Darkness

Ch. 25: Three Birds, One Kathrine

"We gotta save Henry."

"Slow down there," Misdirect said, "For now you need to rest." Despite the easy atmosphere, there was something else to the mood, like he was being overly cautious. I guess running off on my own had been very surprising to him, it was as if he wasn't sure what to make of me again.

"Enough rest," still standing I crossed my arms, trying to ignore the throbbing pain beneath my bandages. The pain was getting harder to ignore by the minute, it was making me feel almost woozy. "It's been eating me up inside not knowing what the plan is. We need to discuss some of this or I'm going to lose my mind."

Misdirect took a seat. I hadn't seen the large stool that had been pulled up to the table I stood on, He rested an elbow on the table's surface, hand against his cheek. "We're having a meeting soon, very soon. But what did you want to discuss?"

"Henry," I said, "He's all alone on that ship. What if he's actively dying right now?" What if I was actively dying right now? Despite our best peroxide treatment my arm was undoubtedly getting worse. I tried to keep these thoughts from my head. There were more important things than a bit of pain.

"Megatron will keep him alive if he wants his deal to go through."

"And that!" I pointed at him, "The 'deal.' What is the deal? When is the big fight happening? How soon? How do I get home in that mess?"

Misdirect looked uneasy, "There might not be a big battle, we don't know. Megatron could be up to anything, that's what Optimus and everyone will be discussing soon. We just have to wait a little bit longer."

"But Megatron said his plan right? He said that we come meet him for a battle and he'll return Henry."

He shifted, looking away for a second, "He says that, sure, but we don't really know what he actually wants. Don't forget about the cube, it's involved now too. It changes everything."

"Optimus said he wouldn't go to Earth for it."

"But Megatron could be planning to," He said.

I blinked, a bit distressed now. "Megatron has no reason to go to Earth. I talked to Ravage myself, he had no idea that what we have is the cube. He thinks it's just some artifact."

"But think about it Kathrine, Megatron already put a device on Henry to prevent us from sending you back too soon. Right? Otherwise once we figure out how to send you back, we could just do it. Henry, and everything that got sent here would be sent back too, safe and sound. But Megatron admitted to us, with that device, that he knows that too. That means Megatron knows about the quantum jump we're tangled in. And Back to Ravage, you said he knew there was a Cybertronian artifact on Earth. Did he figure that out when you talked to him or did he know about the artifact back when he sent his message? That's what we don't know."

I stood in silence, nervously fiddling with my fingers. "Oh," I finally said. "I don't know."

He nodded tiredly, as if agreeing with my own weary expression, "That's why this is tricky. Megatron says he wants a battle, but who knows if he actually wants your artifact. It helps that he doesn't know it's the cube, but he might still be interested in figuring it out. That's why Henry is such a tricky topic right now. All we know is that Megatron is interested in meeting with us, he wants us to stick around to retrieve Henry. Who knows what he's up to besides that."

"That sucks," I said.

"Mmhm. That's why we just need to wait right now. Optimus and the other higher-ups will already know all this, they'll have an actual plan."

Brainstorm was approaching us, looking far too chipper as always. We both looked up.

"Get that datapad out squishy," Brainstorm said, "Yeah, the new one I just made you, time to talk to home. You have 90 seconds to say hi and catch up."