So, this is a plot bunny, of course. I couldn't get it out of my mind, and since A Cloak and Dagger and Awake and Alive are on hiatus, there was an opening for this. I'm not leaving the rest of my stopped stories forever, I just have no inspiration for them at the moment. So I hope you like the story :)

Disclaimer: Hasbro owns Transformers; God owns Canada; and I own Kodiak Shawn.

Separation Anxiety

o-o-o-o

1 ~ Crash ~ 1

"Apparent time of arrival, half a joor," a short silver mech at the pilot controls of the ship announced.

"Half a joor? Half a joor!" panicked a red and black mech with silver highlights. "Are you kidding, Jazz? That's thirty klicks! Thirty. Klicks! When you break it up like that, it makes it a lot shorter time span!" the mech looked over his shoulder at a pink femme and a purple femme. But then he looked back at the silver mech. "And the ship is about to crash! Have you recently checked what speed we're going? We're going too fast to enter the planet's atmosphere! Have you kept that in mind, Jazz? Huh? HAVE YOU?"

"That's enough, Red Alert," the pink femme said firmly in order to stop the approaching one-sided argument.

"But…Elita…"

The purple femme took out a gun, pointed it at the ceiling, and fired off a warning shot. "Shut up and listen to Elita-1, you scrap-heap!" the purple femme snapped.

The pink femme blinked her optics. "I know we're all suffering from some kind of cabin fever, but if we can pull it together until we're on the planet, I'm sure everything will turn out all right. Alright, Red Alert?"

Said mech hung his head. "Yes…Elita…"

"Thank you."

Suddenly, there was a mighty crash, and the ship lurched forwards. Jazz let out a nervous chuckle. "Uh, here's an update on how long it'll take ta reach the planet's surface…" he said. "Any nanoklik now…"

The ship shuttered as it hit the atmosphere of the planet. Elita-1 was shocked to say the least. "What caused the decrease in estimated time of arrival?" she asked as she wobbled once. When she found her balance once again, she found everyone on the bridge looking just a little bit worried. They were silent as well, showing the femme commander that they were in very deep trouble, especially since Jazz had lost that happy-go-lucky look on his face. They were in deep slag.

The door to the bridge opened and two mechs skated in, their pedes currently transformed into wheels. "Yo, Elita, what's going on?" the red one asked. "Is the ship outta control?"

"Of course it is, you dumbaft!" the yellow one screamed at his twin before he turned to the pink femme. "Both of the engines are gone," he stated calmly.

"Both engines are gone?" Red Alert freaked.

The situation was getting out of hand. Elita-1 glanced out the window and saw that they were heading towards a land mass and that impact would only be in a few klicks. She had to stop Red Alert from freaking out and get them all into the stasis pods. That was their only hope of survival. But as she looked from one mech to the other as the purple femme stood next to her calmly, she knew it was going to be a lot harder than she felt it would be. "Alright, everyone, to the stasis pods," she commanded over the panicking. "Now."

Sunstreaker was the first to comply, soon followed by his brother. Then Chromia and Jazz dragged a now hyperventilating Red Alert out of the room as a blue mech poked his helm in through the door. "What's going on, Elita?" he asked.

"We're about to crash, Jolt. Get Moonracer and Mirage to the stasis pods. It's the only way we'll be able to survive," she replied as she left the bridge. Jolt ran beside the pink femme as they raced to the safety of the stasis pods. When they reached the pods, Elita was relieved to see the familiar petite, mint green form of Moonracer and the familiar red form of Mirage. "Get in the pods!" Elita screamed.

"Fifteen nanokliks to impact," the computer announced.

Sunstreaker, his twin, and Red Alert were already in their pods, "asleep". Jazz leapt into his and the others soon copied him, falling into their pods as the computer began to count the seconds down. Elita disappeared into hers as the computer began to count down from ten.

"Ten…"

Elita adjusted herself into a comfortable position on her back.

"Nine…"

She strapped on the safety harness.

"Eight…"

She shut the pod's hatch and sealed it.

"Seven…"

Elita reached and pressed the button labelled "Enter Cryostasis".

"Six…"

She lay back and relaxed, the cold slowly shutting down her systems. As she fell into stasis, she faintly heard the computer continue to count down the nanokliks…

Heatherwood, Alberta; 1886 A.D.

The mysterious object falling from the sky startled a few farmers that had just woken up that morning and were on their way to tend to their livestock and crops. They dismissed it as a trick of the light and went on with their work. But the earth-quaking ka-BOOM that shook the ground really got their attention. None of them went to check out what caused it, fearing that it was a message from God because of them doing something wrong.

But one man was drawn to it as a thirsty horse was to water. The man walked across his farm, alone since his son was off at work, and over to the cloud of smoke he saw rising from his horse pasture. He climbed slowly over the fence and into the pasture before he began to walk briskly over to where the object that fell from the sky had landed.

The object, when it had landed, had carved a short path before it had bounced and came to a stop when its spike-like end had pierced the ground. The round front of the ship was now pointed at the sky. The man stared at it, amazed, before he looked at the grove and saw patches of along the edges were on fire. He gasped and ran over to them. He stamped them out with cowboy boot-clad feet, before he turned back around and looked at the object.

What blessing was this? Was it a curse?

The man, Jonathan Shawn, took his Stetson off of his balding head, and wiped his brow.

Heatherwood; Present Day

Kodiak Shawn wrinkled her nose slightly as she looked around at the farm. Yes, her father had just inherited this farm, but it didn't mean that she was thrilled about it. She was a city girl, through and through, and there was no way that she was going to become a hick. Not like she was going to have any peer pressure from anyone back at the city…

"Welcome to Rocking R Ranch, Kodiak," her father, Kasey Shawn, announced. She looked over at him and saw the smile on his face. She also saw the slight stubble on his chin and the way the breeze played with his thick, dark brown hair. She also saw the way his emerald green eyes sparkled when he looked at her. He looked so happy…he looked like he belonged on the ranch.

Kodiak blinked her own emerald green eyes as the breeze tossed her long, thick, dark brown hair over her shoulders before it blew the baseball cap off of her head. Her eyes widened in shock as she was forced to chase the hat as the breeze blew it all the way to the two hundred year old ranch house that stood there, proud. She managed to catch her cap when it was stopped by the front steps. She bent down, picked it up, and put it back on. When she straightened, though, she looked up and saw the house. She was sad to say that it looked very weather-beaten.

"Come on, Kodiak, we need to get unpacked as soon as possible. I start work tomorrow," her father said, coming towards her with two of his suitcases. She sighed and ran back to the small black car they had used to travel up from Calgary. She pulled out the only two suitcases she had brought with her, since they were not going to be getting the other stuff they left back at the city for a while. She quickly trotted back to the house, her vans kicking up dust, and entered the house.

Over the next hour, she searched for the room she would call her own and eventually found it. It was the attic.

From the window in the attic, she could see most of the ranch, and it was truly a breath-taking sight, especially in the light that was being cast by the sunset. Maybe…maybe living on this ranch wouldn't be so bad after all. Mom would have loved this place, Kodiak thought with a sigh.

Kodiak's mom, Kasey's wife, died when Kodiak was only twelve. From what was unclear. When Kodiak suddenly found herself missing a parent in her life, she became very depressed and withdrawn. She sought comfort in dark colours, cosy feelings, her thoughts, and books. She immersed herself in the worlds inside the books. She lost sleep. If she looked at herself in a mirror at that moment, she would see bags under her eyes because she was still having problems with insomnia. She had problems making friends, because everyone was afraid they would say something wrong about the death of her mother, or they stayed away from her because they considered her a freak. She was an outsider. Nobody liked her.

From below, Kodiak faintly heard her father shout, "I'm going to town, honey! I should be home before the end of the hour!"

She nodded absentmindedly. "Sure…Dad…" she called back. Blinking, she returned to reality and stopped dwelling on the fact that she no longer had a mother. She looked around at the attic before she noticed a door. With her curiosity perked she walked to it and opened it slowly.

Kodiak stood there, blinking at what the room beyond the door contained. It was like in the book, The Magician's Nephew. The room beyond the door seemed to be as much out of place like Uncle Andrew's study was out of place in the attic of Digory Kirke's town-house. She slowly remembered that this was reality and blinked a few times to make sure she wasn't imagining things. When the contents of the room didn't change, she pinched herself. When the room did not change, she heaved a sigh and stepped into the room.

The room was a study of some sort. It looked old. Everything had a thick layer dust on it, like it hadn't been used for a while. She walked slowly across the room, making sure to not disturb anything. The room was small and only contained an oaken desk, a matching chair, and an old kerosene lamp. Talk about history come to life, Kodiak remarked to herself. She walked up to the old desk and picked up a book that had been left open. Next to the clean little square of dustless desk the book left behind, there was an inkpot with the pen still propped up in it. The ink inside it had long since dried up.

She looked down at the book in her hands and gently blew the dust from the pages that had been left open. Once the dust was gone, she began to read what had been written on the page. She was surprised to find that this was a journal.

For a second she considered that she should put it down—to give whoever had written this the privacy they deserved. But then, she couldn't fight her curiosity, and continued to read.

Journal Entry No. 40.

July 10th 1886

It has been a beautiful weak here in Greenview county. My son, Hal, has just begun work over at Ted Williams'. He's working as one of the ranch hands there. I'm proud for him to get work elsewhere from our ranch, since our ranch is dying. We only have a handful of cattle and horses left and only one ranch hand. But we work the land together, and still bring in a decent profit. I'm not worried about losing the ranch anytime soon. Hal helps too, when he gets home from work, so we get everything we need to get done before the end of the day. I just wish Caroline was still here to keep me company.

-Jonathan Shawn

Kodiak raised an eyebrow. So, this journal belonged to her great-great-great grandfather, and Caroline was her great-great-great grandmother, and Hal was great-great grandfather. This was interesting…

She quickly flipped to a later entry.

Journal Entry No. 51.

July 30th 1886

Today has been very eventful. Something fell from the sky and landed in my horse pasture. I have looked at it, and I can't figure out what it is, other than it reminds me of one of those steamboats they've got on the seas. It is raining tonight. Hal and I just went out to check on it. Calcium from the rain is already beginning to coat it. Not too long into the future, this thing will just look like a hunk of rock sticking up into the sky…

Kodiak stopped reading there, and took out the map that had been tucked in at this part of the journal. She opened it and looked at the detailed drawing of the ranch. It looked accurate enough. Her ancestor had drawn where his horse pasture had been at the time, all she had to do was compare it with an updated version. But the last post sank in then. Something had fallen from the sky and he described that something as something like a ship. She gasped. Oh my goodness. By the way he's written this, he's seen a spaceship! Kodiak realized with horror.