Title: S.O.S. Save Earth

Short Summary:
A what if story that Autobots never reached Earth on time before the Decepticons got to the All Spark. What would have happened if they had not come at all? Answer; The Earth becomes a dark, enslaved world ruled by the Cons. Rated M.

Pairings:
Annabelle L./Ironhide (not romantically), Sam/Mikaela/Bumblebee, Optimus Prime/Elita One.

Warning: Story contains implied and/ or scenes of: strong language, strong torture, attempted rape, angst, adult scenes, strong violence and probably more…

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any characters.

Best Song Used for Chapter:
Linkin Park-Wretches and Kings

::Chapter Eleven::

Screaming across the dim, star-crested skies, there was only one thing that was on his processor and that was taking back what belonged to him. He wanted her back! He needed her back! He would get her back! She belonged to him and him only! He didn't care what anyone else said!

After that fateful night of discovering his barracks broken into and that screeching human female came running out in hysterics as soon as he landed, Starscream, once in his miserable life had felt fear strike through his very core for someone else. He never thought he would ever see the day where he was actually afraid for a miserable, pathetic human slave such as Anna. But he had. He was still seeing it even after finding out what kind of deception she had pulled on him. He had placed Jesse down, actually very well nearly threw her to the ground and raced back out into the night to look for his favorite slave. He searched for Anna for hours until he found only a bunch of dead Reavers. There was only one alive but he was in such a sorry state for a son of a glitch. He had had his eyes slashed out.

Using a small Insecticon he kept on his person, Starscream had the small bot burrow into the soft tissues of the rotten Reaver's brains, sorting out through its recent memories before it came spitting back out through the insane man's mouth. He immediately plugged the Insecticon into his systems log to find out what this miserable homosapien had last seen.

Most of the memories contained of this disgusting human's latest kills and rapes that it had made. It was all just a clutter, really. There was nothing that caught the Seeker's attention.

Until moments after.

The most recent memory was of Anna ripped and torn from being attacked by the Reavers. She had been knocked around, scratched and bitten but not worst for wear. She had turned to face the Reaver and his dead companions with a look of rage and hate on her face. Her clothes were torn badly but she was somewhat armed with a small hand shovel, which Starscream spotted on the ground merely feet away from him. The image of Anna showed her hissing at the Reavers to go away and leave her alone. But they attacked her and she bravely fought back.

A spark of pride swelled up within Starscream. He felt proud of his little Anna for facing her fears to defend herself. She viciously attacked the attackers, slashing out this Reaver's eyes with the shovel.

The memory went dark but not the sound.

Starscream could hear Anna fighting through the Reaver's memory screams. She was fighting the Reavers until she started screaming. He could hear her get knocked to the ground and trying to fight the vicious Reavers off. It struck fear through the Seeker, making him growl angrily to imagine what was happening to his slave. He knew that she was about to get raped and eaten. He felt so angrily to think about it that he stomped hard on the living Reaver, crushing him into bloody jelly.

And then there was a gun shot, startling Starscream's attention back to the gathered memory still flowing out of the Insecticon. He listened hard to what was happening.

Anna had….she had been saved. She had been saved by…..

And then Starscream snarled in rage as he heard other voices through the memory. He could hear Anna still quite afraid but she was calming down by three distinctive voices. He recognized only one of them and it seriously pissed him off. She had been saved by those ridiculous human rebels, the DATAR!

After that, Starscream continued his search for Anna. He would not stop until he found her. He refused to. He was going to find her, kill those human rebels and take back what was rightfully his!

But things got worst after that.

After only a few days of searching the entire formerUnited States, looking for Anna, Starscream had been called back to Megatron. He was in a snarling rage by that time. He did not want to go back to that fragnut! He wanted to search for his beloved slave! But unfortunately, Megatron made it an order so he had no choice but to go back to Megatron's citadel. He stopped his search for now to go find out what the frag that despicable Decepticon Leader wanted.

It was there that annoyingly know-it-all Soundwave announced the worst thing that ever could happen to all Decepticons. He had discovered an unauthorized message sent out, drifting in the reaches of space. A human had sent out an SOS for any kinds of help and that had all Decepticons, even him, stiffening to think that the SOS was meant for those pathetic Autobots. Soundwave even mentioned, though gravely, that he managed to track the SOS source and stated that it lead straight back to Starscream's own personal communications system.

Rage was all that Starscream felt after looking at the SOS that had been sent out after he demanded Soundwave to explain. How could she do this to him? How could she betray him like this? Anna had sent out that fragging SOS! He knew why she did it too! He knew who she was trying to contact! It only took beating it out of that stupid human girl, Jesse to confess what she knew! He felt so much anger explode right out of him.

He was going to kill Anna for this! He was going to beat her until she was dead!

Thus began the search.

After beating Jesse nearly to death with his own claws and then with his wire whip, Starscream remembered about the tracer nanobot he had left in Anna's tattoo. He immediately activated as soon as he gathered Thundercracker and Skywarp to join him in the search.

As soon as he had the signal, Starscream and his fellow Seekers took to the air and began speeding across the night turning into morning sky to where the signal was coming from. He was cursing his slave the entire time. He was so going to beat her for this!

During the entire flight, Thundercracker and Skywarp chose wisely not to tell Starscream to knock it off with all of his cursing. They knew what Anna had done was the ultimate betrayal to her master. She may have just as well brought THEM to Earth. But it was Megatron's fury that scared them the most when he had found out that it had been Starscream's slave who sent an SOS out. Everyone knew that it made the Decepticon nervous about the Autobots finding the pathetic human's SOS. If it brought the Autobots to Earth, that would mean that miserable Optimus Prime would be coming! And everyone knew that it was the Prime that made him nervous. He immediately demanded that the Decepticons spread out and searched for her. He demanded that if she was found that they bring him straight to him. He was going to punish and kill her, himself. But Starscream made it clear to his aerial brothers that he was going to ignore Megatron's orders to handing Anna over to him so that he could kill her for what she had done. Starscream made it in his mind that he was going to be the one to find her and deal with her as he saw fit. He didn't care how much it would piss off Megatron. Pissing him off was just a bonus.

Suddenly, Starscream jerked in the sky, narrowly missing a high dead pine tree they had just been flying over.

"Starscream! What is it? What's wrong?" Thundercracker called to him through their com links.

Starscream just cursed loudly as he began to speed up. He sounded pissed off, yet surprised all at once. "I lost the fragging signal! It's been disrupted or destroyed! Those fragging human rebels must have found the tracer bug on Anna! Hurry it up! We need to find their location before they disappear!" He roared angrily.

Not long after that, the three Seekers found the destination where Starscream last seen the signal. It was in a mountain side just miles away from the Starscream's city. They began shooting the side of the mountain, looking for the weakest point so they could make an entrance. They found it just fine. Exploding through the underground cavern, the three Seekers crashed through before yanking up their cannons, ready to fire and blast anything they saw away. They were ready to destroy some human rebels and punish that glitch who had sent out the SOS.

But the cavern was empty of organic life.

There were only two large metal trailers in the center of the cavern and several empty crates. There were no signs of human life. No anything. It looked like the humans had left in a hurry, due to the fact that they left a lot of things behind. They took only food and whatever else they could carry on foot. There was nothing left for the three Seekers to destroy.

"FRAGGIT!" Starscream roared before he stomped over to one of the metal trailers and kicked it hard, sending it crashing hard against the cavern wall and causing it to half way collapse. "ANNA! DAMN YOU!"

Eyes shot open wide and a gasp escaped her as she jolted upward right out of her slept. She had felt a bump and it had startled her out of her nightmares she had been reliving. Anna almost didn't know where she was until she looked up. She had started to panic when she found herself looking up into slow midmorning turning into afternoon sky.

But then she saw Bumblebee look down at her with his bright blue eyes.

Then Anna remembered. And she wished that she hadn't woken up just now because a wave of nausea hit her, making her lay back against Bumblebee's curled fingers and groan. She felt sick to her stomach and her head was pounding as if an angry goat was trying to break out of her skull. She felt as if someone was clubbing her over and over with a spiked club. And worst, she felt like she was extremely sore and achy.

"Morning."

Anna grimaced, flinching away at the sudden noise before she turned a dry but pained look up to Sam as he was sitting on Bumblebee's shoulder, propped up against one of his doors that looked oddly like wings. He was smiling faintly at her before he carefully climbed down onto Bumblebee's other hand and sat near her. "Do you have to be so loud?" She grumbled at him.

Smiling apologetically, Sam reached into his somewhat baggy jean pockets and pulled out a small bottle of pills before holding it out to her. He used his other hand to pull off a canteen full of water and handed it to her next as she tried to unscrew the lid off the pills. "That's what you get for drinking alcohol. Not going to do that again, are we?" He asked, teasingly.

Giving him a wry look as she popped two pills into her mouth before drinking from the canteen, Anna shook her head. "Hell. No." She grumbled at him. She swallowed the water and pills before looking around with a somewhat bleary look. She noticed that the entire group was marching into the wilderness, away from the small mountains she recognized just outside of the city that she lived in with Starscream. "Where are we going?"

Sam glanced around as he leaned back against Bumblebee's chest before taking a deep breath and shaking his head. "Not too sure. Will and Epps said that we're going to a second DATAR base that's somewhere in Minnesota. A friend of theirs runs that rebel base. I don't know who it is though. They haven't exactly said what their name was." He shrugged, looking back at Anna. "But it'll take us about two weeks to get there on foot. We just have to keep ducking and hiding when we see Decepticons. And fight off any Reavers if we see them. But I kind of doubt we'll see any out here. They mostly stick to the cities where there are more people. It'll be rough but if we all work together, we should make it."

Anna slowly nodded as she took it in. She knew they would have to be very careful since they would be out in the open. There wasn't a whole lot of cover for them as it was. It was risky letting Bumblebee be in his bipedal form too. If a Decepticon was flying over head, they would notice him immediately. She knew if they were going to head to Minnesota, they might just as well travel through Chicago and that was going to be a huge problem. She knew who ruled there.

And that was Shockwave.

Thinking of the vicious Decepticon, Anna glanced around until she spotted Alice walking with a group of men, flirting with them once again. She couldn't help but roll her eyes. She knew that things would be pretty tough for Alice to return to Chicago since that was where her former Master lived. But she was sure acting like she didn't care either way. She had met Shockwave at least twice and never liked him. He was Megatron's Third and he was ruthless and highly dangerous. Shockwave was calmer than most Decepticons but he was still very vicious.

"So, what do we do until then?" Anna asked as she drank some water.

"Just keep walking, living. Hide, fight when we need to." Sam said with a shrug. "That's all we can do right now. Now and then when we stop, the soldiers and DATAR members will train some of us. But that's about it."

Curiously, Anna looked at him. She was somewhat surprised by what he said. "Train? You mean to fight? They do that out in the open?" She asked him.

Sam shrugged. "Well, yeah. How else do you think we learned how to fight and shoot? Will and Epps and some of the Soldiers even taught me how to fight hand to hand. They even taught me how to shoot. Of course, we don't use the real guns. They have paintball guns too. That's what we use as bullets. That way it's quieter and it won't attract attention." He told her.

Biting her lip, Anna looked down to where Will was walking with Epps. She wondered if she could convince them to train her too. She was tired of being weak and helpless. She wanted to know how to defend herself. "Do you think….." She started before looking at Sam. "Do you think that they could teach me how to fight and shoot?" She asked him.

"One way to find out is ask them." Sam remarked with a shrug. "But even if they don't, I can teach you a few moves. I'm not the greatest, I'm afraid. But I do know how to shoot a gun. I've even had a few pointers from Bee, here."

Anna smiled at him and nodded. She was glad to hear that. She would love it any other way. Just as long as someone could teach her how to defend herself. "That'd be great. Thanks, Sam." She told him.

Sam just smiled at her. But then his smile faded away as his eyes flickered towards Anna's covered back, already thinking about all of the scars that she had. "Um….Anna? Everyone's been kind of…..asking about your scars. Even Will wanted to talk to you about it. But Maggie won't let them. She's kind of become really protective over you. So can…" He made a face as he thought about it. "Can I ask about…..?" He was saying.

But Anna shook her head as she turned her gaze away from him, wincing only a little as it stung within her chest. She brought her knees up to her chest, resting her chin on her knees. "I really don't want to talk about it, Sam. It's just too painful right now."" She told him quietly.

Sam winced as he pulled back a little. But he couldn't help by pry just a little longer. "It was Starscream, wasn't it? He did that to you." He said, carefully.

Again, looking away from Sam, Anna felt her eyelids grow heavy with grief. She did not want to carry this conversation on at all. All she ever wanted to do was forget it. Even though she never would be able to. So she just gave her head a light bob, confirming Sam's question.

Bumblebee then beeped and whirled, sounding very sour.

Not helping it, Anna lift her head and smiled up at him. She just shook her head as she reached up and patted his chest armor. "No, Bumblebee. That's okay. I don't want to you fight Starscream and kick his aft. I don't want you to get hurt." She told him but smiled even more when he beeped at her. "No. I have complete faith in you. I know you can kick Decepticon aft. If you can take on Barricade, then you are really tough. But I just don't want you to get hurt by Starscream." Her face fell again as she looked away. "I've lost too many people to him." She admitted.

Bumblebee and Sam looked at her sadly but not surprised. They both had figured there was a lot more to Anna's relationship with Starscream then she was letting on about. They knew better than to ask any more. It was causing too much pain to Anna.

So instead, the Autobot snorted before his radio clicked on, playing a song through it. It was from Linkin Park's Wretches and Kings. "Steel unload. Final Blow. We the animals take control! Hear us now. Clear and true. Wretches and kings we come for you." Bumblebee played loudly, making a lot of people all around them jump and look at him in surprise.

But both Anna and Sam laughed as they understood what he was trying to say. They also noticed how Will was eyeing Bumblebee with discontent and annoyance because of the noise he was making. But Anna just shook her head as she laughed. "It's okay, everyone. He's just saying how Decepticons shouldn't push humans around. He's saying that we're going to teach them not to mess with us." She told everyone.

A few people just smiled and nodded in agreement. But Will narrowed his eyes at the Autobot before shaking his head as he turned and kept walking.

Anna couldn't help but make a face after him. She didn't need him to say anything to know that he still disapproved having Bumblebee around. She felt annoyed that he didn't trust the Autobot. Even if he was an alien robot. She just couldn't see why. Bumblebee may have been an alien robot but he was so kind and caring and so innocent like. He was there, with them, the humans. He was trying to protect them. He wasn't trying to harm them or try turning them into slaves. So what the hell did Will expect from him? What did Bumblebee have to do to gain his respect and trust?

And why the hell did he keep staring at her?

There had been numerous times that Anna caught Will watching her. She couldn't help but fell like he was waiting for her to do something stupid. It was either he expected her to be some kind of spy or he knew her from somewhere. She felt like he didn't trust her any more than he trusted Bumblebee. It was seriously getting on her nerves. So what did she have to do to gain his trust?

Honestly, she didn't know and she couldn't even imagine what would happen if she didn't gain his trust. Even after she had him burn her scar and kill the tracing nanobot. It was getting very frustrating.

As it was, the group of 151 humans and one Autobot walked on for the next few days. Not much went on other than that. Anna had finally decided to walk after ridding herself of that killer hangover. She wanted to prove that she wasn't weak or incapable of surviving. She had seen a few people whispering and watching her with wry looks. And she heard a few complaints about how she was riding with Bumblebee instead of walking like them.

The starting point had been Alice. She had been the first to complain about Anna. She didn't keep it quiet either. She talked with others, mostly the men about how Anna got to ride the giant alien robot while everyone else walked.

"She acts like she's some kind of Princess or something." Anna heard Alice say to a few people. "She thinks she's better than us. She rides, we walk. She's so stuck up."

Glaring after Alice, Anna started walking.

Still, because of Alice, not many would talk to her. The only people who talked to Anna was Sam, Bumblebee, Maggie, Glenn and even Epps. Not even Will would talk to her, even though he was trying to lead everyone to their destination. It was so frustrating and infuriating. Eventually, Anna overheard a few of Alice's followers start calling her Princess Pain In the Ass behind her back. They were trying to keep it quiet and away from her but she still heard them. She hated it every time they called her that or 'Her Highness' and it was driving her nuts.

So, Anna decided to talk to Alice about how she was behaving and treating her.

It happened one night about a week while traveling, when the group made camp for the night under a few desert trees. Anna had been sitting with her friends, listening to them share a few stories. But she saw Alice walking over to a soldier and start flirting with him, she decided it was time to confront her.

So she stood up and made her way over. She was sure some of her friends were watching her but she didn't pay them any mind. She just waved at Alice to get her attention. "Hey, Alice?" She asked. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

Rolling her eyes, Alice made a very impatient sound as she waved a hand at the soldier as if dismissing him. Even he had to give her a dry look for it before he walked away. "What do you want?" She asked Anna with annoyance.

Anna frowned at her before she folded her arms impatiently and stuck out her hip. "Alice, I just wanted to apologize for whatever I did to make you mad at me. I don't know what I did but the way you're treating me is totally unfair. What did I ever do to you to make you so…so….hateful?" She asked.

"You live."Alice said immediately after Anna got the word hateful out.

Now staring at her with wide, surprised eyes, Anna felt as if she'd been hit in the chest by this other blonde. "Wh-what?" She asked, stunned.

Alice sighed heavily and impatiently as she copied Anna's stance, possibly mocking her. "I said, you live." She said in a savage way. "You're very presence here offends me. You offend me. You and your stupid, monkey looking face. You came here to DATAR, thinking you had it all bad with Starscream. I've heard it all about you. You lived in an actual house with him. He treated you like a cute little pet." She told her coldly.

"Th-that is not true!" Anna said, tears prickling her eyes as she looked at Alice with unfairness all over her face. She couldn't believe on how much this girl hated her when she had done nothing to her.

Alice snorted as if she believed that. She shook her head, raising a pencil thin eyebrow. "Oh, no? If that's not true, then let me tell you all about my life with Shockwave." She said coldly before she tilted her head to the side and mockingly. "I was Shockwave's little slave. His favorite toy to play around with. And if you think that was a good thing, think again! Shockwave is a scientist, Anna. He likes to play around with humans like they were experiments. He made them do things they would never, ever do or could do. He made me have sex with men every day since I was ten years old! He was studying the human mating process so he could figure out a way to suppress the birth rate for humans!" She then jabbed a finger into a shocked Anna's face. "You lived in a fragging house, Anna! You had a warm bed! You had food! You had it all, even if you didn't see it! But me? All I ever had was a cage and a raggy blanket to keep me warm! I lived in a fucking cage! I was put into other cages where men would rape me all night long! All because Shockwave threatened that if we didn't have sex, he would kill us! I was a lab rat! I've been raped so many times that I've lost count! I've been pregnant four times in my miserable life! Two of those times ended up being miscarriages! One ended up as a stillborn! And the last was still a fetus when Shockwave cut me open and took it out so he could study it! When he finished studying it, he squished it like an over ripe grape between his god damned fingers! And I had to watch it happen!"

Anna felt her heart shattering as she listened to Alice's story. She felt so terrible for her. She felt as if she was a bad person for having a better life with Starscream than this girl had with Shockwave. She couldn't help but shed a few tears, letting them spill down her cheeks as she listened toAlicerant and rave at her.

"So when I hear you say how you had it hard with Starscream, that you had to escape because your fucking boyfriend was killed in the Cyber Games, it just pisses me off!"Alice said with acid. "You have NO idea how hard life is for other people, Anna! Because there are dozens of other human beings like me, women who are going through the very same thing that I did! Right. Fucking. Now! But you," She hissed. "You are having this pity party about yourself, crying about how scarred up your back is, how you lost everyone you ever loved, how scared you are about how Starscream is going to find you! Grow up, Anna! Stop thinking only about yourself! Your life was not that bad with Starscream! And now that you've run away from him, he's looking for you, hunting all of us for YOU! And he will find you! And when he does, he's going to kill all of these people just to get to you! And if he kills Will or Epps, it will be all your fault!" She snapped.

Anna stared at Alice with hurt and alarm. She felt some truth behind her words. She knew that if Starscream would find her, he would kill everyone. He would continue to look for her until he found her. And she felt as if Alice had had a point. She had been more worried about herself being found. She had been pitying herself because of what she had been through. She didn't even think of asking anyone else about their stories.

Tears blinding her, Anna slowly backed away from Alice and turned away. She knew it was true. She was endangering all of the 150 lives. She was endangering Sam, Maggie, Glenn, Epps. She was endangering Will. And even Bumblebee.

The weight of guilt and disgrace heavy on her shoulders, Anna turned sharply and hurried away from Alice. She felt the flood of tears burst out of her as she hurried away from the camp. She couldn't face her friends. Not right now. Not after all that Alice just told her.

After a half an hour of sitting by herself, in the dark, away from the camp, Anna had cried on a rock. She felt so horrible. She felt like she was such a bad person for putting all of these good people in such danger. There was only so much she could take and that was one thing she couldn't.

Would it have been better if she wandered off, by herself into the wilderness? Would all of her friends be safe if she done that?

"Maybe Alice is right." Anna sobbed softly to herself. "Maybe it would be better if I were gone, away from all of them."

"Hey! What are you doing out here by yourself? It's dangerous!"

Gasping, Anna jumped when she heard Will's voice. She jerked around to see him coming up behind her, seeing him with a rifle in his hands. He must have been patrolling around the camp, making sure it was secure and safe for everyone when he spotted her.

Sniffing and wiping away her tears, Anna pushed herself to her feet. "Noth-nothing. I'm sorry. I'll…..I'll g-go back." She said, hating herself when her voice broke.

She was just about to pass by Will when he caught her arm and stopped her from leaving. He made her turn to face him. He was frowning with surprise and suspicion as he eyed the tears staining her cheeks. "Why are you crying? What happened?" He asked seriously.

Shaking her head, Anna lightly pulled her arm free and looked away from him. She did not want him to see how weak and pathetic she was. She didn't want him to see the shame she felt. "No. I'm not….I'm not crying. I'm fi-fine." She told him cursing the sob that manage to break out of her. She turned away again to hurry away, wanting to get away from him.

But again, Will grabbed her arm and stopped her from moving away. He stared her directly into the face, studying her eyes before he slowly began to look concerned. "No. You are not fine. Tell me what's wrong." He told her.

Again, like a flood, Anna burst into tears before she whirled away from him and dropped down into a fetal crouch at his feet. She covered her face with her hands, wanting to hide from him. "I…..! It's everything! It's me, Will! I'm what's wrong! I'm…..I'm putting everyone here in dan-danger because Mast-Master Starscream will not stop hunting for me! He'll find me and kill everyone!" She sobbed hard. "I should have never come here! I should have just died by those Reavers! Then all of you would have not had to leave your home and you would be safe! I'm so weak! And stupid! I wish I was dead!"

For a very long moment, Will didn't say anything but just stared down at her. He wasn't entirely sure what to say. He didn't know how to make Anna fell better. It had been a long time since he had to deal with a crying girl. He was a hard bitten, tough soldier who dealt with the war. Not girls. It had also been a long time since he even felt his heart even go out to anyone.

Sighing slowly, Will carefully bent down and placed the rifle down beside him before plopping down beside Anna, resting an arm on one knee. "No, you're not." He remarked, making Anna peer through her fingers at him in surprise. "You're weak and you're not stupid. So I don't want you to say that again."

"Hu-huh?" Anna asked, alarmed.

Shaking his head, Will looked at her with a semi-soft look. "Anna," He began carefully. "No matter what, we are all in danger. No matter if Starscream is looking for you or not. You are not endangering us when we're already endangered. We are living in a world full of darkness, hate and fear. We are in danger no matter what or who is threatening us." He shook his head again. "But we can't just dwell on that. We have to be strong and keep on fighting. We have to face up to the Decepticons, stand up for our freedom and life. If we don't do that, then we don't have a purpose in life. You are just as strong as everyone else here. You are no different. It's okay to cry, Anna. It's okay to be afraid. Just be sure that when you're done, be ready to fight for you life." He gave her a faint, crooked smile as he shook his head. "And I know I'm a hard ass, but I don't regret meeting you. I'm glad you're here. So is Epps and everyone. And I will protect you from Starscream, got that? You and everyone. No matter what happens."

A sad smile touched Anna's lips but she shook her head. "Bu-but you don't even know me. You don't know how…..how I can't fight. And every time I try, I freeze up. I….will freeze up." She said weakly.

Will shrugged as he looked upward at the night sky, watching as shooting stars began entering Earth's atmosphere. "We have plenty of time to get to know each other. I'm sorry that I haven't been all that nice to you, Anna. It's just….." He sighed softly. "I guess I'm just letting my past get to me. You remind me…" He made a face. "You remind me of someone that I once knew." He told her quietly.

"Um…was it your wife?" Anna asked carefully, making a weak look at him.

Slowly, Will nodded as he kept his eyes adverted away from her. "Yes. You actually…..look a lot like her when she was your age." He told her quietly. "That's…..kind of why I've been doing a lot of staring at you. It's funny how this world works. You meet a complete stranger and they look like someone you loved." He smiled faintly at her. "I miss her a lot. And my baby girl." He shook his head. "My baby girl…..I never really got to meet her face to face. I never got to hold her. And all of that," His face darkened as he looked away from her again. "It was taken away from me when these damn Decepticons showed up and killed her. That is the thing that I regret the most. It's not holding my baby before she died."

Anna looked at him sadly. She felt quite terrible for him. She couldn't help but pity him as she listened to him talk about his wife and baby girl that he lost. She heaved her own sigh and looked away from him. "I….I never got to meet my dad either. He died when I was really little. He was killed before I even got to know him. I didn't even know his name." She admitted quietly.

Will glanced at her before he faintly smiled and then plopped a hand right onto her head, ruffling her hair and making her squeak at him. "That's too bad. I'm sorry. He would have been pissed at what he's missing out on." He smiled at her when she gave him a wry look. "He would have been proud to have you as a daughter. You're a lot stronger than you make yourself out to be."

Smiling back at him, Anna shook her head as she folded her legs and folded her hands into her lap. "It's okay. I…..never knew him. So I can't say…..I can't say that I really miss him." She shrugged lightly. "But…" She made a weak face. "I…..it would have been cool with me if you were….my dad. Or at least he was more like you." She told him, feeling embarrassed.

Snorting, Will shook his head as he gave her a dry but faint smile. "Trust me, kiddo. You do not want your dad to be like me. I'm a hard ass, I'm impatient and I can be quite an asshole sometimes. As you probably noticed. I'm sorry for being an ass to you." He then grinned at her. "And, starting tomorrow, at Dawn, we're going to fix you not being able to defend yourself. Starting at Dawn, you're going to start training how to fight."

"HUH?" Anna asked, completely surprised.

And because of that surprising turn of conversation, both of them missed the flash of red in the distance before the Decepticon burrowed back into the ground.