So…yeah…blame this on the fact that it was spawned from the last few episodes of Transformers: Prime. They have been so intense! The last one, Darkest Hour, had my heart pounding the whole time! Why do they have to torture us? We have to wait until the spring for the answer to what the Autobots are gonna do! Wheeljack was shot down, Optimus was blown up with the base, the Autobots are scattered across timezones. And what about the Forge of Solus Prime?! And Airachnid?

Dunno. So, as a heads up, this will (SPOILERS!) start on Cybertron (next chapter), then come to Earth and take place during the last few episodes. Hope you like!

1 – Death – 1

I had a normal life. A normal human life. I lived in a small town called Jasper, Nevada, I had a pet cat, I had parents (both a mother and a father), an annoying brother, friends, and family members who were scattered across the globe. I loved to bake and cook and write and draw. I loved to read, spend time with my friends, help them with school (especially history), think about what job I would take on after school, and what schooling I would take at college or university. My life was as normal as a teenager's could get.

But, it didn't stay 'normal' forever. It happened when I got off from my volunteering shift at Jasper's Memorial Hospital.

I glanced over at my supervisor, Nurse June Darby, as I shrugged my sweater on. I was standing in the Acute Care Nurse meeting room as Nurse Darby went over a list of things on her clipboard. On that list were the things I had done today. I had handed out ice waters to the patients in Acute Care, I had changed washcloths and towels, I had set up room 164 for a patient who would be coming in before five PM, and I had made sure that every patient I had come across was comfortable. It was my job.

"Well, Mikaela, it seems like you've been working hard today," she stated.

I nodded. "I feel accomplished, really," I told her. "I'm starting to enjoy this profession, but I don't know which department I'll want to stay in. They're all…fun, actually."

Nurse Darby chuckled good naturedly. "That happens to some volunteers. I'm sure you'll find out what kind of nurse you might want to be. You never know," she winked at me, "you might choose to be a nurse like me, who works a little bit in every department."

I nodded again, a small smile appearing on my lips. "Thanks, Mrs. Darby," I said before we finished our conversation and I left the small meeting room. I quickly walked to the front doors and walked outside. I then walked down the sidewalk and began to walk home. My parents were out of town on a business trip, and since I didn't own a mode of transportation (other than by ten-speed bicycle, which I left at home), I walked. It wasn't like Jasper was a dangerous town, it was actually quite safe. That's why my parents allowed me to stay home alone when they were out of town for several days.

As I passed KO Burger, I caught sight of Nurse Darby's son, Jack. I smiled and waved at the raven-haired teen as he climbed onto his blue motorcycle. He waved back at me with a smile on his face before he put on his white street bike helmet and drove away. I was a friend of Jack's, and had been for a couple years now. We were just friends, but close friends. He had become my friend when I was first transferred to this school when my parents decided to move here. He was always there to give me support when I got a bad grade in Math or Social Studies and I thought my mother would freak, or I was nervous, or I was afraid to do something. I was glad I had a friend like Jack.

I continued on and saw my house. I felt like running towards it, and after considering it for a few seconds, I allowed myself to run. I was slow at first, but then I ran faster, pushed myself harder, until I was running flat out. A small breeze whipped my brown hair back off of my shoulders as I approached my house.

But I skidded to a stop when I saw a purple sports car parked in front of my house, by the curb. By its angles and curves, it looked awfully dangerous. It looked almost like a Cadillac Cien, but it looked deadlier…different…almost alien. I blinked before I looked away from it and continued my trek towards my house. I didn't dare look at it, and I forced myself to have a straight face so that whoever was sitting inside it (if there was anyone inside it) would not see that I was nervous about its presence.

Of course, I was being completely paranoid. Mikaela, you should lay off those spy novels.

I went to walk up the small pathway that lead up to the front door of my house, but stopped dead in my tracks when I heard the shifting of metal on metal coming from behind me. I didn't want to look back over my shoulder, I really didn't, but I looked over my shoulder anyway, and looked at where the sports car was sitting. Or where it had been sitting.

A small squeak of surprise escaped me as I spotted a pair of large metal feet. I followed the feet up to a pair of legs with my eyes, and then up to a torso, a pair of arms, and a head. I gasped and took a step back at the sight of the large robot. Was the car…the robot? Did it transform?

"Are you a 'friend' of the human Jack Darby?" the robot demanded in an almost monotone voice.

I stared up at it with my eyes stretched to an almost impossible width.

"Are you?" it demanded.

Thoughtlessly, I nodded.

I watched as it lifted a hand to the side of its head and pressed something where its ear should have been. "Lord Megatron, I have found the friend of Arcee's pet," I heard the robot say out-loud to someone I couldn't hear. Did he have some kind of built-in communicator? "Do you wish for me to terminate it, sir?" What? I jolted in surprise when I heard this. 'Terminate'? As in cut, sever, destroy? To kill? I waited in a breathless silence, my eyes never leaving the robot's emotionless mask. "Of course, Lord Megatron." And with that, the robot took its hand from the side of his head and raised its other arm. I watched with a mix of terror and fascination as that arm suddenly grew a gun of some sort, its hand disappearing.

At that moment, I realized that the giant robot had been ordered by some kind of superior to blast me to bits. At that revelation, I did what a normal, sane, human being did when they were facing what could be the end of their life. I screamed as loud as I could.

When the robot took a half-step back in what I could only guess was surprise at how I was screaming, I turned and made my body move as adrenaline began to course through my veins. I ran.

But I didn't get very far before I heard some sort of whoosh, then felt my back heat up before something crashed into my back and sent me flying. Another scream escaped me before I slammed into the ground and rolled a few feet. Once I stopped, I found myself lying on my back. I groaned as I saw the world above me spin a little bit before it straightened out. And then it began to fade.

What did I do to deserve this? I asked myself as I felt my body begin to relax against my will. Why did that giant robot target me of all people? I heard the same shifting of metal on metal I heard before I had turned around and had seen the robot before I heard an engine roar before fading away. Who was RC? Ar…cee? What…did I do to…have any relation with…that person? Questions fluttered around my mind, but my thinking was slowing. For some reason, I knew I was dying. Was it Jack…? He was my…only friend… Of course…I could have been mistaken for…someone else… Jack could have had other…female friends…

My eyes drooped. My rebellious side screamed in fury and adrenaline weakly flowed through me. I fought to keep my eyes open. I didn't want to die. I wanted to live, I wanted to say goodbye to my parents, to Jack. But I couldn't keep my eyes open, and they dropped shut.

I felt my consciousness fade quickly. It felt like I was falling. I wanted to scream, to hold onto my body. But then everything was silenced and I floated into oblivion.

"Your time has not yet come, my daughter…" a deep voice rumbled.

It startled me a bit, but the voice soothed me, and I was…gone.

Jack cheered as Arcee brought him home. He got off of her before he went and opened the garage door so that Arcee could park in there for the night. He stretched and his back and shoulders popped several times as he yawned and slowly walked into the house. He disappeared inside with a tired, "Goodnight, Arcee."

He wandered into the living room and was met by his mother, who stood in the middle of the room with her arms crossed and a slightly worried look on her face. Jack looked at her and blinked several times, wondering why he was on the receiving end of that look. He hadn't been doing anything wrong. He had managed to stay away from Vince, and the Autobots had been a little too busy for him and his friends lately. This was the first time he had been with Arcee for a week.

"Jack, have you heard from Mikaela lately?" June Darby asked. "She was supposed to phone me so I knew she was alright."

The raven haired boy blinked again. "I saw her when I left work," he said. "But that was, like, five hours ago."

June sighed. "Her parents entrusted me to keep an eye on her. Let's go check on her. We'll take Arcee," she said. She walked off to get her helmet, and when her back was turned, Jack rolled his blue-grey eyes.

"Yes, Mom," he sighed. He turned and walked out of the room, down the hall, and into the garage. As he walked down the three stairs that bridged the height difference from the door to the ground, he padded the switch that opened the garage door. "C'mon, Arcee, Mikaela hasn't phoned Mom yet, so we have to check up on her."

"Alright, partner," Arcee said, a smile on her voice. She rolled over to Jack in her alt-form as he picked up his helmet from where it had been resting on the work table. He put it on, then got onto the sentient Ducati. June came out of the house only a few minutes later and got on behind her son. Once they were on and were ready, Jack lifted his feet and Arcee rolled out onto the road. Once she had turned right, she took off down the road.

Mikaela lived on the same street as the Darbys did, but it was many houses down. It took only a few minutes to get there, and when they did, silence fell like a thick blanket. Jack and June got off of Arcee, and the Ducati brought out her kick-stand and leaned on it. The two raven-haired humans looked up at the girls house and saw that there were no lights on. Jack looked at his mother. "Maybe she went to bed and forgot to call you?" he suggested.

June stared at him, but before she could say anything, Arcee interrupted. "I…don't think she forgot…" In the cover of the night, Arcee deemed it safe to transform. She knelt down and pointed to something on the sidewalk in front of the girl's house. June and Jack walked up to it and looked down at it. It was hard to see, since the streetlight in front of the home wasn't working, but June fixed that by taking out a pen light. She turned it on and flashed it down on the area Arcee had pointed to. And what they saw shocked both of the humans speechless.

There was a black smudge on the ground. It was definantly caused by a blast from an Energon blaster. June pointed the penlight up the sidewalk a little bit more, and another smudge. She walked up to this one, and raised a hand to her mouth as a look of horror crossed her face. There was nothing there, but there was a necklace laying there with a familiar sliver of Energon (which was encased in a shard of diamond which seemed to have grown over it during the past centuries) adorning it as a pendant. Jack bent down and picked it up, trying desperately not to cry.

"This was the necklace I gave Mikaela when she turned seventeen," Jack admitted shakily.

"My scanners are definantly not as strong as Ratchet's, but I've noticed traces of both Energon and human tissue in that scorch mark you're standing on," Arcee said, gesturing to the mentioned smudge. "It looks like Mikaela was shot by, quite possibly, a Decepticon, and disintegrated."

June couldn't move. She only stared down at the smudge, imagining the brunette she had talked to only a mere five hours ago when she was done her volunteer shift at the hospital. She couldn't believe the girl was gone.