Chapter Fourteen
New Divide

“There’s nothing we can do.”

“Of course there’s something we can do! You don’t seriously expect us to just—”

“We can’t just leave—”

They had been arguing for what seemed like hours. Forty-seven humans were in the medbay, under Ratchet’s care; the other fifteen were gathered in Optimus’s office in the Autobot Base, squabbling and discussing and talking rationally before descending into fierce, near-hysterical disputes again. Ironhide remained silent behind Optimus, apparently too angry and bitter to speak; Secretary Keller was pacing to and fro, speaking firmly into his cell phone ear device; the minicons stood in the corner, bleeping to one another and quivering in apparent terror. The others, however, were all being extremely vocal.

“Hey, hey, come on!” Major Will Lennox called resolutely over the general hubbub, something that Optimus Prime was deeply grateful for. The soldier’s brown face was lined with worry, aging him by twenty years. “We’ve all gotta just calm down and think about this logically, ‘cause if we’re going to launch a rescue mission, or an offensive against the Decepticons, I need to get back to Oklahoma and tell my wife first. I say we all listen to Optimus, and he can decide what to do. Kids, just . . . clear out, okay?”

“We’re not kids, Will!” Sam argued fiercely. “I’m twenty-three!”

“This is a military situation, Sam,” he stressed.

The young man’s face instantly transformed, an expression of absolute sullenness twisting his softly handsome features. “And who once said, during a certain military situation that I remember, that I was a soldier?” he asked bitterly. “Are you taking that back now?”

Lennox sighed heavily. “Look, Sam – of course I’m not . . .”

“Then we’re staying.” His light brown eyes flicked to where Rad, Miles and Leiana were standing in a row, arms folded. “We live with the Autobots. They’re our family. Skyfire’s part of that family, and so is Alexis. I don’t know what kinda family values you have, Major, but I’m guessing with a wife and a beautiful daughter like Annabelle, they’re pretty damn good.” Lennox looked at him with an unreadable expression. “Just to put it all in perspective for you. What if Sarah had been abducted by Decepticons?”

“Sam,” Judy Witwicky interjected, “you saw what happened to our family last night . . .”

“Erin’s fine, Mom!” Sam almost shouted at his maternal unit, clearly frustrated. “Dad’s got concussion; he’s not on his deathbed. Besides, it’s just one more thing to add to our list of reasons to break the Decepticons once and for all.”

“Judy’s right, Sam,” a troubled Epps murmured. “You’ve seen enough o’ this war.”

“Sorry to interrupt, Sergeant,” Rad cut in, “but I think Sam’s right. All of us have fought with the Autobots – not Leiana, true, but Jorge’s happy for her to stay here—”

“Fig ain’t thinkin’ straight, Rad. His son’s dead; he doesn’t want to have to cry over another child’s tombstone.” Epps lowered his intensely deep eyes to his boots, the freshly stitched cut over his eye standing out starkly against his dark skin. “You should never have to bury your children. Fig went to Hell and back when Carlos died at Mission City.”

“Well, I’m not going to die,” Leiana snapped. “I want to even the scores. Those bastards killed my brother!”

Lennox grimaced and shook his head. “We can’t be out for revenge against the Decepticons, Lala. Basing a mission on vengeance won’t work out; it never does. You’re definitely too young for this, kiddo, even if the others aren’t. I’ll have one of the choppers take you back to Catalina tomorrow . . . You’d be better off back in Michoacán.”

Leiana looked stunned. “You’re . . . deporting me?”

“Don’t be like that, Leiana. I’m just sending you back to your—”

“¡Cómo te atreves!” she shouted angrily, raising her fist. “I am not going back to Mexico! I’m sick of being fucked around like this, just ‘cause I’m younger than the others!”

“Enough,” Optimus thundered, reaching the limit of his patience with what was happening. Seeing the unwilling tears in the teenager’s eyes was intolerable, in any case. “Major Lennox, Sergeant Epps . . . Whilst I appreciate your concern for Leiana’s safety, I assure you that she will be perfectly safe in our care. I will have Ironhide install additional security around the entire NAB perimeter to ensure no further infiltration or abductions. It is thoroughly unjust to uproot her from another home, and I will not have it. As Sam rightly states, there is mutual integrity and a deep sense of compassion between those that reside here; we are a family unit, human and Autobot alike.”

Leiana gave Lennox a triumphant glare, though her lip still trembled in an attempt to contain her tears. The soldier’s brow creased, and he hung his head with a burdened sigh.

“On your head be it if anything happens to her.”

“Sunstreaker is her guardian; I am confident that he will protect her,” Optimus asserted.

“He will,” the brunette muttered.

“Hate to say it, Prime,” Keller broke in at last, looking up from where he had been pacing, “but Starscream did a piss-poor job of protectingAlexis last night. How do we know that your soldiers can protect these . . . young adults?”

Optimus felt a tug of terrible regret at his spark. The honour of the Autobots was being called into question; their ability to protect, to take care of those who needed it. “With all due respect, Mr Keller, the attack last night was a great surprise to all of us,” he reminded the Secretary of Defence seriously. “Starscream was inebriated and overwhelmed; the latter was a common symptom for all of us. We have not seen the Decepticons for five years, and after the defeat of Unicron, we did not expect to.”

Keller sighed. “I’ll give you that. So why have they returned?”

“Revenge.”

“Revenge for what?” the aging man asked impatiently. “Alexis destroyed Unicron; granted, that might fire them up a little. But what about Skyfire? He doesn’t seem to have done them much harm.”

“Skyfire constructed the Axalon,” Ironhide said gruffly. “The ship used to carry the All Spark.”

There was a long, tense silence. Finally Kia Hawkins, Alexis’s wing mate in the Air Force, spoke up.

“Could ya give us an idea of what to expect from these guys, Optimus?” she asked, hand on one hip. “I’m still kinda strugglin’ with the concept of a big guy like Skyfire getting snatched . . . He must weigh ten tonnes. And why would they want revenge on Alexis after all this time? Her killin’ Unicron would leave the way open for someone else to be the leader; if anything, they should be thanking the gal. And . . . well, I guess she works with Starscream, but that’s not a big deal . . .” She paused, and her ice-blue eyes shifted to his. “Uh . . . is it?”

“Of course it is.”

The deep, grating voice came from the other side of the room. Optimus looked up from the bridge of his nose, where his thumb and forefinger were pinched together jadedly.

“Barricade,” he stated, a request for information in his weary tone. “You returned.”

“I did.”

In the confusion of the attack the night before, Barricade and Arcee had both disappeared, as had Seraphim. Optimus had been able to make radio contact with Arcee, who was still scouting the surrounding woods to assist the fleeing wedding guests in finding their way back to the main road and out of Autobot territory, but Seraphim had not replied, and Barricade, too, had remained staunchly silent when he had tried to contact him. Now, however, their tenuous ally was back. His armour was filthy, covered in dirt and leaves, and his expression was cold in a manner that seemed highly practised. He stepped forward, and the humans gave him wary looks.

“I was tracking Blackarachnia and Ravage,” he explained curtly. “After they attacked my charge, I thought it best to pursue them as far as I could . . . Allow them to lead me to their base, perhaps.”

“Did you find it?” Miles asked.

Barricade turned an irritable optic on the blond. “Obviously not, human.”

Optimus sighed heavily and dropped a massive fist against the computer system. “No matter. Seraphim might have had more luck; she may be pursuing Rumble and Frenzy.” He glanced up at Barricade to see if he would react to the mention of Seraphim, but he remained straight-faced. “What did you mean by it being important that Alexis works with Starscream?”

“A personal brand ofretribution,” Barricade said darkly. “Megatron’s vengeance for millennia of treachery.”

“Megatron?” Epps and Lennox chorused. Kia and Benjamin Harrington, the commander of Alexis’s air team, exchanged puzzled glances; Judy Witwicky shuddered and eyed Sam anxiously.

“Yes. It seems he has returned,” Optimus murmured. “Only he could have launched this attack.”

“That Cybertronian jet from the first fight at Mission City was not in the air last night,” Will said, with conviction. “It was too fast; we would have heard the difference in engine types. The planes were all Earth-made, from Boeing and Lockheed.”

“Megatron has adopted a new form,” Barricade said icily, “along with a new name: Galvatron.”

“Galvatron?” Miles repeated. “Why?”

“That name is familiar to me,” Optimus mused. “It was written in Cybertronian prophecies on the walls of many temples, if I remember correctly. Prophecies that foretold the horrors of Unicron’s chosen servant; one for whom even death could be reversed, making him the most powerful of all beings. Ratchet will know more about it; he was a medium of the ancient spirits before becoming a medic, as well as an emissary. Once the injured humans have recovered, we can question him.” He levelled his gaze at the soldiers and pilots. “I suggest we form a plan of action. Time is running out for Alexis and Skyfire . . . Their rescue is a critical outcome of this operation.”

“Who’re we dealing with?” Harrington asked shortly, chewing on his cigar.

“As far as we were able to tell, there were eight Decepticons involved: four airborne, four on the ground,” Ironhide explicated. “Megatron’s taken the form of a Blackbird SR-71; Lugnut, his most loyal servant, was the Stratofortress; Blitzwing and Thundercracker you’ve handled before, at Mission City, and they’ve both kept their original vehicular forms. They must have been rebuilt.”

Rad clenched a fist. “Thundercracker made the building fall when Carlos died . . .”

“What?” Leiana demanded. “I’ll kill the fucker!”

“Enough,” Ironhide ordered, and she desisted, bright-eyed with anger. “All in good time.”

“Ya’ll are gonna get yourselves killed,” Kia sighed, putting a hand to her forehead. “Who’re the other four, Ironhide?”

Ironhide turned his sharp, blue gaze on her. “There are three drones: Rumble, Frenzy and Ravage. They were all minions of Soundwave, who we defeated a good six solar cycles ago in California. Rumble and Frenzy are small, but intelligent; both are highly talented in computer programming, code-breaking and indoctrination, and more than a match for a human, especially together.”

“Agreed,” Keller muttered dryly. “I remember Frenzy.”

“Rumble is worse, arguably. He has more sense and less . . . well . . . mania.”

Kia nodded, playing with her dog tags. “What about this Ravage guy?”

“Ravage was Soundwave’s particular partner; his favoured drone, and unquestionably the most dangerous one,” Optimus put in. “His alternate form is a missile, as far as I remember. He takes a raw, animalistic form, unlike the more simian body frame that full-fledged Cybertronians favour: that of a mechanical beast, with an impaling spike and lethal nano-bolt injectors on his tail. I would say that he resembles a cycloptic jaguar, if I were to state an analogy, just as Scorponok bore a resemblance to a scorpion.”

“I saw both of ‘em,” Epps admitted, looking as if he might shudder. “The one last night . . . damn, it’s a monster.”

“It almost killed Rose,” Sam added darkly.

“I am sure Rose is recovering in Ratchet’s care, Sam,” Optimus said gently. “As is Mikaela, no doubt.”

Barricade growled softly. “Note that the medic’s favourites were both critically injured, Prime. Perhaps it is time to relieve him of his guardianship duties over Connelly entirely.”

/Don’t listen to him, Prime/ Ironhide interjected.

“I disagree, Barricade. Ratchet was outnumbered,” the commander said firmly. “It was impossible to keep watch over Mikaela and Rose, especially as you were not present to assist him. I assumed that you would have learnt this lesson after what happened at Mission City.” Barricade gritted his bronze teeth, optics aglow with hatred. “Ratchet is a loyal soldier and an excellent guardian to Mikaela. You still have full guardianship over Rose, but I expect you to work with her secondary when there is need of collaboration. Is that clear?”

The Decepticon stared him down for a moment, then clenched a fist. “Yes, sir.”

Optimus nodded. “Good.”

“You mentioned that there were eight, Mr Prime,” Harrington interrupted. “Sorry for the interruption, but I’ve still got a pilot missing, and I’d like her back. We should get down to business quickly.”

“You are right, Lieutenant Colonel. My apologies.”

“Was there . . . a spider one?” Leiana asked doubtfully, even as he remembered the last Decepticon. “I don’t know if my mind was screwing around, but it looked as though there was a hella big araña running around last night . . .”

“There was,” Barricade confirmed. “Blackarachnia.”

“Who the slag is Blackarachnia?” Ironhide grumbled. “Never heard of him.”

“Her, axel grease. A femme,” the black-and-white hissed, “and I have my suspicions about who she is. If Thundercracker and Blitzwing have both been resurrected, then it is entirely possible that Thunderblast, the most ruthless femme in the Decepticon armies, has also been reformatted . . . into a techno-organic arachnid named Blackarachnia. There is no other reason why she should have actively sought out the medic last night, and made it her business to attack what she took to be his charge. She is known to have a grudge against him.”

Harrington chewed harder on his cigar, sweat beading on his brow. “Right, so we got four planes, two midget hackers, a jaguar that turns into a missile, and a giant tarantula.”

“Yep,” Ironhide deadpanned. “Might even be more than that.”

“So what do we do?” Sam asked heatedly.

“Dude, calm down . . .” was the hesitant suggestion from Miles, but it went unheeded.

“I’m not calming down, Miles! This is serious!” the young man said angrily. “It’s obvious what’s happening here. Megatron – Galvatron – is out for revenge on the people who’ve humiliated him in the past, or been disloyal to him. He took Skyfire and Alexis to get to Starscream. He tried to take me, and when he couldn’t, he had the others go and hurt the people I care about the most: Mikaela, Rose, Bumblebee and my dad could have died last night, not to mention the baby the Decepticons might have killed.”

Judy Witwicky paled. “Baby?” she quavered. “Sammy . . . ?”

“Mikaela’s pregnant, Mom.”

The forty-year-old looked shocked beyond belief. Her face bleached from pale to sheet-white, and her eyes widened. “M-Mikaela . . . but who’s the father, sweetie . . . ?”

Sam stared, indignant. “Wha—? I am!”

“Oh! Well, that’s different!” A smile broke out across her face. “Congratulations! Oh, Ron’s going to be so pleased! My Sammy, a father . . . gosh, that means I’ll be a grandmother!”

She made to embrace him, but he quickly stumbled back with his hands raised, bright red in the face. “Uh – let’s do this later, Mom . . . serious situation and all,” he mumbled, clearly trying to regain a little of his sombre masculinity. Being hugged by his maternal unit would not improve his image of adulthood and military credibility, after all. “But, uh, thanks.”

Judy subsided obediently, though a wide smile still hung from ear to ear. “Oh, honey . . .”

Sam cleared his throat, still flushed. “Uh . . . as I was saying . . . well, you get what I’m saying.”

“I understand your reasoning, Sam,” Optimus assured him. “It is possible that Galvatron is seeking revenge for past events. I believe that you are right in that Starscream and yourself are, most likely, his primary targets.”

“Where’s Bumblebee?” Rad asked, frowning. “He should be briefed about this, Optimus.”

“He is still in the medical wing, but he will be informed of Sam’s potential vulnerability when he comes back online,” he told his charge, then turned to the others. “Ironhide, have Ratchet activate Skyspy. We will need to know where these Decepticons have made their base,” Optimus commanded, and the weapons specialist nodded. “Lieutenant Colonel, if you would take your pilots and proceed to the hangar; Starscream is waiting for you there to discuss a reconnaissance mission.” Harrington nodded, beckoning to Kia and the other pilots. “Major Lennox, I suggest you go with Ironhide, then return to your family to inform them of the emergency. We may need your assistance here on a regular basis.”

“Sure, Optimus,” Lennox nodded. “When do you want us back?”

”As soon as possible, if you please. Sergeant Epps, will you be able to return?”

“As always.” Epps saluted. “Just gotta get back to Chicago and tell my wife, but I’ll be back.”

“Excellent. Leiana, would you like to accompany them to the surveillance room?” Optimus asked benignly, and the teenager nodded. “I will have Sunstreaker meet you there when he . . . emerges.”

She sighed. “Estupendo. A wasted Autobot ogling my ass . . . again.”

It was too dark to see.

She had gone blind. There was nothing around her but blackness.

Worse than the darkness, there was . . . an emptiness. Part of her was missing . . . too far away for her to feel any longer. It was warm and clammy around her – she could feel the sweat on her skin, in her hair – but inside, she had gone icy cold. Dead and numb. Her heart was beating weakly, unable to function properly without its other half. She groaned and pushed a hand against her chest, grasping the material of her dirty shirt to remind herself that she was alive. The emptiness didn’t go away . . . there was a void inside of her.

“Starscream,” she murmured.

There was no reply but the echo of her voice.

God, she felt . . . hungry. Not for food, but for something to fill the barrenness. Starscream wasn’t there, and she was completely alone in an unfamiliar place. Or at least, she thought she was alone.

“Alexis?”

The voice was familiar. Deep, but gentle, unlike Starscream’s. She opened her eyes tiredly to see two navy blue lights smouldering faintly in the shadows of their prison, wide with anxiety, but paler and weaker than she was used to seeing them. Her frail hand reached out to them, and the tip of a massive finger nudged her palm carefully.

“Skyfire,” she croaked. “Where are we?”

“I do not know, young one.” She could hear metallic components grating against one another as the largest Autobot attempted to move. “Primus, they have energy sealant . . .”

Alexis coughed weakly. “What?”

“A rather . . . tricky brand of bonding agent, made and manufactured on Cybertron,” Skyfire winced, glancing down at his massive wrists. Squinting, Alexis saw that there was a thick, faintly glowing substance trailing around both of them, squeezing them together tightly and binding them to one another like handcuffs. “It is highly radioactive, so keep as far away from it as you can. I will not be able to get rid of it until I can get hold of some anti-epoxy resin adhesive, which I doubt I will be provided with in this place.”

“Can you move at all?” she enquired, touching a tender bruise on her elbow tentatively. It felt as though someone had slammed it against a rock; her nerves were still jangling from the hit to the funny bone.

“A little, but not far or well. They have bound most of my limbs.”

“Great.” She managed to haul herself into a standing position, though she found that virtually every part of her body was in some sort of pain. “God . . . I don’t know what the heck happened to me, but I could really use a little help from Ratchet right now . . .”

Skyfire chuckled, though it sounded more like a wheeze. “As could I.”

Tracing what felt suspiciously like a cracked rib, Alexis frowned deeply as she tried to remember what had happened. She remembered being Jade’s bridesmaid and getting ready with Rose beforehand; she remembered walking down the aisle with Sideswipe and her heart beating fast as she caught sight of Starscream in his best man’s tuxedo; she remembered trying a few drinks at the party, mixing and matching, wine and beer and champagne forced on her by the Twins; going outside for some fresh air . . .

“We’ve been kidnapped, haven’t we?” she concluded.

“Unfortunately,” the gargantuan scientist said heavily, shifting his cranium into one hand with difficulty. “The Decepticons attacked N. A. B. Facility at approximately 00:39 hours this morning – eight of them, four in the air and four on the ground. They saw where we were assembled and were quick to take siege of the nuptial room and surrounding area. I was directing the humans away when I was seized by Blitzwing, Thundercracker, and another Decepticon whom I believe may have been Lugnut, Megatron’s most loyal servant. Lugnut is almost as large as I am, so with all three of them, I suppose it must have been fairly easy.”

Alexis nodded wearily. “And you couldn’t fight them off – everyone was at least a little bit tipsy last night.”

“Which is exactly why they chose to attack at that moment,” Skyfire smiled humourlessly. “None of us expected it, did we? I don’t suppose you were expecting to run straight into the resurrected Megatron when you went outside for a moment of respite.”

A stone dropped into her stomach.

“‘The resurrected Megatron’?” she repeated. “W-what do you mean . . . ?”

“I saw it as I was being hauled off the ground against my will,” he sighed. “He is . . . truly terrible now, Alexis. I do not know how he has returned, but he is larger and stronger than he ever was on Cybertron. I fear that the power of the All Spark may have been trapped in him, seeing as that is what Sam used to defeat him originally. He may have absorbed the energy – or worse, Unicron may have been involved. Perhaps he transferred his essence into those fallen Decepticons that served him in the past.”

“We’re screwed.” She dropped her forehead onto her bony knees, heart pounding. “Skyfire, we are screwed. I’m responsible for Unicron’s death, and so are you, indirectly – you built the Axalon.”

“And Sideways knew that,” he added despondently.

“Great. So they’re probably out for revenge.”

Even in the gloom, she saw his contorted expression. “I can think of no other reason why they would take us, Alexis.”

A crash from somewhere else had her scrambling towards him and tucking herself into the crook of his arm, white in the face. He held her close to his chest, where she could feel his spark throbbing thickly against the armour. His curtailed half-spark. She knew how he felt . . . After all these years, she suddenly remembered how it felt to be half of oneself. Someone shouted something from elsewhere in wherever they were, and the shout echoed through the darkness, but there was nothing else.

Silence fell again, broken only by Alexis’s breathing and a steady dripping sound against the rock.

“We need to work out where we are,” she whispered, looking askance. “I take it you can’t make radio contact with the Autobots?”

“I have tried. Nothing,” he confirmed.

The room they were in was just about big enough to admit Skyfire, but once inside, he would have to keep hunched over – there was no way he could stand. It was about twenty-five feet high, just big enough for Ratchet to stand in, and about thirty-five wide. The walls were made of what looked like dusty brown rock, though they were damp and clammy and cold. There was no light but for what eked in from beyond a series of metal bars on the far side of the room, which glowed softly purple. Radioactive again, she presumed. She wondered how long she could be in close contact with all the radiation for before she started feeling it.

Another crash came, closer this time. It was followed by a clatter and an odd, alien chattering sound. Skyfire sat up a little straighter, keeping Alexis hidden with his armoured appendage.

“Show yourself,” he commanded. “Cowardice is unnecessary when we are bound and defenceless.”

Alexis shivered. For some strange reason, her hand moved to her neckline – it hadn’t done so for five years, for there was nothing there to grasp, but she was suddenly filled with the need to hold her necklace. The necklace that had always been full of untold power, comforting her subconsciously as it leeched her life away. She peeked out over the top of Skyfire’s arm, eyeing the bars warily.

Four bright blue dots gradually appeared. A silver blur latched onto one of the bars and slid down it with a shriek of amusement, giggling maniacally, before landing on the floor in a catlike crouch. He seemed unaffected by whatever substance was pasted down their imprisoning bars.

“Frenzy,” Skyfire snarled.

“W-w-wakey wakey, Autoscum!” the little creature cackled, springing forward. “T-t-time t-to m-m-meet Galvatron, Lord Galvatron! G-Galvatron wants t-t-to m-meet little girly.”

Alexis swallowed. “Why does he want . . . m-me . . . ?”

“All D-Decepticons wanting to m-m-meet the Vanquisher,” Frenzy tittered, transforming one of his spindly hands into what looked like a fistful of knives. Each of them glowed brilliantly yellow, scintillating and dangerous. “Pretty girly, m-m-mate of Starscream, V-Vanquisher of Unicron the M-Mighty! G-G-Galvatron has a pretty pet, pretty pet . . .”

“I’m not going to be anyone’s pet!” Alexis retorted angrily.

“Stand down, Alexis,” Skyfire murmured. “We are in a vulnerable situation.”

Frenzy leapt up onto the Air Commander and slowly sliced through the energy sealant that wrapped his wrists and legs together. It took him a good minute, seeing as the stuff had been slicked on abundantly and with no apparent conservationism, but he finally managed to free the largest Autobot. Skyfire flexed his fingers and moved his limbs to test his freedom, and looked down at Frenzy expectantly when he was satisfied with his ability to move. The little Decepticon grinned.

“G-good. F-f-follow Frenzy.”

He darted back to the bars and jumped like a flea to a control panel. He tapped in a code of some sort, then fixed all four optics on an optical scanner, which flashed once before the bars stopped glowing. Skyfire clenched his denta before crawling out towards the entrance, where they were beginning to slide into the ground. Alexis cringed internally – seeing Skyfire reduced to crawling was unbearable. Frenzy started taunting him at once, but his mocking went unheeded by both human and Autobot.

The worst, after all, was yet to come.

“You and I, touch the sky, the eagle and the dove . . .”

The lullaby was tossed to the light breeze almost carelessly by the ignorant afternoon air. Each word trembled, but each was soft and clear. It was a mellifluous melody, sung from the heart as well as the mouth. Dandelion seeds floated with the lyrics to the sky. The breaths she took as she sung made them waft away from the rest of the planet and flutter to their individual destinies, ready to embark on a journey by themselves. Watching them, she found that there were tears in her eyes again.

From a distance, Mirage watched over her in silence.

Jade continued to sing in a eloquent undertone. Why, she did not quite know. All she knew was that singing the lullaby – their lullaby – brought her a tiny glimmer of comfort in what suddenly looked like an eternity of darkness. Her heart was aching; not only her heart, but her entire chest. It felt as if a giant hand had punched through her ribcage and scraped something vital from within.

She knew that she wasn’t even bonded to Skyfire. Not properly. That had been a gift she had been saving for their wedding night: the gift of trust and devotion that only spark partners could share.

‘I do not understand what you humans achieve from singing,’ he remarked softly, ‘but your voice is pleasant.’

She stopped, partly because of his interruption and partly due to the tears choking her words.

“Thanks,” she mumbled aloud. With her right hand, leaving her left laced through the long grass, she reached up to smudge the moisture from her feverishly hot cheeks. “I’m n-not trying to achieve anything, Mirage . . . I’m just trying to c-calm myself down . . .”

Her next words were lost to a sob. Mirage narrowed his optics.

‘He is not dead. You must know that your spark partner is not dead, Jade Rivers.’

“Maybe I would, if I’d had my fucking wedding night.” She rarely swore, but the bitterness singed the tip of her tongue. “I wanted my wedding to be the best day of my life, Mirage. Every other person in the world gets that. I had the white dress, the music, all my friends around me, and the most wonderful place to be married in . . . Everything was perfect yesterday. Was it t-too much to ask to get my wedding night and honeymoon, too? Could I not have a full twenty-four hours b-before the Decepticons used my wedding day t-to launch this fucking plan of theirs? Why me, Mirage? Why m-my . . . my husband, when he never did anything to hurt anyone?”

The fact that the wedding night had been ruined made her feel wretched beyond belief, but it paled in comparison to not knowing whether Skyfire was all right. The Decepticons could be doing anything to him – torturing him, mocking him . . . planning how and when to kill him. Tears welled up in her eyes at the latter thought. It was an option she had to face – that they might have taken Skyfire and Alexis . . . for the purpose of killing them. Killing them as a form of revenge.

And . . . where would she be then?

Skyfire meant the entire world and universe to her. Without him . . . life was . . . nothing. There was no life. The thought of him being tortured, being in any kind of pain . . . it was unbearable. She loved him with all her heart and soul, with every part of her body; she would gladly have gone in his place, taken every blow for him, to prevent him from being in pain. If there was anything in the cosmos that she was absolutely certain of, it was that she loved Skyfire enough to conquer her fear of pain and darkness. If the Decepticons wanted her to go in his place, she would. Whatever it took, she would not let Skyfire go. She would not let Skyfire . . . die.

Mirage hopped down from the tree root he had been crouched on. A small, spindly hand sealed over a shaking shoulder. Jade let her tangled blonde hair fall between them, curtaining her expression.

‘I know he is not dead. We minicons know these things,’ he informed her.

“Then you’ll know why they took him.” She tucked her hair behind one ear and looked at him hard, though she still fought to keep tears from her eyes. “Mirage, you’re something to do with Unicron. I c-can see that from your optics. Maybe it’s about time you t-told me the truth about where you’re from, and how Thundercracker and Blitzwing and Galvatron are back.”

His optics went from a tranquil lilac to deep, hesitant byzantium.

‘There is much to explain,’ he confessed, ‘but little that you will understand.’

“I think you owe it to me to at least try, Mirage,” she murmured, bowing her head. “I need to know what’s happening here. I need to understand so I can tell Optimus and we can rescue Skyfire and Alexis, fully informed.”

He seemed to consider.

‘Having been defeated in battle, Unicron was reduced to a state of near-dormancy,’ he recalled, optics glowing softly. ‘Disguised as a nearby moon, he implanted some of his cells within Cybertron, where they were cultivated and hatched into my people: the minicons. Our their ability to enhance the strength and power of the larger Cybertronians soon became apparent. This had, of course, been Unicron's goal. As the two opposing factions clashed over possession of us, the negative energies fed Unicron, regenerating his physical body. We did not cause the war, but we fuelled it. Many minicons died in the many battles fought on Cybertron, but a few of us remained.’

“How many?” Jade asked quietly.

‘Six. Six out of a people whose number had once been in thousands,’ Mirage mourned. ‘Three of us had the ability to combine into the ancient Skyboom Shield. This would give its user the power to defend themselves against virtually any attack, as you saw when we worked together against Starscream. Megatron in particular was very interested in taking possession of Sureshock, Downshift and myself.’

Jade chewed on her lip in silence as she listened to him. It made sense that Megatron would want such an incredible power – she found herself drawing a comparison to Hitler and the Spear of Destiny – but whether or not Skyfire and Alexis’s abduction had been linked to their minicon companions was unknown to her. It would, she supposed, be logical. “Go on.”

‘The other three were named Sonar, Runway and Jetstorm,’ the minicon told her. ‘They could combine into an immensely powerful weapon called the Star Sabre. Whomsoever wields it is the most powerful warrior in the universe.’

“And they’re on Earth, too?”

‘Yes. We built our own spaceship and escaped Cybertron through a warp gate in the Temple of Altihex, which took us to this planet – Earth – in the year ten thousand B.C. We separated into our two separate teams, making us much harder to find, and hid ourselves underground to await a time when the war would find its way back to us. Now, thousands of years later, we have been summoned once again. Summoned to arms.’ He tightened his hand on her shoulder. ‘Summoned by you and your friends, Jade Delilah Rivers.’

She grasped the hand on her shoulder, finding some small comfort in it. “We didn’t mean to summon you, Mirage. But I guess we did,” she admitted, looking out at the sky. “We need you.”

‘You do. We are the only ones that can defeat Galvatron . . . and only when wielded by a deserving hand.’

Jade nodded, silent tears in her eyes once again. “Where are the others, then?”

Mirage shifted his purple optics towards the western horizon, then swung them to the east. ‘We did not tell each other where we went,’ he confessed quietly. ‘It would have made it too easy for us to divulge the information if we were tortured or captured by the Decepticons. We did, however, agree upon a specific signal that would cause the other party to wake and be ready if they received it.’

She looked up with hope. “Can you transmit that signal, Mirage? Can you get the other team to wake up?”

‘I can,’ he confirmed, ‘and I have. In approximately one hour, the Air Defense Minicon Team will have awakened from a twelve thousand year stasis. Have your medic activate Skyspy and prepare a three-person recovery team, Jade Rivers – it is time for us to strike back against the darkness.’

Author’s Note: And here’s the next chapter – sorry it’s a bit short, but all the exciting stuff happens in Chapter 15, I promise. ;) Next time we’ll be seeing Alexis and Skyfire meet Galvatron; a two-human, one Autobot team is sent to recover the three Star Sabre minicons; a new Autobot heads towards Earth, as does a sinister Decepticon, and the Twins have a nice chat about their love lives. Do drop a review if you have a moment, and see you for the next chapter!

Also, quick note for Independent C. – Yes, she is. ;)