barely tucked in thumb in the edge, toying with the tiny copper rivet on the pocket. "Yessir," she murmured, ducking her head with a little nod. "I- I practiced with this one, you know? I- less chance of slipping up, right? Ah... you too?"

She lifted her chin again and looked him over. Same shirt. Same jeans. Same man, just... without a big bloody stain on the plaid, creeping outward. And not pale and wan and flickering; not worn thin like it had been.

Maximus nodded.

"Yes," he said. He looked down at his hands. "My generator is capable of only storing one avatar in its template. It can't scan or create another. It's fine, though. I only need one. If the humans can get by with only one face, I suppose we can too."

His expression gave no indication as to whether or not the 'we' was an accident that included the both of them, or perhaps meant to encompass Cybertronians in general. Maximus looked up again and studied the courier a little more closely. He had not had the opportunity to back in the canyon. His attention had been grievously occupied then. He was startled by how natural it looked, right down to the writing on the shirt and the stitches in the mended sleeve. Not many avatars he had seen thus far included those kinds of small, unglamorous elaborations.

"Where did you come up with that avatar?" he said. "It's very detailed."

"Oh," Dart replied. "Aw, well, we only have one- I mean, when you think about it, really. Sure, we shift into cars and stuff but our mech modes only have one too. Not much different than..."

There was a pause, a blink. Dart glanced down at herself, at the shoes, the hole in the jeans. The bandaid on her knee was still there. The orange sweatshirt with the college logo on the back folded under. The t-shirt with the horse. She held perfectly still, and then looked back up at him, tried to smile a little, but it faded into some other expression, something quiet and yet... a little bit sad and wistful. Behind her, the car tilted mirrors downward, the tires splayed and the vehicle almost nosed onto the dry dirt.

"Someone I knew," the courier admitted after a moment. "Kind of. Not really. But some of it, you know?"

Judging by her forlorn manner, it was someone who was no longer with her. Dead or gone - Maximus was not going to prod the matter either way.

Still, it was strange. He had been led to believe that the Decepticons kept even further apart from the humans than the Autobots did. They had no human allies that he knew of. The courier must have met someone while separated from the rest of her team. Or else the human she had based her avatar upon was a human she had covertly studied while travelling disguised. She seemed to enjoy humans and their society. Hm.

Maximus nodded. "Yes. I do. I based mine partly on a human soldier I once observed. Not all of it. Still haven't got the hang of clothing that isn't khaki."

He looked around, absorbing their surroundings from a new perspective. "Now. Where to from here?"

"I mean, it's... me, in my head," Dart mumbled. "Just... I remember the clothes stuff and-"

Then she seemed to rock back on her heels, and her expression brightened just a bit as he carefully shifted the subject. She caught it, polite and quiet and onto something else, and - Dart was simply, utterly grateful that the mech was like that, and it was one of the things she was finding about him. He'd been like that in the Canyon too - hit a point but didn't push on it, he left it alone in the way... well, like she did. It was that quiet sort of understanding between folks that kept their personal things close, and left it at that. No fuss.

The back spoiler on the Trans Am might have moved a bit from side to side. Maybe.

"Yeah, that's it," she brightened. "I mean, not all of it, I mean, well- you know. Oh? A soldier? That makes perfect sense with the alt mode..." Of course, if this was the case, she should probably look like a 80's action hero detective, whoops. "I like the outfit and the avatar, it's... right. It's not a fancy suit, and not a supermodel, you know? It blends in with real people. You'd be totally in place in Portland, honest. I like plaid, and really, that's not green that's got colors - oh, right."

The courier sniffed at the air; well, her avatar lifted its nose and then realized there was nothing to sniff like this. A moment later she'd taken a few steps forward. "Come on, there's that trail that leads up over there," she pointed out. She was right, it was a very narrow one, winding up between the rugged stones.

It took only a glance for Maximus to appreciate the value of their avatars on a trail like the one the courier indicated. It looked very narrow and rough. A human could tackle it, but there was no way their large robot forms could have made forward progress.

Without pause he stepped towards the trail. It felt strange to cover so little ground with each stride, but he knew that the feeling of discomfort would fade soon enough. And from this height he could make out far more of the tiny details that made up the desert floor: the texture of the red-banded stone and the tufts of grass and leaves that poked up through the cracks between it. Insects. The footprints of small animals in the dirt. Things he missed as a robot, brought into focus as a human avatar.

His boots hit the earth with a dusty thud. "Portland?" said Max. "That's the city north of here, isn't it?"

Dart waited for him and then fell into that automatic spot, a little forward of his shoulder, pacing along next to him as they crossed the parking lot. The gravel slid out from under their toes; something his tank mode would have tossed easily behind him, and left scattered for yards. His avatar's weight just made it shift slightly and crunch softly, a whisper of sound. The air was warm and dry; even though down here the desert was cooling fast. Overhead, the sky was clear and bright with stars.

"Yes sir, that's the city where we-" she started to say and then hesitated. Then she nodded. "Oregon, yeah. The transit tunnel."

"The people there are sort of like that," she smiled. "I mean, what they wear. Lots of plaid and comfortable jeans."

The transit tunnel. Max thought the name 'Portland' sounded familiar.

"Plaid? That's what they call this? I see." He briefly lifted his arm to eye the green fabric of his shirt sleeve. He had copied it from an image he had seen on the news, right down to the sun-bleached fade and wear. Some story about a missing hiker. "Aside from the incident in the tunnel, I've never been there. That was the first I'd been sent there. Didn't really see much."

Max lowered his arm and walked in silence. Then he said in a contemplative voice, "What's it like? The city, I mean."

"Pretty," Dart replied in an instant, and there was no hesitation in her remark as they wlaked up towards the trail. "There's some modern buildings, but Portland itself has a lot of older places, lots of older architecture. It's- it's well laid out for a city, lots of public transit - they push pedestrian places and parks. There's old bridges, lots of old bridges, you know, It's got the only double-decker trellis bridge still in the States still operational. Waterfront is beautiful. There's old bookstores - Powell's is amazing, everyone goes to Powell's. You wouldn't believe all the old books they have. Stuff you can't find anywhere. Textbooks and art books, and a ton of Sci-Fi."

"They write a lot of stories about robot aliens," she grinned.

The last remark brought Max's idle thoughts about a waterfront and architecture to an abrupt halt.

"Wait, what?" he said. He stopped in his tracks and looked around at the courier incredulously. "Hummans write about - they write books about what? Is this like the video games?"

Because Miko and the other children played plenty of games with robots or aliens in them. Usually loudly.

When the mech stopped in his boot-tracks, the courier immediately did the same. The look on his face spoke of utter bafflement, and she too could admit, hey, she'd been a bit baffled herself over the years. "Yah, I guess they do a lot of video games about alien robots too," she mused. "Movies too. It's- well, it's an old genre, honest. Here on Earth, I mean... well, old for them. Asimov's a great writer, and his books are from... ummmm..."

Dart rocked back on her heels. "I want to say Ninteen fifty," she told him. "I think. I can't remember, I read it a while ago."

Max stared at her. The courier appeared to be earnest however, and after a moment he relaxed a little. An old genre.

"Nineteen-fifty is a long time ago," he said slowly. He turned and resumed walking along the path, his face set in a nonplussed expression. "A human named Asimov wrote about us - about robots - that far back in the past? Humans have very active imaginations."

He snorted, but without heat. "For a moment I thought you meant alien robots as in us. I think my fuel pump nearly stopped. Humans are actually interested in reading stories about mechanical life forms? Huh."

"Oh gosh no," the courier replied, and her eyes went wide. "Oh gosh, no no no. I'm sorry, sir, no, no nothing like us in literature. They don't know about us, well, most of them don't. Well that I've ever read in human literature anyway. Maybe on the internet, there's a lot of writers that never get published that write there, but that can be, um, be careful what you read there."

"Actually, be really careful," she reiterated. "Safe search is... um, good."

"Yes, there's a lot of stories though," Dart said as they walked up the trail, the dust puffing from under their steps. "Humans do though, they write a lot of fiction. They also write about talking dogs and wrinkles in space and time, and historical fiction on their own history, but... I think you'd like Asimov, maybe. Those books are well written."

Talking dogs and historical fiction based on an unfamiliar species went well beyond what Maximus was interested in, but technology was at least something he could grasp. He eyed the courier as they walked, his curiosity roused despite himself.

"Asimov, huh?" he said. "Maybe I'll look him up. I've got time to read these days. I didn't know humans took that much of an interest in, I don't know what you'd call it... speculative fiction? Perhaps. You've read these books yourself?"

"I've read Asimov's," she replied with a nod, and stuffed her hands into her pockets as they walked along. Her avatar's body language had relaxed; his start had given her an immediate response, up on her toes, warily scanning the area as if she was keyed into something about ready to start shooting at them. The only thing that buzzed out here were the night insects, not missiles.

"I used to raid the dumpsters behind the bookstores at the college at night. They strip the cover off of books and throw them out if they don't sell or are too damaged to sell. That's a great series. I mean, it's... well, it's a good cop and his robot partner," she told him. "But the robot looks human, and that's part of the premise of the book, the distrust of robots."

"But the robots have laws... um, three laws of robots, Asimov calls it. They're not allowed to injure humans or let them come to harm. They have to obey the orders of the humans, unless well, of course if they order them to kill or injure other humans... and well, then they have to protect their own lives except if it uh, causes a problem with those first two laws. I think. It's been a while. I really should read it again..."

Dart brought up her hand and ran it through her avatar's bangs, pushing them back off her forehead. They lifted with a touch of blue static, and then fell again after the disruption and settled back in place. "Bailey's a great character. You'd like him, I think. The human, I mean."

Well, a cop and his robot partner didn't sound bad. That was something Maximus could manage to read, despite his general lack of interest in fiction. As for the rest of it...

"Hang on a moment," said Maximus. He held up one hand, looking both baffled and annoyed. "Distrust of robots - I can understand that. That's the Galactic Council right there. But the author of this book wrote about laws, created by humans, that robots must obey? All robots? Without question? And the robots put up with this?"

Dart watched the hand lift, and nodded. "Yes, they did, and yes they do," she said, and back in the parking lot, the Trans Am ducked down and scuffed a front tire. The front headlight cracked open so slightly, and if a car could express a touch of a smile, this one did. "Honestly, you have to read it. If I say too much, it gives away the story."

"Galactic Council?" she echoed, with obvious interest. "There's really a Galactic council out there?"

Max shook his head in amazement. He wanted to feel insulted, but found that he didn't have the heart too.

"Rules for robotics," he said. He snorted again. "No injuring humans, no disobeying humans, protect yourself unless doing so puts humans in the path of harm. Sounds like something a human author would cook up. Not to mention something Optimus could get behind."

The corner of his mouth twitched. A little of his irritation faded. "And yeah, the Galactic Council is real. It's a large coalition devoted mostly to peacekeeping. Unsurprisingly they're not terrifically fond of us or the destructive scope of our civil conflict. Can't say they haven't got a point."

The courier tipped her head, and then for a second had to be a bit awed. He called his leader Optimus. Not Prime. Not sir. In a quiet conversation, he called him Optimus, like he was not just a leader, he was his friend. Maybe she was reading too much into it. Maybe that's because she would never dare once just say Megatron in such a casual way. Oh maybe other Decepticons did. Okay, Starscream often dropped the Lord and added on "Mighty" but that's when he was grumbling to himself.

She offered up a sudden grin. "Aw, um, now you really need to read it. That's all I'm going to say, I'm not spoiling it for you."

Then she quickly quieted, and weaved carefully around a bit of outcropping in the trail, avoiding the sharp edges of the rocks that jutted out. "Really? That's- that's amazing that they could get a group of that diversity to agree on anything as vast as space."

"Has to be tough," Dart murmured. "I- yeah, that much I've heard before, that- a lot of races don't like us in general. I guess the humans are different, they've not judged us yet based on what's been done out there."

"Maybe?" she asked him. "So no Cybertronians on this Council?"

"Not one," said Max. "I believe they've tried to sway one or two of our Tyrest enforcers onto it at some point in the past, but never met without any success. At least, not that I'd heard of."

He grimaced. His information was a little out of date. He had heard little of either the Council or Autobot judicial or diplomatic enforcement since waking at the medical station. By then their civilization had crumbled and Cyberbrtron was gone.

Max trudged onward. "Anyway, yeah. We're not that popular among the rest of the space-faring galaxy. Humans are different, you're right about that. I suppose only time will prove how they will judge us, should they ever discover our existence. I'm not in a hurry for that day to come. What was the name of that book?" he said suddenly, glancing back. "The Asimov one. With the Bailey character in it."

"The Caves of Steel is the first one," she said, picking her way carefully up the rocky path. "Well, technically, 'I Robot' is, but they're short stories and not a novel. There's three books."

Then she glanced up at him thoughtfully, watching the edge of his flannel shirt move a little with the air currents. "Actually, well.. they have. Humans I mean. Speaking of which, I- I've been wanting to ask..."

"The girl is okay, right?" she ventured. "I didn't know if I should ask."

It was another unexpected question, and Max hesitated as his mind turned it over. The girl?

Oh. It hit him then. Miko. The courier was asking about Miko. Made sense. The last time she had seen the child was back in the transit tunnel. That was a wet and baffling encounter that was not going to fade from his memory anytime soon. Bulkhead had been a heavy load to drag back through the ground bridge.

"She's fine," said Max. Drily, he added, "She's - resilient. More so than a lot of other people I know. I'll tell her you inquired about her well-being. Somehow."

The courier brought up her hand to rub her nose. It was a unsure gesture, but one that disappeared with a little smile. "She's got a good left hook," she laughed, even as she attempted to stuff her hands back into her pockets. The edge of her avatar's hands wavered and shone blue. Quickly she caught herself and let her hands drop to her sides instead. "Thank you. For letting me know. Was concerned, that wasn't..."

She trailed off and then simply nodded. "Aw... thanks. She'll probably think that's weird though, and I don't want to get you in trouble with anyone. It's just- yeah, I'm glad everyone got out okay. Okayish. You know what I mean."

Telling Miko that the courier was worried about her safety without revealing that he had been speaking with a Decepticon would not be easy. Maximus moodily wondered how he would swing it, then dismissed the thought. It was something to concern himself with later. By then it could be a moot point anyway. In a day or so he would no longer be an Autobot and then, well... what he did would no longer matter.

He brushed it aside and continued to hike along the path. "Yeah," he said gruffly. "Turned out all right in the end. The Autobot that got hit with the chemical weapon - he's fine. Just got a shock to the system. He's got hard armour. No permanent damage. The girl is fine too. Maybe she'll reconsider getting herself involved in dangerous situations after this, but... I doubt it."

Dart remembered that moment, the girl between her and the mech. As a matter of fact, she still had the broken guitar wrapped up and stashed somewhere. That had been a completely new experience, getting hit in the nose with a string instrument. That was the sort of thing that happened at rock concerts and outdoor festival events filled with drunk musicians.

She tilted her chin and glanced over at him, taking in the gruff note for a moment. Everything in her said, quietly thank him, move aside, move on, but... it was one of those moments she couldn't turn away from. That whole situation had been a mess, from start to finish. The girl had just been the absolute panic moment on her end, she'd half expected to find a badly injured human, bleeding their life out on a panel.

Dart squared up her shoulders a little, struggling to shake the thought away. "Glad to hear that too," she told him honestly. She was. Hard to lose a friend.

"I'm sorry I couldn't say more down there, or explain better," she offered. "I just didn't want anyone else finding them. As for dangerous situations... I dunno. I'm guessing that if he's in trouble she'll be right there with him."

A chuckle. "That's going to be the end of a lot of guitars."

Maximus walked for a moment in silence. He wanted to ask the courier who else had been down in the transit tunnel, but suspected that she would only dodge the question as she had the first time he had asked it. He was not in a position to interrogate anyone at the moment, and found that he did not have the desire to. That was a part of his function in the war, and he was wearily glad to cast it aside for at least one night.

"Probably," he said. "I think she breaks a lot of things. The two of them are a good pair in that respect, at least. Did she really break a guitar across your face?" he added, looking back at her. "I thought that's what I heard once the dust had settled. That took a lot of chops."

The courier laughed and nudged a toe into the dirt. She was looking around them at the narrow walls of the trail, at the red bands of stone. "Yep, she did. Kicked her way out, landed on her feet, and swung." She brought up her hand and rubbed at her chin with a little grin. "No fear. I think I was more scared than she was, by far. Pretty darn brave. She figured it out fast though, that I wasn't trying to hurt her. Smart."

Max hummed in approval. The girl had guts, he'd give her that. He knew she had a reputation for recklessness on top of that, though he'd yet to see it in action himself. Following Bulkhead on his mission had been a bad call that could have gotten her killed, but at least she had stood up for her Autobot friend when he was in trouble.

"Yeah, she's pretty gutsy," he said. "She was only fortunately she ran into you and not another 'Con, though. I don't think she would have fared as well if she hadn't. I'll give her credit for bravery, but luck played a big part in it as well. She and Bulk got out all right in the end though. If she learned something from this, even better."

"Yeah," Dart agreed, as she picked her way up the dry path, trying to avoid the stones imbedded in the trail as much as possible. Bulk? That was the mech's name? Well kinda fit the whole huge green and fists like giant hammers thing well. She was the first to admit, she didn't know much about the Autobots. Like - she knew some of them; not by personal experience, but by what others had said and described. Like the medic who'd come to get Maximus out of the canyon. He was someone to respect... and that was funny considering she was in a space with a guy who'd ripped a fellow in half.

"I think she did," the courier said quietly. "I think for a second... she realized she was pretty mortal. I don't know if humans realize it when they're young."

"I don't think some of us ever realize it," she corrected herself. "She knew she got lucky though, and so did I when... when you showed up to get them. Have to be honest, I've never thanked seeing a mech with a gun trained on me so much in my life, sir."

Max said nothing. His attention drifted. The other two children did not strike him as being as rash as Miko - the small one, Rafael, was quiet and timid and studious. But then again, they were the only three human children that he knew. Perhaps others were more prone to being active and foolhardy than cautious, like Jack.

"Hm?" The mention of a gun brought Max's attention back to the present. He glanced back at the courier. "Seeing a gun - oh. Yeah. I suppose you might have gotten lucky that I was the one sent out to respond to the distress call rather than an Autobot who was unfamiliar with you. Some of the others tend to get aggressive where their human charges are concerned. And would have been less hampered by the close confines of the tunnel. But I was available and good at heavy lifting, so-"

He shrugged. "It worked out."

A nod. "I appreciate that kind of luck on all accounts," Dart agreed. She did. That could have ended far worse; he'd at least paused before shooting, and he was large enough to get the mech out. The girl had listened to him and understood - it was just... a good scenario. Mostly because Pyrotech hadn't come back. There was an uncomfortable shift from the car down in the lot - one of those things. If she didn't think about the burn marks, it was easier to put that dull, constant ache in the background and ignore it with all of the rest of the things on her that needed to be fixed. "I'd rather have them get aggressive over-"

Dart suddenly paused in the center of the trail, and looked up at the rocks next to it. "Oh, hey..." she said, lifting a finger to indicate it. "Look. Some of the petroglyphs."

The stone was discolored above them. It had a black sheen to it in places that in daylight might shift on the edges to vibrant orange yellow. The big rock sat sideways, wedged where it had fallen eons ago. In the shadows, it might take Maximus a moment perhaps to see what she was pointing out. Carvings of humans, chipped into the desert varnish to bare the stones underneath. This group seemed crude at first - the poses stiff, elbows bent at angles. In their hands they carried spears and behind them were other designs, circles and curves. Farther along the rock were other things; goats, deer, four legged creatures that mighs have been cats or coyotes.

The unfamiliar word caught Max's attention quickly. He stopped with a frown when she did, and looked up when she pointed. It was dark enough that it took him a moment to spot what she was trying to show him.

When he did he cocked his head and took a step closer to get a better look, his brow furrowed. He could faintly make out the carvings. The moonlight silvered their worn edges and made them stand out against the rest of the rough stone face. There were dozens of the odd glyphs, all crowded together on the rock.

Max stared up at them. Many of the shapes were vaguely humanoid; he recognised human and animal figures, with peculiar shapes like spirals and wavy lines arranged between them. They were like nothing he had ever seen before, primitive and ancient. That they had survived this long against the wind and rain and erosion was remarkable.

"These are petroglyphs?" he murmured. He did not take his eyes from the rock. "They look old. What did humans make them for? I see a lot of animals, I think."

The courier cocked her weight over her hip, resting her left leg on the tip of her toe. "They're old. They- I remember hearing that it's tough to date things like this because of the stone itself underneath. Nevada has the oldest ones in the States."

She rocked back on her heel a bit and made a soft little sound as if she was puffing out a tiny bit of air. Her brow furrowed, wrinkled up with reaching for a memory long past. Words, out in the field - a lecture.

"Somewhere between ten to fifteen thousand years on the really old ones," she murmured. "It's a guess though, no one really knows. No organic material for the humans to date. So they have to date a style of art. These aren't that old though, I think they're... two or three thousand. I mean, I guess it's a blink of an optic to us, sir... but it's a long time to them."

"It's hard to say what they made them for," she told him, and tucked her hands behind her back as if she was relaying a message. Shoulders back, chin forward, weight over her hip. "Hunting rituals? Worship... a story. I've always thought these marked a trail maybe. A way to go through the ridge here safely. There's more the longer you follow it in."

"I dunno, sometimes I think they just did it to draw things," she said. "Like humans paint graffiti. Sounds silly, but it's a way to make a mark in places. Just say you were here, something permanent, even when you're long gone from the place."

Fifteen thousand years was a long time - particularly for humans. Maximus absently brushed his hand over the rock without touching the petroglyphs. Even three thousand years was nothing to scoff at.

He craned his head back. Many carvings climbed the stone. The things they depicted meant little to him - he barely recognised the animals and even the human figures looked foreign to him due to their heavily stylized designs - but even he could understand their significance. They reminded him a little of Cybertronian glyphs, marking locations or left as a sign to others. Like graffiti. His own species did that too.

"We'll see more of them if we keep following the trail?" said Max. He looked over at the courier, a puzzle frown on his face. "How do you know so much about them? You sound like you've studied this sort of thing."

Dart didn't touch them either, she simply was following the length of carvings with her eye. "Yeah, there's more along the way," she murmured. "The cache isn't far from here though. Short walk from where we are. Oh- um, no, not studied. I mean, I listen. I remember things. We were stationed near a campus for a while."

She glanced down at the sweatshirt looped around her hips, arms tied off with a sloppy knot. "These things are under government or BLM protection though. That's the other reason I know about them. They check them on a route. I- I've been through here. Years ago. When it still had public access to the trail. They had those signboards marked along the trail, like they do along the Grand Canyon."

"Lots of the stuff here got pulled out," she told him. "I mean, there's no money to keep patrolling it, so they don't. People steal dinosaur footprints and pry these off of rock to sell."

Something about the campus part of the story didn't sound quite right to Maximus, like a protruding rivet on an otherwise unremarkable surface. He could not put his finger on what it was about it that snagged at him however, and after a moment he passed over it with a frown.

He prodded the rock gently with his fingertips. "Vandals actually come in and carve out pieces of the rock with glyphs on them?" he said. "That doesn't seem right. You'd think something this old would be better protected. Seem like a piece of history to me. Too bad if the money's not around to do so, though. Wouldn't be right to see something like this ruined over time."

Maximus disliked vandals. He stepped back and made a face before turning back to the courier. "How far along does this trail go? Can we continue to follow it, or is it closed off?"

[Deleted]

The stone was rough and warm under his fingertips, retaining the blazing heat from the day. It felt.... well, oddly alive. Solid reassurance, like building materials. The discolouration on the stone didn't rub off on his fingers. Dart's avatar took a step closer to the stones and Maximus' avatar. Her sweatshirt sleeve ruffled against her lean hip. "Yeah, they can be worth a lot of money to she told him. The swirls and figures were ruddy orange against the dark; she realized one thing she hadn't expected all of a sudden. Like in their mechanical forms, they could see fairly well in even minimal light. How did that work, why did it work, and why was she thinking about that because that was one of those questions that was going to be poking at her for the next while now.

"The thing is, um, federal park and state parks - their budget is really stretched," she said. "Everywhere. I go through a lot of parks. Some of them have been locked off to the public because of it. They can't protect everything without funding."

She lifted her nose. "Oh it goes back on a loop, fifteen, sixteen miles," she said. "I mean, there's a short two mile loop too. It's not blocked off. It's just that that cache is buried....

A silent little shift of her weight from foot to foot as she glanced up the trail. "It's not far from here. Like less than a quarter mile. Near the fossils."

Maximus nodded.

"All right," he said.

He cast a final lingering look at the petroglyphs and absently rubbed his fingertips together. "All right. I see. Lead on. I suppose we'll need to figure out a way to dig up the cache en route. Unless it is buried at a shallow depth...?"

He gave her a questioning look. "Have you been to this one before, or is this your first time uncovering it?"

"I've been through here," Dart replied, even as she sidestepped and took her position slightly forward, settling once more as if there was an invisible point off his shoulder. "I mean, traveling through but... no, I've never been to this one. I didn't know it was here. I mean, I was looking up some caches on one of the sites and I was like -- I knew where it was. Wanted to come back and see if things had changed, I guess. Which sounds silly, it's not been that long."

With a shrug, Maximus set off down the trail again.

"I don't think it sounds foolish," he said. Then, as if realising what he said, he hurriedly added, "That is, things on Earth seem to change at a more rapid pace that we as a species are accustomed to. To return and verify the current status of an old patrol route or place of interest is a practical course of action."

He cleared his throat. "Anyway. Did you say you look up caches on one of the... sites? What sites? As an avatar?"

The courier had started to stuff her hands in the pockets of her well-worn jeans again. Her fingers caught the edge of the pocket; it rippled blue, glitched a little - shimmering. Then it steadied. "Aw, thanks," she replied, and ducked her head a little. Her bangs fell over her eye and she peered through them, tilting her head as if she was shading her optics with her helm.

"You understand," she murmured. "About the change. Well, the pace of things." Which was just - it was suddenly, incredibly nice to hear some other mech say that. Sometimes she figured it was just because she had nothing to compare it to. Dart had to wonder if someday that would change, like... would time feel different a thousand years from now? Or still have that- it was only yesterday, I swear- touch to it. Sobering thought.

"Oh, right, yes - the sites, er - on the internet," she said quickly. "I've looked up some of the caches on the internet. Geocaching dot com, you can log into, and a bunch of other sites are free to use to find co-ordinates."

"People hide stuff all over, put it up there so you can find it," she laughed. "There's even a cache on Hoover Dam. Okay, there's a few of them."

"They've even hidden caches on the dam?" said Maximus. "That's - surprising. I wouldn't have thought it a suitable location for something like this. Or that whatever operator maintains the dam would allow it."

He only knew of the Hoover Dam through images. Like those on the brochure the courier had left him. It was an impressive structure. He half wanted to see it for himself one day. Perhaps now he could. Perhaps Agent Fowler could arrange it. His transportation was going to become limited soon enough. He would need to rely on Fowler and his forces for much of it.

Maximus shook his head.

"Maybe I'll make it out that way at some point," he said. "No promises. I'm not familiar with the internet. Co-ordinates, yes. Internet, no. I didn't know this geocaching thing was so widespread. What got you into it?"

Again the little head-tilt. It almost looked as if she was about to say something - she nearly just said, you can drive over it - he was an Autobot, and they'd -- for a second, gosh knows how, she'd forgotten he was a tank. Which was sort of embarrassingly hilarious, because he wasn't going to pass as a Humvee. Nice, Dart. Really graceful.

"It's not on the dam proper, it's near the dam, I think. I'm not sure where. I have co-ordinates written down though, I kinda want to check it out sometime too..."

"No, of course, no promises," she agreed. "I wouldn't put anything you can't get to it safely." She glanced up and looked around them.

A chuckle. "Watching humans do it," she admitted and looked sheepishly at the dirt under her toes. "I found the one up by the horses one night - I sniffed it out. I wasn't sure why someone was off the area and walking out there, so- I kind of got concerned. Then I found it and got curious, and figured out what it was, and thought the whole concept is super neat."

That seemed a logical explanation. Maximus had not forgotten that the monument of the horses had been the first location she had sent him to.

"I remember that one," he said. "The iron horses on the ridge. They were interesting. Worn, but well-made. And the view was good."

He spoke gruffly, uncomfortable with expressing his thoughts on anything that was not strictly related to work or neutral subjects. "So you uncovered the cache by the horses by accident, and took it from there. Just how many other caches have you managed to find so far?"

A little smile. "Honestly? Just the ones I've been doing for you," Dart admitted quietly. "No one else here in the States has any interest. I- I kinda- I'm careful. With time, you know? Have to be. And yeah, I love the horses. The view. It's a good place just to sit sometimes and it's quiet and you can watch the traffic down below at night."

"I can't see any of the Autobots having an interest in it either," admitted Maximus.

He thought about it. If he was completely honest with himself, he was a little surprised that he had allowed himself to go to that first location. He was not one for games or personal indulgences, and he abhorred the very notion of an Autobot even listening to the words of a Decepticon. But the chance to get out alone and see more of the landscape had been too tempting...

"Quiet is good," said Maximus. "Sometimes, you just have to get away on your own. Before you put your fist into someone's mouthy face. Not that... you seem the type to do so."

"I don't think most humans have an interest in it either," she told him as she picked her way across the rocks. Around them the trail had narrowed a bit as it zigged through the rocks, steadily lifting upwards. Dart knew, if you continued on, it would rise up again, lift them into the ridges. If you stood up there, you could see the spatters of light. Cities in Nevada weren't spread out into patchy sprawling suburbs, like Oregon. Lack of water.

She glanced over at him, and was a little surprised. His words were... well, they said something. He'd been quiet, not talking too much about himself. But something about his words rang personal to the courier, and for a second she simply turned them over.

"If I said I'd never thought about it, I'd kinda be lying," she said honestly. "But usually it's my foot."

There was a sheepish grin that quirked her nose up a bit. The girl shook her head, ponytail flicking against her neck. What came to mind was something she didn't want to say. Which was she was usually seeking space because it wasn't fun to be on the other end of a fist, no.

"I mean, the really mouthy ones, and the ones that just - I dunno, take a swing at you because they can to make them feel better about themselves. It's hard, sometimes, when you're around those sorts," she told him. "I think sometimes... they don't even realize they're being mouthy."

"That could be very true," said Maximus darkly. "Although the rest of the time I think they do it because they believe it makes them sound clever."

He gave an aggravated sigh and fell silent. He was not one to sit and complain aloud, no matter how deeply certain matters vexed him. And they weren't out here to listen to him vent. So he reined in his temper and concentrated on his footing, on picking a sound path along the rough and narrow trail.

After a moment he spoke up again. "Anyway, yeah. Quiet is good. This desert - it's good for that. Peace and quiet, and a decent view. Never thought I'd hear myself say that. But I guess things change. Sometimes you've just gotta go with that change."

"Yeah," Dart murmured, as his tone seeped through. The frustration was sort of apparent to her, in the tip of his avatar's shoulders, the subtle shift of body language, and that sigh that held shades of a huff, a grumble. It was kind of surprising to the courier, but not really. He was no doubt a higher up, and if she knew anything about higher ups, it's that lots of times those below them insulted and poked because they had something to prove. All she thought it proved is that they weren't thinking straight.

"Thinking you're clever usually means it bites you pretty hard sometimes," she agreed quietly. "The ones who really are don't need to try and prove by growling in your face."

A sigh of her own. "So yeah, quiet is wonderful. It's good out here, and... aw, the view's gorgeous." Then Dart laughed a little. "Ah see, that's the best thing, seeing this planet from those places. It really is pretty. All different, wherever you go. You can travel short distances and everything around you changes. It's amazing."

Things did change. They did. They changed in one single heartbeat, some spur of the moment decision you might regret for... well, an eternity. Maybe. Eternity was a pretty long time, sigh. Even for things like them, sure. she thought to Australia, she thought to all those moments, and of another dam across an ocean. A rooftop, and the courier lifted her head and looked up at the sky for a second. "Change is tough," she admitted. "Sometimes it's pretty terrifying too. Sometimes... it's the best thing that ever happens to you, and you just don't know it yet."

Maximus glanced over at her at the mention of growling. It sounded as if the courier had experienced similar grievances during her lifetime as well. Probably worse ones, given her faction and its relentless cruelty, even to its own soldiers. At least most of the Autobots treated one another with a certain degree of respect, even if it was grudging at times.

His expression grew pained as he recalled a decision he had recently made.

"Yeah, maybe," he said. "Most of the time, I think I could live without it. After a while, you start to get a little tired of it yanking things out from under your feet. Those times, there's not much else you can do but ride it out and hope you get to the other side to see what it looks like over there."

Dart inclined her head slightly, having caught that expression. He just had that feeling, that he'd had a little bit in the canyon. Like the weight of the world was settling on him in a way he just was tired of carrying. Starscream's comments - the Warden. It had been turned to an abattoir. Every Autobot guard and prisoner, dead. Only the warden was left alive. Given the condition they found him in, I'm sure he wished he hadn't been.

Her fingers searched out her pockets again. "That's not the good part of change," the courier said, her accent thickening ever so slightly. Her words burred a bit, clipped in other places. "But I guess it has to be that way, because otherwise we wouldn't have that drive to keep going forward to the other side and find a different path to take for the better."

"Or something," she said apologetically.

A pause. "I know. Sort of weird, coming from, uh... yeah, I know. I just- I dunno. Everything okay?"

It took Maximus a minute to acknowledge the question.

"Is what-?" He quickly jerked his attention back and scowled, more annoyed with himself for letting his mind wander than at the courier for noticing. He usually didn't allow it to do that, at least not when there were others present.

He gathered himself, drawing in an air of stoicism. "Yeah. Sorry, was just thinking about something. That's a good point you made, I suppose. About that drive."

Maximus spoke with reluctance, but his voice was devoid of hostility. "It's something to remember, at any rate. I guess that different path isn't always a bad thing. And if it is, well, too bad, because sometimes it's all you get and you'd better get used to it. You sound like you speak from experience."

"S'okay," Dart said, and sniffed at the air again. The avatar wrinkled her nose; not like there was much to smell. That was all back at the parking lot, and it smelled like dust and rock and tank. Probably also of a Trans Am in need of a wash, but hey, nice thing about the sniffing thing was you really didn't smell yourself much. Whew.

At the scowl though, she sidestepped slightly, turning her shoulder a bit as if she was a bit ready to deflect something. Anything. Quickly she caught herself though, and merely pricked up her jaw, listening to his words. Thinking about something, she understood totally, and she did not press. Privacy, first and foremost, she respected that utterly.

"Yes sir," she said. "And no, it's not. It's just - well, like all the things here. Earth here I mean, since I don't quite have anything else to base it on, honest. I think... maybe for me it's a little easier. I mean, my sense of time is kinda skewed to here. But no, it's not always bad, honest. Like I said, sometimes it can be the best thing that ever happened to you. Just- well, at the time, we don't see it like that."

A chuckle. "Wish there was something like a fast forward button sometimes, where we could just skip the hard parts and not get used to it, darnit."


Nothing else to base it on? She had to mean her lack of memory of Cybertron.

Maximus slowly nodded as he turned it over in his head. "Huh. Yeah. I could go for something like that. Fast forward, or rewind. Yeah. Take a second shot at doing things right. At making better choices that lead to smoother paths down the road. Why not."

He grimaced. "I'll tell you why not. Because that's not a good line of thought, that's why. What's it they say? That way madness lies. Something like that. Better to just ride it out and hope for the best, I guess. Uh..."

It hit him all at once that he was talking more to himself than to the courier. Maximus rubbed his brow, shading his eyes in mortification. It was so dark and she was so quiet it was easy to forget that he wasn't alone. "Anyway. Yeah. What was that you said, about your sense of time being skewed?"

Dart was quiet, simply listening to him as he spoke. She didn't interrupt or ask, she let those words fall between them. There was something there, a sniff, a sound, something far off and distant, like there had been in the canyon. A burst of quiet frustration at his own words, his own thoughts, and there was a soft little sound that tried to work out of her throat. She bit it back quickly, not wanting to let it curl out of her chest.

"Oh," she said quickly, diving for that tossed out comment like it was a message sent to pick up. "Just... er, I guess I'm on Earth time. Like- everything's... hmm. As fast as it might be for everything else here. Earth days seem long to me. Weeks, years feel like a long time. Make sense?"

Still frowning, Maximus gave her an odd look. It struck him as a strange thing to remark upon. Time was time. It trudged along at the same pace it always did.

"Maybe," he said. "Sort of. The days have always felt long to me. Same as the weeks and the years. Time just crawls by, whether here on Earth or on Cybertron. Can't remember when it seemed differently. Maybe that's a sign you need to get out more, when you start to feel like that."

He spoke the last part dryly, without rancor. "Well, we're out now. Where are we in relation to Black Rock, anyway? I don't recognise any of this area."

Dart laughed at that. "Yeah, I suppose I do need to get out - oh, gosh, we're only about..."

She had to turn and orienate herself a bit on the trail. "Really, not as far as you think. It's the terrain that's throwing us. Er, Black Rock proper... maybe... twenty four miles. Straight line over the rocks? Nineteen."

Suddenly she paused, looking up at the wall of the path, where something had caught her attention. "Actually, I think-- yeah, okay, I had these coordinates. There's the dinosaur tracks - see?"

Her voice lightened and grew a bit delighted as she pointed. True to her word there was something in the rock wall. Of course, they were sort of like - every other rock. Only with rock depressions in it. Whatever she was talking about was one of those things you just passed by unless you knew what rock features usually didn't mark rocks. At least one of the features he would be able to make out. Like a large bird print or something.

"Okay, okay," she said, up on her toes and excited. "So... tracks and I know there's a cache here - supposed to orientate off the end print toe tip and it should be around here." A scramble and suddenly her avatar was up against the wall, following the edge of the stone with her fingers. A flick of ponytail, a shimmer of blue - pop - in her excitement, there was that strange little resonance from her avatar and she was a foot to the side, without even noticing she'd done it, apparently.

There was a scattering of rocks here and there, some slabs that had come off the main stones. It would be a bit to search through, but she wasn't concentrating on that. "It's in the wall," she said. "That was the clue on the website."

Even Maximus could not resist looking when she lifted her hand, startled by the clear tone of joy in her voice. It took him a moment to see what she was pointing at. One rock looked just the same as another to him.

He squinted. The tracks were hard to make out at first. Only by staring did he eventually make out the trail in the wall, like a strange bird had walked there once millions of years ago, leaving nothing but footprints behind.

Max startled when the courier sprang forward. He followed her warily, unsure what she was looking for until her next words made it clear.

"The cache is - in the wall?" he said. "Like - in a crack perhaps? A chink in the rock that is somewhere adjacent to the final footprint?"

He dubiously nudged at some of the loosely scattered rock. Then, with greater concentration he laid his hand next to the last print and attempted to trace a line off its toe with his fingertips, frowning.

"I think so," the courier told him, poking along the wall. Her avatar's tongue poked out the corner of her mouth- she wore a look of careful concentration. Her foot lifted, pawed a little; she was obviously so used to relying on scent that when she could not, it left her struggling.

Under his fingertips the wall was rough and warm. The dinosaur print was as big as a mini-bot's. Thank goodness they didn't come in dinosaur flavor.

There was a smooth pattern in the stone, a band that rippled along golden-red. Varnish crumbled at the edge, streaking down the rock in water driven patterns.

He could trace along that for several meters until it would thin into near nothing. Jagged rock stuck out above and below that line.

One of them seemed... off kilter to him the longer he might eye it.

Max ran his hand across the stone. It felt mostly smooth, likely owning to the gradual wear of wind and rain over time. He ran one finger across the water mark and rubbed it absently. Just a stain, nothing more.

He stepped sideways along the wall, still following the line off the footprints. It looked as if he was running to the end of the patterned band that ran along it. When he reached the jagged rock he prodded it thoughtfully, testing for a chunk of stone that might be loose, perhaps removable. That might make for a handy place to hide a small container.

One rock indeed looked suspect. Maximus leaned in to study it. He gave it an experimental touch. "Couri- Dart. Here. This might be something."

When he glanced over at her, Dart was standing, her palm on the wall. She was staring at her fingers where they rested pale and human against the massive formation, and seemed to be utterly distracted from their search. At his voice though, she broke away immediately from her thoughts. Her head pricked up, she focused immediately on him the moment he spoke. Her shoulders tipped forward, as if she was used to carrying the weight of something else on them, used to the feel of that thin strip of metal there...

Down below, the Trans-Am's spoiler shifted, the back tips flipping and twisting in echo of her avatar. The black car shifted her tires and lowered her nose with a little sniff; red dirt dusted her already grimy hood.

"Yes sir?" she said automatically, and straightened up, her hands slipping to the small of her back before she could stop herself.

Under his hand, the stone moved slightly. It was a wedge-shaped chunk of sandstone jammed into the wall. The area it covered was at least a span and a half of his fingers, stretched out. It felt as if someone had shoved it into a hole in the wall. If your casual eye passed over it, it was just another rock.

To Max's satisfaction, the chunk of stone wiggled loose in his hand.

"I think I might have found it," he said. "Seems like there's a hole here, with this rock jammed in it to disguise it. Might be our hiding spot. Hang on."

He gripped the stone in both hands, set his jaw, and eased it back. It was big enough that he needed to readjust his grip, to prevent himself from dropping it. Not that it would hurt if it landed on either one of their feet. Max worked it loose and then bent to set the stone down on the ground. Only then did he try to peer into the hole uncovered. It was dark enough to make the task difficult.

Dart held her position, waiting patiently. Sort of patiently, the courier was shifting her weight from one foot to the other. Her worn sneakers puffed up trail dirt; the ragged hem of her jeans caught under her heel and tipped her back a little. The sweatshirt around her waist shifted, and for a second, there was a flicker on the orange fabric, a black and white logo, perhaps.

There was a grating sound. Grit cascaded down over the wall; red pigment smeared his avatar's fingertips. The rock gave way to his pull and then behind it was a gap that he could easily get his hand into. Something reflected a bit of the ambient light; a flat box, with a metallic sheen.

"Found something," said Max.

There was a box of some sort inside the hole. It looked to be made of metal. Max gingerly reached inside to remove it. He caught the box gently and tugged it from the hole.

He tried to dust off the top of the box with his shirtsleeve, and to his surprise it worked. Solid light avatars. He knelt down at the rock wall and laid the box against his knee. "Let's get this open," he said as he examined the box critically, looking for a hinge or the edge of a lid.

There was the soft fall of footsteps behind him. Dart carefully worked her way up off his shoulder again, instinctive place and distance. Then she crouched, resting her left fingertips against the dirt to balance herself, her weight on the balls of her shoes. A position she could spring up into a dead run from. But her blue gaze was focused on that box as he examined it, and she gave a little breathy 'oh,' that expressed all the delight at that moment. Delight over a slightly rusty box.

It was about two and a half inches deep, and about one of his handspans wide. Surprisingly heavy for its size, the box had a hinged lid. There was space in the front to thread a small padlock through, but there wasn't one.

"That's the first time I've seen one in that style," she told him. "Neat."

Once he had figured out the lid, he could easily just lift it open. It was a little stiff; obviously the metal hinges had gotten wet at some point and were a bit sticky.

Even Maximus was absorbed enough by their find that he did not bother to look back or glower at the courier when she crouched beside him. Instead he flicked the box's latch with his thumb and lifted the lid. It stuck a little, and he gave it a firm wrench.

The lid opened. Max flipped it back and stared inside. He silently agreed with the courier - this was the most organized looking box he had seen so far. It almost looked new, save for the stiffness of the hinges.

"Someone put a fair bit of thought into this box," he said. "All right. What have we got inside..."

On top, of course, was the logbook. Like every other one he'd opened, a small notebook in a plastic sandwich bag, along with a pen. Underneath were other things. Little plastic figurines. Two of them were tiny green army men. Their helmets had circular hooks on them, and there was waxed string wound around each figure's midsection. Others were little human looking weird ones with square torsos and round heads, and little hands that looked like pliers. One was an astronaut, one a firefighter, and the third was a little fellow wearing an orange jumpsuit. Construction worker? Probably. There was a tiny silver boot. Several Las Vegas keychains. A metallic lighter with dice on it. Several small plastic dinosaurs. Pins. A weird looking flat bit of plastic, tortoiseshell colored.

Some coins rattled at the bottom, and there were two hand sized plastic tubes with lanyards on them. There was liquid inside of those.

Frowning, Maximus reached into the box to lift out the logbook first. He flipped it back and forth to examine both sides of its binding, then set it aside. He supposed they would both leave a message in it after examining the rest of the contents of the box.

The rest of the contents were... odd.

Perplexed, he picked up the two green army men and studied them. They looked like toys of some sort - moulded to look like a soldiers. That did not explain the piece of string tied to them, and after a moment he passed them both to the courier. "Any idea what this is about?"

The rest of the items in the box were equally puzzling. More strange looking toy figures. The pins were at least familiar to him, as were the keychains. The tubes were a complete mystery however, and Max picked up one by its lanyard and turned it over in his hand to watch the liquid slosh. "And I have no idea what these are," he added.

Dart carefully stretched out her hand, palm up. She took the little figures carefully, as if she was afraid they might drop through her avatar and break. When it held steady, she rocked back a bit on her heels. For a moment she looked equally puzzled, as if she wasn't quite sure what it was either... and then recognition clicked into her gaze. "Oh! They're Army men. Er, soldier toys. These have parachutes."

"See?" she said, turning them over to show him. Under all the string on the back of the figure, a tucked bit of plastic. "Like- well, like real army humans. I've seen others of these in the boxes. All sorts of poses and stuff, all military."

Her eyes were drawn to the lanyard with the long tube. She stretched out her nose as if she was going to sniff at it, caught herself. "That is... uh, I'm not sure what that is. Anything in the tube?"

Army men? A strange choice for a toy, but one that Maximus could at least get behind.

He picked up the second tube and passed it back to her. "I'm not sure myself. See what you can make of this one. There seems to be an unknown liquid inside it. Does it look like anything you recognise?"

He turned his attention down to the tube in his own hands and gently shook it. He rolled it between his fingers, searching for any clue that might give up its secret. It looked like something a human might clip to their belt or wear attached to them, or perhaps around their neck.

When he shook it gently, it sloshed. The plastic was pliable between his fingers and bent easily. Almost immediately there was was a soft *snap* sound - whatever was inside had a low breaking point. Immediately the tube began to glow a low, soft green.

Dart was holding onto her tube, looking at it. She shook it herself. When his lit up, the courier paused, blinked, and then laughed. "I do now," she admitted. "Glowstick."

When the tube lit up Maximus swore and very nearly dropped it. Only the courier's soft laugh made him stop.

"A glow stick?" Startled, he held up the tube. It was indeed gently glowing, soft and green in the darkness. He slowly lifted it to his eyes and then turned it on its end. "Humans make these? Sticks that glow? It's based on some sort of chemical reaction, clearly. I heard it snap. What do they use these for? For some form of emergency lighting?"

Max shook the tube a little. It still glowed.

It brightened when he shook it. Green light spilled out over his fingers.

"Yeah, it's for emergencies, or even just lighting. I've seen a lot of campers use them because it's safer than a lantern in some areas. Like car repairs on the road, too. Some of them are flares."

"The kids play with them a lot though. Halloween. Your guitar friend would know more than me," Dart chuckled. "I think if you wear roller skates they're required."

"I don't know the reaction," she admitted. "They come in a bunch of colors."

Huh. The little sticks were portable and easy to activate and wield. They did seem a sensible form of lighting to carry.

"Maybe I will ask the girl about them," he said. "Seems like something she'd know about."

Roller skates were not something that Maximus was familiar with either, but he reflected to himself that he had exposed his ignorance of human culture enough already. Instead he lifted the glowstick and used it to illuminate the rest of the items in the box. Coins and a lighter and...

Max picked up the flat bit of plastic next. He held it up and looked at the courier questioningly, one eyebrow raised.

A nod. Dart looped the lanyard of the one she was holding around her wrist but didn't break it or shake it.

"Oh that one I totally know," she laughed. "That's a guitar pick. I've seen those before in another cache. Different kind though."

A guitar pick. It obviously had something to do with guitars. That was Miko's very loud and noisy territory, and Maximus was fine with leaving it that way.

He tossed the pick back into the box and picked up one of the little figurines. It was the firefighter. Bemused, he turned it around a few times before looking over at the logbook.

"I suppose we should sign that," he said. He nodded to it. "Leave a message like the other ones. You go first. It'll take me a minute or two to figure out what to write anyway."

The courier reached for the logbook, still encased in the plastic bag. She balanced herself carefully. There was the crackle of plastic, her fingers shimmered along the edge as she pulled out the book. "Okay," she said. One hand slid around to her hoodie pocket, searching for -

"Oh... darnit, forgot my pen," she said all of a sudden. "Aw, I left it in my glove box, along with- I have something for you. From the last one."

Taken aback, Maximus blinked. Then he looked down into the box again, as if expecting to find a pen there.

"Damn," he said. "I don't have one either. Not exactly something I carry around on me. Maybe there's one somewhere in the box, buried underneath the rest of the-"

Then his brain core caught up to his ears. Surprised, Max looked at the courier sharply. "Wait. Something for me?"

"Oh, it's okay, there's a pen in the book," she explained quickly, pointing to the one tucked into the spine. "I meant, my pen. Er, my personal pen. The one I got in the first box, the silver one, I forgot it, and-- oh. Yes. I mean yes sir, I mean- ah, I get things that are from the previous place, like..."

She trailed off, and looked down at the book in her hands. "Just because I thought it was a neat way to mark the trail, I guess. There's one from St. Helens. But you didn't go there yet."

For a moment Maximus just stared at her blankly. A part of him didn't know why he was so surprised. She left him other gifts before in the caches, like the little horse and the pin. But this was the first time that she had ever been at the site of a cache to give him something in person.

He slowly laid the glowstick on the ground to act as a makeshift lantern. The green light glowed against the underside of his rough chin as he looked down into the box and groped for something to say. "No, I haven't. Crater Lake was the last set of coordinates I was able to reach. I don't think I've said it yet, so I'll say it now: thank you."

The words were quiet, but solemn.

The courier inclined her head, her hands resting on the little notebook. Her fingers were moving, toying with it; if was as if she had told herself not to move or fidget, but there was no way she could completely stop herself. She peered out from under the fall of her bangs, and just looked at him, lit up by that cool green glow, paused over a box full of odds and ends stuck in there by human hands.

Then she just ducked her head with a little overwhelmed smile. "Aw. You're- you're welcome," she stuttered and then gave a little shake to try and break the stammer out of her voice. "Honestly, the fact you went and took the time to even go to those places... just- that was all the thank you I ever needed. Honest."

"But you're welcome," she repeated, voice earnest. She held onto the little notebook as if it would come apart in her hands. A pause. "Crater Lake's really amazing, yeah."

Maximus said nothing at first. He was still trying to reconcile himself with the thought that he had thanked a Decepticon. A part of him felt ill.

But another part felt strangely calm. Maximus nodded, slowly. He didn't really trust himself to do more than that.

"Yeah," he said. He twisted the figurine once between his fingers and set it back down in the box. His avatar took a deep breath and he laid his hands on his knees. "Yeah. It was pretty nice. The view was good. If I get the opportunity I'll go back sometime. And to St. Helens."

"It's quiet up there," she replied. "I like the quiet."

Dart had fiddled open the notebook. The pages rustled. There was a little pop from her avatar; a flicker of greenish blue as it pixilated a bit. She caught herself, concentrated again and pulled out the pen from the spine. "Okay. I'll leave that one there then. It'll be there when you get that way, honest. Everyone's good about not touching things addressed to people, Professor."

A chuckle. "I can either give it to you when we get back down there or... you can wait and hike back up here sometime when you maybe er, need a break. Actually, on that note, I think I know where I can get a copy of that book. You- er, you think you're going to maybe be out this way again? If so, I guess I could just leave it in here. It's big enough for a paperback."

Professor. Huh.

Maximus thought over her question. Eventually he nodded again.

"Yeah, I probably will be," he said. He glanced around himself, taking in the surrounding terrain. "I'm out here a lot these days. I'll be back. I should be able to find this place again. I can pick up whatever you might leave here, should you decide to do so."

He watched her open the book. "If you want... leave further co-ordinates. I might not be able to hit all of them. But I'll see what I can do."

"I'll find a copy," she told him. "I will. Promise, and..."

A nod. "I know lots of places," the courier said. She did. And in her head she was turning over all the ones she knew, all those places that had caught her at one point in time in her wanderings. He'd said it - yes, I can get here, in a very quiet way. Out here a lot - a patrol point then. Something that she understood well and wasn't surprised. His tank form was way useful out here compared to a sports car. "Oh no, don't worry about that. It's okay if you don't, I understand."

Maximus was quiet. He knew his own reasons for having so limited a range of travel, but they were not something he wanted to discuss with anyone. Nor did he want to give the impression he was located in the area. That could potentially tie him to the Black Rock base, or worse - lead others to it.

"I'll see what I can do," he said again.

He picked up the green army men and returned them to their place inside the box. As he did so he nodded to the book perched in the courier's hands. "That logbook - what message are you going to write in it?"

Dart looked thoughtful. "I don't know," she said. "Usually I write something about the place, or..."

"Oh, I know," she offered. A moment later, the pen was scritching over the paper, hand held just so. She had to concentrate on her words; the glowstick at least let her see the lines a bit on the tiny notebook. When she was done, she eyed it, looked at him, and solemnly handed it back to him. She kept the sharp point of the pen towards her, handed it over the same polite way she might have a knife, careful to keep it away from Maximus.

Once again Maximus offered only silence, allowing the courier a private moment to pick and choose her own words. While the pen scratched over the paper he waited patiently, toying with one of the glowsticks.

He had half expected she would pass him the logbook next, and was not disappointed. Max accepted it with a murmured word and folded it open against his knee. He took the pen next and stared blankly into space for a moment as he tried to think of something to write.

He was terrible with words. After a long pause he bent over the logbook and began to write, his letters curt and short. He finished quickly and closed the logbook back around the pen and laid both inside the box.

"Done," said Maximus. He sounded satisfied. "I suppose we should pack this and return it to the hole for the next person along."

"Yes sir," Dart agreed, holding out the bag to him so he could put the logbook back into it. She carefully unstrung the extra glow stick from her arm and handed that out to him too. Dart could admit she was terribly curious; what had he written, but then there was that sense of... well, in this case, both of them had taken a private little moment, to be read later.

Maximus accepted the bag solemnly and slid the logbook inside. He wrapped the top of the bag around it and set it gently inside the box.

The glowstick was... still glowing, and while he was not sure if he should put it back inside the box he did so anyway. It belonged there, after all - he had activated it only by accident. Max counted to make sure that all of the toys were in place before rearranging the remaining contents neatly and sealing the lid shut again. The latch clicked with a touch of his thumb.

With the box in hand he climbed stiffly to his feet. It was simple enough to fit it back inside the hole and replace the rock that hid it from sight. Less than a minute later he was brushing the dust from his avatar's hands, feeling oddly pleased.

There was a little green glimmer from around the edges of the box... and then it sealed shut. As the mech's avatar went to go put it back in the niche in the wall, Dart rocked hers up to her feet and just stood for a second, looking upwards at the sky. It was one of those moments where a joke about blowguns embedded in the wall popped to mind but for some reason, she figured it needed to be explained first before she ever said anything. Mostly because that was the sort of thing the mech would take very seriously, and not in the spirit of adventure it was meant in.

Patiently, she waited until he was done, and couldn't help but feel that little flicker of satisfaction from him - the tip of his shoulders, the rock dust he knocked off his hands. Everything nice and neat and hidden again but you knew where it was. That was the best part about the game, she felt. It was finding it, putting it back, and thinking you had a bit of a secret a thousand hikers wouldn't notice if they passed by.

When he finished, she stepped carefully up the trail, turning to head back down.

"That was a pretty well hidden one," she admitted.

Maximus turned back towards her. In the moonlight that fell through the rock her face was faintly visible. He thought that perhaps she looked satisfied too.

"It was," he said in agreement as he stepped after her. Now that the trail was familiar to him he did not need to watch his footing as closely, leaving his mind free to wonder. "I suspect I was lucky to stumble across it. I just happened to touch that loose rock. But at least the directions to find it were good, if a little cryptic."

He glanced back once at the rock in the wall. It was difficult to see now that it was snugly back in place. "I guess that's part of the challenge, is it? Not just determining the coordinates for each cache, but uncovering them as well? It's a secret that few know about."

Dart blinked. "Was just kinda thinking that," she said with a laugh. "It's- it's the whole part of it, like you can walk by this place with all these people and even the mechs and no one even would take a second glance. Yes sir, it is."

A chuckle. "I'm totally bad, I- I need to stop relying on my nose so much," she admitted.

The last bit caught Maximus' attention. He regarded her curiously from the corner of his eye.

"That's right - enhanced sensors," he said. "I think I remember that from the canyon. Less so from the transit tunnel. But the canyon... you rely on your olfactories for scanning?"

Scanning probably isn't the right word, but it's the only one Maximus could think of. He was unaccustomed to bots with enhanced senses. "How strong are they?"

The courier looked thoughtful at that. "Good, sir," she replied, picking her way along over the stones. It was a question rarely ever asked of her. Most of the time the mechs she was around just figured she was doing some sort of weirdness and half the time they didn't pay attention to what she was saying. It had taken her a while when she was first on her feet again; scent was - like a whole other world. It changed how you saw things, because everything suddenly had all these levels. "I can track and trail pretty well. Like a..."

She faded off and then offered up a little sideways smile, a shrug. "Like a dog," she said, stuffing her hands back into her pockets. "I guess. I don't have any real way to explain how much or how well. I hear pretty good too. It's- it's useful on this terrain, in these places. More so than sensors, harder to block scent or bounce it."

A shake of her head. "Like- the transit tunnel, that messed with things," she told him, lifting her hands and for a second her fingers spread, as if her entire focus was on her explanation. "Air was pushing out, not in, and between the water and the over-scent of er, the mech who was hurt, sir - I never sniffed your arrival."

Maximus said nothing for a moment, merely hummed in acknowledgment. It was not something that he could grasp. His own sensors were standard grade; the only enhancement came with the weapons suite of his alternate mode. That provided him with thermal imagine and radar targeting, but frankly that was it. Scanners and optical data, combined with audial receptors, was what he relied on.

"Seems like a good upgrade for someone who spends a lot of time out of base on scouting missions or patrol work," he said aloud. Maximus glanced at her again as he trudged along. "Or for a courier. Having a better grasp of the field around you is a valuable ability, especially in terrain like this where you can find yourself travelling blind."

He paused. "Have to admit, now that I think of it... haven't seen many couriers in a while."

"Yeah, it's helpful here," she admitted. "Earth is primarily scents. Everything has a touch to it - organic always does. I mean, we smell too, and every mech smells different to me, but... everything on Earth has a distinctive smell."

Which was the truth, right down to the really unpleasant moments.

Dart shook her head. "I get the feeling it's an outdated function," she murmured. "I've never met one here either."

She glanced over at him, looking a bit oddly hopeful. "Have you?"

There was another moment of silence as Maximus frowned and sorted through his memory.

"Not here on Earth, for certain," he said. "You're the first. There were a small handful I knew on Cybertron, but nowhere near the front lines. The fighting was too dangerous, and they were generally unarmed or else lightly armoured."

He shrugged. "Unfortunately I saw little of life outside the war, so I couldn't tell you how common or uncommon they were before it, or else in a civilian setting. I suppose you would need to ask someone who was stationed in one of the larger urban centres about that."

A nod, and Dart settled back into that easy walk. She seemed accustomed to rough paths and trails; absentmindedly picking her way through the rougher parts and back to smooth ground. Well, she wasn't surprised by his answer. It made sense that couriers weren't front line; heck, she wasn't front line, no matter how many times she'd ended up on it. That's what happened when you had limited troops, your front line consisted of a courier, a pest control mech, and an undertaker. There was probably a 'walks into a bar' joke somewhere, sigh.

"I kinda figured," she said, and offered up a shrug and a quick smile. "It makes sense. I mean, it's the same thing on Earth. We do a lot of running through the front line, I guess. And dodging, and hoping that luck's on our side, but... yah. I mean, I've read a few things about the Earth ones. Pretty amazing folks."

Then she glanced over at him. "Wait, I thought - you built things, right? Monuments. Not in the urban centers?"

"It was for a very limited time," said Maximus, with a nod. "The war was already well underway by then, and I was expected to take up the function I had been designed for without delay. I put it off for a little while, but was assigned to a military engineering unit and then a fighting unit before I could loiter for too long."

The big mech spoke matter-of-factly, with no sign of bitterness or regret. "By that time, most of the major cities were already badly damaged by the fighting. Normal civilian activities had been halted and most non-combatants had been evacuated to fallback shelters. Whatever ordinary life was like before the war - I didn't see it. So it goes."

Maximus shrugged again. "Earth is my first time living among peacetime conditions - even if they aren't ours."

The courier quietly listened as they walked along. Dart could empathize, she thought. Oh not in the way that of the fighting units and military engineering ones. She understood the fact that you were intended to take up your function. No hesitation. You got on your feet and you did the job that they assigned you to in this conflict, and how it weeded you out was - well, if you did a lousy job at it, it was sort of natural selection. Death was pretty natural, here on Earth.

"Didn't they ask you, what you wanted to do?" she asked suddenly.

Then she caught herself, and looked over at him, unsure.

The courier's hands hovered over her pockets, then she begin to toy with the knot of the sweatshirt. "I guess that isn't really something they ask, is it?"

The question caught him off guard, and Maximus glanced at her in surprise. The question wasn't an unusual one - he had been asked it before, mostly by bots who had stood firmly on the anti-functionalist side of the conflict - but he had not expected the reserved and wary courier to ask it, of all people.

"It's fine," he said. "And you're right. No, it's not. That's fine. I suppose they didn't need to. Someone spent a lot of time and effort to forge this particular warbuild for my particular spark. I was literally built from the ground up to do exactly what I'm doing right now. It wasn't something you chose back then, or grew into. You were constructed for your purpose, and you did it."

He grunted. "It would be false modesty to say my function is something I'm only halfway good at. I'm very good at what I do. I won't lie - I was also reluctant to get into the fighting at first. But it worked out in the end, I suppose."

A nod. "I'll be honest..." she said quietly. "No one's ever said anything like that to me before. Explained it on that level, sir."

At first, it was a difficult concept to grasp. She'd run into some nasty Autobots, sure. Downright vicious ones. But if the situations were reversed, she'd doubt that a frontliner con would take even an iota of time to talk to a Autobot courier besides the "give me your wallet."

"I just- would have sort of expected that- well that- you'd get one," she admitted. "I don't have any idea even how it worked. But- I understand being born and bred for a job, sir. Earth's got a lot of that. I understand being specialized for a task." She glanced down at herself.

If they spent that time, she suddenly wanted to ask, why would they even leave you anything, any desire to build things if that's not what they needed.

Dart didn't though, mostly because it was personal, and she felt she'd strayed too close to personal places. His tone was conversational though, body language relaxed. He wasn't upset. He was just being truly honest, and she could appreciate that. Same way the information he offered was taken close into memory; another piece of a puzzle she did not have. No context, but it was there.

"I think everyone who wants to stay functioning is um, pretty reluctant," she agreed. "I hope so, anyway. But really- Earth's the first place you've been with peacetime?"

That one took a minute to think over. Finally Maximus nodded.

"Actual peacetime, and not simply stationed away from the front? Then yes," he said. There was an abstract tension to his voice as he said it, and he narrowed his eyes distractedly at the night. "This is, come to think of it. The war followed us here, but the native civilization is essentially at peace, and we are taking care to ensure they stay out of our conflict. Not what I'm used to."

He paused. "It's - different."

"Yes sir, actual peacetime," Dart said. "Stationed away doesn't really count, honest."

There was a tip of her chin slightly; the courier's avatar navigated the path. She'd slid back into place as they spoke, off his shoulder, in front of him where he could see her shoulder and her hands at all times, perhaps.

"Really different, isn't it?" she wondered. "You like it?"

There was a longer pause. "I'm not sure yet."

Maximus eyed the surrounding rock and sky before looking back at the courier. "It's good for the indigenous life here, I won't deny that. Good for the humans. Peace isn't a bad thing. But it's quiet. Seems too quiet. Too easy. I keep waiting for something big to erupt beyond our control. What's the expression-"

He squinted. "Waiting for the other shoe to drop. Don't really get that."

A nod. "I respect that feeling," Dart murmured after a moment, and her hand settled a bit deeper into her pocket. Down below in the lot, the Am rocked on her tires, the car sniffing lightly at the air. A soft huff of sound as she pulled air in, her mirrors twitching. "Too quiet isn't always safe, but - oh, the expression?"

"Aw, that- see, that I know. Humans wear shoes. They take one off, and drop it on the floor, and then of course, you have to take off the second one sooner or later. Can't just wear one shoe."

Nonplussed, Maximus dwelled on that for a minute or two. "Okay. I think I get it. You're waiting for that second something to happen. I'll have to take it at your word that humans don't generally go about with only one shoe on."

He shook his head slowly. "They have strange expressions. I suppose they make more sense when you're human. But yeah. Anyway. Peace is strange. First time I've witnessed it. Doesn't seem natural. I'm sure it's a good thing. But it just feels like an unsprung trap, is all."

The courier chuckled softly at that. Yeah, there were a lot of strange expressions, when you thought about it. It often sort of took her aback when she heard Cybertronians swear in human terms. Part of her wanted to say that she didn't think they quite knew what it meant. Then again, some of them knew exactly what it meant, haha.

A little bit of softness drifted over her gaze at that, but then she realized it was a funny thing to be enamored with.

"Yes, that's it," she told him. "You know it will happen. Be it a minute, be it five, and you're wanting to hear it. Shoes come in pairs, and..."

A tiny soft sound worked out of her throat as she glanced back at him. "It's- it's hard, sir. When you've been on your toes all the time, waiting for the next thing, it always feels like that."

"It's not anything that's easy to get over. Or stop," she told him. "I- I get it. I really do. Nothing to occupy the quiet spaces but your thoughts and then you're like 'okay, what's going to happen next.'"

"Yeah, that's exactly it," said Maximus suddenly. "Nothing to do but dwell over what might be coming up around the bend. At least during the worst of the war back on Cybertron you didn't have time to wonder what would happen next, because by then it had already happened to you, and you were falling back on training and orders to react to it. Slag just - sprang up without warning. You expected it. Didn't always see it coming, but you expected the worst to happen."

He scowled and passed a hand over his eyes, rubbing his brow. "That's not so much the case here. But this could be the last front. One day the war's gonna end. Gotta get used to peace at some point, I guess."

In front of them, the trail widened. Easier going down than up. The tank and the car sat quietly in the lot, and from up here, the desert stretched out. Sand and space, rock and stone. The stars were bright- the lack of ambient light from the human cities made it so you could see the entirety of the Milky way, a band up above.

The courier listened quietly. His words changed; not with how they were - normally guarded, they felt a bit rougher. Dart didn't know how to explain it. Maybe she did- he'd gone to some place where he remembered and he was baring his teeth a bit at it. And in her own way, she just slowed down a bit, she matched her stride to his, kept that perfect distance between them. No closer, even though when he rubbed his head, that low, soft sound tried to work out of her throat again, in automatic reassurance.

"It's always easier, reacting to something someone's doing. Even if it's the bad stuff," she agreed. "It's harder to sort of sit there and wait for it all to happen, because then you just keep sort of coming up with worse things that could happen."

"And yeah, that's it. It's the not knowing that makes it tough. I dunno, peace... would mean a lot of places to explore."

She trotted the last few steps off the trail and to the edge of the parking lot. "And things to build, maybe?"

"Maybe," said Maximus reluctantly. In all honesty he didn't know if he ever really wanted to build again. That had been a much different mech, and too much had changed.

He opened his mouth to say more, then realised all at once that they were stepping back from the trail to the parking lot where they had first started the search for the cache. He looked about himself in surprise, turning in place.

"I didn't know we were so close to the lot," he said. He stopped when he was facing his own alternate mode and gazed up at it from his avatar's eyes. "Most have lost track of where we were. Good thing you knew the way."

"Faster downhill than up, sir," she said, and was looking at both of them. Wow, she'd always thought of herself as a big car. To his alt mode, it was just a rather eighty's speedbump.

A smile. "Least it always feels that way to me too," she told him. Which was funny, since she was used to running everywhere.

Maximus' gaze drifted over to the black car parked alongside him. From the viewpoint of his avatar she did not look nearly as small as she did as a robot. Her avatar didn't either, for that matter. It struck him that it was odd walking as a human and being around another avatar that was close to his height.

He shook his head to throw off those odd stray thoughts and turned to face the courier squarely. He drew himself up to attention with an air of formality, his hands clasped behind his back. When he spoke it was as an avatar. For a reason he couldn't put his finger on it felt more natural, in this situation.

"I should thank you," he said seriously. "This was an interesting night. Can't say I expected any of this, but... it was good. I appreciate you taking me to the cache. You have been... good company."

When he squared up, Dart had paused. It was automatic to respond to that gesture at first, so military and so proper. She used it- you did, delivering the message, it was polite, proper, just so. Respectful, and it was the body language that just had her blinking, not the words. Motion she understood, related to, all the nuances of hands behind your back and the tipped jaw.

The vehicles in the lot were quiet, throwing long shadows behind them. Dust had grooved up around their tracks. A light film of it had settled over them, blending smoothly into his paint and silvering hers even more. Dry bits of tough desert brush rattled against the old wooden fence, and other than that there was soft silence, a natural silence. Cicadas droned far in the distance, a comfortable, low sound.

The courier tipped her head. The avatar's ponytail flickered across her neck, a cascade of tangled, tawny strands held in place with a soft purple band. On her shirt, the horse still galloped, caught in that suspension of all four legs off the ground, ready to stretch into full flight.

She started to bring up her hand, her response to touch her chest in quiet salute. Then she caught herself; no, at this moment that wasn't what she wanted. Instead she quickly dropped it and hesitated, and then a tiny sloping smile quirked her expression. Second time he'd thanked her today, and... it was something she held close in quiet awe and delight. No one thanked her for much anymore.

Her toe dug into the dirt, leaving a little crescent mark in the parking lot. "No thanks needed, honest, but you're most welcome. Geocaching's even more fun with someone to talk to along the way. Now I get why they do it in teams, sometimes. You were great company too."

"Was nice," she said suddenly. "Just to be Rachel and Fort for a while."

Maximus could honestly admit that he had never been just 'Fort' before. He was disinterested in recreational activities, and rarely took time off that was for anything other than medical reasons. Stepping back from his duties was one thing - adopting a civilian life, even temporarily, was another. He was not sure just how crazy he was about the whole thing yet. Given his plans for the future, it was something he knew he might need to get used to.

But this - this hadn't been that bad.

His brow creased as he frowned to himself. His formal stance relaxed a little as he reached up to rub his thumb across the bridge of his nose

"Yeah. Yeah, it wasn't that bad, I suppose," he said. "I'll have to keep that in mind. Maybe next time-"

Maximus caught himself. "Well, that is - maybe I'll see you around. It's a big desert. There seem to be a lot of these caches out there."

The courier's gaze was hidden by the fall of her bangs, they were windblown and scruffy. She stared at the ground for a second, then over at the two vehicles. The car slowly shifted on her tires and dug the same rut in the red dirt as the avatar; a quiet mirror of motion between the two. One and the same, the runner and the sports car. Or the man, broad-shouldered and steady in his flannel shirt, as solemn and steady as the big military vehicle behind him.

"I'll bring the book back," Dart replied. "I'm going to go grab you a copy of it. I know where I can get one. May take me a week or so to be back here, but - I'll bring it back. You know where to find it."

She rocked back a little on her heels, started to stuff her hands in her pockets. Then she stopped and simply looped a thumb through the belt loops on her worn jeans. "There's a few around here," she ventured carefully. "It's a big desert, yeah. There's lava tubes, and oh, there's something I found out about but haven't gotten to see. Fly Geyser. Not too far from here."

"Maybe next time," she agreed. "I mean, seeing you around. Oh! One sec, before we go, let me go grab the thing I found at St. Helens for you."

She had mentioned St Helens earlier. He was going to have to look it up.

"Yeah, sure," said Maximus. He was unable to hide his surprise as he studied the human girl, then looked around at the sleek black car resting in the parking lot. He raised one eyebrow. "Wait. You've been holding onto it all this time? Carrying it around with you?"

"Yeah," she said. "Since then? I- I hadn't gotten out this way until now."

Quickly she trotted to the car door and it opened before she even touched it. A moment later she was leaning over the front seat and rooting through the console. There were things in the car. A couple of maps. A receipt for some fast food place. A handful of loose change in a plastic baggie. A couple of magazines.

She came up with something though, gathering it up in her hand and pushing off the old fabric seat. A few seconds later she had scrambled upright and headed back to him. "Here," she smiled. Whatever she was holding was hidden by her hand, fingers curled tight around it.

Maximus waited patiently where he was until she returned. When she smiled at him he frowned a little deeper. There were all kinds of things sitting loose in her alternate mode. He had no idea what it was she might have rummaged from it.

"You really did get me something?" he said. Perplex, he held out his hand. "You didn't have to do that..."

"I was going to put it into this cache, you know? Sort of one thing to the next to the next. It's been neat to try to find something, each time," she told him, and carefully dropped it into his hand.

Gifts were still something he was not used to. As he awkwardly pulled back his hand and held up whatever she had placed in it for examination, Maximus said, "Well, I guess if it was going into the cache anyway... where did you get this?"

It was a tiny glass bottle filled with pale grey powder. The top of it had a simple cork on it. The label on the front proudly proclaimed it Mt. St. Helens Ash, May 18, 1980.

"Tourist stand," she said. "They sell them up there. I mean, on the road, there's a lot of places to buy them. There's all sorts of neat things but- this just- it's sort of a bit of that mountain, wherever it goes."

Puzzled, Maximus held up the little glass bottle until it caught the moonlight. Then he could see the pale sand-like substance cradled within it, capped in place by a cork.

There was a label. He found his eyes drawn to it.

"Mount Saint Helens Ash," he read. Maximus looked up at the courier sharply as he turned the bottle around between his fingers. "This is real ash from the volcano north of here?"

A nod, "Yep. The one in Washington," she told him. It was everywhere there. The landscape was covered with it still, after all these years.

"Isn't that neat? They sell them at the little roadside places. All sorts of tourist stuff. They blow glass out of it, make sculptures. They even have it made into rings and bracelets and... well, stuff. This- I just thought it was small enough to hide in the box. I had a postcard, but I don't know where it went."

"That's amazing." Maximus said it without thinking, but once his brain caught up he realised it was true. It seemed an altogether thing for humans to do: to commemorate a disaster through this kind of art. And then maybe sell it, but still.

He gently tapped the bottle to make the ash inside jump. He couldn't get over how tiny it was, even compared to the small and fragile hands of his avatar. It had to take skill to make something at this scale.

"Sculptures, rings, and bracelets," said Max. He looked up at the courier and gave her a faint smile. "Thank you. I'll have to go to this mountain now. Somehow."

"It's worth seeing," she said. "It's just- so much damage, and nature's taking it back, smoothing it over, starting over, one space at a time." She smiled as he tapped the bottle. "I- I better get a move on. I don't want to be too late getting back."

A faint wince shadowed her features and then she shook herself a little. "But - I'll bring the book soon. Promise."

It abruptly occurred to Maximus that he would be missed on base as well. Although he was not technically a part of its assigned population his motions were still tracked and he made regular reports to the duty watch. The last thing he wanted was for anyone to think he was missing. Or growing lax about reporting in.

With care, Maximus tucked the tiny bottle into the breast pocket of his worn shirt. He laid his hand over it once before letting it fall back to his side. "Thank you," he said solemnly. "I look forward to reading it. I'd better get back too. Watch yourself out there."

A nod. "You're welcome," Dart replied, and then she rocked up on the toes of her sneakers. "Yes sir. I will. You too. Be careful, okay?"

With that, the courier turned, and hurried to the car. At first she seemed a little puzzled as the avatar reached for the door handle; her hand had gone through it. Then she laughed, shook her head, and there was a bright blue pop as her avatar shimmered out of existence. The big engine rumbled into life, the lifters clattering before they settled. Moments later, the car turned, dipped her hood one final time towards him in a quick bob and was careful when it transformed to stay politely where he could see her do it. For a brief moment, she rested on her fingertips and foot, a sprinter who hadn't heard the gun.

Then she shook herself into a stand, touched her fingers to the brow of her helm to him one final time - and then she carefully loped away, the opposite way of the way they'd driven up. It didn't take long before her dark form was swallowed by the stones and night.

Maximus waited where he was for a long time. His avatar stood in the parking lot and watched the courier disappear into the darkness, until he could no longer even hear the quiet tread of her footsteps on the sand and rock.

Only then did he look down at the glass bottle tucked into his shirt pocket. The sound of the tank brusquely firing up its engine behind him did not make him turn around as he studied what little of it he could see - just the top of the cork. Dust whirled around the avatar's legs, stirred up by the tank's exhaust.

The avatar's brow furrowed in thought.

"Huh," he said.

He almost smiled.





(and wrap!)