The next day went very slowly. I arrived at school when Miko did, and the first thing she started talking about was a "doom prophecy" of some sort that the 'bots told them. Jack caught up with us and filled in all the holes Miko skipped over when talking about it, and we met Raf at his locker, where he was able to recite it to me, which made me somewhat impressed that he memorized it. The entire day my thoughts were focused on the prophecy and what it meant. What was this "rising darkness"? The Decepticons? Megatron?

I walked to all my classes like a zombie, my mind still focused on the alignment and the prophecy. What would happen? Would Mr. F be wrong, and the world really was going to end? Were the conspiracies right?

I shook my head as I walked to my science class. I was seriously thinking conspiracies were right?

I entered the classroom, taking a seat next to Jack and tuned out the lesson Mr. F was teaching, my head on the desk. The words of the prophecy still swam around in my head.

47 spheres.

A world forged from chaos.

The weak shall perish.

Rising darkness.

A hand shook my shoulder rather hard, and I sat up immediately, seeing Jack was the one shaking me. I gave him a "what gives" look, before he gestured to the front, where Mr. F. was frowning at me.

"Cassidy, this is science class, not your personal nap time."

I felt myself blushing and nodded, pushing the prophecy to the back of my mind for the rest of the period.

Soon I could stop learning about black holes and what formed them, and I walked out with the others, seeing the 'bots already there and waiting for them. Miko offered to give me a ride again, which I declined again.

"Maybe you should return to the base. Who knows what could happen? It was confirmed; the alignment's in a few hours," Raf said to me. I looked at him for a minute, before shaking my head again. Going back would only make me want to stay permanently.

"Well, if you aren't coming...I...guess we'll see you tomorrow?" Jack replied, questioning himself. I nodded, walking off toward my house without "saying" goodbye. I had a math test tomorrow, and I had to study.

I eventually returned to my house soon, opening the garage door with the code and closing it again, seeing both of our cars were gone. I figured mom was out on another interview or running errands or something along those lines, and plopped down on a chair at the kitchen table, figuring I could do my homework there instead of my room.

I soon found I couldn't concentrate on what x equaled. Or y, or whatever the math problems wanted me to solve. The prophecy plagued my thoughts and wouldn't let me think about school.

I'd stared at my homework for a good hour, having no idea why I was obsessing over one little prophecy, when Lillian came home, entering through the garage like I did. I'm sure she greeted me; I probably didn't hear and/or respond.

She sat down in a chair across from me, working on whatever third-graders worked on as homework. She'd skipped a grade, which would explain why she was so curious and smart and nearly found out about Ratchet. Sometimes I wished she wasn't so observant.

When she finished her homework and I was still staring at my algebra expressions with my head in my hands, she gave me a curious look but didn't say anything, which I was secretly very happy about. Instead she packed up her stuff and headed upstairs, leaving me alone with my homework and thoughts.

47 spheres.

A world forged from chaos.

The weak shall perish.

Rising darkness.

I slammed my fist against the side of my head repeatedly in an attempt to think about something other than the prophecy. It was starting to freak me out by how much I was thinking about it. I only got a headache.

I exhaled slowly, taking my phone out of my pocket and turning it on when I saw I got a text from my mom, saying she and dad would be out the rest of the evening and I had to take care of Lillian. I nodded to myself, typing a quick reply before stuffing my phone back in my pocket and going upstairs to Lillian's room, leaving my homework on the kitchen table.

"Mom and Dad are both going to be gone tonight. We have the run of the place." I signed to her when I entered her room. She nodded, before going back to whatever she was doing with the piece of scrap paper she was folding. Knowing I wouldn't be able to focus on homework, I decided to see what the news had to say about the planetary alignment. I walked back downstairs, and turned on a light. It had gotten unusually dark very fast.

I turned on the TV, where nothing really intrigued me, but I smiled at the thought of Raf hanging on every word the announcers said about the topic. I wondered if he was doing that now, at the base. Maybe Jack was with him and Miko was off with Bulkhead somewhere.

I was brought back to reality when an announcer started talking about earthquakes happening on different tectonic plates...at the same time. I turned the volume up a little.

"...In theory these quakes would be unrelated, but they happened from the different plates, and the quakes happened at the same time, scientists are gathering data to find the cause."

I switched to a different news channel to see if they talked about the quakes, too. I got something different.

"...Freak storms unlike any the region has seen. Tsunamis threaten the Canadian coast, while lightning storms pummel the Gobi Desert. Meanwhile, electro-magnetic anomalies plague urban power grids. These abnormal global phenomena are leaving most to wonder 'why now'? And 'what nex-"

I jumped when a sudden bolt of lightning struck, illuminating the room in white for half a second. A clap of thunder almost immediate followed, and I heard footsteps running down the stairs and someone jumped on the couch and hugged me. Lillian.

I glanced up at the TV, which miraculously was still on. I shut it off as another flash of lightning hit, illuminating the room in white again. When it disappeared, so did the rest of the power. It was pitch black.

A strong wind picked up, and it's whistling was deafening. My sister hugged me tighter, and a small thought came to my mind, but I pushed it away. We'd be fine without the 'bots. Maybe.

Besides, how would I contact them?

I got up, much to Lillian's protest, and took my phone out to use as a flashlight. I started searching for a wind-up radio I knew we had somewhere, and Lillian followed close behind, still hugging me. I couldn't blame her, I was freaked out myself. I never liked lightning. Or thunder.

A thought nearly stopped me in my tracks. Was the alignment doing this?

***

I found the radio (and even another flashlight) and wound it up in time to hear the words "tornado warning". Figuring it was meant for here, which would explain the wind, I tried remembering everything I learned from school and the Internet about tornadoes. I remembered that you were supposed to take shelter in a place with no windows on the lowest level of a building. Or something like that.

We didn't have a basement or cellar, but we did have a bathroom without windows, and I started walking in that direction, Lillian still attached to me and not letting go.

I shut the door to the bathroom and sat down on the floor, winding up the radio again.

"...World leaders are classifying these bizarre weather patterns as a global emergency. And scientists believe the phenomenon to be somehow related to the current planetary alignment."

It only confined my suspicions. The prophecy seemed to be right. But who was the "weak" that would "perish"?

I hugged Lillian tighter, afraid the "weak" was her or even me. Right now I would even believe conspiracies. They seemed to be right; the world looked like it was ending.

~~~

I know guys!

I FINALLY UPDATED!!!!!!

Sorry it took forever, but school gave me a lot of homework this month. Plus registration for next year. And February is going to be hectic, too, most likely.

Thank you for reading and bearing with me! Y'all are amazing!

This took forever to write, on the account that my internet was so slow for my computer and nothing loaded, and I had to use Netflix for the little news excerpts in the chappy. So I had to borrow our Apple TV and my dad's iPad to write and watch (Sorry dad ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).

*disappears*