Hello! Welcome to my first Transformers fic. This is a sort of preliminary chapter - as most first chapters are - so I hope you enjoy it! Please remember to review!

Tonight was the night.

Tonight she would escape from her living hell.

She could see night slowly falling outside through the small window in her room. Her cell. The whitewashed walls were devoid of any mark or stain; an outsider would not have known that a 17 year old girl had lived there for 12 years.

The girl watched as the sun slipped below the horizon. It was time to act. The night patrol would be switching in five minutes. Within that time she had to hack into the mainframe of the facility, disable the security cameras and unlock her door.

Simple.

Five minutes.

Moving silently across the room towards the door, the girl pressed her slight form against the wall as she felt for the loose panel. Finding the weakness, the girl hit the panel with her fist and it slipped from the wall instantly. Her waiting hands caught the panel before it could clatter to the floor, and she rested it gently against the ground.

Having exposed the circuitboard within the wall, the girl quickly connected a lead from her laptop to a socket hidden amongst the wires and began to ferociously type on the keyboard.

Four and a half minutes.

Hacking had always been something that the teenager excelled at. Whether this was due to the intense tutoring she'd had since arriving at the facility, or simply through natural ability, she wasn't sure.

Multiple firewalls began to crumble as she continued her intrusion into the system, firstly disabling alarms, cameras, motion sensors... Anything that would give them any hint that she was trying to escape.

The clock continued to count down as the girl worked her way through the firewalls and into the mainframe. With 53 seconds to spare, the door released a quiet click as the lock was disengaged.

Hurriedly, the girl disconnected her laptop and secured it within her small backpack along with the rest of her things. A bottle a water, underwear, a black jumper... Her SIG Pro semi-automatic.

Pausing for a moment, the girl doubted whether it was wise to leave her gun in the backpack. Making a quick decision, she pulled it from the bag's depths and secured its holster around her waist. Throwing the backpack over her shoulder, the girl turned her back on the room and reached for the door, her ears straining for any signs of movement outside.

When nothing but a deafening silence greeted her, the girl pulled the gun from its holster and slipped silently through the doorway.

Moving soundlessly along the corridor, the girl kept her body pressed to the wall and her gun held high as she made for the only exit she knew. Her training kicked in instantly as her senses sharpened and her mind cleared of everything except the task at had.

She would escape.

She had no other choice now.

On her left came the boys' corridor. She knew that only one room down there was still occupied now. Her closest friend, her confidante: her Connor.

"Millie?"

The girl - Millie - spun at the sound of the voice. She raised her gun and aim it at the heart of the one who spoke.

"Connor?"

The shock in her usually guarded voice was evident as she slowly approached the tall, dark haired boy. She lowered her gun slightly as she moved closer; Connor was the only person Millie knew who she could trust completely, guns were not needed around him.

"Mills, what are you doing?" Connor hissed as he stepped away from his door and towards the girl. "You told me you planned to escape, but I didn't think you were being serious!"

"I was perfectly serious." Millie defended quickly, glancing behind her to make sure the night guards had not returned to duty yet. "I thought I made that clear when I told you."

"I wasn't sure whether I wanted to believe you..." Connor replied, casting his chocolate eyes down from Millie's sharp, emerald gaze. "It seems impossible."

"It's not impossible Connor," Millie said softly as she reached forward and placed a gentle hand on his cheek, "nothing's impossible. I'm escaping. Now. If you want to come with me, then grab anything you can and cover the rear."

Connor nodded swiftly and turned into his room, Millie close behind him. Scrambling lithely around the room, Connor gathered his small number of personal possessions and stashed them into a backpack.

"What were you doing in the corridor without any guards?" Millie questioned suddenly and she realised what had been nagging her at the back of her mind. They were never allowed to be outside of their rooms without an escort: free rein around the corridors was forbidden.

"I just came from Disciplinary." Connor said flatly, his eyes darkening at the thought. "They let me return alone after... Everything."

Millie cringed slightly as she remembered Connor's punishment. At firearms training that morning, the commanding officer had struck Millie across the face for missing the bullseye with her sightless rifle by an inch. Connor, in retaliation, had shot the officer in the hand with which he had struck Millie. The resulting chaos led to Millie being locked down in her room for the remainder of the day and Connor being charged to attend Disciplinary. Millie herself had never been so disobedient as to be sentenced to Disciplinary, but she had heard plenty of stories of the horrors it entailed. Some of the other children that had been kept at the facility the same as Millie and Connor had died from injuries they'd endured at Disciplinary.

Unsure of what to say, Millie allowed her actions to speak for her. She grasped Connor's hand as he passed her, squeezing it slightly in comfort. Her eyes shone with sympathy and worry as Connor looked down on her, the corners of his lips turning up in a small smile to say he was okay.

"I'm ready." He said quietly after a moment longer. He himself squeezed Millie's hand reassuringly before they released each other and made for the door.

Connor stepped through first, his own gun raised at the ready if it were needed. Millie waited within the room as she listened for Connor's quiet confirmation that the corridor was empty. The two of them had been sent on plenty of reconnaissance missions during their 12 years at the facility. They had been paired from the start as they seemed to work together so well, and their cooperation with each other was now like second nature to the two of them.

A quiet "All clear." reached Millie's sensitive ears and she stepped out into the corridor once again, determined to continue with her escape.

Her determination, however, could not prepare her for what she saw next.

Standing across the corridor with every gun trained on her was a guard of at least 20 armed men. Standing before them was Connor, a cocky smile on his face as he casually twirled his gun around his fingers.

"Connor, what are you doing?" Millie cried, raising get gun and jumping away from the guard. Away from him. "Get away from them!"

It was lame, and Millie knew it, but it was the only sentence that she could conjure at the moment as she was too filled with shock at Connor seemingly relaxed persona.

"Oh he's not going anywhere."

That voice. That voice belonged to the man who had orchestrated Millie's 12 years of training, learning, fighting and killing.

A man in his late 50s stepped forward through the throng of armed soldiers, placing a hand on Connor's broad shoulder. The man was of a short stature and had smartly cut grey hair that spread into a thin and meticulous beard that framed his sharp chin.

Millie, Connor and the others (before the rest of them had been killed) had simply known him as Zada.

Zada gently lifted his thin glasses from his face and slowly began to clean the lenses, his eyes never leaving Millie. In return, Millie kept her eyes trained on the man, flicking from his face down to his glasses and then back to his face once again.

"To say that I am disappointed in you, Datura, is an understatement." Zada said calmly as he returned his glasses to his face. "You've held such promise for so many years. You can imagine the disappointment I felt when Adonis told me of your plan to escape."

Millie couldn't help but flinch at Zada's words. Firstly it was the use of her other name, the name of the killer she was - Datura. Then it was the fact that Connor, her closest friend - and possibly even more - had betrayed her trust.

Zada stepped forward slowly, conscious of the fact that Millie's gun was still trained on his chest. Connor took a step forward beside him, but Zada raised a hand and halted his movement silently. Millie's grip tightened automatically on the gun and her eyes flicked down quickly to check that the safety was most definitely off.

"We can go about this sticky situation in two ways, Datura." Zada said as he came to a stop a few metres from Millie. "Our first option is that you lower the gun and admit to your mistake. We will be compassionate and let you live, but your loyalties will have to be... How shall I put it... Reinforced."

Millie flinched a second time, her skin flushing cold as she heard the obvious threat behind the empty words. The facility had been researching and experimenting with neuroscience and the power of the human mind... Who knew what evils they had uncovered.

"Your second option..." Zada said darkly, his forehead creasing into many lines as he frowned. "Is to run. Run like the poisonous flower you are. You will not escape from us: we will catch you - perhaps maim you so your death is a painful one before we grant you passage into the waiting arms of darkness."

"You were always one for dramatics, Zada." Millie said calmly, although she was falling to pieces inside. She could not show them how Connor's betrayal was breaking her.

Zada simply raised an eyebrow at her comment.

"Was I? I never noticed." Zada said with a small smirk on his lips. "What'll it be, Datura? Are you going to live or die?"

Millie's eyes flicked up and around herself as she debated her next move. Possibilities began to spring into her mind again as a third voice entered the conversation.

"Put the gun down Millie." Connor said nonchalantly, stepping forward. "It's the best option for you. You know none of us want to see you dead."

"I know which option I'm going to choose, Adonis." Millie said harshly, her emerald eyes turning cold as she glared at Connor. The golden flecks that were scattered amongst the green seemed to flare with an unseen fire. "I choose option three: escape."

Without a second thought, Millie aimed her gun at the ceiling and fired two shots at the pipeline above them. In an instant, the highly compressed gas was escaping through the holes and filling the corridor with a white, dense fog of water vapour.

Gunshots ran through the corridor as Connor opened fire blindly into the fog, hoping that a bullet had found its way into Millie's flesh. How dare she abandon the programme; how dare she abandon him.

"Stop!" Zada cried angrily, grasping Connor's arm harshly and pulling his gun down. "Don't kill her! Not yet..."

"Yet?" Connor spat, scowling darkly at his superior. "She openly reject your generous offer of pardon."

"There is a way to bring her back to us, willing or not." Zada said, his grey eyes glinting dangerously as he began to march down the corridor in pursuit of the girl. "Our neurological research hasn't been for nothing, Adonis..."

Connor paused for a moment as he thought over Zada's words, watching as the man advanced into the dense fog. A malicious smile spread across his lips as he turned to face the men behind him. His now wet hair slicked across his forehead as he issued his command:

"Find Datura. Detain her, but keep her alive. That's an order. Now go!"

After firing the gun, Millie had turned and high-tailed it down the corridor and round the corner. She's recognised the sound of Connor's gun as bullets flew past her ears but thankfully missed her. Panic swept through her system as she tried to suppress it and keep a cool head. Adrenaline pumped through her veins as thoughts of her next move filtered through her head like the film of a movie. Surrender; be killed. Hide; be found, be killed. Make a stand; kill many, be killed. None of her options were particularly promising. All of them involved her being unable to escape from the facility: the one exit she knew had been blocked by twenty armed guards.

Skidding around the next turning, Millie held her gun carefully as she sprinted along the corridor. Red lights flashed and sirens wailed like the Furies, but still she ran, her mind and body focused on escaped.

Around the next corner, the most beautiful thing met Millie's eyes: a fire exit.

With a small cry of relief that she would not be running aimlessly through the facility anymore, Millie slammed into the safety door, opening it, and sprinted into the waiting arms of the cool spring evening. A familiar sight greeted her as Millie ran across the courtyard and towards the gate. The car park to her right was barren, as usual, aside from the beaten up old 1977 Chevrolet camero that Millie and the others hand learned to drive in. Millie cringed as bullets flew around her while she ran. She was exposed, she knew, but the thought of being able to pass through those gates in front of her had driven her to act rashly.

Guards were rushing from exits on all sides of the facility, their guns trained on the teenager. Shots flew around her arms and legs as Millie raised her own gun and fired. Bicep, thigh, shoulder... None of her shots would be fatal, but Millie knew from experience that she would have caused enough damage to incapacitate the guards.

Bullets continued to fly past her ear as Millie approached the gates. One hundred metres. Seventy five metres. Fifty metres. So close to freedom.

"Remember your orders!" A harsh, twisted voice - Connor's voice - screamed across the courtyard. "Maim only! She is still useful to us!"

Terror ran through Millie at Connor's words. She would not be their puppet any longer. She would rather die.

A sudden force collided with Millie's right thigh and she cried out in surprise and pain as her leg gave way beneath her and she went crashing to the ground.

"Surround her! Surround her!"

Groaning in agony, Millie pressed a hand to her thigh and felt the sticky mess of her blood that was leaking over her khaki trousers. She pushed herself to her feet and continued to stumble towards the gates, before her leg buckled once again and she hit the dirt, hard.

Winded and broken, Millie began to drag herself across the yellow grass, spotlights from the high walls around her followed her slow progression towards freedom. Ten metres. That's all she had left. Ten metres and God decided it would be the perfect time for her to be shot.

"It's no use, Datura." Zada's arrogant voice slipped across the courtyard like oil, coating everyone with his victorious proclamation. Millie could practically hear the gleeful smile in his voice. "There's nothing you can do except surrender to us quickly and quietly."

Millie continued to crawl for a moment more before her body sagged against the ground in defeat. The pain from her thigh was too much and she could feel her own blood dripping from the wound through her fingers and onto the dirt. Heaving a heavy sigh, Millie pushed herself onto her back and propped up onto one elbow. She watched Zada carefully as he stood fifteen metres form her. A thin smile was plastered on his lips as Connor walked up behind him, reloading his gun.

"You know, Millie..." Connor said dryly as he snapped the barrel of the gun shut and examined it fondly. "I never thought I'd have to use my marksmanship to shoot you of all people."

Another sting in the bitterness of betrayal. Millie bit back a whimper as she realised the bullet in her thigh had come from Connor's gun.

Zada stepped forward and opened his mouth to speak, but he was suddenly interrupted by the booming sound of atmospheric disturbance. All eyes - including Millie's - turned to the sky as what appeared to be a meteor entered the Earth's atmosphere. Cries of disbelief rippled around the courtyard as the meteor hurtled through the sky, small flecks of burning pieces flying from its streamlined body.

"It's heading straight for us..." Millie whispered quietly as realisation dawned upon her quickly. The meteor continued its descent and grew larger as it came closer.

"Clear the area!" Connor barked suddenly, running to grab a hold of Zada's arm and pulling the man to the side of the courtyard. "That thing's going to hit us!"

Panic ensued as guards scrambled across the courtyard to find a hiding place. All the while, the meteor continued its descent towards the facility, its burning bulk growing closer and closer by the second.

Millie didn't move. She couldn't move. Her leg was crippled and her determination had been shattered. The meteor was coming closer and closer, but still she didn't move.

Silence enveloped them all for a moment, before a thundering boomechoedacross the facility: the meteor had landed.

In a rain of sparks and burning metal, the meteor crashed in the centre of the courtyard, ripping up grass and concrete alike. Millie braced herself as the huge, seemingly metal, object skidded towards her. Surprisingly though, an explosion beneath the meteor sent it flying over Millie's head and crashing into the facility wall behind her, smashing it to the ground the same a bowling ball does to pins.

Millie raised her arm and covered her head as dust and rumbled rained down on the courtyard. Her bullet wound stung as the dust slipped by her fingers and into the exposed muscle. Hissing painfully, Millie brought her leg up to her chest to try and cover it.

The silence returned as the meteor came to a rest amongst the ruins of the concrete wall. Millie glanced behind her through the settling dust to see the outline of the meteor; it was unusual, to say the least. Ridges and curves littered the surface as hieroglyphics and symbols seemed to dance across the metal in a haphazard but organised fashion.

The sound of movement caused Millie to turn away from the meteor. Behind her, Zada, Connor and the guards had emerged gem their hiding places, their guns trained on her in an instant.

"You dare think about moving, Datura, and I'll send a bullet straight through your chest." Zada threatened as he raised his gun and released the safety.

There was nothing Millie could do. Her escape had failed, there was a bullet in her leg and a huge metal meteor resting behind her in the ruins of the facility wall, blocking her one route to freedom. What could she do, except accept that she was most likely going to die. Or worse.

Without having a true reason for doing so, Millie turned her head to have one final look at the meteor behind her. Her emerald eyes shone with tears as she realised her time had come. Her gaze drifted over the metal, unsure of what it would find. Pleadingly, a quiet whisper passed her dry lips:

"Please help me."

Millie didn't know why the hell she said it, using her last moments to talk to a lump of metal. She had always wished for a happy ending and instead she was just going crazy.

What she didn't expect, however, was for the metal meteor to shatter into thousands of pieces as soon as the words left her mouth.