Marissa was laid in a hospital bed, though no one would allow her to go to a hospital. She was more or less held captive, untouched only because of the angry creature still attached to her face, like a Face Hugger from the Alien series. It hissed when any human came close, the only way she could be placed on the bed being by the servo of Optimus Prime. The cube that had remained untouched by human hands had been snatched by the young creature and placed underneath Marissa's little hand before it returned to its post on her head. 

     There it stayed as the group was swallowed by the Earth. Far from Marissa's experience, having abruptly disappeared. This time, the whole of the group, excluding the Decepticons, stepped over a swath of thin sand, the hidden platform slowly descending into the disguised military base. The hard walls gave way to thick glass to hold what sand there was on the platform, though some was still needed to be swept as the humans and titans entered the spacious room below. 

     Bumblebee hated the familiarity of the room. Not that he had been in the base before, but rather that it held a strange likeness to the Sector 7 base he had been subjected to. Little did they know, Diego Garcia was the last of the Sector 7 bases that the United States government had decided to keep for themselves to properly contain the Allspark shard.

         "I will make sure every single one of you are jailed." Galloway stated in his lividity. "This was a direct disobedience to orders-"

         "You told us that we were free to unite the two entities." Lennox interrupted the balding man. "Optimus holds the video footage as proof in his own memory!"

         "Memory?" Calloway continued his walk as the remote-controlled cot remained in between a set of six soldiers ahead of him. "Memory is faulty, Colonel Lennox, and as you've so claimed, these aliens are sentient. Therefore, memory is not a reliable source."

         "They are sentient, yes but they are not human, they have ways to avoid that flaw, and you know it! We have proof of this entrapment." Lennox's arguing was met with silence as the man ignored him, clearly believing that he had won. 

     Lennox and Eps followed the rolling bed in silence, the Colonel fuming as he attempted to glare a hole in the back of the Secretary's head. When the two guards behind the unconscious woman stopped and turned at a set of doors, they were forced to halt. Confused, Lennox demanded he be let through. The still walking Galloway turned with a bored expression.

         "Your authority is null and void while I'm here and will be to the day you die once I'm finished."

         "You don't know how to handle that entity, either entity." Lennox warned.

         "And you do?" The shorter man huffed, narrowing his eyes in a challenge to the other. 

         "Of course not," was the surprising answer, "but they do." He pointed behind at the door down the hall he had followed the group through, suggesting the Autobots. "And right now, you're messing with a very angry entity."

     Galloway laughed, his moment of mocking mirth lasting for no longer than a second.

         "You're willing to believe the simple words of an enemy?" His smirk turned to a deep, angry frown. "Are you truly so naive?"

       "It's not being naive when they know the Allspark better than anyone could here on Earth!" Lennox hollered as the government snake walked away to follow the four soldiers and unconscious woman. "Listen to me, Galloway, you're making a mistake!"

     The man was ignored, and the two guards refused to let him pass. It took the silent hand of Eps to convince his friend that it wasn't worth the waste of breath. The two men returned to the Autobots, defeated and worried for the woman who may as well be in a comatose state. No one knew what she had gone through to reunite Vector Sigma with the Allspark, nor how she even made it in. They guessed in a similar manner she had been returned to them.

     The Autobots watched the defeated man and his friend, the three teens still tucked in their guardian's palms. Ironhide, Bumblebee and Blurr didn't want to risk them being arrested and abused. They were unsure as to why they hadn't been ordered to put the trio down by the humans but dared not question it. Galloway certainly saw them, if not when the three Autobots had plucked them up from the ground then when one or the other would peer over their servos. 

     Miles was doing just that when a soldier, clad in black, glared up at the young man, making him shrink back to Blurr's palm awkwardly.

         "That idiot's going to get everyone killed." Lennox ran his fingers through his hair, looking as if he was going to tear a chunk from his scalp. He looked back toward the now closed and guarded doors the woman had been rushed through. "Can any of you tell what the Allspark might do?"

     Optimus frowned. The only thing he and the others could sense was that their creator was livid. 

         "I'm afraid the Allspark has only revealed that it's indeed whole again. Whole and as Starscream said, angry."

         "Wait-" Mikeala raised a brow, "you can tell that Vector Sigma and the Allspark is angry?"

         "They're one thing now." Blurr explained. "A full entity. Properly, we should be calling him Primus, but that'd get confusing for your comrade's brains, I think."

         "Not that they'd listen, anyway." Ratchet shook his helm. "They view him as a tool and nothing more. I feel that may be why he is so angry."

         "No," Optimus shook his helm, "I do not think so."

     There was a minute of eerie silence from the leader as the others wondered why Primus would be so angry. Eps dared to ask what the mech thought, Optimus's answer being more silence for a period of time far too long than what those listening hoped for.

         The entity indeed was angry, as said and thought so many times by his creations. He let them know his anguish, but Optimus knew it better. The mourning lividity of the loss of a friend. 

     For once he was treated like an equal to someone. Was he an equal? No, he harbored life, created it though limited in some ways. Marissa did none of these things, but her willingness to speak of mundane things to him as a friend, and not as a deity who directed fate, was strangely refreshing. She voiced even the silliest of concerns, they even shared a joke together. Despite the absurdity of it, the entity even enjoyed the act of shopping with the human femme. Their friendship had continued to grow within the short time they had been together.

         And then he ruined it.

     Vector Sigma, an extension of Primus, somehow convinced the woman to go with him on his journey to be reunited just by being as friendly and curious as he was. She had handled the existence of Starscream and Barricade well enough, the looming threat of being torn apart just for a seemingly useless trinket on her wrist. He gambled with her very life to see how well she'd react in the presence of unpredictable foes.

     He wondered if his friend had shut down at some point. Would this be the last straw? 

Because of him she parted ways with her family on less than positive terms. 

Because of him she was injured multiple times.

Because of him, she was kidnapped.

Because of him she was unconscious and in danger.

         'I am a fool.' He thought to himself. 'As I was cursed with a bitter brother, I too am cursed to be alone with not but servants and forgetful creations.'

     His newest creation purred in its bond to him, still attached to Marissa's face. He needed someone who would obey his words without protest, and a new life that new nothing but him was the only option he had to save Marissa. He understood it would likely grow distant from him, as some of his original Primes had, but Primus had endured enough pain to be used to it. 

Not that it hurt any less.

     The feeling of metallic fingers brushed against his cuboidal form, but Primus knew these were not of his kind. His small self reacted with blue electricity in an effort to keep the intruding pinchers away, careful not to hurt the woman's hand he was tucked beneath. Whatever was attempting to grab him flinched away, his senses understanding that it was some lifeless robot the humans had made, now glitching and waving hither and thither out of control.

         'I will not be moved until Marissa is awake once more.' He told himself, a strand of electricity striking the door on the other side of the room and forcing it to lock down with him and the human inside. 

     These aliens wanted nothing but to control him as a weapon. They did not want to acknowledge that he, as his creations, was sentient. He only wished he had been awakened far earlier while on Earth, his stasis only broken by the separation of his two halves. A rather rude awakening but Vector Sigma had used much energy to unite with the Allspark as it was launched into the depths of space. 

         There would be no more mindless drones created simply by someone dropping him on the ground, at least.

     Soldiers panicked outside the observation room, thick, bullet proof glass barring them from breaking through. Primus could hear them debating on whether or not to freeze him. A useless endeavor that would only result in Marissa's death as he had no moving parts to keep locked. 

         'Marissa, I am sorry.' Vector Sigma's 'plip' of a voice attempted to wake her through her subconscious. 'I should not have swayed your want to return home.'

     He was met with silence, the limp, sleeping woman oblivious to her surroundings. The lights were flickering as Primus thwarted the human's attempts to enter after they had pried the door open. He did not wish to kill, but if they forced him to such degrees, he would not be merciful. To avoid such bloodshed, the entity first extended a band of electricity across the forced opening, making a spider web of electric tendrils dance within the door frame. A soldier tried to step through only for the voltage to shock his leg into numbness. His cry of pain made the others wary, and mildly terrified knowing what the entity was capable of before it had been combined with whatever the woman inside the room had been carrying before.

     The soldier that had practically pleaded with the woman not to enter the room he was guarding watched behind the frenzy of panicked soldiers. His comrades weren't even sure what they were guarding or supposed to be guarding. In truth, neither did he. Very few who were stationed at Diego Garcia knew what was so important within its walls. It was a safety precaution. All they knew was that it was a device. A powerful one. He didn't expect it to be this powerful, nor as life like. The cube seemed as panicked as the soldiers trying to subdue it.

         "We need to fall back!" The man ordered, earning startled and curious looks. 

         "Are you insane?" A blond-haired man questioned angrily. "Our jobs are at stake here. If we don't get that thing in a controllable environment this whole base will be compromised!"

         "Does it look like this thing can be controlled to you, sir?" The man with sense questioned his superior. "I don't know what you're seeing but I just saw it take out the door, and now it's barring us from even entering after we've pried it open! That's not random, that's tactical thinking!"

         "Are you suggesting this thing is alive?" Growled the older soldier, daring the younger and less experienced man to argue something he was already set on debunking.

         "I'm suggesting we leave it alone." The man wasn't sure he'd call it alive, though it sure acted like it. "Hermann's leg has second degree burns, what are we supposed to do, sir?"

         "Think outside the box, Leterman."

     The blond ordered for riot shields to be brought, being followed without further question as the plastic shields were placed between the door frame in an attempt to trap the strands of energy. It only resulted in the shields to become red hot, and a woman who had volunteered to step through was pierced through the chest by an escaped strand of electricity that had cut through the plastic. The riot shields collapsed soon after.

         "Sir, this is ludicrous!" Leterman argued, earning a firm backhand to his cheek.

         "I will hear no more out of you. Rite, take who you need and find that plywood in the supply room." His orders were once again followed, but he did not accept a volunteer this time. "Leterman, you're up." 

         "What?" 

         "Are you deaf now, soldier? I said go!"

     Sweat formed beneath his black cap as he drew his pistol up, aiming for the cube that he knew he couldn't shoot. His eyes darted to each piece of plywood slowly burning, smoke beginning to plume above them. He then stared at the control panel for a mere moment, knowing shooting it would cause a whole new chain reaction of containment procedures to activate. 

         'What the hell am I thinking?' 

     With one smooth motion, Leterman side-stepped, shooting the control panel and lunging into the containment room before he could be squished. His foot was narrowly missed as he heard the door slam shut behind him. The demands and orders from his superior did not bode well as the lights dimmed to red and the thick glass was covered in even thicker metal, the door being forced shut again with another layer sliding over that. He understood the shut-down would also close off the liquid hydrogen tanks above them to avoid accidentally killing the subject inside if it were organic, a precaution taken by Sector 7 in case someone attempted to break into any of the cells.

     Blue eyes found the cube at the edge of the bed, tucked beneath work-worn fingers. He was surprised it had not killed him as it had to his fellow soldier. He stared at it, watching its light ebb and grow. 

         'Thank you, kind human.'

     He turned around, looking for the source of the odd sounding voice. He could only describe it as tree-like, specifically a sequoia, though he wasn't sure why his mind wanted to be so specific about it. 

         'What is your name?' The voice questioned, the man finally settling his gaze on the cube.

         "I- uh," he hesitated, "Jonathan. Jonathan Leterman."

         'Jonathan.' The entity mulled over the name thoughtfully. 'Could you help me further?'

The man nodded, with a small "I could try".

         'This is Marissa Faireborn,' Primus introduced the unconscious woman, who remained still despite the alarms blaring around them, 'she is in a deep stasis that I have not been able to wake her from. Can you do this for me?'

     Doubtful he could but feeling like he was rather obligated now that he made himself a criminal just like her, Jonathan nodded, asking for the metal creature on her face to be moved. It did, though not without an amount of hissing. The terrified man then proceeded to check the woman's vitals, placing a pair of fingers over the side of her neck. Once knowing that she had a normal heartrate, he moved to listen to her breathing. It was raspy, but not something that worried him. He noticed that her hands and feet were nearly rubbed raw, and her fingernails had bled at some point, but overall, she seemed fine. 

         'But- how do I wake her up?' He wondered, though mostly he wondered how a talking cube even tried to wake her up. 

     Jonathan sighed, shaking his head before deciding to try his first guess: shaking her awake.