Author's Note: Thanks to Riptide2 (Yup! I couldn't resist ;D) for reviewing the last chapter! Enjoy and I own nothing but Mallory

Chapter Twenty-One-Welcome to the Windy City

Mallory's first week in Chicago was spent making her apartment look like a home instead of a storage unit with boxes stacked everywhere, getting used to her classes, and actually being able to find her way around Chicago. Despite the chaos she found Chicago to her liking, even though her neighbors probably thought she was crazy because some mornings Barricade decided to act as her alarm clock and she ended up yelling at a police car out her window. It was late September when things finally calmed down enough that she could relax and post again on The Connection, the first time since she moved to Chicago. It was nice to return to normalcy for a little while. Unfortunately it wouldn't last.

Mal was studying to be a forensic artist. She was sitting in her evening class on a Friday night when it happened. The room was hot, unbearably so because the heater was broke and working overdrive. As she worked on her computer reconstructions a bead of sweat dripped down her back. Her vision blurred and she blinked, trying to focus on the image before her. That was when the vision hit her full force.

She came to with a girl named Kelly leaning over. "Are you okay?" Kelly asked nervously. "You just kind of keeled over and hit the floor all of a sudden."

"I'm fine," Mal said, severely shaken by what she had seen. "I think it's the heat."

"Are you sure Miss Banes?" the teacher, Professor Davidson, asked, looking concerned.

"Yeah," Mal said, forcing a smile. "I'm fine."

"Class dismissed," the professor said. "I don't need any of the rest of you passing out because of heat." Mallory left the class with Kelly as other students chattered around her about meaningless things.

"Are you going to be able to get to your apartment by yourself?" Kelly asked, her face radiating concern. Kelly was pretty with honey colored curls framing and earnest heart shaped face and featuring hazel eyes.

"I'll be fine Kelly," Mal replied with a gentle smile. "My boyfriend will be here in a couple minutes to pick me up anyway."

"If you need anything at all call me," Kelly ordered and then headed for her tiny green compact car parked in the slim student parking lot.

"Will do," Mallory called after the friendly girl. In truth she had no intention of waiting for Barricade. She didn't want to tell him what she'd just seen. As soon as Kelly was out of sight she turned and began walking to her apartment. Barricade passed her when she was almost home and was forced to go around the block to head back. By then Mallory was already in the apartment.

"Are you okay?" Barricade asked, slipping into the kitchen in holoform and eyeing his sparkmate warily.

"Fine," Mallory retorted as she pulled a white coffee cup from a shelf in the kitchen. Her fingers were shaking slightly as she tried to push what she had just seen from her mind and her mouth was dry.

"You're not that great of a liar Mal," Barricade told her, his expression worried.

"I-I," Mal began. "I just…" That was when the cup fell from her hand and the cheap clay shattered on the fake tile of the kitchen floor. Normally it would have been nothing but today had been a particularly stressful day and Mal promptly burst into tears.

"Mal," Barricade said helplessly but she had already fled, slamming her bedroom door shut, collapsing on her bed and sobbing helplessly. Eventually she cried herself empty and drifted off the sleep; a mistake if there ever was one.

She was standing on the concrete sidewalk of a cordoned off street. A large mech looking very much like Optimus but with a slightly different color scheme stood there, the same as last time. Everyone else was in the same position as she had last seen it too. "I'm sorry but it's time to put you out of commission," the unfamiliar mech said to Ironhide just as last time, powering up a weapon she didn't recognize.

"No," she heard someone yell behind her. Then a copy of her that wasn't her exactly, too grim and expressionless, nodded at Barricade and he launched himself at Ironhide, pushing the ancient mech out of the way. The shot hit him straight in the spark chamber and he fell. Mallory screamed then, both her and the copy, but while the real Mal could only stand and stare in horror the other one collapsed to her knees clutching her chest as angry tears streamed down her face.

When Mallory joined Barricade in the dreamscape she was gasping. Her hair was sticking to the back of her neck and she knew her eyes were wide with horror. "What's wrong?" Barricade asked, taking two long strides over to her. Mallory collapsed into his arms, sobbing with terror. She couldn't force herself to tell him what she'd seen so she pushed the images into his mind. He stiffened and held her tighter. They stayed that way until it was time for Mallory to wake and face the day. Meanwhile the storm loomed on the horizon and there was nothing Mallory or anyone else could do to stop it.