Author's Note: Sorry for such a short chapter, folks! We promise the next one will follow quickly though!

As always, please oh pretty please R&R, really it makes our day :)

~~~Epsilon Pax & Bumbee

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Silence and stillness.

In a forest teaming with life, there was too much, too much stillness; not because the nightingales had fallen silent or because the choir of insects had ceased to harmonize. No, the quiet reigned here because she was gone.

Each movement now had to be restrained, measured, calculated, muted because everything here was so very, very fragile. Shreds of moonlight that filtered through the canopy above winked off of cool flames, flames that did not burn, etched into living metal. With care, silver digits reached earthward finding in the dewy grass a compact computerized device: her cell phone. But what would her cell phone be doing so far from where her signal had originated? More importantly, where was she?

Optics forged millennia ago, shifted, narrowed, focused, finding within the woods irrefutable signs of trauma: broken twigs and branches here, crumpled leaves there, and grass turned soggy from being trampled, forming a path of sorts that led down, down, down.

Primus protect you, little one… I will find you…I will bring you home, safe...

At the moment, only the birds and insects were witness to the titan who walked so gently, carefully within the midst of the forest. Moving far more fluidly than one would have expected for such an intimidating frame, the metal leviathan began the search…

I will find you, little one…

#

Tossed and tumbled about as though she were no more than a rag doll, all Annabelle could do was try to fold her arms over her head and neck protectively. To winded to scream or shriek, she squeezed her eyes shut and prayed that she'd come to some sort of a stop sooner rather than later. The slope seemed to stretch on and on, abating only as it slowly leveled out into a wide clearing, finally depositing the rumpled teenager in a heap what seemed like miles away from the campsite. Well, at least if Optimus found her here they wouldn't have to worry about anyone accidently seeing him.

With a huff of pain and relief, Annabelle allowed herself the luxury of a few minutes to just lay still, arms stretched akimbo against the earth, the cold of the ground soaking into her back as she looked once more up into the night sky. Slowly she ran a mental check of her limbs, testing each muscle to make sure that she hadn't broken anything. Soreness here, stiffness there, bruised but not broken was her final conclusion. Aching, she stood, attempting to peer through the blue gray haze of night. No familiar markings, nothing she could recognize.

"Well…scrap..." Annabelle peaked up at the stars again, deciding, judging, wondering if just maybe she was closer to where those orange lights had hovered.

The land was clear here, open and wide, a bald patch where the tree line circled. Slowly she turned 'round and 'round, feeling the grass, now dry and scratchy beneath her feet, more twig and gravel than grass really. By some small miracle her shoes had remained with her; grateful, she slipped them back on. Now all she needed was her cell phone... Dutifully she began to trudge around the small clearing, hands combing the earth, eyes riveted to only the small patches of ground that passed directly in front of her. It didn't take long to realize that her phone was indeed gone, landed in a bird's nest for all she knew.

Now her nerves rose, fluttering and anxious, the reality of her situation closing in around her, stifling. No cell phone, no connection to the outside world; without it her one lifeline to help—to Papa Bot—was snapped.

Shoulders tight and tense, Annabelle crossed her arms in the chill, regarding the hill she had tumbled down. She could head back, climb it and...and what? Walk back into camp? Explain how-

Thump.

Annabelle jumped, eyes immediately flitting from shadow to shadow.

Thump...thump...

It sounded like heavy footfalls, heavier than perhaps anything that normally

called the forest home.

Thump...thump...thump...

Annabelle strained her ears, spirits lifting.

Thump...thump...

Was that soft whisper, the clatter of metal panels as well?

"Papa Bot?" her voice rose, filling the air as she headed toward the welcome sound. She didn't care if he was mad, didn't care if he had already told her Dad where she had gone or what she had done, at the moment she was just glad he was here.

Thump, thump...

"Optimus?" having received no answer, her voice trembled, unsure now.

Thump...

By this time she had already edged her way back into the woods, looking...looking...looking...until she peaked around one tree—and found herself looking up into a pair of burning orange optics. Two realizations came crashing down upon her all at once: how very, very alone she was and how this hulking figure, all edges and angles of shadow, was not Papa Bot.

In that moment she froze, her senses scattered to the wind and only when those orange eyes began to loom closer, moving toward her did she have the sense enough to scream.