It had been a year since Optimus had apologized to Alexandra. The year had proved to be a rather uneventful one. The only major events consisted of Alexandra starting high school, Sam getting a car, and Optimus getting weekly checkups from Alexandra and her friends. These 'checkups' were comprised of unwanted car washes, robot mode included, and the teenagers constantly had Optimus rearrange his place so it was more comfortable. He had protested at first; but eventually gave in to the teenagers' peer pressure. Apart from those events, Alexandra's fifteen-year-old year was quiet, which was preferred by the Prime. He was able to stay off the military grid by sticking to familiar roads that hadn't caused trouble in the past. He even made sure to avoid popular government places, such as national parks and monuments. He thought it was a successful year, the only downer to him was the week before Alexandra had started high school. The family, except Mazikeen, as she couldn't take a leave of absence this time of year, was on the annual camping trip again, and Optimus was looking forward to hiking with Alexandra and investigating his crash site. He didn't get to do what he planned. Given Alexandra's history of getting lost and subsequently discovering an alien robot, her parents banned her from leaving their sight on that camping trip.

But all of that was in the past, and this year's camping trip was going to be way better than the previous year. Alexandra's parents would let her go hiking so long as Sam went with her. That didn't hinder Optimus' plan, being how Sam already knew about him, he could just come along with them.

"Alright guys, let's not make this hike too long. I'm not a nature freak like you guys."

"Ah, come on Sam! This'll be fun!" 

Alexandra giggled excitedly as she was being lifted up by Optimus. He put her on his shoulder. 

"Sam, come on up here!" 

Sam sighed an 'alright' and then he was also lifted by Optimus and put on his other shoulder.

Leo jumped out of Alexandra's backpack. He climbed to the top of Optimus's head,

"Okie dokie, let's get this party started!"

The Prime huffed, thinking of how ridiculous he must look with a human on each shoulder and a little transformer dancing on his head. But he had learned to swallow his pride since his arrival on Earth. Optimus took off in the direction of his crash site from two years ago. On approach, he decided to send out an EMP; he didn't want to risk being detected if the government left any traps. Especially after Mazikeen warned him to be more careful since the army was hunting for him. The trip wasn't a quiet one with Sam and Alexandra having their sibling rivalries and Leo blasting music the entire time according to the mood of the conversation. So Optimus was more than relieved when they reached their destination and set them all on the ground.

"How strange..."

"Yeah, it is," 

Alexandra looked around. The crater that Optimus had made when he landed was totally filled in with dirt. The entire area looked as if nothing out of the ordinary had ever occurred there, 

"Weird..." 

As a safety precaution, Optimus did several scans of the area. His scans picked up two metal devices that had not been there the day he landed. He zoomed in on one, and saw that it was some type of machine. Judging by the antennas and little satellite dish, it was a detector of some sort. It was currently offline, most likely due to the EMP he sent out earlier. Optimus silently thanked Mazikeen and his life experiences for preparing him well.

"Well, I guess the Feds were here and cleaned up the mess. Oh well..." 

Sam wasn't at all bothered about the situation. He didn't see a reason to be worried, there really wasn't anything that could be done. He decided to change the wary atmosphere. 

"Hey, shorty! I bet I could climb up Optimus faster than you!" 

Alexandra looked at Optimus for permission. He just shrugged, giving her the okay. 

"You're on!" 

She and her brother dashed for Optimus, but just as they got close enough to climb, he started walking backwards at a fast pace. Optimus smirked as he continued to keep his distance.

"I never said I was gonna make this easy for you two." 

Alexandra laughed,

"Leave it to you to make things difficult." 

She picked up her pace and reached Optimus right before Sam did. Optimus stopped walking so his moving parts wouldn't hurt them as they climbed him. Sam's advantage was height, so his reach was greater than his sister's. He was covering a lot of ground. But since Alexandra was with Optimus more, she knew where all the little kinks were. She also forgot to mention to Sam that she was used to climbing Optimus, but normally she would climb him when he was walking. It just made things easier for her when Optimus stood still. She was soon at his shoulder, but didn't stop there. Sam barely got to Optimus's shoulder when he heard his sister's voice from above, she smirked at him victoriously from her crisscrossed position on Optimus's head.

"I win!" 

"What!?" 

Sam was clearly shocked and out of breath. 

"Why do I get the feeling that you played me, shorty?"

"Maybe,"

She slid down and helped Sam onto the giant, red shoulder.

Leo didn't help. He laughed, 

"Ha ha! You got beat by a girl!"

Optimus did what looked like an 'eye roll'. He has picked up a lot of human habits since his arrival to earth. Leo had yet to take Optimus's 'growing up' advice. 

"Alright alright, let's get you kids back before your parents start to get worried. Or before we find any unexpected visitors from the sky." 

He started walking away from his crash site. Alexandra and Sam were now sitting on the edge, letting their legs swing, 

"Hey now, that was awesome! Besides if we do find another Cybertronian, maybe he or she could be Sam's protector. That would be cool..."

"I don't need protecting! I have Rover,"

He thought for a second about what Alexandra had just said and replied, 

"Wait, you protect her? From what?"

"Not from anything, really. When I first got here, I decided to take Alexandra as my charge. Since she has helped me adjust to this planet, I wanted to protect her in turn."

Alexandra winked at her older brother, 

"Though I'm never really in danger. I'm not an 'alien bad news' magnet y'know." 

He just half-heartedly shoved her with his shoulder,

"Yeah sure, Alex. Hey, Optimus?"

Optimus glanced at him, 

"Yes?"

Sam fiddled with his hands, 

"If there is a new big bot that comes...can you ask them to protect...to protect Maze?"

Alexandra looked away as Optimus glanced at her, 

"Mazikeen...why? Is she not well enough equipped to protect herself?"

Alexandra sighed, 

"She is...it's just hard-"

"Why?"

Sam patted Alexandra's shoulder, 

"Maze has always been the one protecting us. Sometimes we get worried that one day...she won't come home,"

Optimus nodded, 

"I understand. I have felt the same about my Autobots."

Alexandra looked up at him, 

"So...is that a yes?"

Optimus nodded, 

"Yes. You have my word that when another Cybertronian comes to Earth, Mazikeen will get a guardian,"