Don't look so smug about another update. I can stop anytime I want to. I am not addicted to this story. Honest… And this is the last opportunity for me to write all day like this, so there will certainly be a delay this time.

Keeping the timelines straight is harder than it looks at times. Of course, the fact that the Lennox home is in a different time zone than Washington D.C. could either be helpful or more problematic for me. I don't know yet. But I will make the timelines work properly somehow, even if I have to resort to time travel (hehehehe… just joking about the time travel thing).

I deeply appreciate the feedback so far. Everyone seems to be enjoying the direction I am heading in and many of you are commenting that you enjoy how much of the "Dark of the Moon" I am still able to include while taking into account my alterations. The fact that my hard work is appreciated makes me happy.

I know you're worried about Annabelle. You have every right to be. She is now in the clutches of the Decepticons, sitting in Starscream's cockpit as he flies away from her home. Meanwhile, her father and Ironhide are in Washington D.C. dealing with the fact that not only is the Ark on the moon, but Sentinel Prime was on board. They don't know what happened to the kid yet. Finally, Sam is due to meet Jerry Wang soon (who will then meet Laserbeak). Things are certainly becoming complicated. Wish me luck.

Oh, and just in case any of you are wondering, I do not own Transformers, the characters, or the original storyline of "Dark of the Moon." If I was, I'd have made a few changes to the movie before it showed up in theaters.

Starscream was not happy about his current situation. He was a powerful Decepticon, second only to Megatron himself (for now…). He was a skilled warrior, knowing when to fight and when to enact a tactical retreat to survive another day. If he had to handle missions given to him by that incompetent leader of his, should it not have been one worthy of his abilities?

The task he was given was to transport the human soldier, Lieutenant Colonel William Lennox. While mildly demeaning, Starscream had to admit it could have been worse. At least that particular organic had a reputation from his successful battles against the Decepticons in the past. But, when Laserbeak had contacted Megatron about a possible alternate target, he ended up having the avian-like Cybertron deposit an underdeveloped fleshling in his cockpit instead. Having to transport and watch the small, messy, terrified organic was a mission far below him. And, honestly, he couldn't wait to get rid of the human.

So far, the young fleshling had curled up on his seat and whimpered quietly for several minutes. Her face was wet with clear liquid from her eyes, her knees held tightly to her chest, and her whole body shook slightly. He'd seen fear before, he had seen how these organic creatures react to stress and terror, and her reactions were falling somewhere in the middle of his experiences with humans. She was not as stoic as some of the NEST soldiers that augmented the Autobot forces, but she was not in that state of petrifying shock that so many humans adopted when they first observed one of the Decepticons in all their glory. It was mildly impressive that such a young fleshling was handling the situation as well as she was.

He had a vague affection for young beings, such as the poor primitive younglings that had been retrieved from the Nemesis to scurry around that makeshift base in Africa. Even if those particular Cybertronians would never have had much of a future, regardless of any other factor, Starscream had no qualms keeping an eye on them. Unfortunately for the small female in his cockpit, any small feeling of pity for the still-growing being was mostly canceled out due to his distaste for humans in general and his frustration at being assigned such a demeaning task.

Silently fuming at his situation, he almost didn't notice when the small organic wiped her face with her hand and gained a mildly more bold expression.

"You're name is Starscream, right?" she asked quietly.

"What?" he snapped, wondering why his cargo was trying to address him.

Cringing at the tone, she explained, "Laserbeak called you 'Starscream' when he dropped me in here. Is it?"

"Yes, it is," he answered shortly.

The conversation was apparently not finished in her opinion. Sliding her feet down, she sat up straighter and looked directly at the console in front of her.

"I know who you are. You work for Megatron. He's in charge of the Decepticons."

"Thank you for informing me of something I already know," he answered sarcastically, though secretly pleased to be recognized.

"But everyone knows you'd be better at it," she added.

That did leave the Decepticon silent for a moment. From his understanding of the extremely young of this species, they would often repeat back phrases that their elders would say. Rather like those colorful avians that occupied the more tropical regions of the planet. Did that mean that this particular specimen had heard something? Laserbeak had stated that this was the offspring of their original target. Perhaps her parent had mentioned something within her hearing.

"You're smarter and better than Megatron," she continued. "If you were in charge, I bet the bad robots would have won a long time ago."

"And where did you hear that?" Starscream asked curiously, enjoying that someone seemed to see the truth.

She shrugged, "I don't know. I just did."

"Do you recall anything else about how I am superior to Megatron?"

"Not right now. Maybe later," she answered. Quieter, she asked, "What do you want with me?"

"Megatron believes you will work as well as your father for his needs," he explained, allowing a hint of mocking towards his leader to slip into his tone. "As does Laserbeak. So I have to keep you in my possession for now."

"But why?"

"That does not concern you," he answered sharply, reminding himself that she was both his prisoner and lowly organic.

She became quiet again, her eyes falling towards her shoes. She folded her hands across her lap and remained still for several minutes. Then, starting to fidget, she looked back at the console.

"Does that mean you'll be flying around in the sky the whole time with me? Don't you have more important stuff to do?"

"Yes, I should be on missions more befitting of my abilities," he answered. "But I have orders to ensure that you are kept in our possession."

"But can't you use the 'chain of command' thing to make someone else do stuff you don't like? If Megatron isn't around, you're boss of them, right?"

The idea, as simplistically described as it was, had merit. One the advantages of being Second-in-Command should be the ability to delegate such menial task. Surely there was a Decepticon on this planet that could guard a young human instead? One currently waiting for their coming attack, but with no current duty…

"Perhaps you are right, fleshling."

"Annabelle," she corrected quietly, but he ignored it.

"I believe I know the ideal Decepticon to bestow this 'honor' on. We'll meet him further east, but it could take him some time to arrive. Those energon detectors will force him to take a less-direct approach to the ideal rendezvous, but he is skilled at such avoidance. Until then, you will remain still and silent for the entirety of the trip."

Obeying his instructions for silence, the young female nodded. Satisfied she would not distract him for the moment at least, he began to open a com-link to his intended victim. The disadvantage of having a passenger riding inside was that she would hear the conversation, but it was easy enough to use Cybertronian instead of English. Not that she would have been able to use the information, even if she did hear it.

"Barricade, I have a task for you."

She was calming down a little now. She was recalling everything Wheelie said to do around Starscream. And he did seem happy to hear nice things about himself and that he was better than Megatron, so she was probably safe for a little while.

But, after he told her to be quiet, she heard something very familiar. The electronic-sounding language of the Cybertronians, a language that Ironhide had worked hard to teach her, was being spoken by Starscream. She knew more words now than when she stopped the twins' attempt to trick Ironhide or when she ran into Barricade, even if she couldn't say all of them.

"…, I have … task … you."

A few moments later, a different voice came through the radio. It also spoke Cybertronian.

"This better… important,…"

"I need you… guard… human. Only until… Autobot traitor… Prime acts. After he reveals his true… and we have…, it…not matter what you do… human."

Annabelle frowned a little in confusion. An Autobot traitor? Did he mean a good robot had become a bad one? Like how Wheelie and Brains became an Autobot after they stopped being a Decepticon? That was very, very bad. And they said "Prime," but it wasn't Optimus Prime. She knew the word for Optimus' name and that wasn't the word they said. It was a different word, but it was still part of the name. Something Prime. But Ironhide said that Optimus was the only "Prime" left. And Optimus couldn't be the traitor anyway. So who were they talking about? A Prime, who wasn't Optimus Prime, that was going to do something bad to her friends. It made no sense.

"Must I?"

"Yes. Meet us… location. ..."

The next several words were too complicated for her to recognize, but she felt the jet turn slightly. She didn't know what was going on, but she couldn't help wondering about the short conversation she'd overheard.

It took time for a ship, even one belonging to the Autobots, to reach the moon and return with a long-lost ally and whatever important cargo that the Ark had been transporting. Will knew this and was taking the opportunity to relax slightly. Undoubtedly, there would be more questions and answers to discuss once they arrived and he would have to try and referee between the annoying woman and the Cybertronians again. Why did every government representative sent to deal with the Autobots have to be such a headache for everyone involved? If Epps was here, he'd undoubtedly have some wonderfully colorful words to describe Mearing.

Still, she was keeping out of his hair for the moment, so Will figured she was waiting until Optimus was present again. He didn't wish her on anyone, let alone the leader of the Autobots, but the small reprieve from her presence was a nice experience. Instead, all he had to deal with that evening was the perpetual arguments between the twins, making sure that combat training for those under his command was properly executed, and wondering what the Decepticons were after this time. That last act was fairly pointless until he met their newest Autobot arrival and learned what exactly they were bringing with them, but it was better than wondering where in the universe that the Decepticons got that giant worm thing that attacked in Chernobyl.

"Sir, you have a call coming in," one of the more tech-oriented member of NEST informed him. "Line two. I think it's your wife."

That made him pause. It was vaguely possible for Sarah to fight her way through the red-tape to get a phone call to him. He'd left her the information she would need to provide to be allowed such a thing and there were times where he felt those paper-pushers would have bowed to her wishes due to her forceful personality anyway, though it would still take an impossibly long amount of time and effort to reach him. She'd never called him at NEST while he was on active duty. He would call her if he had the opportunity between missions, but she had never gone through the nightmarish amount of work to get a phone call directly into the NEST base. She would not have done this unless absolutely necessary.

Dread was already beginning to build in the man before he picked up the line. He could feel that something was wrong. Something was deeply wrong.

"They took her," she sobbed desperately across the line, his wife's voice so grief-stricken and choked with tears that he almost didn't recognize it or immediately understand the words. "They took her, Will."

"Sarah, Sarah, slow down. What's going on?" he asked, trying to gain some comprehension of the frantic words spilling out of her mouth.

"They took her," she repeated, his strong-willed wife sounding completely dispirited. "They took my baby. Annabelle is gone. The Decepticons have her, Will."

No.

Not her.

Not Annabelle.

His mind refused to work, but too many years of training and combat allowed his body to continue operate. He stood straighter, his eyes narrowed, and the soldier turned to face towards where he knew his allies were waiting. They were staring back at him. Cybertronians could hear practically anything; they had heard what Sarah had said over the phone. They had heard what happened to Annabelle. The Autobots would not allow this. Ironhide would not allow this. He would not allow this.

"She was playing outside this morning. I heard her screaming and ran outside. Some kind of mechanical, red-eyed bird had her and flew away. They took my baby girl," she described, breaking down into wordless sobs at the thought.

His mind wasn't recovered yet, but his mouth answered his distraught wife, "They will not have her long, Sarah. I'll make sure of that."

Sarah didn't respond to his words, but her sobs shifted to something that might have been mildly more hopeful. It broke his heart to hear her in such emotional pain and him being unable to comfort her properly. But how do you comfort a mother whose child had been snatch away? Especially when you are just as terrified for the girl's safety? Even the fear when she ran into Barricade was nothing compared to this. It had taken Sarah hours to get through all that stupid red-tape and Annabelle could be anywhere by now. Anything could have happened to her already, could be happen right this second. And he didn't have the slightest idea of where to start looking for her.

He was her father. He was supposed to protect her from harm, to keep her safe. But he'd been too far away. And now he'd lost her. His baby girl…

"No, Will," answered a low and dangerous voice. He looked up, meeting Ironhide's blue optics with his gaze. The black Cybertronian had stepped forward, his cannon whirling dangerously. "We'll make sure of it."

His first day on the job, delivering mail to everyone while hoping to avoid his insane boss, and he was already wishing to be fired. After all the trouble to get a job and now Sam was wishing to go back to the nightmare of endless interviews again.

Really, his trouble had started the evening before. Mikaela had driven home in a very nice, very expensive car that her new customer had insisted she use. Dylan's excuse was that he liked to provide company vehicles for all of his most valuable employees, even one that only worked for him part time. Sam knew it was another ploy to undermine him. That rich guy was trying to turn Mikaela into his some kind of trophy girlfriend of his own. He wanted to impress and steal away the beautiful brunette. And Mikaela completely agreed that it was both inappropriate and not an act of a man who just wanted to be friends. On the other hand, she also pointed out that not only was this particular job a once in a lifetime opportunity, but it would be incredibly rude to turn it down on the first day. So they were stuck with another reminder of Dylan's money and power, a symbol to taunt Sam of things he couldn't give her. Maybe he could sell it on E-bay later…

Next, Wheelie had finally remembered that Annabelle tried to call Mikeala before. Unfortunately, the phone for the Lennox residence had remained busy for at least fifteen minutes straight. Concerned over what her favorite little kid had wanted, Sam's girlfriend had been distracted for the rest of the evening.

But this morning had taken the cake for unpleasantness. Just thinking about how the Autobots were off saving the world while he organized about four binders was rather frustrating. Delivering mail was not how he pictured himself making a difference. But when one of his fellow employees, Jerry Wang, stole his jacket and ran for the restroom… Sam was forced to truly reconsider if this was the type of work environment that he wanted to work in.

He started talking crazy gibberish that, when he thought back, sounded like the sort of thing Leo or Simmons would come up with. Conspiracies and secret government cover-ups about the moon. Of course, considering how often those two had been right, Sam went through the wad of newspaper clips and hand-written notes "Deep Wang" had provided. The longer he read, the more he felt that the crazy guy who attacked him in the toilet stall might actually be on to something important.

Oddly, when he went to confront Jerry about the entire event, he not only denied everything, he acted like Sam was the insane one. And, about ten seconds later, he apparently decided to test the power of gravity by splattering himself across the ground several stories below. The dark-haired young man, the collection of conspiracy clues firmly in his hand, couldn't help wondering if it was suicide or something else.

His boss, Mr. Brazos, was talking to him as they headed towards the office of the formerly-living Accurretta Systems employee. He was spouting more insanity, this time connected to what he thought had happened in the restroom, but Sam's thoughts were still stuck on Jerry, who died almost immediately after passing along information that he felt was vital. Jerry, who had acted as if there was someone after him. Jerry, who had been acting even weirder after he handed over those newspaper clippings. Suicide or murder.

Distantly, he heard someone mention a copier that was acting up. Without even realizing why, that snippet of conversation brought up the memory of "Satan's Camaro" refusing to act like a normal vehicle. A split second later, he recognized the connection between the memory and the faulty copier.

As soon as he heard the first hint of transformation, Sam was running. After so many years of dealing with giant mechanical beings trying to kill him, he had perfected the art of fleeing for his life. He'd even practiced his skills at this survival strategy so that even obstacles wouldn't impede his swift flight.

The Decepticon attacked; Sam ran. And things were back to normal for him.

Murdering the human, Jerry Wang, was fun. Watching him splatter across the asphalt below left Laserbeak filled with glee. Jerry was his favorite of the humans he'd been sent to kill. He was so quirky and odd. And, even better, he tried to defend himself. He brought out weapons and aimed them at the Cybertronian. Unfortunately for the fleshling, he didn't even bother to fire. He just shouted some strange nonsense before the Decepticon removed the defense and sent him through two layers of glass. The fact that he failed to attempt to attack, even while armed, made the avian-like being wonder about his latest victim's intelligence. Not that it mattered now that his squishy little brain was smeared everywhere.

But Witwicky was here too. And Jerry gave the boy something before he died. He might deny it, but Laserbeak could recognize a lie when he heard it from the now-dead human. If he killed the fleshling, the same pathetic organic that temporarily killed Megatron, there would almost certainly be a reward for him. Their leader hated the boy completely and utterly; he wanted the insect dead.

Firing into the utter chaos the former room, the humans screamed and scurried around in a panic. So many targets, so many victims, and yet the one he was trying slaughter was so far unharmed. The avian-like Cybertronian tried to follow, knocking aside any fleshlings that got in the way and not caring if they were killed by the impact, but the boy was becoming harder to track. He was out of sight, the noise was too great to track his footsteps, and all the organics in the building made following his particular heat signature pointless. Within a few moments, he had to admit that he'd lost his target.

Well, at least he killed Jerry Wang. That was who he came to eliminate. Perhaps he'd have the opportunity to kill him later.

Starscream had found a building away from anyone to let her out while they waited for his friend. Annabelle didn't know where they were, but it had a bathroom. A smelly one, but she didn't complain about how dirty it was. She remembered Wheelie's advice to her. She said nice things about Starscream, said he was better than Megatron, and tried to do what they wanted her to. And she kept watching the Decepticon. If he stopped paying attention too long, she would try running again.

Starscream had transformed, so she knew they were really far away from any other people. He looked kind of funny and triangle-shaped, but she didn't say that. He acted like he was ignoring her and everything else since he tossed her out of the seat, but she knew he wasn't. He was keeping an eye out for anyone coming. She didn't want to be close to the red-eyed robot, so she stayed inside the old building while they waited.

The building was really messy and had lots of broken windows. It didn't even have a door anymore. There were lots of broken glass bottles, brown ones, scattered around. She had to be careful of broken glass and garbage so she didn't get a scratch. Mommy wasn't here to put a band-aid on it. And Ratchet wasn't there to use long words to describe her boo-boo as he fixed it. She didn't think that a bad robot would want to kiss it and make it better if she did get hurt.

Inside, somebody had made a campfire inside a big metal can a long time ago. Standing on a cinderblock beside the metal can, she could pull herself up to see that it was black and ashy inside. She wondered why someone would go camping here, but quickly dismissed the mystery to poke around the place some more.

When it started getting dark and she started getting hungry, she wandered back outside to ask Starscream if she could have dinner. He had glared at her and asked how she expected him to "procure her nourishment since they were attempting to maintain a low profile." When she realized he wouldn't be giving her any food, she ended up curled up in a cardboard box she found inside, still hungry, and crying herself to sleep.

She wanted to be brave. She wanted to be a big girl and not show the bad robot that she was scared. She wanted to be a hero like Daddy and Ironhide.

But she was scared. She was scared, hungry, tired, and alone. She wanted Mommy to give her a hug and tuck her into her bed. She wanted Daddy to tell her that he was so proud of her for standing up to the bad robot and protecting Mommy. She wanted Ironhide to beat up the Decepticon and make her feel safe. She wanted to go home and for everything to go back to the way things used to be.

Annabelle's sleep was uneasy and she could not remain asleep for long. Nightmares of red, staring eyes and shadowy shapes haunted her, though she could not escape them when she woke. The monsters followed her from her dreams, waiting as a transformed jet outside the old building. By morning, she was shivering from the cooler air, the wet dew that formed on her arms, and the fact that she was still scared and alone.

"Human, come out here," Starscream's voice abruptly ordered.

Creeping out of her box, she walked towards the gaping hole where the door used to be. The triangular Decepticon watched her with, his scary red eyes never leaving her.

About to ask what he wanted, she suddenly realized she could hear a car coming. For a moment, she hoped that it was Ironhide coming to rescue her. He and Daddy fought bad robots, there was a bad robot right in front of her, and they showed up to save her before. It made sense. And even if it wasn't Ironhide, it might be another Autobot. Maybe Bumblebee, Sideswipe, Jolt, Ratchet, or one of the new ones, like Wheeljack or Mirage. Or maybe even Optimus. She'd even be happy to see one of the twins, regardless of how silly and tricky as they usually acted. She felt almost positive it was someone there to rescue her.

But then she saw him. It was a police car that was heading towards her and Starscream. A familiar police car that had no driver.

Barricade.

Okay, this is the end of the super-quick updates. I think this should keep you occupied for a while. There were some important events and developments, along with a few more moments from the movie. And Jerry Wang is the first named casualty, even if his death was mostly off-screen in my work. There will be more in the future.

Feel free to review. Feedback makes me a happy person. Thanks.