Hello all! Unfortunately I had come down with the flu and I wasn't able to write the Christmas special I so desperately wanted to write! I did however, write this chapter previously and so here is the next installment in our Delyia/Optimus saga!

Let me know if you guys want the Christmas special anyway okay? I hope you all enjoy our third arc together, it's going to be a crazy ride.

Enjoy~

The sun slipped over the horizon, its rays of fire bathed the barren earth in its warmth. I sat on the roof of Mikaela and I's apartment complex; My elbow resting on my knee with hand supporting my chin, I watched as the night faded into day. A sigh escaped my lips as I looked to my other hand; they had permanently attached a watch to my wrist. I could feel Megatron's evil glare through the ticking of the face. I shuddered to think that they were watching me at this moment. That's why I had to leave – I couldn't put them in danger. Maybe if I were to travel far enough away they wouldn't make me spy on them. Sam had told me that the Decepticons just dropped me off in some warehouse and somehow signaled the Autobots of my location. I couldn't tell them what had happened in the dark, dank room - only that I had been tortured, though Lennox wanted detail for his superiors, and that Megatron was looking for the Matrix. When I had explained my story Optimus hadn't spoken a word, and when I finished he just stood and left. My eyes now found themselves traveling back to the now blue sky, I soon shut them and wished as hard as I could that no harm would come to the Autobots – even Optimus.

My heart fell a little as my thoughts travelled to Optimus. He was probably spending his afternoons tracking down Decepticons and loving Elita. She wasn't exactly considerate of the situation the two of us were in, but she was fighting for something she cared about against some 'new' threat. I couldn't completely fault her, but I couldn't help but feel negativity towards the feminine Autobot. I couldn't believe I spent two more months with all of them, on that base with the two of them spending time together. Though, every so often I'd see Optimus glancing towards me, and I felt my love for him sprout new life in my heart, only to squash itself whenever his attention would be captured back by Elita. Some anger seeded itself in my chest as I thought to the last encounter we had. Though the years had not been particularly kind to my heart, it did alleviate some of the anger and pain I felt towards the Autobot leader. Although, the pain was soon met with an endless void that nothing seemed to be able to fill.

Thankfully, Sam – after he'd cried to me and apologized for days – explained that he did want to go back to college. I immediately knew Mikaela would end up leaving because he was leaving – and I did not want to be stuck here in this invisible love triangle on my own. So when Sam left a few months later, I left with him along with Mikaela. Sam and I lived for the few years left of school in an apartment together and once we graduated he wanted to live on his own. Mikaela and him had gone through a rough patch at the end of our senior year and fell apart – much to my dismay. I couldn't let it get in the way of my bond with either of them, and I asked them not to make me choose. Now, I lived with Mikaela, and Sam with his new girlfriend – I honestly can't even remember name. Carly? The blonde was obviously not a good match for him, she treated him like a boy-toy and it didn't sit well with me. Needless to say I wasn't allowed to come around too often. So most days started and ended with Mikaela and I going to our separate jobs, returning home, sulking about or going out to bars. The first year apart of Optimus hurt me – hard. I felt as if apiece of me had died, shriveling up inside my heart and rotting. I had taken to the liquid mistress, for months I would drink until I blacked out. Then Mikaela had enough and threatened to leave me here alone if I didn't slow down – or give it up all together. So now, we only drink once a week at a bar so that way I have to be in the right enough state of mind to go home. The void was still there, and after the year had been up Mikaela forced me to go out with other men. None of them lasted long, and I soon discovered I was only using them to distract me from my aching soul. Another year of that and I was done with using them, I decided I didn't want anyone. I would live my life free of the shackles of my heart, even if it meant ignoring the one thing I wanted most in the world. After three years of separation, after my graduation, after I finally found a shitty job, and after Mikaela and I had finally settled down in an apartment – after all of that I received the first of a series of letters. At first, I didn't know who it was from or where the letter came from. It came in an unmarked envelope with no return address or name labeled on the front. It sat on my nightstand for three days before I finally had the courage to open it and read it, and my suspicions were confirmed once I read the first sentence. Optimus had sent me a letter after three years of silence. He knew I had kept in touch with a few of the Autobots, and he could've talked to me then – but I never received any word from him in all of those years until now. I have no idea how he sent me the letter, considering his size he couldn't have typed this out himself. My hands shook for hours as I read, reread, and read again, the letter filled with so many emotions.

Dear Delyia,

I hope that this letter finds you in good health. I hear that you graduated and are now living life, I wish you all the happiness in the world. I know it has been over three years since the last time we had spoken, however as the days pass I feel as though we should make amends for all the words that had been spoken between us. I cannot help but put blame upon myself for the things that happened in the coming months of your decision to leave. And though we are not together, I can still feel your energy with me with each passing hour. Your eyes have not left my processor since you left, and sometimes I fear I have made the wrong decision in letting you leave here. I hope you will send some word back to me, I have missed you Delyia.

Optimus.

If I had received the letter two – maybe even a year – ago, I might have had it in me to send a letter back. However now I had come to terms with the fact that I'd never hear from him again, and to lay my eyes on words that he had thought – it shook me to my very core. I did not know what to do, I didn't know what to say or even think. What could I say – what could I do? It had been three years in the making, and I knew Optimus would never come back to me. I doubted that he would even if Elita was long dead, he'd always hold her higher in his spark than me. How could I compete with history – how could I compete with someone of his own species?

So I did nothing, I merely tucked the letter away in a drawer and didn't look at it again. I did the same thing with the twenty other letters I received from him. I would read them, feel the stitches of my heart unfold little by little, sometimes I'd even cry for a moment, then push them aside, attempting to rid him from my mind. You're twenty five, almost twenty six. I would think to myself, you were hung up on a being you'd only just started to date for so long – do you really want to go down that road? And almost always the answer was no, I couldn't just yet. He wasn't even offering to love me like I wanted him to, just to talk. That was something my fragile heart could not handle, just friends. How could someone be just a friend with the person they felt fit them perfectly? The answer is there is no way anyone could handle that, and I wasn't the strongest of souls. I turned a blind eye for so many months as the letters piled up, details about missions, poems, paragraphs of how the littlest thing reminded him of something about me. They all led my heart into dark spaces that I loved to wallow in. Shadowed corners of my mind that allowed me to believe that he still loved me, that he still wanted to be with me. But then the light of the sun would shine through and remind me that I was alone in this world, and no one – not even the Gods – were willing to change that.

"Delyia!" Mikaela yelled, busting through the door to the roof – her face looked strained.

I looked to her in worry, standing and rushing over to her I asked,

"What's wrong?"

She scoffed and folded her arms, "There's someone waiting for you in our living room."

I raised a brow, "Sam?"

She nodded and I could feel the tears about to spill over. I gently pulled her into a hug and patted her back.

"It's okay Mikaela, Sam'll come around soon. You know him – you two are meant to be together." I felt that to be true – down to my very soul.

She nodded and huffed, trying to suck the tears back in. "You go on, I'll stay up here for a little bit."

I nodded, allowing her to avoid hurt feelings just how she let me avoid mine. I headed down to our apartment, unlocking the door and stepping in. No sooner had I stepped into the apartment did i become engulfed in a pair of arms, and squeezed to a hot chest. Surprised, I forced myself away and looked at a conflicted Sam.

"Sam you scared the shit out of me." I sighed heavily, a hand placed over my heart to attempt to stop the hurried beating.

"Sorry D, I just haven't seen you in a while and – well I miss you."

My brows shot up, "Well it isn't exactly like you oouldn't have seen me. You chose not to."

"Yeah but you know how Carly gets – "

I scoffed, "Yeah I do, and you let her get between us."

Sam rolled his eyes, "Delyia why can't you just get along with her?"

"Because you know very well why! She treats you like a dog, and what's worse? You don't care! While there's a very capable woman right in this apartment who's willing to love you –"

"Willing – right." It was Sam's turn to scoff as he crossed his arms.

"Sam what you did was wrong and you know it." I felt my eyes narrowing. "Now if we could get off this subject, you already know how I feel."

"What happened to you D? Ever since we left you've never been the same."

"Maybe I just grew up."

"Or maybe you never got over – "

"Shut up." I seethed, I wasn't in the mood to be lectured.

Sam threw his hands up in defeat, "I guess I proved my point then."

"What do you want Sam?"

"Well, some crazy shit is going down."

"Like what?" I moved to sit on the couch and Sam followed.

"Well,"

Sam then went into detail about how some guy from his work had attacked him in his stall and gave him some package containing a bunch of newspaper clippings, drawings, and maps.

"Why'd he give it to you?" I questioned.

Sam shrugged wildly, "I honestly have no idea. I'm so confused and scared - and a Decepticon attacked my work today I just have no idea what to do. Carly's downstairs in the car because I was afraid to leave her alone at home. What should we do D?"

I sighed, my mind already knew what to do, and my heart was telling me to have no part in it.

"We have to go see the Autobots."

P.s. It would really help you guys out to read the author's notes btw. I always put important info there. 3 Much love,

Sofiabarbara