Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait for the next segment in this story! I've had a mega case of that Evil Writer's Block for the past couple of months! But I hope that it would happen again for some time so that I can continue this story without any problem. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters relating to Transformers, even though I own the DVDs. I only own my OCs that are in the story.

Rating: T

Name: Change in pov

TTTTTTTTTTTTTT = scene change

'italics' mental communication

"italics" talking on a phone

"Dead…" she said again for what seemed like the thousandth time.

The word hung between us as we sat outside the hospital. Both of us in a state of shock and disbelief at the information that we had just received from the doctor inside. Jen and I had just recently returned from visiting her Aunt and Uncle's home in Michigan. The two of them had kept us away for another month than we had originally expected to be away on our trip. Guess that goes to show how much Jen's family loved company.

I had driven the car up to Alia's house to say hello to her first before taking Jen back to her place to unpack and before heading back to my own apartment to rest for a day or two. Excitement at surprising her rippled between us as we knocked on that familiar green door.

We received no answer on the first knock. But that didn't bother us. Alia didn't usually hear the first knock on the door. Both Jennifer and I knocked several times more and even rang the bell with still no answer to our continued attempts.

After the twentieth time I lifted one of the potted plants that flanked the door and removed the spare key from underneath it. Twisting it in the lock the door swung open, with an eerie silence, into the main entry. We went through the house and even her 'secret' basement that we knew about but never told her.

She wasn't here. She wasn't anywhere in the house. Everything looked like it hadn't been touched in several weeks if not a month or so. Dust covered the table in the kitchen where I checked last to see if she had left a note or not. Again nothing to point us in a direction that could help us find her.

I locked up the house and replaced the key while Jen walked down to Mrs. Johnson's house. She came back a few minutes later to where I was standing against the car. Jen told me that according to Mrs. Johnson a Decepticon attack had occurred about a month ago. She said the whole city was in a panic and ran from where the battle at the warehouses up on the cliff was taking place.

Mrs. Johnson had recalled seeing Alia shortly before she and her husband had joined the rest of the city down below to get away. While with the other people she had looked for Alia and when she didn't find her, she had started to panic and prayed that Alia wasn't anywhere near the Decepticons.

But that had not turned out to be the case. The attack had ended as quickly as it came with the Decepticons in retreat. Some of the public including Mrs. Johnson had gone to the hospital for treatment to their minor injuries from flying glass and other debris. While she was in the waiting room she had seen an ambulance pull up and two young people, around our age, had climbed out of the rear doors.

One of them carrying Alia in their arms as they rushed through the hospital doors. She couldn't hear the conversation but the doctors had quickly rushed off with Alia on a gurney with the two others running beside her along with other hospital personnel.

Mrs. Johnson had talked with the young woman, a blonde haired girl named Carly, after Carly had come to the lobby to get a bottle of water from the vending machine. Carly told her that Alia had gotten caught in a blast from the discharge of a Decepticon weapon and that the doctors were doing all they could for her. The next Mrs. Johnson had seen of Carly and her companion was when the two had left with who she had presumed to be Autobots.

Jen and I then rushed down the hospital to see if Alia was still there. The secretary contacted the head doctor who had treated Alia and he came down to speak with us. The minute we saw his face, we knew that something had gone wrong. He told us that after she had been brought in Alia seemed to improve in her condition at first. But unfortunately a few days later, Alia had died from her wounds as what had happened to her was too much for her body to recover from.

Even with the new advanced medical technology that the hospital had received.

Jen had run out of the hospital after that, refusing to hear any more of what he had to say. The doctor gave me some contact information for the two that had brought Alia in. As well as another number for a man that had come to check on her a day later. I thanked him and went after Jen. After a few minutes I found her at the bench that we were now sitting on.

"Dead…" Jen whispered again.

"Yeah…" I replied.

Thoughts and 'what if's' kept running through my head. What if we had come back sooner? What if this had happened, what if that had happened. All of it made and didn't make sense. But what has happened cannot be changed, my mind reasoned, no matter how much I or Jen might want to change it.

I looked down at Jen as she sobbed into her hands. Some loose tears falling and creating a spot on the ground in front of her. Finally she lifted her head to look at me, her hair bunched up where her fingers had been. Eyes red and distant from built up tears stared at me both with sadness and guilt.

"Why? How could something like this have happened?" she whispered such that I almost didn't hear her.

I sighed. "She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"We should have been here. We could have protected her!" Jen said.

"How?"

"By making sure she didn't do anything reckless! What if it was him? What if it was actually that bastard that did that to her?!" Jen cried.

I didn't need her to elaborate. I knew who she was speaking of.

David.

The thought about his involvement in Alia's death had occurred to me several times. But neither of us had any way to prove it. Without some note from Alia or even medical records of how she was and when she was brought to the hospital there was no way to prove whether David was the true culprit or not.

"What should we do?" Jen asked, standing up.

"I don't know."

She whirled around. "You don't know?! What do you mean 'you don't know'?!"

"Jen calm down!" I said.

She stamped her foot. "No! I will not calm down!" she declared, tears starting to form in her eyes again.

"Alia is dead Tara! Dead! And the bastard that did it is still out there!"

I forced myself to keep calm. Usually I would argue with her and shout but now was not the time for such a brawl between us.

"I know. But rushing into this will only cause more harm than good Jen. We need to think about this."

I leaned back against the bench and patted the empty space beside me for her to sit down. "What do you want to do?"

"Find him and kill him." Jen stated plainly as she complied and sat.

I smiled. She could be so straightforward sometimes, especially when faced with situations like this. It was one of her best qualities I thought as did Alia. She was like a lot of people around us who felt the same when making a decision like this but there was another thing that made this even more personal as Jen, unfortunately, had had experience with this sort of thing before.

"Jen? Are you going to be okay with this?"

She smiled. "I'll be fine."

Liar, I thought. "Okay. Let's go back to Alia's and contact Carly and I think, Spike, who brought her to the hospital."

"Oh those two? I remember them alright."

The drive back was slow as traffic was slowly building because of rush hour. We drove in silence as I stopped at both Jen's apartment and my own so we could grab a few more things and let our landlords know that we would be gone for awhile more.

We got back to Alia's around seven and carried our belongings into the kitchen after parking my car in the garage next to Alia's little blue car. Jen and I sat next to each other at the table as I pulled out the piece of paper the doctor handed me.

"Don't call the first number." Jen said suddenly.

"Why?"

"That's his." She spat. "I remember seeing it once on the caller ID and Alia didn't touch it. I asked her why and she said it was David's number."

"Oh."

I tore that part of the paper off and threw it away before dialing the next number on the paper. Putting my phone on speaker I laid it down on the table between us and waited.

Carly

Things back at the Ark had been quiet for the past month and a half since we had returned from Duluth. The Autobots had continued their mission to stop the Decepticons but even after a victory, there had not been much celebrating.

The loss of Alia had affected all of us that had known her back in Duluth, even for the short time that she was at the warehouse. Spike has asked the doctor to call us and let us know if Alia has survived the terrible injury that her body had sustained from that energy blast. But no such call ever came.

Over time we had accepted that no word would come and that we would have to accept what had happened. But the differences were noticeable.

Steeljaw, whenever he was out and about, walked with his head down and would often just lie down in one spot without moving for hours on end. Usually with Rewind keeping him company throughout that time until Blaster need them for something.

Even though they didn't show it, I could tell that both Ratchet and Optimus had been just a deeply affected by the loss. Ratch was more irritated then usual but sometimes I would see him just sitting and staring off into space when he thought that no one was looking.

Optimus was usually shut up in his quarters whenever he wasn't giving orders to deal with an attack to deploy a team to look into a new energy source for the Ark itself. He never let any of us see how he really felt about this development. But I think that everyone secretly knew how he felt even though they didn't say it to his face directly.

"Carly?"

I looked up from stirring my lemonade as Spike came over. I hadn't even heard him enter the recreation room.

"Hey. What's up?" he asked, sitting down across from me.

I shrugged. "Not much. I just wish we could have stayed…"

Spike leaned forward. "Carly. We did all that we could. I hate to say it but it's time to move on."

"I know it's just…"

Bzzzzzz.

"What was that?" I asked.

"What?"

Bzzzzzzzz.

Spike reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. The screen was lit up with a number neither of us recognized but he opened it and put it on speaker.

"Hello?"

Tara

"Hello?" came a voice after two rings.

"Hello. Who is this?" I asked.

"Spike Witwicky. Who is this?"

Jen and I exchanged a glance.

"Tara Michaels. I'm a friend of Alia Maxwell."

He paused for a moment and a loud bang sounded close to the phone. A voice came on the line, this time a girl's.

"You're a friend of Alia's?"

"Yes. You are Carly right? We met you and Spike in the store before the concert the next night remember?"

"Yes, I do! Is Jen there with you too?"

"Yes I'm here." Jen replied, leaning towards the phone.

"I'm curious," came Spike's voice again. "How did you get this number?"

I pulled the phone closer to me. "From the doctor at the hospital," I explained. "He gave it to me after I asked who had brought Alia in to be treated. But he did not really elaborate on what exactly happened to her. We were curious if you two could fill us in."

Jen and I waited as the two on the other side of the line whispered to each other. Some words like 'should' and 'tell' I could make out but the rest was all jumbled into one. I prayed that they could tell us more about what happened to our friend. If there was one thing I hated, it was being left in the dark.

"Where are you two now?" Carly finally asked.

"We're at Alia's house in Duluth." Jen answered.

"Alright. We'll tell you what happened but not over the phone. Are you two able to come to us?"

"Where are you exactly?" both Jen and I inquired at the same time.

"We're at the Autobot base in Oregon. Can you two come?"

"Yes. Just give us directions and we'll…" I started.

Spike interrupted. "That won't be necessary. There are two Autobots out on patrol right now. They'll come pick you both up tomorrow morning around five your time so be ready to go. Then they'll bring you both straight here."

Then the line went dead. I closed my phone as Jen go up and started moving our things near the front door. Then we collapsed on the couches and slept restlessly for the rest of the night.

Carly

Spike closed the phone and put it back in his pocket before giving Tara a chance to answer.

"Why not tell them over the phone? It would be easier." I said.

"True. But I think it would be better to tell them face to face…" he paused.

"What?"

We sat in silence before he spoke again.

"I think it would be better to have them here also because if that jerk is looking for them now."

I hadn't thought of that. "You think he would go after them too?"

He shrugged. "Don't know. But it's better to keep them safe than to risk it. It's what Alia would have wanted."

With that Spike got up and left the room, just as some of the Autobots were returning from patrol and were coming in for something to drink.

I had to agree with him. It was the least any of us could do for her now. I got up, leaving my lemonade on the table, and went to talk to both Optimus and Ironhide. Just to be sure that I was alright for Tara and Jen to come. Then we'd have to get in touch with Wheeljack and Sideswipe so that they could pick them up.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Tara

I woke up the next morning to a horn blasting outside the front door. I sat up on the couch and looked around, trying to get my bearings. Then I remembered that I was with Jen at Alia's house. What was the glow from the morning sun shined through the curtains onto Alia's favorite glass vase on the table behind the table where Jen was sleeping. Casting an almost eerie, sparkling shadow on the wall behind it.

How appropriate since this house will no longer be a place of life. Only that of haunting silence as its owner was dead.

The horn sounded again and I jumped off the couch and ran to the window. Looking outside I saw two cars pulled up outside the house. One was a white Lancia with red and green stripes on the hood and the other was a red Lamborghini. Both had the engines running but I could see no drivers inside. Closing the curtain I shook Jen awake and we headed outside with our bags. I locked the door behind me and pocketed the key before walking over to stand in front of the two cars.

"Well?" the Lamborghini said. "Are you getting in or not?"

Jen backed up a little. She leaned over to me. "Tara… that car just talked."

"You have a problem with that?"

"Uh no!" Jen exclaimed, shaking her head.

I leaned over and quietly reminded her that Spike had said that two Autobots would be picking us up, while trying not to laugh at her reaction.

"Is that all you two are bringing?" this came from the Lancia.

"Yes." I replied.

"Well my trunk is not big enough for both sets of bags so one of you has to go with him." The Lamborghini snorted, pointedly talking about the Lancia.

"Humph!"

I smiled, picked up my bags and walked over to the Lancia. Letting Jen ride with the Lamborghini, not only because she liked that kind of car, but also since I didn't think I could ride with him for very long before getting into an argument for most of the trip.

The Lancia opened his trunk door for me and I slipped my bags in. After he shut the door I walked around to the driver's side and go in behind the wheel. Jen did the same and then waved for us to go on ahead of them.

Getting onto the highway was not too hard as the usual rush hour traffic was light this morning. We headed west and soon crossed the border into North Dakota. I must have fallen asleep shortly after that because when I looked around again the sun was just about to set and made a point of blinding me so I moved and lay down across the front seats of the Lancia.

"Tired? You have been asleep for several hours." He asked.

I sighed and turned onto my back.

"Yeah. I guess I should have expected to. Both Jen and I had a long day yesterday. I couldn't really fall asleep after we learned about what had happened to our friend Alia. Thankfully the doctor had a number we could call to get in touch with Spike and Carly, who we had met before Jen and I left for Indy. But even still … I never expected to come home to this."

"I'm sorry. You three must have been close."

"Very. We've known each other since elementary school back in Indiana. All three of us have been practically inseparable since. It just feels like I've lost a part of myself now … a part I'll never get back …" I laughed suddenly. "Sorry. I must be boring to listen to."

He sounded surprised. "On the contrary, I understand what you mean perfectly. Besides, I believe you humans say that it's better to talk about something than to hold it in."

"True." I leaned up on my arm. "Did you know Alia? Obviously you're a friend of Spike and Carly's right?"

He hesitated for a few minutes as he turned onto another exit ramp and made sure that the Lambo was following right behind us.

"Yes I knew her. Not as long as you though. But yes I had the fortune of meeting her." He said finally. "My name is Wheeljack by the way."

"Tara." I replied smiling. "Did she say anything about us?"

"She talked about you two greatly Tara. She really cared for the both of you. Enough to protect you from possibly being taken away from her by David."

I shot up in my seat. "He was in Duluth?!"

"Yes." Wheeljack replied. "He appeared shortly after you two left. He's the cause of what happened to Alia."

I flopped back down into the seat. "Jen and I suspected that. The bastard never gives up. Any idea where he is?"

"No."

"Well then, I have something to do after this visit." I stated before turning over and going back to sleep.

Jen

I watched Tara from where I was behind her in the Lamborghini. I tried to go to sleep after we had left Duluth but I guess the Sandman wasn't going to be nice to me today. This still felt like a bad dream and that tomorrow I would wake up from it and Alia would be alive and we could go back to the way things were. But deep down I knew that wasn't so, and would never be.

"Try to sleep. You look exhausted." My driver said to me.

I leaned against the window. "I've tried Sideswipe. But I don't think I can."

"How'd you know my name? I never told you."

"A hunch I suppose."

He snorted. "A pretty good one. How do you know that I'm just not Sunstreaker in disguise?"

I leaned my head against the seat. "Because you two may be twins. But you're very different."

Wheeljack

Tara's words about her friend kept echoing through my mind on a continuous loop. I wished there was something I could do to ease her pain about it. But nothing came to mind no matter what I tried. Now she wanted revenge against her friend's killer.

Just like we all did.

Optimus and Prowl had organized groups to search for David so that we could get rid of him. It was the lease we could do for Alia, Primus bless her.

"Wheeljack?" Sideswipe whispered over the comm.

"What?"

"Tara asleep?"

"Yes."

"Finally." He sighed.

"What? Did you and Jen not get along okay?"

"No. Jen and I have gotten along okay so far. She just fell asleep a few minutes ago." He said slowly.

"Tara too." I replied. "Let them sleep. We'll be at the Ark tomorrow anyway sometime after dawn."

"Sounds good." He replied and then shut off his comm.

TTTTTTTTTTTTT

Jen

I sat watching the scenery go by out the windows as I slowly ate the food that we had stopped for. Tara had said that we were only a few hours away from the Ark now, according to Wheeljack. Both Sideswipe and Wheeljack had sped up their pace after receiving word that they were needed for a mission and had to get back as soon as possible.

We pulled up in front of the Ark a few hours later. As soon as we did I saw four people waiting for us at the entrance to the base. Two I recognized as Spike and Carly. The others were a man in his late forties early fifties wearing a white shirt and blue jeans, with a pair of work boots on his feet. The other was a boy our age in a wheelchair with red hair and glasses.

Wheeljack and Sideswipe pulled up in front of the four and let me and Tara climb out and get our luggage before they transformed and went straight into the Ark. I picked up my bags and followed Tara over to where Spike and the others were.

"Hey!" Spike called in greeting as he and Carly came over and grabbed some of our bags.

"Hi." Tara sighed as she set down a bag. "I have to say that is the quickest trip I've ever been on. That only took us what, two days?"

"They can drive a lot faster than other cars. To get where they need to go." Carly explained.

"So Spike." The man said. "Are these the two friends that you were telling us about?"

Spike nodded. "Yes. Tara, Jen. I'd like you to meet my dad."

"Please, call me Sparkplug."

Spike shook his head. "And Chip Chase."

"Pleased to meet you." Chip said, shaking each of our hands.

"Well." Sparkplug said, picking up one of my bags. "Let's get you two settled in."

Tara and I followed them with Spike, Carly or Chip explaining what part of the Ark we were in and what each room was used for. We passed the room with the computer the Autobot's called Teletran 1 who gave out early warning signals for a Decepticon attack or a new energy source.

Branching off that room were four different hallways. One of the hallways led to the private offices held by the higher officers and their quarters. One led down to the medbay and Wheeljack's lab as well as the larger quarters for the Dinobots that were built into the cave opening that the Autobots had originally discovered the dinosaur bones in.

The third led to the Recreation room and the rest of the Autobots' quarters with a branch off at the end to the showers and a weapons room. The last hallway was a path to several training rooms, a communications area, a war/meeting room, a few stock rooms filled with unpacked boxes of items, another weapons storage locker and an opening that led up to some outcroppings of rock that jutted out of the mountain and one that led into the heart of the volcano that could be blocked off by a large door in case of an eruption.

Sparkplug led us down the third hallway that was right across from the entrance to the Ark. We passed the recreation room and went down a smaller hallway that connected two of the main ones. Stopping in front of a small door, Sparkplug took out a key and opened it and let Tara and me walk in.

The room was large, almost like an apartment. The first room was spacious enough for a couch and a few chairs along with a TV and some other things. Two doors on the far wall led into separate bedrooms and open archways led into the kitchen and pantry with another archway, this one with a door, leading into the bathroom complete with all the necessities.

Sparkplug set the bag he was carrying on the coffee table. "Well I need to go get some errands done. I'll see you kids later." With that he left.

"You're dad's nice." Tara said to Spike, flopping down on the couch.

"Yeah he is."

"How long have you guys known the Autobots?" I asked.

"For me and my dad it's been two years now I think." Spike said.

Carly nodded. "It's about the same for me and Chip. We met the Autobots a couple of months later."

I nodded and picked up my bags and headed towards one of the doors to the bedroom and set my things down in the room that had been prepared for me. I unpacked a few of my things before heading back out into the room.

"Are you going to tell us now what happened?" Tara asked suddenly.

"Tara!"

"What?" she replied innocently.

Spiked nodded to Carly and he sat down across from Tara. "Alright, sit down Jen and we'll tell you what happened."

I sat with Carly next to me and Chip next to her as Spike started to tell us what happened. He explained in as much detail as he could what had happened from when Alia had met with Rewind and Steeljaw to meeting with Optimus and the incident with a mysterious attacker that had hurt them both almost beyond hope of recovering.

Then both he and Carly explained back and forth about that day, a week later, when the Decepticons attacked the base and occupied the Autobots while they, with Alia and Steeljaw, had met with David and a few of his goons. Alia had told Spike and Carly to run, which they did. They went back after getting help and found Alia, wounded, but alive by the lakeside overlook.

They had managed to get David's weapon away from him but he had used some magnets to return it to his hand and had fired it at where Optimus, Ratchet, and Prowl had been standing when they had tried to convince Alia to come back to the base with them and find another way to deal with him.

Carly said that for a moment they didn't know what had become of Alia since she seemed to move so fast after the weapon was fired. Then next thing they heard was Alia's scream as she placed herself in front of the energy blast, causing it to strike her instead of Optimus and the others. After the energy dissipated they found that David had escaped and went out in force to look for him but he had vanished without a trace.

Spike and Carly had come back and with Ratchet's help had taken Alia to the hospital and left her in the doctor's care with instructions to call if she had recovered from the attack.

"But we have not received any word at all about it." Carly finished.

"So you think the doctor was telling the truth? About Alia's condition." I asked.

"He must have been. He would have called if it were different." Spike said.

"No! I won't believe it!" Tara said as she stood up.

"Tara…"

"No Jen!" she cried, tears forming. "I cannot believe that she would just give up and die and leave us alone like this!"

She looked at Spike and Carly. "I thought that maybe, just maybe the doctor was lying to us to protect her from David! And that she was really alive but hiding somewhere! But now … oh god … now I don't know what to believe…"

I got up and hugged her, letting her cry into my shoulder. Carly put a hand on Tara's arm.

"It's not anyone's fault Tara. Alia did what she thought was right. She wouldn't want you to grieve like this would she?"

Tara slowly shook her head as she tried to calm down.

"So," I said, after setting Tara down to sit on the couch. "What do we do now?"

Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Please R&R, I take both comments and criticism! Ja ne!