After Amelia had called in to let Sharona know that she was going to be late and that Rose was "sick", she left the house immediately afterwards. Leaving Rose to do whatever to calm herself down.

'I hope that by the time I get back, she'll be herself again.' Amelia thought to herself as she sped down the highway to get to work.

When she arrived at work she couldn't help but notice their daily "visitor" swimming back and forth along the waves near the docking station.

'Is it that same shark again?! Is Sharona feeding it or something?' Amelia questioned thoughtfully.

A while back, after Sharona's latest exploration to some unknown location at sea, the Center had gotten a new visitor that seemed to make daily appearances at their shores. Amelia tried to approach the shark by the docks to see what it looked like. But as soon as she got even close to the docks she would get this feeling of impending doom in her soul. 

Immediately she went the other way and went back to work. She asked Sharona about the shark, numerous times actually, but all she kept getting was dodgy answers or she would switch the subject. 

'Strange….' She thought suspiciously. 

But she knew from experience not to question the unexplained if she could help it. 

She got out of her car and proceeded to head off to work. Once inside, she headed off to her station at the security office. Where she was in charge of keeping a close eye on the monitors while the others went on patrol. And then afterwards they would switch positions. 

Once there, she was greeted by Melody and Winnie. Fellow security guards. Melody was in charge of being "third in command" of the Center. And Winnie was a top notch expert at getting information out of debtors or intruders. Winnie had an interesting personality along with Bonnie, who was currently teaching a new intern about the sea turtles. They both were childhood friends and didn't grow up in the best of conditions. So that could play in some of her quirks that she often showed. And Amelia didn't and couldn't blame her for that. Winnie had a rough childhood and because of that, affected her in a lot of ways that could potentially hurt her or others in the long run. But she had to hand it to her, ever since she and Bonnie showed up, Sharona has had to deal with less and less debtors and assaults to deal with. And for that, she was grateful.

"Hey Winnie. Hey Melody. How's it going?" Amelia asked.

"Nothing much, just making sure nobody is around the gates." Melody signed.

"Yeah, and so far those bozos haven't shown up. Guess I really scared them the last time they tried to break in huh~?" Winnie smirked as she thought of the terrified faces of the last debtor that tried to break in.

"I want to say that violence is not the answer to everything, though those debtors are making it harder and harder for me to prove that…" Melody signed tiredly.

"Melody, let's face it, sometimes humanity can be such a pain in the behind and that there's nothing you can do about it. So sometimes you just have to knock some sense into their pea brains." Winnie replied as she leaned in her roller chair and put her feet on the desk in a relaxed position.

"True. But I still believe that there's some hope for humanity. We just need the right guidance from a higher being. And get your feet off the desk!" Melody chastised Winnie as she swatted her feet off the desk.

Winnie chuckled. "What? So you mean like God or aliens?" Winnie asked intrigued.

"Well, whatever which one it is, I hope they do it soon. Cuz I don't know how much more of my sanity can take it." Amelia said in a huff as she plopped down at her station.

"So what's up with Rosie Posie? She sick or something?" Winnie asked as she wondered why Amelia was late. 

"Well first off, make sure not to call her that in front of her or you'll be in a chokehold, again." Amelia smirked as she saw Winnie grimace at the memory.

"Secondly, yeah. She's not feeling too good so she took the day off." She explained.

"Is it really that? Or did something happen to her?" Melody signed suspiciously.

Amelia was a bit caught off guard when she asked this. Even after working with Melody for a few years, she still wasn't used to how sharp she can be. It was a little frightening.

"H-how…?" Amelia stuttered.

"Oh c'mon Ames! Even a blind person can obviously tell what's wrong!" Winnie exclaimed, which caught Amelia off guard.

"She's been acting funny for about a week now, being all jumpy and whatnot! In fact, now that I think about it…" Winnie began to think harder. "Sharona and especially Stella have also been acting weird lately. Not like Rosie, but pretty close. You have any idea Mel?" Winnie asked.

"Not that I can recall." Melody lied through her metaphorical teeth. She, being a highly trained informant, knew why Sharona and Stella had been "unsteady" as of late already. And she of course was seeing, as in dating, the Mercon intel officer. He asked her a few days ago if she would like to court him. And of course, she said yes in her soft voice which gave Soundwave shivers of pleasure every time.

But as Melody thought about that moment she couldn't help the slight smile on her face.

"Ohhh~ what's got you all smiley smiley~? Did someone finally get a boyfriend~?" Winnie asked/teased. And Melody couldn't help the playful glare she sent her way while she blushed.

"*Le Gasp*!!! You did!!! Didn't you?! Tell me his name, what he does, and what he looks like!!! Tell me, tell me, tell me!!!" Winnie excitedly bombarded her.

Amelia, though also intrigued, just shook her head and giggled at the two's antics. But before Melody could respond, the door to their office opened.

A woman of 24 years of age with black mid length hair and a pair of bright green eyes with large nerdy glasses walked in.

"Zhello ladies. I vould like to inform you zhat I am going to go on an undervater rezearch expedition vith Miss Sanchez. And vould like to inform you all zhat, if necezzary, to contact Sharona zhat if zomething happenz, to make zure you all come looking for uz, at theze coordinatez, if I'm not back vithin 48 hourz. Iz zhat understood?" She informed them in her heavy German accent. She slid a piece of paper with precise numbers written on it.

"Sure thing Quin. But, uh, why are you only taking Marisala with ya?" Winnie asked curiously.

The woman, now known as Quin, huffed with indignence. 

"I am not going to bring only one perzon. I am alzo bringing azziztants from my lab to help me and keep an eye on zhe boat. But like I zaid, if any of you need to reach me or if Sharona iz looking for me, zhen juzt tell her I'll be gone for a vhile." She explained stoically. 

Quin was also an interesting character. She said that before she came to work for them, that she was a highly recognized scientist and doctor of sorts in the medical and scientific community. Amelia, knowing a few things with some of the work that she did in their labs, couldn't remember if her name was mentioned anywhere in both the communities that were concerned. So something must've happened to her in order for both fields to keep it hush hush about it. She tried once to ask what happened with Quin and her former occupations. But all she got was that, "It vazn't a gud fit for me." Or "Occupational hazardz."

"Vell, it vaz gud talking to you ladies, but zcience vaits for no one. Gud day." Quin mock saluted jokingly and continued on her way. 

The girls chuckled and continued their previous conversation. Much to Melody's chagrin.

Le Time Skip to after work and Photography lessons

Amelia was on her way from photography lessons and she was puzzled. Her teacher recommended that she find a sort of muse for her to focus her work on. To which, she was going to have a hard time finding it since she was so indecisive on pretty much everything she chose.

But as she drove, she came by a local beach which was close to her home and thought that maybe she would have some luck finding anything muse worthy there.

She pulled over and parked her car in the parking lot and took her camera out and began taking pictures while the sun was still out. 

A few hours later, she had over a dozen pictures of marine life and landscape photos. But none of them seemed to click for her. As she walked along the shoreline, she was about to give up and go back home to her cousin. 

But then all of sudden, something magnetic pulled at her heartstrings towards an outcropping of large rocks.

She was drawn to the feeling like a moth to a flame. As she walked closer to the rocks, a familiar smell of iron and something else mixed in with it reached her nose. 

'Is someone hurt?! If I can smell that much blood from such a distance, then someone or something is in danger!' And of course, being the kind soul that she was, she dashed towards the outcropping.

Breakdown's POV

Darkness…

All he felt was a hollow feeling filled with nothing but darkness, hardly even that. 

Slowly, something started to echo through that emptiness, and a thumping noise similar to that of a spark starting to beat after what felt like an eternity of not doing so.

It was such a warm feeling, something he'd never felt before.

The beating slowly started getting louder, and a pulling became apparent to him.

It soon started to become unbearable, and in a small sense, painful.

"Wha-!" He gasped, breathing in air like he'd never felt it in his chest once in his life.

His one good eye darted around finding himself on a beach.

As waves crashed behind him panic filled him, memories of MECH flashing through his head to only be put to the side as he found the legs of a bird standing in front of him.

He looked up to see it and caught it's small black eyes and long orange bill.

"......"

He found himself just staring at the large white bird.

"......."

And it just stared back as if he was the most interesting thing it ever saw.

A long moment ticked by with nothing happening. Him nor the bird moved or even made a noise.

It just stood there and he just laid there, with blank expressions and unblinking eyes.

Until the darned thing tried to take out his only one good eye with a peck of its bill.

Which caused him to yell several profanities and flinch away holding his face in his large scared hands. 

Causing the bird to fly away, frightened.

"Hello?! Is someone there?!" A strong but distinctly feminine had called.

'Oh, Primus no! Not a human!!!' he thought terrified, frantically looking around to see who it was and maybe make a break for it to the ocean.

A long dark haired young woman peered over the top of the rocks and gasped at what she saw. Breakdown didn't know whether her brown eyes held fear or confusion in them. Probably both from his previous encounters with humans have told him. The woman was staring at him and especially around his body. He wondered what she was looking at with such horror. That was until he saw how many wounds he had gained from that mine collapse.

And that's when they shared the same look of horror. And when his brain finally told him, 'Yeah, Buddy you're hurt. Very hurt. And you're going to feel it now!' Even though it'd probably been several hours since he had acquired these injuries, pain still shot up and down his body like someone had thrown a swordfish at him and he'd run into a whale at the same time.

He'd never felt so mentally sandwiched before, not that it's an actual term…

But it felt like it…

"Okay…!!! Ummm….!!! Normally I'm the nurse in these situations…" The human trailed off. Then a figurative lightbulb went off in the woman's head. 

"Okay if I can find an access point around these rocks, I'll be able to lift you to my car. I'll be right back!"

She started to climb back up the rocks. She turned back briefly to yell down at him.

"Try not to move too much or you'll make the injuries worse! I'll try to hurry!" 

She then scurried off to Primus knows where and left Breakdown very confused.

He didn't quite know what to expect from this human, and normally would've been relieved that she left. But just seeing her made him want her back.

Why? Goodness, WHY?

Thoughts and questions swam through his mind like a small fish fleeing from a shark.

And the pain didn't help.

Yup not a bit…

She'd told him not to move. 'Com'on woman, you saw me! Do you think I'd want to move?'

In the distance he could hear a car's engine start and it was getting closer and closer till it sounded like it was nearby. But the giant rocks still covered his line of sight. And from his point of view, the only way you could get out of this area was if you climbed in and out like she did. So how was she going to help? 

A couple of moments later she reappeared with a large medical kit strapped at her waist with a weird looking sash like sling around her upper torso.

"Okay! I'm back! And I brought my car along with supplies!" She said cheerfully.

A mixture of relief and weariness washed over him. How could he truly trust her?

And why was she so happy to help him?

Or was she happy she found him this damaged, so he couldn't fight back when she did something?

'Oh, Primus forbid!'

She had already made her way to him, and over to his side and kneeled down the best she could with the big medical kit strapped on her.

Which caused Breakdown to flinch the opposite way of her in fear.

"What's wrong?! Are your wounds getting worse?!" She cried out panic-stricken.

"Too close…" Breakdown muttered low and fearful. He could already feel the pain fading away due to the anxiety that filled him.

He didn't wanna go through that again! 'No. No. No. No. Please no!'

The pain MECH caused was not just physical it had done a number on his psyche as well.

And it clouded his mind with anxiety and rained terror. With the periodic crack of anger like thunder, flashing through him as fast as it'd leave.

Again, again, and again.

Then, out of the storm of emotions, a warm comforting hand took hold of his hand. And then he felt the cold splash of water on his face.

He finally regained his senses and looked everywhere frantically till his eye landed on the woman. He was confused as to why she was holding a half empty water bottle with a panicked face. Then he noticed her soft hand tightly wrapped around his large one. 

A strong look of concern lingered there on her face, slowly getting stronger by the second he didn't say anything.

He didn't understand why she was helping him or even what she was doing here.

All he knew from humans was pain.

And nothing more.

"Okay, I don't know if you get those panic attacks a lot, but, whatever happened in the past, it's not going to happen now. I'm the last person that wants to do anything but help you. Just… if not believe in humanity, believe in me." She says with a soft but strong encouraging voice as she removed her hand from his and held it out for him to shake. 

"Hi, my name's Amelia. What's yours?" 

To be continued...