Disclaimer: You know the drill. Certain characters, places and names don't belong to me, and are property of Hasbro and DreamWorks/Paramount pictures.

Chapter 1

Humans were no longer the only sentient species on the planet, and no longer could they call themselves supreme, top-of-the-food-chain survivors. The higher ranks in the American government (plus a few civilians and a squad of Special Operations soldiers who had survived the attack on the SOCCENT FWD base in Qatar) were aware of such a fact, and were doing their best to keep it secret in fear of mass hysteria. Human kind just was not ready to face the possibility of total annihilation brought on by an outer-space million-year-old war.

What most didn't know was: the Cybertronians weren't the only extraterrestrials on little planet Earth.

The morning light had only just begun to lift to the horizon, a gray haze lightly illuminating the forest land. For minutes, all was calm. Only the birds could be heard, singing welcoming to the morning sun about to rise. Those calm minutes passed, giving way to the sound of military vehicles rocketing through the forest. Men on M1030 Dirt Bikes and Desert Patrol Vehicles—their orders a solid motivation to jump into pursuit. A lone figure constantly danced in and out of their sights, weaving in and out between the trees in a desperate attempt to escape their hunt.

The figure, a tiny woman with disheveled, long, blonde hair that blew behind her in wild tendrils, never once stopped moving. Her feet touching the needle-covered ground for milliseconds before lifting off again to repeat the process with such speed and grace she was easily evading the men. The roar of the engines and shouts of rushed voices fueling her need to escape.

She was a monster; a monster kept in a cage whilst the men try to tame her. Now, the monster had escaped her cage...but not yet was she free. She would first have to earn her freedom in a show of raw determination and agile athleticism, as they, her captors, trained her to do.

Despite the hardened, slightly enraged expression on her blood and dirt smeared exterior, inside the woman was terrified—even though she was so close to freedom. The only toll her body was taking in her escape was the abrasions left behind after she whipped through the forest too quickly and too carelessly. The terror felt came with the knowledge that her situation was all or nothing—if she failed, she would never have another chance...she would never be free. She had to make it.

Ahead, the trees abruptly stopped in a neat line—a gravel road. For the first time in half an hour, the blonde escapee slid to a stop to take in her bearings. Her startlingly bright green eyes landed on a barricade of humvees on the road she had stumbled on—any chance of finding direction was lost at the sight, but already she had deduced her enemy's moves. There were seven soldiers, set up behind the humvee-turned-cover.

They had predicted she would find that road and had already set up there, waiting for her.

Two dirt bikes jumped a ditch and skidded to a stop behind her—laser sights already pointed on her slender frame. Thoughts—strategies—rushed through her mind. For a moment, everything was at a stand-still, as they prepared to take their captive down, and while she began to calculate her odds. Then she moved!

Ignoring the olive colored dirt bikes, she ran straight for the humvee and human barricade probably thirty yards down the road. At once, they began to open fire. She dodged to the left, to the right, spun close to the ground like a figure skater on ice, and started her momentum up again. She zipped right, left, left again and finally, she was in front of the men—her hand coming up to grab a gun barrel as the soldier fired the gun out of reflex.

For a brief moment, long before the soldiers even had time to react, she thought about snapping the man's neck. Her lips twitched upwards into an apologetic smile before his weapon was freed. Then, her knees bent and in a single swift uncoil of muscle her lithe body soared through the air over the men and their humvee, landing safely on the other side, catching herself with her hands.

Immediately, at seeing her retreating form, the soldiers began to radio in her position to the rest of them.

The sun was beginning to rise higher into the air—rather than a dull gray, the land was beginning to adopt a pink hue to everything the light touched—a bad sign. Her best chance was in low-visibility. She would have to ditch them, and fast.

Had she been praying at the moment, she would have found her prayers answered in the form of an old stone bridge spanning over a muddy, slow running creek. While her pursuers were still out of sight, she stripped her clothes off until she was nude. She fingered the pendant around her neck, and just about took it off, but decided to keep it on. She threw her duffle bag and sky-blue military issued clothes into a tall pine tree then jumped off the bridge into the icy water, submerging herself completely.

Quickly, she surfaced and pulled herself up onto the muddy bank, taking extra care to cover herself in as much mud as she could. It was only when she heard the rumbling and buzzing of military vehicles did she finish slapping her natural camouflage over her skin and settled down deep in the shadows under the bridge.

As predicted, the troops stopped on the bridge and a brigade of four men slowly made their way down the banks, their flashlights persistently sweeping over the dirty water. One was getting very close to her—she shut her eyes and forced herself to relax. She could hear everything. The squishing of army boots in mud, the steady beating hearts, the quieted breathing, the gentle trickle of water rushing over round stones, birds in the trees, a man rustling through a bush—

The soldier nearing her had his flashlight on her legs...

"Over here!" A voice in the distance called. The man jerked his light to the direction his comrade had called from and started off in that direction. The woman opened her eyes and watched the soldier's retreating form.

"The creek is a decoy! She's in the trees somewhere!" she heard, "Spread out!"

Hesitant for only a second, she began to slowly slide herself down into the water once more. A deep gulp of air filled her lungs before her body disappeared beneath the water's surface and did not reappear for four solid minutes, almost a mile away from where she had left her clothes and supplies. A necessary (though unexpected, accidental and unfortunate) loss.

When she reemerged from the water she didn't return to shore—keeping to the water would make her harder to track. Before long, the sun had risen into the sky, the pink hues shifting to orange, then gold, and finally the sky was completely blue. At around that time, she reached another road—this one paved, but wasn't so preoccupied with her escape.

Her eyes were on the sky, looking up in wonder, letting the scent of fresh air fill her lungs as she marched on. It had been a long time since she had seen the sky...and even longer since she had smelled the fresh air. Before she could marvel in the experience her training kicked in at once the second she reached an outlook overlooking a chain of hills that seemed to stretch on forever.

There sat a black GMC TopKick truck basking in the morning light, teeming with energy she had been trained to sense—energy she could sense without really putting much effort into it.

The acronym had left her lips in a snarl before she could control herself.

"N.B.E."

She ran straight for the truck, chunks of mud flying from her hair as she went. The truck stayed motionless, true to the disguise—assuming the tiny girl would leave—but once her shoulder slammed into the sleek, black frame and began to topple the NBE over onto its side in an attempt to roll it down the steep hill, parts began to shift and rearrange with a whirring and clanking harmony that made the blonde's blood boil.

Ironhide was nearly stunned at the strength this human female had shown. Optimus had assured the weapons specialist humans had the potential to be a great species, having seen the amount of courage that was worthy of any Autobot warrior; however, no amount of courage could give them this kind of strength this puny human girl was confronting him with. It took a lot to catch the battle-scarred 'bot off guard in battle; the fact that this human had managed to move him against his will was enough to force him to do something he hadn't done in thousands of years.

"Ironhide to Optimus!" he sent to his commander via emergency com. link, his gruff voice holding only the slightest hint of uncertain panic.

The female seemed to almost fly through the air and latch onto his right arm. At once her limbs began to rip at the metal concealing his cannons.

"What is it, Ironhide?" Optimus Prime replied at once, having caught onto his comrade's urgency.

"There is a human female attacking me." Ironhide responded as he attempted to pluck the mud-clad girl off his armor before she did damage. He was trying to keep his voice a little more calm—it was bad enough he was having so many problems...he didn't need to be giving the impression he was honestly worried or anything. "She's quite...formidable." he could definitely feel her doing things he did not want done to his armor and weapons.

"Ironhide..." The leader sighed, "You know this link is reserved for emergencies."

Ironhide momentarily froze as he watched his right cannon fall to the ground, "This is an emergency!" He growled, "She's disarmed one of my cannons! Her strength is not human—!"

Ironhide wasn't sure what to do—he knew he was forbidden to harm humans, but slag it all, when a human could disarm him, surely a line had been crossed—surely he could defend himself?

It took a moment before Ironhide heard his commander's reply, "Do not harm her, Ironhide." Optimus knew his friend—and his trigger-happy tendencies, "We'll be there shortly."

Ironhide grumbled to himself as the human girl jumped to his left arm and began to frantically repeat the same procedure. Again, he tried to pick her off him, but she was much too agile—plus he feared trying his best to catch her, should he accidentally hurt her. In reality, all he could do was watch as she disarmed his other cannon. It wouldn't be difficult for him to rearm himself, but this was the equivalent to having ones clothes ripped off—embarrassing and almost painful.

Things took a more serious turn once his second cannon had fallen to the ground. The girl jumped from his arm and latched onto his chest—her intent was to rip into his spark casing. Her hands were nimbly working almost with a mind of their own—the girl herself having nearly no control of her actions but no motivation to stop—it was her duty to destroy the NBEs.

Ironhide decided he didn't want to wait to see if she could crack into his chest as easily as she had disarmed him—with her strength, she no doubt could. Enough was enough—his colossal hand sped for the woman with speed he hadn't shown before; she found herself unexpectedly encased within his grasp.

For a moment, the Autobot's blazing blue optics stared curiously down on the human female as she desperately tried to escape, her arms pushing against his fingers with such strength he had to counter his strength with his own. Gently, he swung his arm and tossed the human to the ground about ten yards away from him. Now, all he had to do was dodge her—

The blonde landed on her feet, spinning in mid air to face the NBE she was determined to destroy. As predicted, she ran straight for him, leaping through the air once more in a vain attempt to continue destroying this enormous creature in front of her. He expertly dodged her attack—he had thousands of years of experience over her. Her petite body landed on the ground before she turned to look at him, now re-thinking her strategy.

She had disarmed the NBE effectively enough—but reaching his spark casing was proving to be much more difficult than simple assimilations she had trained in.

Ironhide intently watched her tiny body as she charged at him once more. He had expected to jump into the air at the last moment to reach his chest, so when she kept running, dodging his huge legs, he hadn't been able to turn in time. Her legs coiled—twenty feet of air was cleared almost as easily a man hopping along on the surface of the moon. He could feel her limbs on his back, climbing further up to his shoulders.

The Autobot's patience with the insane female was running thin; he could see her digging through his armor where one of his energon lines lay.

How was it, exactly, this human was giving him the kind of problems only a Decepticon could?

Once more, he reached for her, but this time his speed had been expected and her nimble body seemed to react instinctively, preventing him from subduing her. For the moment he was calm, forcing himself from picking his cannons up and blasting the female to bits, her fingers reached around the energon line and all patience was lost.

With a feral grunt he began to spin, and as he did so he roughly grabbed her puny flesh endowed body and threw her—not gently—with such force she disappeared into the line of trees about a hundred feet away. Once she was out of sight, Ironhide scanned the area she had been digging through; nothing was severed and everything was operational.

Muttering darkly to himself, he picked his right cannon up and took a look at the damage done. As much as he was annoyed with the female, he had to admit she was very effective at disarming—nothing had been broken but all the same she had efficiently and quickly disarmed him. Instead of minor repairs all he had to do was reattach the massive weapon. He happily did so.

Before he could get to his second cannon, his sensors picked up speeding figure heading straight for him. His optics locked onto her as she leapt through the air—only to be snatched by the now very irritated Autobot. "I've had it with you!" He hissed and slammed her body into the ground, holding her there with his hand and all his weight, only allowing her enough room to breathe; after all, he wasn't allowed to harm her. Subdue her, however, was a different story.

His attached cannon whirred to life and he pointed it down on the fearless girl.

"Ironhide!" His commander's scolding voice reached his audio receptors.

The weapon specialist looked up in time to watch the Peterbilt truck transform into his wise and fearless leader, "Relax. I haven't hurt her." He looked down at the human, "Yet."

Optimus gave him a disapproving look but said nothing and instead walked forward, kneeling down to look at the distressed human girl. "What is your name?" he asked her, trying to sooth the blonde.

Her green eyes looked from the leader to the one holding her down before calmly, almost detachedly responding, "Lilith Carnella." A yellow Camaro and a search and rescue vehicle pulled up and stopped, watching from a distance. The look on her face said she knew exactly what, or rather, who they were.

"Lilith," Optimus repeated, "I am Optimus Prime and this is Ironhide. That is Bumblebee and Ratchet. We mean you no harm."

A bark of laughter erupted from her throat, "Not easy to believe when you've got a 26 foot robot aiming a live cannon at your head."

Optimus looked at Ironhide pointedly. Ironhide shook his head, knowing what that look meant. His cannon powered down and his hand freed her, though reluctantly. She slowly climbed to her feet, her head held high. Her body didn't move until she saw the leader relax a little—then she struck.

Her body soared through the air, aimed for Ironhide, with the intent to finish that one off first, then go for the Camaro—the smallest of them, then take the search and rescue vehicle, leaving the leader for last. Her fingers wrapped around Ironhide's armor and once more began to burrow through to his spark casing.

"Told you so." Ironhide grumbled before picking her up off him. Optimus who was soon joined by a transformed Ratchet watched in surprised curiosity. Ironhide went to pin her down again, but she had foreseen the move and wriggled out of his grasp.

The yellow Camaro's doors opened and two teenagers climbed out to allow Bumblebee transform and join his comrades. Sam Witwicky and Mikaela Banes watched with more surprise than any of the Autobots had shown. The Autobots knew the limits of human ability—but not like the two humans did. Just seeing somebody jump around in a way that only Spider-Man himself could do, made the couple feel almost like they had when they had met Optimus in that dirty alleyway—but not so ant-like.

Watching the four alien robots trying to capture the speedy woman was like watching a bunch of kids trying to catch a grasshopper—there was a mild amount of amusement to be found in the situation.

All amusement was lost when the woman rammed herself into one of Bumblebee's legs in an attempt to get him to the ground. The tactic worked; he began to fall backwards...to where Sam and Mikaela stood.

Lilith's eyes went wide at the sight, at the realization of their imminent death and at the very last moment she rushed for them and gently but urgently shoved them out of the way right as Bumblebee's massive form crashed into the earth, Lilith taking Sam and Mikaela's place.

Nobody moved until Bumblebee slowly rolled over to the side, horrified at what he would see...terrified of finding his human friends broken bodies on the grass. When he saw Sam and Mikaela feet away from where he landed, relief seemed to fill him up, but the moment was cut short when he saw the girl had given her life to save Sam and Mikaela. There was blood trailing out from her nose down her cheek, into her hairline just above her ear.

A heavy silence hung over their heads like a dark ominous cloud as they stared at the girl's unmoving body.

"She saved us..." Sam whispered, looking up at his alien friends.

Eyes and optics alike turned to Ironhide at hearing him rearm his remaining cannon. He didn't look at anybody; his stony face hiding whatever emotions he might have been feeling. He walked away a little bit, turning his back to everyone. This was the first human death caused directly by the Autobots. That meant something to each of them.

Slowly, Bumblebee gently slid his hand under her limp form and sat there with her in his hands. Sam and Mikaela climbed onto his legs to get a closer look at the woman who had unintentionally caused her own death by saving their lives. Optimus and Ratchet joined, the moment of silence. Sam and Mikaela draped their jackets over her, out of respect.

For an entire minute, they stayed like that. Then Bumblebee spoke.

"She's moving." He had been feeling very minuscule movements coming from her for minutes, but had mistaken it to be something he was doing. Upon further investigation, after making sure he was completely still, he found the tiny movements were signs of life. "She's alive!"

Ironhide quickly turned, pausing to stare at the group before rejoining them, his curiosity getting the better of him. Ratchet leaned over, bathing her in a bright light. The jackets disappeared as he scanned her body. After a few seconds Ratchet stood, blinking. "Optimus..."

The leader unconsciously stepped closer to the circle, "What is it? Is she in mortal danger?"

"No, she is for the most part in good heath; her stasis is normal." Optimus quietly waited for his medical officer to continue. Ratchet folded his arms in thought, choosing his words carefully, "She is not human."

"Not human?" Sam questioned, voicing everyone's thoughts, "So...you don't think she's from Earth?"

Ratchet looked down at Sam and nodded but did not elaborate.

A/N: This is my first Transformers fanfiction, I'm a fairly new fan, and as such, some of my interpretations of the characters might be off a little. I hope not, but still... (Haha I'm actually nervous about the reactions I'll get once I post this...I'm hoping you guys will like it).

Forgive any mistakes you may have come across as I don't have anyone helping me proof-read. And you know how reliable spell-check is. o.O; If anyone's interested you can take that as a wanted ad for a beta reader !

Please review if you like...heck, even if you don't like it, let me know—in a constructive way, if you please.