"What are we doing?" I asked Trion when he landed. He allowed me to ride his shoulder while he walked.
"What do you think we're doing? We're going to save your sister."
"Why? Last year you didn't seem to care about me or my sister."
"Oh? Was it not I who suggested to build a fire in the Hall of Records to keep you alive?"
I opened my mouth but shut it again. It was him who suggested that. Maybe Trion liked humans better than he was willing to admit. "Thank you. How do you plan on finding Galvatron, though?"
"Shouldn't be that hard," Trion set the Forge down and fired three times in the air. The shots sent off a beautiful array of metals that snowed down on us. Soon I heard a low rumbling of a semi that transformed into footsteps. I held on to Trion so as not to fall while Galvatron appeared. Alisha held onto his shoulder, too scared to try and jump down.
I stood slowly. "I've brought the Forge just as you've asked."
"I didn't really think you would do it," Galvatron admitted. He forced Alisha from his shoulder.
Alisha gave me a disapproving look but she wouldn't understand. She'll only understand when she has kids of her own. Trion picked up the Forge and held it out to him. As Galvatron reached out Trion took Alisha in his hand just as Galvatron took the Forge. It didn't move from the ground.
"What kind of trickery is this?" He demanded of us.
"No trickery. You've heard of the myth of Thor, right?" After a pause I went on. "Legend has it Thor's hammer would only be picked up by someone worthy of the hammer. Same principle applies. The only reason we were able to pick it up was because…well I don't know why."
Galvatron pointed his weapon at us. "You will not get out of here alive if I cannot have the hammer."
Trion had no time to turn his back before he was shot. I was flung from his shoulder from the force of impact. My ankle twisted and made a horrible cracking sound. I screamed and held it. Alisha was dropped a little more gracefully and she came to my aid. I tried pushing her away but she wouldn't budge despite Trion tackling the young transformer.
"The Forge," she whispered as if there were someone else with us she was talking to.
"No, don't go!" She was out of arms reach too easily. She grabbed the handle and lifted. To her the heavy hammer was nothing more than featherweight. Her eyes widened and it made me turn around. Trion and Galvatron were only feet away from me. The ground shook with each footstep.
I got to my feet but my left foot couldn't hold my weight. Alisha wrapped her arm around me to support me and she half dragged me away before one of them could tumble over on the spot we moved from. We didn't get very far but I couldn't hobble any longer. We took cover behind some boulders, panting from adrenaline and exhaustion from my leg.
"You shouldn't have brought this here!" Alisha started the scolding. "I was fine!"
"Fine? Being taken by the enemy doesn't constitute as fine." I could barely hear myself over the labored breathing.
"This," she lifted the Forge, "doesn't help either. I was being protected. He couldn't have hurt me."
"Protected? That's right, I forgot about your imaginary friend."
Alisha rolled her eyes. "Solus Prime," she said simply as she peeked around to watch the fight.
"What?"
"That's the name of my protector, Elsa."
I stared at her, trying to get a sense of where she would have heard that name. Her face gave away no answers. She peered around the boulder to try and get a sense of where the other two were. "Where did you hear that name?"
"My dreams. She promised to always protect me." She looked at me. We stared at each other for a long while. Suddenly a noise that sounded like the engine of a jet filled the forest air. Trion and Galvatron took off in flight, leaving us to fend for ourselves in the forest we weren't familiar with.
I allowed myself a moment to relax but then wished I hadn't. Pain shot up from the middle of my foot up to my hip. I bit the inside of my cheek until it bled. My heart pounded in my ears, muffling the sounds of Alisha. Red and black dots covered my vision and my head hit the ground hard. The impact pushed me into the darkness.
I don't remember when the black cleared away. My feet were on solid ground. The ground was made of a metal that I was unfamiliar with. There were tall, thin structures scattered randomly around me and in front of me, on a throne, sat a giant transformer, bigger than Prime and scarier than Galvatron. There were spikes that came from his back and for a moment I thought of a porcupine.
Like the others it didn't move when it spoke, "You are the human Elsa…" His voice boomed. The metal earth trembled underneath me.
It wasn't a question but it sounded like one. I nodded. I was too much in awe at this monstrous creature.
He explained, "We have much to talk about." The structures around us bowed at the sound of his voice. Now he moved. He allowed me to stand on his hand and he took me to his eye level.
"Are you one of the Thirteen? What is your name?"
"I come before the thirteen Primes. However, this is a conversation for another day. There isn't enough time to speak or for proper introductions, though I wish there were. So save your questions for another time, Elsa. Our race, the Cybertronians, became an easily corruptible race. One could argue it started with the Fallen but there has always been an evil among my race. Unicron wants no survivors in the galaxy. The power given to the thirteen Primes drew Unicron to them and so he corrupted one and the rest died protecting the Matrix and the other artifacts like Alpha Trion's quill and the Covenant." As he spoke the scenery around us changed to show the story he told almost as if I were watching a movie.
"Covenant of Primus," I whispered.
"That's right. Your Earth was chosen because the race hadn't been corrupted. There are few of you that somehow haven't been touched by this kind of evil and so thirteen of you have been chosen to carry the artifacts like those before you. You, Elsa, do not have a complete set, however. You destroyed the Covenant."
I nodded. "I had to. I had no choice."
"I know." For a moment everything around us showed the battle with Galvatron before he fled after the book was destroyed and then it disappeared as quickly as it came. The scene now rested in an open meadow not unlike the one the Forge of Solus Prime was in. "Alisha can make you another one and then the Hall of Records is yours along with the books. You have been chosen to take Trion's job. The fact that you can see me now means you have matured enough to take it on." He set me down on a grassy plane. "I will see you very soon, my child." Before I could call out another question I could suddenly hear a warm voice that drew me near.