I am so happy that you are enjoying my story! Thank you shipper, Supreme Phoenix King, ana wan kenobi, and VampWolf92 for reviewing. You all are why I keep writing! T rating continues. Enjoy!
Colonel Lennox started helplessly at the wreckage in front of him. Sentinel had gotten the pillars and left a wake of destruction in his path with many wounded. The NEST teams were regrouping to continue their pursuit of Sentinel. They could only guess at his plans. But Lennox was happy that at least Emma was safe. Sam had run off too in search of his girlfriend. He hoped they would leave the area as well.
Optimus was just returning. His blue eyes scanned the scene sadly.
"Yeah, take a look, Optimus! This is all on you!" Mearing yelled from an upper deck. She had arrived at the headquarters just as Sentinel was blasting through. When all else failed with the Director, she yelled. And she would just continue yelling at anything with ears.
"Sentinel has the pillars," Lennox said to Optimus. "We're going after him."
Optimus shook his head, hanging it low with the betrayal he felt. "You can't stop him."
"We have to try."
"Colonel, where is Emma?"
Will looked up, surprised Optimus would care where she was with everything else going on. "She's safe. I sent her home to pack some things up. Why?"
Optimus paused. It seemed as if he was thinking very hard whether to answer.
"Is she ok?" Will asked. Maybe Optimus knew something had happened to her. Worry started to rise in his stomach.
"They did not take the interstate 95 back to base," the Prime said slowly.
"What?"
"They did not take the interstate 95," Optimus repeated. "We were lied to."
Surely not, Will's mind immediately buzzed. She wouldn't have done that.
But one look back into Optimus' sorrowful eyes, and Lennox knew the truth. His heart sank farther than he thought possible. He didn't have time to think about it much, though, as Megatron had been sighted at the Lincoln Memorial, and they needed to head out.
Emma had done what he said. She went home and packed a bag. Although she would never be able to tell anyone exactly how she managed to do that. It felt like she was sleepwalking.
However, reality hit again as soon as she stepped outside her apartment building. A silver car was sitting directly out front with the driver side open, the same one Carly had been driving earlier. She knew she had no choice but to get in.
He had to get to her. It was the only thing on his brain.
He was surprised to see Emma sitting at the table with Carly and Dylan. Had she really come to the dinner party after everything that had happened? She was still in the same jeans and white sweater from earlier. She was dirty, and looked tired and defeated.
"Come on, we're leaving," Sam said quickly.
Dylan looked up quizzically, a smirk on his face. "You know, Sam, I was just telling Carly that if I were you, I would never let her out of my sight."
"Well, isn't that funny? I was just thinking on the way over here about how I needed some advice from Dylan," Sam replied with heavy sarcasm. He reached out his hand and Carly grabbed it.
"What's going on?" she hissed but let him pull her up.
"I'll tell you outside," Sam answered, turning to look at Emma. "Come on, you too."
Emma was still sitting next to Dylan. He reached over and patted her hand in a comforting manner, the smirk still on his face. A shiver of revulsion went down her spine.
"Emma." Sam was still waiting for her, impatience all over his face. Carly still
looked confused by the whole situation.
"Oh, Sam. How young you really are. Emma is not going with you. She's staying with me," Dylan said, standing up and walking around the table towards the young couple. "You see, as adults, we have to make important decisions. When I was young, my dad sat me down and told me about a very important decision he had made. This was back when he was in charge of budget review and accounting for NASA."
Sam stood straight and rigid. He didn't like where this lecture was going. He started to turn and walk away, tugging Carly along.
"You want to know what he told me, Sam?" Dylan called. "He told me that when it's not your war, you choose the side that's going to win."
Sam paused. He glanced over at Emma. She had her head in her hands, unable to look at him.
"That's why Emma is staying with me." Dylan made a grand gesture towards the table. "She has made the same decision."
"No," Sam whispered.
"Tell them, Emma," Dylan said. "Tell them the real reason you went to visit him today. And why Optimus was delayed in meeting Sentinel."
Sam shook his head. "You didn't…did you?"
"I'm sorry, Sam." He could barely make out the words, but it was impossible to not understand.
"Let's go, Carly," he said angrily, stomping away.
"I had to do it!" She screamed after them, but Sam didn't care to listen to her anymore.
She had never felt lower in her life. Watching Sam and Carly walk away, knowing she could never join them. Knowing she would never see Will or Optimus or Bumblebee ever again. Not after everything she had done.
Dylan walked out after them as well as many of the guests.
Party's over, Emma thought to herself miserably. She sat alone at the table, nothing but her self-pity and Laserbeak perched in the shadows to keep her company.
Soon, Dylan returned with Carly. He had hold of her arm and practically threw her in a chair.
"What did you do?" Emma asked, standing up to confront Dylan.
"Nothing. Sam has some work to do. I'm just making sure it gets done." Dylan walked away.
Emma leaned over to Carly. "Are you ok?" But Carly only folded her arms across her chest and turned her back.
The next 12 hours were long. Dylan's assistant took Emma and Carly upstairs and gave them pajamas to sleep in and showed them a bedroom and the bathroom. It was a beautiful, opulent room, decked out in rich reds and yellows. But neither of them cared. Carly went right to bed. Emma headed into the bathroom and took a long, hot shower. It would have been nice had the situation been different.
The bed was soft and comfortable, but Emma got no sleep. She tossed and turned all night long. Carly was evidently not getting much sleep either. They shared the large king-sized bed, and Emma could hear her moving around at all hours as well.
A knock and the light flashing on let them know it was time to get up. Carly rubbed her heavy-lidded eyes and trodded off to the bathroom without even glancing in Emma's direction. There were some muffins and juice sitting on a table close to the door. Emma took a few bites, but her appetite had left a couple of days ago and not returned.
Dylan was waiting impatiently downstairs. Instead of the suave, charming man Emma had met and started to like, he looked older, angry, stressed. Deep lines creased his face. His hair appeared grayer. He disgusted her. He led them to a waiting car and they were driven to his office. After sitting around for a short while uncomfortably, they were told it was time to leave again. The sun was just rising over the horizon as they got into the helicopter.
Carly still had not said a word to Emma. She sat next to Dylan. Emma sat across from them next to a guard. She had no idea where they were going, but Dylan had made it clear that there were to be no questions.
After being in the air for quite some time, Dylan took out his phone and started to dial. Carly looked over at him, her face hopeful. Emma realized he must be calling Sam. She hoped he was ok.
"You got what you wanted, ok?" Sam said.
"I always get what I want," Dylan smiled. He glanced at Emma. She looked away indignantly. "We just had to be sure."
"Sure of what?" Emma could hear Sam's rising voice through the phone.
"Sure that they would go without a fight."
Emma's head snapped back over to glare at Dylan. He hung up the phone, that same sneer from last night on his face.
"What did you do?" she asked heatedly.
"We needed to get the Autobots out of the way. So the humans did their part, and Starscream did the rest."
Horror filled her chest, pushing on it. The air was suddenly too hot. She couldn't breathe. Were the Autobots dead?
Before she could control herself, she lunged across the helicopter and grabbed hold of Dylan's blue collared shirt. "You bastard!" The guard sitting next to her immediately pulled her back into her seat, but she was still kicking and screaming.
Dylan straightened his jacket, no emotion reading on his face. "We all work for the Decepticons now."
Unable to fight, Emma sobbed heavily for her friends. How could this happen? But she knew, undoubtedly, that she had played a part in their demise.
Late that afternoon, they reached their destination. Tall buildings lined them on each side as the helicopter began to lower. But Emma instantly recognized the skyline. Chicago. She had visited this city many years ago and fallen in love with it. Had vowed to always come back but never got the chance. She wished she wasn't coming back now.
The helicopter landed on the platform of the Trump Tower. Dylan stepped off, ordering the guard and two women to stay put.
Emma was still leaning lifelessly against the window. The guard was eyeing her cautiously, but all the fight had left her body. Carly leaned over. "You really weren't in on any of this, were you?" she asked softly.
Emma shook her head. The younger woman looked at her with sad eyes. She seemed like she wanted to say something else, but Dylan had returned.
Colonel William Lennox stood in the middle of the conference room at Grisson Air Force Base, trying to coordinate a counter-attack in Chicago. Once the Decepticons had arrived in the city, they completely shut it down. Nobody was getting in and the people coming out were getting fewer and farther between. There were reports of massive casualties and thousands of people still stranded in the city. All attempts to reach them or the Decepticons were quickly thwarted. Not even a single drone could get through to get any images of what was happening. Lennox had a very bad feeling.
As did everyone else, it seemed. There were hushed whispers throughout the room when counter-measure after counter-measure failed. After the broadcast by Sentinel to the leaders at the United Nations, everyone had called for the Autobots to leave. And they did as they were asked to do. When their ship blew up, however, there was a general consensus that this was all part of the Decepticons' plan. Now something bigger than he had ever seen was brewing and he had no idea how to fight back against it. With the Autobots dead, there might not be any way to stop the Decepticons.
He briefly thought of Emma but quickly pushed it away. She was a traitor, and he could waste no more time on her.
She could feel nothing. But being numb was good. Otherwise she would never be able to handle everything.
The dark night did nothing to hide the destruction happening all around them. Screams reached her ears even up as high as they were. The ships floating in the sky were illuminated by the rockets they shot into buildings and at people on the ground.
Chaos. Everything was chaos.
Emma was slumped in a lounge chair, facing towards the floor-to-ceiling windows, staring at it all but seeing none of it. The night was never-ending. She didn't know what time it was or how long she had been sitting there. Dylan was pacing nervously behind her for quite some time, but eventually even he had tired out and went to the bedroom. Carly sat next to her, occasionally her eyes shutting for several minutes before opening wide again. She shifted uncomfortably.
"Emma." Her voice was soft but sweet.
Emma barely turned her head, looking at the British beauty.
"I-I'm sorry," Carly stammered. "I thought you were on the Decepticons' side. I didn't know."
The older woman smiled faintly. It was nice to hear the honest apology. It chipped away some of the guilt built up inside of her. "It's ok, Carly. I deserved it."
"No you didn't. What did they do to you?"
Emma sighed heavily. She straightened up in the chair, stretching her back. "Laserbeak came to visit me two days ago." Was it really less than 48 hours? It seemed like an eternity ago. "He poisoned me and Will. Said if I didn't do what they wanted, we would both die."
"Oh my God. That's terrible." Carly paused. "You know, they did something like that to Sam," she continued slowly.
"Really?" Emma was more awake now.
"Yeah. Dylan had this watch that latched onto him. Said that if he didn't get information from the Autobots about what their plan was he would kill me," Carly looked away sadly. "I hope he's ok. We were fighting, you know, when I left the apartment the other day. I never had a chance to apologize."
"I'm sure he's fine." Emma reached out and patted the younger girl's hand comfortingly. Carly forced a hopeful smile.
"I've known Sam for a few years," Emma continued, "but I've never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at you. He would go to the end of the world for you."
"I don't need him to go to the end of the world. I just need him to get to Chicago," Carly sighed. They were silent for a few minutes before Carly turned back to her.
"None of this is your fault, you know."
Emma was shocked to hear her say those words. "If I hadn't have cooperated, Sentinel never would have gotten the pillars. I started all of this."
"No, the Decepticons started this. If you hadn't have done what they asked, you and the Colonel would both be dead. And they still would have gotten what they wanted. You didn't know this was going to happen, and you certainly couldn't have stopped it."
Emma smiled, tears of a different kind sliding down her face. Happy, relieved tears. "Thank you. That means a lot to me."
Carly smiled before turning to look back out the window. The night was still dark and the destruction was still great, but for the first time since the Decepticons had returned, Emma felt a glimmer of hope.
