Back at the tower, Sentinel, Airachnid, and a group of troopers were preparing for another trip to the surface. As they did, Y/n was in her office fidgeting with sorted data pads on her desk. At first, she was wondering about Orion and D's arrival, but then her thoughts went to Darkwing. He couldn't hurt them, anyway.

She never really noticed the miners could've been elsewhere during this time, as by now, she had forgotten the incident. 

She looked inside a storage box under her desk and began searching through archives. Archives of maps she'd studied throughout many cycles were stored here, a perfect place to hide her personal project: a solo journey to the surface. 

Over and over again, Sentinel refused to take her with him on numerous journeys. Small arguments were always initialized by either of them when the topic was brought up, which always ended up with Sentinel convincing her out of it.

Y/n couldn't really blame him either; the surface was dangerous. However, at this point, she felt confident that she had more than enough knowledge to assist with navigation. 

After rummaging for a bit, Y/n pulled out a small case containing a bright, palm-sized disc. 

Y/n inserted the disc into her computer system. On the screen, the most used coordinate for the search trips is shown. After typing something in, a live transmit of the coordinate was shown. As she was typing more things in, a knock at the door was heard. Y/n sighed, stepping away from her desk to open the door. 

A guard stood at the doorway with a data pad in hand. 

"Lady Y/n, Sentinel Prime would like to see you." 

--

Sentinel and Y/n stood in the middle of the headquarters. He showed her multiple holograms of surface coordinates. Y/n noticed half of the coordinates were almost the same, but she avoided saying anything. She wondered why they kept searching in the same spots. 

Sentinel showed her the last coordinate, the same one she wanted to go to. 

"This one's almost effortless to get to. Not as dangerous." Y/n confirmed, her servo hovering over the hologram.

"I thought so," Sentinel told her as he deactivated the beacon, "it's close to the cave...where the other Primes were killed."

"In the cave..." Y/n repeated under her breath. An idea came to her. "Wait, I figure maybe we have a greater chance of finding--well--finding marks of the matrix-"

"We?"

Y/n paused. "Please, I want to come along--let me come along," she insisted.

"Y/n, we've talked about this. It's dangerous."

"Well, where you're going, it's not!"

Sentinel furrowed his optics as she said this. Y/n looked over her shoulder, thinking of something else to say, until he cupped her chin to face him. 

"I keep telling you I don't want you hurt," he told her, "I couldn't continue living if something happened to you..."

Y/n sighed. She wondered if what he'd said was to keep her from asking anymore. Not wanting to think of it any longer, she looked out at the horizon from the balcony.

"At what time are you leaving?" She murmured.

"In about an hour." Sentinel turned her face towards him, "Understand, I don't want you to go. So drop it, okay?" 

Y/n reached for Sentinel's servo on her face. He smiled and leaned closer.

"I love you," he said softly, pressing a kiss on her helm. She leaned on his touch, taking in the fact he was leaving later than she expected.

This brought her back to her initial plan. Should she be feeling bad for going behind his back?

As soon as Sentinel left to share his plans with his team, Y/n walked back to her office. There, she generated a copy of the disc on her computer. The original disc was carelessly put aside; she thought she should keep it for listing more coordinates from now on. She grabbed the copy and placed it in her forearm's storage compartment. 

After a few minutes, Y/n sat at her desk, studying the new copy's glow, mesmerized by the fact that she would be going to the surface before Sentinel and his search team. The fact that she could find traces of the Matrix intrigued her.

She was too intrigued to pay any attention to the disc she carelessly tossed aside.