Prowl onlined his azure optics and gaze up at the ceiling. At first, everything appeared fuzzy and unfocused. But after several tries of clearing his vision, things started to come in crystal clear. Within the pitch darkness, he tries to get a sense of where he was and how he got here. But after seriously thinking about, nothing came to mind. Eventually, he heard some footsteps coming his way along with someone talking amongst himself.

“I better go check on him.”

Prowl instantly goes back to laying there in silence and unmoving just before the elder Cybertronian enters the dark room. He gazes at the Autobot just laying there and it appeared it has not moved since the elder left earlier.

“I thought that I could have sworn to hear some tapping noises. Well, I am heading back to my recharge cycle.”

Just when the elder was about to leave, Prowl reactivated his optics and tilted his head towards the elder. He could only gaze at the elder’s back in try to get a sense if he knew this elderly gentleman or not. After a couple of astroseconds go by of gazing at the elder’s backside, the elder sense that someone was looking at him. He looked back to see that the Autobot was still laying there with his face looking upward with no illumination coming from the Cybertronian's optics. This causes the elder to scratch his helmet in confusion.

“That is odd…I could have sworn that he was looking at me.”

The elder turns on his heels and Prowl continues to play the little game with the elder, which was confusing him even more. He thought of a way to trick the strategist and end this silly game. The elder walks away from the Autobot to flick the lights on. As the elder walked away, Prowl reactivated his azure optics and glanced in the elder’s direction who he could clearly see now.

“Well, it looks like you are awake.”

“Indeed I am. But who are you?”

“There is no need to worry about who I am.”

The elder saw the Autobot’s tension levels increase, which was probably expected due to the circumstances. He puts a reassuring hand on the Autobot’s arm in hope to calm him down. But, the tension does not decrease.

“Calm down, Prowl….there is nothing to worry about, you are safe here.”

“Then why am I here?”

Prowl’s question only met silence while the elder thinks of a good way of explaining things to strategist.

“Answer me, please I need to know.”

“What was the last thing that you remember?”

As he thinks about how to answer the elder’s question, he tries to get off of the berth and stand on his servos. However, he ends up dropping to the ground in an odd position. His memories begin rushing in his processor.

“The last thing that I remember was going to Earth on a shuttle on an Energon run. Only to be furiously shot near my headlight.”

He glanced down at his headlights to see no damage near them but he was so sure that he got hit by a nasty shot in 2005. He vaguely remembers the sound of metal striking metal spun time up to normal speed. He felt the superheated plasma drill through his chest armor into vital circuitry, essential internal fluids and important systems were vaporized. He knows that a shot like that, straight through the chest armor via the headlight into the primary Energon pump, was always fatal. However, as he pressed a hand to his spark chamber, he could feel the pulse of his spark echoing through the metal just beneath his chest plate. All of this caused confusion within his processor. His voice came out as a hoarse metallic whisper, so quiet even his sensitive audio receptors had trouble catching it, but the elder heard it.

“I do not understand why I am alive when I should be dead?”

“That is a tough question to answer but somehow you were given a second chance to live. “

Prowl looks into the elder’s optics as he lowers his body so that he is on level ground with the Autobot Tactician.

“That is simply illogical..a second chance to live, that is unheard of. Once a being is dead, they should stay dead, not come back to life.”

“Prowl, calm yourself down and cool those logic circuits of yours down. And listen to what needs to be said.”

The strategist simply quietly nods and gazes at the elder Cybertronian as he explains what has been happening on Cybertron and Earth after what happened since the shuttle disaster.

“Prowl, I believe that answers to second chances are different for everybody, and they come naturally over time.”

While the elder spoke, he placed a reassuring hand on Prowl’s shoulder. “If you need to think about things for a bit, there is no need to rush you.”

With that the elder walks away to retreat to his personal quarters and leaving the strategist right there. Prowl gently but slowly hoists himself back up onto his servos so that he could walk out of his current location to do some thinking and reflecting. Once he was outside, he found a place to lay and gaze up at the Cybertronian sky in hope one of the glittering balls of fire would provide the answers that he needs to get a sense of what has happened to him. Eventually, he rolls over to his front side with his door-wings sticking up while he lays his chin on his crossed arms. A few Energon tears form out of the corner of one of his optics and rolls down his face-plate. He tries to keep himself calm while his processor tries to get a gripe on what he was told.

Eventually, he falls into recharge in a secluded area after he pulls a makeshaft blanket onto his back, which is considerably difficult to do with those doors on his back. As he fell into recharge, he thought about his friends on the Ark crew and wonder if any of them have survived after he was killed.

To Part 4

Created on September 6, 2010    Updated on September 6, 2010  cascadia2008@hotmail.com