Chapter 11
Elita One
Veronica slowly went to sleep that night thinking about all that happened that day. She still was creeped out with the spider incident and everything, but was slowly getting over it.
Optimus was slowly going into stasis when Ratchet buzzed in on his comlink.
"Optimus sir, we've got some information that Megatron is slowly coming on line. He'll be fully functioning sir. We need to set up a plan."
"I'll be there in just a few breems." Optimus responded.
Right at that time Hound pulled up and Optimus said, "Hound, I need you to stay with Veronica. I've just been called in about Megatron and I am needed to start planning on what we are going to do. Keep a good eye on Veronica. She can be a little sneaky at times."
"Okay, sir." replied Hound.
Optimus slowly drove off from Veronica's house leaving her with Hound to keep her company when she awoke the next morning.
Veronica stirred in her sleep and moved to a more comfortable position and went into a deep sleep.
Hound stayed there parked the whole night keeping a scan on her room to see how she was doing. Before he knew it he slowly went into a stasis and didn't wake up until the next morning when Veronica started banging on his hood.
"What!?" he groaned.
"Where's Optimus? He said he'd wait for me!" she exclaimed.
Hound was fully awake now and said mostly to himself, "Hahaha, very that was amusing." Then he spoke to Veronica, "He was called in last night to discuss a plan to deal with Megatron when he arises. There have been some readings that there is some life in him and he's slowly building energy."
"He could have told me there was a dangerous mission and that he was going." she crossed her arms and huffed.
"It was late that night. He didn't want to wake you." Hound whispered.
Veronica looked back at her house and then back at the green jeep and said, "Take me to see Optimus."
"What?" he asked.
"I said take me to see Optimus. I'd like to see him." she replied.
"Okay….I guess that will be okay…." he spoke slowly.
He opened the door and she quickly hopped in and they drove off. They were at the same place where they had always met. Veronica quickly stepped out of Hound when he stopped and walked over to Optimus who was talking with Ironhide, Ratchet, Jazz, and Bumblebee.
"Optimus!" she called.
Optimus quickly turned around and asked, "Veronica! What are you doing here?"
"Well I came to see you since you never told me you were leaving during the night." she replied putting her hands on her hips.
Optimus looked at Hound who transformed and was walking over to them. He dropped his gaze from him and then down at Veronica and whispered, "I'm sorry. You were already asleep when I got the call from Ratchet. I'm trying to do what's best for you okay? Now you can go sit by that tree. I'll try to see you when I can."
Hound watched her leave and walked over to Optimus listening to their talk. Veronica slumped down next to the tree and crossed her arms. Hound slowly followed Veronica after finding out the information in a quick amount of time. She looked up at him and said, "He's going to be doing this for a while isn't he? He's going to forget about me."
Hound was shocked at what she had said and exclaimed, "Optimus Prime could never forget you! He hasn't forgotten his mate from a few million years ago!"
"What?" asked Veronica.
"Oops." whispered Hound mostly to himself.
"What? Who is this mate of his?" she asked.
Hound put his face in his hands asking himself mentally why he brought that up.
"Hound who was his mate?" she asked.
Hound looked down at her and sighed, "Optimus had a mate a while back ago…her name was Elita One and she was one of the most prettiest femmes of our kind. Femmes were very rare and because of Megatron there's probably hardly any of them left. They had such love for each other. One would cover for the other in battle and then the day came…"
"What?" she asked.
Hound looked down at her with sorrow in his eyes and said, "When Megatron caught her. Optimus tried to save her, but…Megatron slowly tore her apart in front of his optics as the Decepticons kept him away from him. Everyone on the planet could hear her screams of pain. I think Optimus still thinks what he could have done to have it come out different."
Veronica looked down at her hands and asked, "Does he still love her?"
Hound looked at Optimus talking to the Autobots and said, "I believe he misses her, but he has moved on…you are now his light."
"I feel horrible…I—" she started breaking down.
Hound tried to wrap his hand around her, but when he tried…she got up and ran. She ran until the Autobots were out of sight. She got home late that afternoon and walked in house. Her mother saw her depressed and ran over to her and asked, "Honey what's the matter?"
"Mom…can I go to Wisconsin to see grandma and grandpa for a while? I feel as if I need to leave here." she whispered.
"Is it Tim?" she asked.
Veronica nodded her head.
"You guys had a fight? You can go to your grandmother's right away. I'll make sure he doesn't get near you."
Veronica nodded her head and walked up to her room and got everything packed. Her mother walked up to her room and saw her daughter packing. She looked at her and said, "You're grandparents are delighted to have you come spend time with them. We got you a ticket for a late flight. It leaves around 11:00 tonight."
"Okay that sounds good." Veronica replied.
It was about 7:00 in the evening when Veronica got finished and they left to the airport. When they got there it was around 9:00. You always wanted to be at the airport earlier before it left because something may go wrong and you'll need an earlier flight.
"I'll miss you mom. I'll miss you dad." she whispered.
"We'll miss you too. Come home whenever you feel like it. If Time comes over we'll say you're visiting your relatives, but we won't tell where they're located. We want you to be alone."
"Thanks dad." she replied.
After one last hug Veronica boarded the plane and found her seats. Her parents stayed at the airport until the plane was up in the air flying towards Wisconsin. They slowly walked to their car and drove home.
Veronica looked at the seat in front of her seeing a phone she could use to talk to people. She picked it up, but she didn't know how to use it. She didn't know if she had to press in a certain code or what. When a flight attendant walked by she asked, "Excuse me how do you work the phone? I mean do you have to use a certain code?"
"Just press in your area code and then the number." replied the attendant.
"Thank you." Veronica replied.
She needed to call Mikaela that she was leaving.
The meeting was finally over and Optimus walked over to Hound who had buried his face in his hands because of something.
"Hound, where's Veronica?"
Hound looked up and said, "Veronica...Well she kinda left. She walked home."
"Why?" Optimus asked. He could sense something that Hound wasn't telling him.
"Well we kinda got on the subject of your old mate." Hound buried his face in his hands again.
Optimus let out a sighed, "What did you tell her?"
Hound looked up and slowly told the Autobot commander everything he told her and felt so bad for what he did. Optimus let out a more tired sigh and transformed and drove to Veronica's house. He silently transformed and walked over to the window and bent down. The whole room was dark and silent and the sense no one was in the room.
Optimus stepped back and transformed letting his hologram walk over to the door and knock on it. There was no answer then suddenly Veronica's parents pulled into the driveway.
"Mr. and Mrs. Burke where is Veronica?" he asked.
When Mrs. Burke got out of the car she said, "She wanted to go to her grandparents for a while and we don't know when she'll be back. I don't want you going near her at all do you hear me? Don't lay a single finger or else I'll personally hurt you!"
"Yes, Mrs. Burke…but I don't believe what you mean." he replied.
"You hit my baby girl and you will not ever touch her again!"
Once he was out of sight he let his hologram disappear and he started driving off. He looked up the Burkes family tree finding her father's parents and her mother's parents. He then looked for the credit cards used by her parents. He soon found that they had put her on a plane to go somewhere. He drove to Mikaela's house and honked the horn for her to come out.
Mikaela heard the horn and ran as fast as she could outside.
"Yes Optimus?" she asked nearly out of breath.
"Mikaela do you know which state Veronica's grandparents be located?"
"I'm pretty sure in Wisconsin." she replied.
Optimus quickly did an internet search on Veronica's family tree and soon found that she did have grandparents in Wisconsin.
"Thank you Mikaela."
"Any time Optimus." she replied.
"Autobots…Veronica has left her house to one of her grandparent's house. I'm going to be searching for her. Keep an optic out on the Decepticons. If they attack let me know and I'll be there as fast as I can." he announced through his comlink.
All the Autobots responded with a "Yes sir." and were out.
Veronica got off the plane and found her grandparents waiting for her at the airport. She got all her stuff and walked over to them.
"I'm sorry dear. Is it boy trouble?" her grandmother asked when she gave them a hug.
"Yeah." she whispered.
"Well you're here to not think about any boys. Who knows you may find some you like better up here than in Nevada."
"I hope so." she whispered sadly.
They walked to the car and got in and drove to her grandparents' house. She slowly started to fall asleep in the car and when she did she saw Optimus in her dreams. She quickly shot up from her rest and saw that they were at their house. Veronica slowly got out of the car with her stuff and when she was about to carry it her grandfather took the stuff and was carrying it in the house.
"Grandpa! I can carry that!" she exclaimed.
"I want to carry it for you. You've had a tough time." he responded not looking back.
Veronica let out a sigh and followed her grandparents in the house. They walked up to the room where she would be sleeping in and put everything on the ground.
"We'll see you in the morning okay sweetie?" said her grandmother.
"Okay. Night and thank you."
"No thank you sweetie. We've missed you so much. I'm glad you finally came to visit." her grandmother replied.
Veronica unmade the bed and slowly fell asleep. She didn't dare get dressed. She was too tired to do so and fell into a deep sleep.
Veronica slept well that night when she woke up she saw the morning sun rising above the horizon. She stretched hearing her joints popping as she did so. She got out of her bed and walked downstairs to see her grandparents fixing a big breakfast for her. She rubbed her eyes and groaned, "Good morning."
"Well good morning sleeping beauty. I was about to send your grandfather to wake you up." she spoke.
"Um…grandma…I was curious if I could possibly maybe go into town and see what's around up here."
"Sure sweetie! You have a cell phone right?" she asked.
"Yeah." she replied.
"Okay just keep us in touch we don't want you to be in trouble and we don't know about it."
"Okay grandma." she replied and kissed her grandmother on the cheek.
She ate her breakfast and went upstairs to get ready. After she was done she walked out of the house and down the road. They didn't live that far from town, only a few minutes away even if you walked. The little town was cool though. It had a movie theater and little shopping areas. Her whole day was basically in town and finally came home just in time for dinner.
"So how was your day?" her grandfather asked.
"It was good. You guys have a lot of stuff up here." she replied.
"Well, its good for us since we don't go places that often."
"You need to come down to Nevada and spend time with us. We miss you down there." she replied.
"We will, we just haven't had time." replied her grandfather which earned him looks from his wife and granddaughter.
"I was just kidding!" he exclaimed.
That night they all sat in front of the TV just enjoying the company from one another. They went to bed later that night and the next night Veronica went out like she did the other, but something went wrong that night.
Optimus was driving the streets in Wisconsin looking for her grandparents house, but soon saw a girl around Veronica's age walking in the street into a dark place. Optimus slowly stopped and turned around going after her. Making sure no one was around he transformed and came up behind her. He gently put a finger on her shoulder which made her turn around and scream and run like hell was after her.
Optimus was stunned by this and quickly went after her wrapping his hand around her body and picking her up.
"Let go of me!" she yelled.
"Veronica it's me." Optimus said in a calm voice trying to calm her down.
Veronica who had her eyes shut slowly opened them and saw Optimus. He was smiling down at her and she exclaimed, "Why are you here? Why aren't you looking for your precious Elita?"
"Veronica…Elita is dead…"
Veronica looked up at him and asked lowly, "Why didn't you tell me about her? Why were you keeping her a secret!?"
"Veronica, I didn't want you to…"
Veronica cut him off and asked, "You didn't want to hurt me? Well too bad! You already did!"
Optimus was shocked as Veronica kept rambling on. Finally he raised his voice, "WILL YOU LET ME EXPLAIN?!"
Veronica suddenly got quiet and looked at Optimus in fear. Optimus stared down at her and tried to comfort her by rubbing her arm and said, "No Veronica I never wanted to hurt you….I love you. Elita One died a while back ago. I may miss her, but you are my only priority now. I love you Veronica."
"What if she didn't die and she came back?" she asked slowly wiping away tears she had shed.
"If that is to happen….I will stay with you. She would understand. She knew that I thought she was dead for millions of years and I had to move on. I can't mourn over her for eternity. I have moved on to you and only you."
"Oh Optimus, could you ever forgive me?" she asked.
He gently wrapped his hand around her fragile body and picked her up and said, "I could always forgive you."
He slowly stood up careful not to give Veronica a whiplash of any kind. He was glad that he found her in time or else she could have been dead right now. If Veronica would ever die he would blame it upon himself and would slowly die of depression. He stood up and quietly walked away from the town to her grandparent's place and put her down. She walked out of his hand and looked up at him and whispered, "I love you Optimus."
Optimus smiled down at her. He was happy that she still loved him and didn't want to leave him. He would love her for as long as she lived. He let his body fold up and transform into the Peterbuilt and turned on his engine.
"Where are you going?" she asked before going inside.
"I'm going to go somewhere where your grandparents won't be suspicious. I'll come and see you tomorrow and take you home." he replied.
"Okay, so I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Most certainly." he whispered and slowly drove out of sight.
She let a small smile spread across her face and walked inside to see her grandparents, but never tell them what had happened. She was glad that Optimus still loved her and that was all she was concerned about. She was still loved and would always be loved by the Autobot Leader, Optimus Prime.
I hope you guys liked it! Please review and no flames! Constructive Criticism is allowed.