Ep. 1 - The House of Stone and Light - Closed - Finis

[Dart]

Dart was used to being grunted at. It was reassuring for some odd reason; totally a normal everyday thing among the rank and file. I expect you to go finish this task, now leave me alone so I can concentrate.

The courier nodded slightly and turned her focus outside of the cave. She had returned to her watchful stance, her intakes rasping with each draw of air. Her systems were struggling to sort out everything and push past the thick, oily reek within the confined space. Her worry was that the Vehicons might have activated an emergency beacon and the fliers would be on their way.

There were other worries. Like how she was going to explain her actions to her superior officers. There were three dead mechs on this floor and the Autobot they had sent her in to find wasn't one of them. Well, neither was she. They had known exactly what they were facing down here and had sent her in after a frontliner. No, they'd sent her in after a mech whose drive to survive was as instinctive and deep rooted as her own.

Who also saw something about this world that so many Cybertronians didn't. He had been willing to accept help and see things from a level most of them wouldn't bother with. He'd not scoffed about that... nor at her knowledge of humans. He'd been respectful of that quirk and a few of her others.

Dart glanced up at him when his hand settled on her shoulder. Immediately she braced against his weight without a flinch or a nervous twitch. A dribble of blood was tracing its way from the corner of her mouth, and there were spatters of it soaking into the raggedy collar of her T-shirt. She still had to chuckle slighly when he glowered at the people eyeing them and they decided suddenly that minding their own business was prudent. Funny how that translated just fine from mech to human.

"Kaibab bridge area," she told him. "Veronica and Sarah are trying to get signal on the phone. Your medic just told me to get you somewhere unseen so you can drop this when he groundbridges you out. Not sure where the path leads except up.

"I know we can't get you to the lodge. Was hoping... You leaving suddenly could be chalked up to emergency services and I could tell them I am waiting for a member of the survey team to give me a lift back. Now, we just need to get you out of sight so you can leave without causing a scene down here among all these humans and blow cover."

She coughed. "Maybe there's a bathroom. Something."

Dart turned to glance back to the humans. "Sarah? Veronica? Where does this trail go?" she called over her shoulder.

[Deleted]

"Your face," said Maximus in a low voice, as she waited for a reply. He wiped a hand down his own before gesturing vaguely to it. "Your mouth."

Both Sarah and Veronica had been helping Mark unload the raft when they heard Dart call out. They looked up. Veronica held a bundle of life jackets to her chest, and Sarah had the pack of food in her arms, which she quickly dropped back to the sand.

"The trail?" she said as she jogged back over. "Oh, that trail? It goes all the way up to the North Rim! Well, eventually."

She came to a halt beside them, her hands on her hips. "First, it goes past Bright Angel Campground. It goes right through Phantom Ranch as well. We were going to head up that way for lunch, but Mark just remembered that you need to book a reservation first. So we're going to just hike back up to the top of the South Rim instead. It's been quite a day already!"

Sarah laughed, a little nervously. Then she caught sight of the blood on Dart's lip and gasped.

"Oh geez - Rachel! You're bleeding!" she said. "Oh, it's all over your shirt too. Did you bite your lip while on the rapids, maybe? I've done that. And my tongue. It hurts like hell."

[Dart]

Baffled, the courier looked up at him from under her tangled bangs. She followed the gesture of his scarred fingers, and then she winced in sudden understanding. "Oh," she murmured. The tip of her tongue flicked out and she licked cautiously at the side of her mouth. She seemed bothered by something; her hand came up and touched lightly at the corner of her lips. The blood didn't disappear with the brush of her fingertips; it merely shimmered a static blue-grey against her chin and one of the drops winding down her chin suddenly jumped- it moved an inch out from her body before it coalesced back into red and spattered onto her shirt.

"It's okay," she said. "It'll hold. Just a little farther, all we need."

She glanced back as the humans called to them and then turned at Sarah's approach. She stood and listened quietly; right, trail went up to the North Rim. Bright Angel Campground. Up through Phantom Ranch.

The young woman's nervous laugh made the courier hesitate, and then she too started to worry. They had to know something wasn't right, no doubt. Like she had told the other mech, humans weren't dumb.

"It's okay, it's okay..." she hastened to reassure Sarah. "I think I did it right when I scrambled out of the raft. I think I just bit my tongue or my cheek. It hurts, it'll be okay though. Honest."

Dart looked at her with a tired chuckle. "Aw, the shirt's an old shirt, it'll wash. Yeah, I'll say, I think quite a day sums it up perfectly. I- is there a washroom here, do you know?"

The courier glanced back. "No luck with the phone signal? I hoping we could stop and stay here and see if we can get a ranger from up the river to come and pick us up, if possible I just don't think it's a good idea for him to go much farther."

[Deleted]

Sarah gnawed her lip.

"Oh man, I dunno," she said. She cast a worried look back over her shoulder. "Veronica's been keeping an eye on it for you, but we just seem to be getting that one bar at best. Sometimes you can dial out one bar, but if the signal flickers at all the call cuts out. But hang on, let me think..."

She ran a hand back over the top of her baseball cap and absently combed her fingers through her ponytail. Her gaze lifted to the sky as she thought. Behind her, Mark and Veronica had finished stacking the packs into a neat pile on the rocky shore, the paddles strapped together next to them. They padded up the beach now, making their way towards Dart and Max.

One of the mules brayed, stamping a hoof. A man was tending the line of them, checking girths and inspecting their saddlebags. It appeared that another group of hikers was readying itself to take the ride up the northern trail. They still lingered though, casting surreptitious glances now and then to the little posse of rafters and their blood-speckled clothes. Only Max's foul glare seemed to keep them at a respectful distance.

Abruptly, Sarah snapped her fingers.

"Yes!" she said. "Yes, there's a washroom at the Bright Angel Campground! I remember it, because Mark said he had to stop there when he did his rim to rim run in order to wash out a cut on his leg. Isn't that right, Mark?"

"I wouldn't drink the water in it, but yeah, there's a rustic sorta washroom a little way up the trail," he said. He took off his hat and mopped his sweaty face with it. "It'd take you like, five minutes to walk to it from here, maybe?"

Sarah pointed to the sandy trail that wove off into the brush and sparse trees.

"Just follow that!" she said. "You might even get a stronger signal there."

[Dart]

Immediately at the bray, Dart's attention was back on the mules and the man. They were getting ready to take the same trail, but it would be at least those five minutes. Those mules were steady and surefooted. Huh, they could have use something like one of them this whole trip, but the idea of boosting Max's avatar up for the ride was...

That would be a no at the best of times, she suspected. This was so not close to that time. Probably would never be close to that time.

Maybe if there was an apocalypse and the world fell into chaos and he was forced to get to -- oh, right, he transformed into something with treads to handle the worst terrain. He'd be fine in the apocalypse. She'd be up on blocks in some yard being used as a planter box the minute paved roads fell into disrepair.

Five minutes. Dart didn't think they had five minutes. She doubted that the medic would at all take that as an answer. At least going up the trail a bit might get them away from the others. It would maybe get them behind a building. They couldn't wait and as much as she didn't want to make him move any more, it had to be done. As few eyes on them as possible when it happened.

"Thank you, thank you," she said in in response to Sarah's comments.

"I'll try my phone as soon as we get up there," she nodded, with a determined look. Stay on task. Finish this out. "If you can keep trying for me, that's awesome. I don't have much battery left. It wasn't connecting last night and I didn't want to keep draining the battery, but maybe Verizon has more signal now. Worth a shot."

"Right, don't drink the water," she agreed with a chuckle, and glanced over at the avatar standing next to her. "Ready, sir?"

Back at the cave, she shifted her weight from foot to foot. A tiny spray huffed out of her nose and she lifted her wrist to scrub at her face. "Five minutes," she offered quietly. "Only place we can get to any sort of cover, sir, this landing is just wide open, and there's tourists everywhere. Here's hoping it's shorter than that."

[Deleted]

Ratchet glanced back at her.

"Five minutes is a long time to wait for this kind of trauma to the chest," he said sharply. He had coaxed and bullied the other Autobot to his feet and now stood with his own legs sturdily braced, supporting the big mech's weight with his shoulder. Dark fuel was smeared on both of their plating, and stained the medic's arms up past his wrists. "We need to get back through the ground bridge immediately. If you should delay -"

He was interrupted when Maximus shook his head.

"It's fine," he said. He met her gaze. "She'll do it. Do it, Dece- Dart."

On the beach, Max shook his head.

"Any time," he said quietly.

Sarah shifted from foot to foot in a fretful way. She knitted her fingers together, twisting at one of her rings.

"Oh... oh, well, be careful, okay?" she said. "Both of you! We'll keep trying our phone to put a call in with the ranger. It was really good meeting you both, even under such crappy circumstances!"

Mark nodded.

"Yeah, take care, okay?" he said. He offered Dart an earnest smile, one that radiated through the grime on his face and his scruffy beard.

Sarah hugged Max, who endured it with discomfort. But when she drew back he awkwardly patted her arm and murmured his thanks.

Meanwhile, Veronica had just ripped in half a park pamphlet, which had evidently spent some time in the pocket of her shorts; the paper was crumpled and worn soft. She folded it in a business-like manner and held it to Dart.

"I've written our email addresses on this," she said. "Email us when you guys get to civilization safely so we know you're good, all right? I'll send you some pics too."

[Dart]

Dart had watched Ratchet drive the other mech to his feet, to get him standing among the carnage. She held position, turning once to rub her aching jaw against the inside of her shoulder. The courier was panting softly, trying to regulate her own systems and attempting not to focus on the sheen of fuel or the... the pieces.

At the medic's rebuke, her spoiler rattled slightly. "I- know," she agreed. She did. Five minutes was a long time, in fact, to her a simple five minutes felt like forever - take him. Just take him out of here, get him home, she started to say - but before she could even gather herself to murmur anything else, Maximus shook his head and looked at her.

Blue optics met red. An expression of surprise flicked across her face, but she didn't look immediately away from the Autobot. Instead, there was a tiny, hesitant smile before she shifted her weight and nodded, straightened up, squared in the dirt. She brought up her hand to touch the brim of her helm, then quickly dropped it back to her side.

"Thank you, sir," she said. "I'll do my best to do it in less if I can. Speed. I'm good at speed."

Almost immediately the courier was turning back, letting her concentration fall on a place so far away. She settled herself next to Max's avatar; and then came up on the toes of her worn sneakers, eager to move, to go, to follow that path to where everyone would be safe and that's all she cared about right now, more than anything. Well, all right, everyone but her, but that was okay. It was all right. That was to be dealt with later.

"We will, we couldn't have made it without you. We'll be okay, I'm sure, thank you, thank you, I- I owe you guys dinner or something, something. I promise, something." She smiled back at Mark and Sarah, peering at him from under her scruffy, tangled bangs, and then rocked back on her heels, and--

Stared at the pamphlet. For a second, Dart seemed utterly unsure, and then she reached for it with a shy smile. "Yes, yes, oh gosh, yes, absolutely. Could I have your cell phone number, too? I'll call, I promise, I'll call, let you guys know that we're all right, oh I'd love the pictures. I'd really love them. This - this was amazing. Well, not the hurt part. But everything else, I never thought I'd raft the Colorado..."

Her fingers gripped the edge of the paper and lifted, and then suddenly she had it tight in her hand, holding onto it as if it was something else, a missive, perhaps that she had been given orders on. Don't let it fall into the wrong hands. No, this is mine, all mine, and I still won't let it do that.

"I'll email," she said with a firm nod that turned into a delighted, open smile to the three humans standing there. "I'll call. Thank you again."

Then Dart turned and took a step and waited for Max to follow her. Find somewhere quick to get him out of sight, that was the goal now. After they'd gone a little distance, she hesitated and slowed down, until she was just off his shoulder. There was a concerned look on her face. "Not much farther, almost there..." she encouraged him.

She blew out a tired sigh of air. "Washroom, if we can make it. We can shut the door. If not, we duck behind a cabin, it's better than nothing."

[Deleted]

Behind her, the three humans stood and watched as Dart and Max turned for the trail.

"Email soon!" called out Sarah. She rose up on her toes and waved.

"Later, guys!" said Mark. He waved his hat at them.

Further up the rocky shore, the trail poked through the trees. It was narrow, but there was little brush to either side to impede their progress and the earth was dry and hard-packed, good for walking. Tangled grasses and thorny little cacti grew in tufts along either side, while the stunted trees offered a little cooling shade against the heat. The noonday sun shone down upon them, bright and pleasant, while the walls of the canyon rose away into the distance, their peaks chased by white clouds.

Max limped beside her in silence. His boots crunched against the rock and dirt. His pace was labouring, and his holoform was so wan that it lent a sickly air to his greying hair and tanned skin, but his mood was pensive. His eyes were fixed upon the trail.

Only when they were out of earshot of the humans on the beach did he finally speak.

"You're assisting me," he said after a moment. "I just killed three- four Vehicons in front of you. You're a Decepticon, and yet three humans just gladly offered you their contact information."

He refused to look at her, and kept his gaze turned ahead. He opened his mouth, then closed it into a hard line. With reluctance, as if it cost him to admit it, he shook his head and said, "Can't figure that out."

[Dart]

Dart waved back, and as they turned away, there was a look of longing that crossed over her features. Her shoulders slumped slightly, but... it was was only for a moment though. She shook herself, still clutching that scrap of paper tight and holding it tight between her fingers.

For a while, she walked quietly walked beside him, still keeping an eye out on things. She was nearby, careful to stay a step or two ahead of him off of his shoulder. The courier didn't fill the silence with words, just let the wind and the air and the sun fall between them.

At his voice though, Dart looked up and then winced. "I told them to run," she said quietly. "I- mean, I hoped they'd listen to me, I didn't want them getting killed either."

She glanced over at him and then moved to hesitantly gesture at the pack he carried. "I honestly don't have a clue what happens if you got killed. I just- I couldn't have it detonate if there was feedback, not with the humans involved. Couldn't let them get hurt, sir. I just- I can't. Regardless, I know, you wouldn't have done something to hurt them on purpose, Ma-"

The courier was speaking with her fingers as much as her words; genuine emotion in her body language, before she looked down at the paper in her hands again.

Dart caught herself, and stuffed her hands back into her pockets, paper and all. There was a blue hiss of static that rippled along her before her avatar resolved. The courier was pale, and her exhaustion and pain was obvious now. "You gave me a chance, sir. The Vehicons wouldn't. Not to the humans, you know? I hope that makes sense. Maybe not, I can't figure out a lot sometimes either, honest. It's okay."

"Hey," she said suddenly, with a quiet sidestep of both body and subject. "Vantage, when you get there, I mean... if you ever do, sir? You should look around. There's a geocache up there."

[Deleted]

Max's gaze grew cold at further mention of the Vehicons, and his jaw tightened. But he did not speak about them again.

Instead, he gave her a sidelong glance.

"You mentioned Vantage before," he said. "A geocache?"

He fell silent, his expression blank. For a moment he simple trod beside her, his footsteps heavy with weariness. The river fell behind them, though the sound of its rushing water rose
audibly above the scattered brush, echoing off the cliffs. A long stone cabin appeared in front of them amidst a stand of boulders and mesquite trees, its old shingle roof sagging in places. The windows were securely boarded however, the doors fixed shut with fresh padlocks.

Max shook his head.

"I have no reference for geocaches," he said. He regarded her warily. "What is it?"

[Dart]

Dart padded quietly along the trail. Tiny puffs of dust rose from the grimy toes of her sneakers. The ragged hem of her jeans caught behind her heel. The blue fabric was grey with dirt and age. The cuff had torn loose from the hem on the left one, fraying at the edges of the rip.

"Yes, sir, the monument, up in Vantage. Honest, you'd appreciate it, I think. You built them, you could respect the technical work that went into it... oh, gosh, geocaching," she said, and it took her a few seconds to gather her thoughts. Talking, because sometimes it kept you going, kept your feet moving because you weren’t thinking about how bad it hurt. Something else to concentrate on.

He wanted to focus on something else besides the mess behind them, and she did too. She took his question gratefully, she picked it up and carried it along for them. Carry the messages, that was her job, carry the task until the end and get it where it needed to go.

“It's a human thing, a game, I guess, kind of like... hide and seek, do you know that?” Dart asked him. “If you don’t, it’s okay, it’s pretty self-explanatory. Geocaching is with objects or notes or little tokens, not an actual person.

You hide them in waterproof containers around places. Nothing dangerous is ever hidden, period, you don’t want someone getting hurt. That’s not okay. Nor is hurting the environment. That’s never the idea, ever. You just find the cache, collect the object - um, usually not worth much. Mostly little trinkets. Sentimental stuff too, I guess.”

Dart’s voice was lifted a bit; even as tired as she was, it was obvious she found something amazing about this, like she had about the water, the rapids, the canyon itself. She looked back at the mech and then brought up her hand to push her bangs out of her eyes. They just flopped right down over them once again, and she gave up and peered through them at him.

“It's a recreational thing here on Earth. You use a GPS, or a phone, or well, other ways. I’m sure sensors are okay if you’re Cybertronian. Totally okay, I think. I cheat a little, I’ve sniffed them out sometimes. That’s how I found that one up there.”

“It’s got a logbook, right,” she continued, even as her toes dug into the trail dirt and she surveyed the cabin. It had solid sides, it could just shelter them from prying eyes if they hunkered down behind it, but... it was locked. Certainly weren’t going in. She threw a glance around them to see who was still watching them and what they could see them doing.

“You put down when you found it, and you sign a code name, and put it back. Lots of folks post them on line for others to find, all sorts of things. Some times it’s not even an item, it’s just- a place you find and mark off your map that you were there, snap a picture of the place to verify.”

“Also, sometimes there’s clues on how to find more caches all over the world,” Dart said, lifting a hand to gesture as they walked. “Places like the Grand Canyon. Wild spaces. City spaces. Even monuments and amazing architecture. Places that... you just might never know are there, sir."

[Deleted]

The beach was behind them now, the river hidden from sight. Though the voices of the hikers could still be heard, they were growing fainter with distance. More and more the two avatars were surrounded only by the hushed sounds of nature: by the wind as it rustled through the tips of the highest leaves and the tallest grasses, by the drone of insects, and the sursurrus of the river.

Max was quiet as she explained. Her enthusiasm was plain to be heard, and apparently not even he could bring himself to interrupt it. He walked with his head down, his eyes upon the dirt trail. A frown bent his mouth and creased his brow.

When she finished he trudged for a while longer on without speaking. The sun beat down against then, highlighting the worn threads on his shirt and the bits of blonde hair that hung loose from her ponytail. Then he looked up, squinted at the bright sunlight, and roughly cleared his throat.

"Never heard of a game like that before," he said. "Don't know a lot about humans, or what they do."

Though his voice was gruff, a little more of the hostility had left his manner. He eyed her sidelong, reluctantly curious. "And they just leave co-ordinates for others to find, in order to track these... places, those caches of hidden objects?"

[Dart]

Dart had fallen back into silence after her explanation. The courier turned her head, nose into the air - she seemed comfortable with the natural silence. She sniffed and listened though; her attention drawn to the flicker of a dragonfly as it glittered past them in a whirr of emerald, then onto the grass and the stones and the river. The courier did not break stride, carefully picking the path upwards for them.

At the clear of his throat, Dart turned her gaze immediately back on him, her head cocked to one side, listening. Then, she offered up a nod. "It's a neat game. Makes you explore the world you might never stop and see, you know?"

"Yes sir," she continued on, obviously encouraged by his curiosity. "They do. I mean, sometimes they send them on emails or phone messages with just co-ordinates. You can find information on the net about geocaching and there's a list of them that people hide all over the place to go find. It can get a bit tricky to find the hiding spot sometimes, that's the challenge."

Once you start though - er, some folks collect tokens or coins or things. I kinda like the ones where you go find the cache and in it is the directions to the next place you go and see. It's just an ongoing path of places. Vantage would be a good place to start though, promise. Really. I mean, if you decide you want to try it..?"

Dart's hands slipped back down to the knot on the sweatshirt around her waist; she fiddled with it, adjusted it.

"Well, when you're feeling better, of course. Maybe someday you'd end up visiting Yellowstone after all," she told him. "Just watch those buffalo. They're cranky."

Then she could not help it, there was a lopsided grin. "Aw, I think after today, sir, you can chalk up the fact that you know a whole lot more about humans than most, honest. I'm still totally amazed that you knew what a hot dog was. Neat."

She paused then before she turned to make sure they were well hidden by the path and the climb upwards.

"I think - I think we're okay to duck behind this cabin. No one can see us. I'm not sure if there will be a line at the washroom, sir."

[Deleted]

Explore the world you might never stop and see...

Taken aback, Max went silent.

He did not speak again, merely listened, not until she took in her surroundings and noticed that, for the moment, they were alone. When she commented on it, he seemed to shake himself out of a deep reverie.

"Hm?" he said.

The man looked around. Sure enough, though voices still echoed from the direction of the river there were no other humans to be seen. In both directions the trail was empty, trampled down with the footprints of hundreds of different people. A few rocks lined it, to make it easier to see against the grass.

He nodded, slowly. "Good thinking."

Around the other side of the long cabin, they would discover something interesting. Instead of a solid wall, most of the rear side of the shabby old building was built as a stone-and-beam walk-in stable for mules. There were no doors on the stalls, merely posts to support the shingle roof. A small, boarded up cabin occupied the west end of the building; the row of stalls were attached to it on the east end.

Each stall opened onto a small, round dirt yard. A low wall circled it, also made of crudely mortared stones. In the middle of the yard stood a tree, its trunk protected from hungry mules by stones and mesh wire. Small, neat hoof prints were pressed in the dirt. Other mesquite trees shaded the yard, the cabin, while tall grasses grew up gracefully against the stonework. A tall ridge rose up behind the stable, over which soared a hawk.

Max limped to the yard. He put his hands against the stone wall and leaned against them, his arms braced against his weight.

"Looks empty," he said. "Can probably get out of sight if we go..."

He trailed off and waved vaguely towards the stalls, too tired to speak further.

[Dart]

Dart was carefully eyeing the corral. She'd too come to the metal rail. The curve of the river-rock corral fit in with the high hills around them, dusted with silver-grey brush. The trees here offered a smattering of shade; it dappled both of them as they looked over the situation. She raised her chin a bit, angled her nose into the air and sniffed before she shook her head sheepishly. Strands of her ponytail tangled across the side of her neck and were lifted by the arid breeze.

She pricked her head up at his nod, and then hesitated when the mech offered those simple quiet words. Surprised, Dart blinked at that quiet word of praise. Then she immediately lifted her chin. Even though she was exhausted and the hurt was starting to really seep in; shoulder, jaw, chest... she gathered herself up. The courier's shoulders shifted in a way that would have normally swung her spoiler out and back on the hinge in the middle in a tiny, hesitant motion from side to side.

Then she settled and eyed the hoofprints cut into the dry dirt. Dart guessed that this was for those trains that spent the night down in the dormitories, not the ones that were on the day trip.

"It does look empty," she agreed. "I think we're good, sir. Closest stall." Her hand lifted, there was a quick gesture of her fingers to the one she was talking about. It was the closest, yes, but the thick wood and stone wall would block them to anyone wandering up the trail, and the wall and other side would shield them from anyone coming down the hill.

The gate was on the far side from them, unfortunately. Dart didn't want to even take the time to walk the extra distance. Not now, every minute was more fuel and coolant and the smell of death back in that cave. Luckily there was more than enough of a gap between the metal rail set into the stone pylons surrounding the low wall for them to easily squeeze through. Dart set her hands the stone under the rail so that she could slide gingerly over the wall, and then waited for him to do the same.

"Thirty feet to go," she encouraged. "Not far. You're almost home, sir."