Disclaimer: I don't own anything but some of my OCs.

Note : Second last chapter! Sorry everyone! Thank you to those who enjoyed the story so far, and I hope someday to either get the muse back myself, or to have someone else take on the story and finish it! :) You guys have been wonderful.

(Normal POV)

Screams echoed around them as humans and not humans alike ran amuck through the streets. Vehicles swerved wildly around them, others screaming curses, and even more honking their horns in a panic, as if honking their horns would make the monsters move any faster, or get out of their way.

Most of these vehicles were heading in one direction, away from the city behind them. The same went for the people rushing the streets with them. In fact, if it weren't for the large number of frightening monsters behind them, many of the humans might have paused at the sight before them.

Through the utterly impossible to navigate spots in the vehicle packed highway, two tiny cars sped. They swerved into the tiniest spots, and when they were boxed in, they smashed into some cars, not hard enough to harm the humans inside, but definitely hard enough to push the vehicles out of their way. Then they continued on, towards the city.

What was perhaps most unusual was that one woman made note...

There were no driver's in the cars.

(Kendra's POV)

"What're we facing?" I cuddled the twins in my lap as Ravage and Star curled up around Rana's feet -I was going to have to have a word with Soundwave about the obvious attraction- even as Optimus led the others, speeding down the streets. "Anything more than 'there's something here'?"

"We do not know." A faint sense of amusement slid over the newest link, which I was still getting used to. "They were ordered not to get too close."

Right, shards can hurt them. I nodded a little, running my hand over the steering wheel in front of me slightly before returning to holding my little ones.

"The soldiers will be going in with you, first. If there are no humans, we can rush in."

Not that, that had stopped them before, but they weretrying to keep a low profile, which was just easier if they weren't getting spotted in the first place. I wasn't all that comfortable being that far from my sparklings and Optimus, but I knew things had to go a certain way. Luckily, there had been no real issues with the humans when they were at home. Well, other than Sam's own mother wanted to tie him to his own bed to keep him from coming with us, and Lennox's wife had a few choice words for him for being gone so long.

Gently, I handed Sunfire to Rana, quickly followed by Moonfrost, and she put them on the bunk in the back as I grabbed my bow and arrows, getting ready. As Optimus pulled up into a dark town, covered by stormy clouds and high winds, I shivered as the belt unsnapped around me and the door opened. Here we go.Leaning forward, I pressed a kiss to the Autobot insignia on the center of the steering wheel before hopping out.

Once I was on the ground, I stiffened, seeing a dark cloud some distance away. It was far too large to simply be the shard, so I guessed there was probably a whole hoard of monsters there. Sensing a presence at my side, I looked over. "Large dark cloud, that way." I gestured with my head, watching as Lennox and Epps exchanged a look before grabbing their guns. There were two other soldiers with them as well.

As we made our way up and down the streets, we realized there were still humans around. The clue that gave it away? The lighter auras crowding boarded up buildings, and the faint cries of children. That meant unless we really needed their help, it was best if the Autobots stayed out of this battle.

We rushed down empty streets, pausing at one overturned car when we took in large, rather intimidating dents in the metal. "Ouch." I hissed, tilting my head a little and wincing at the large red stain that covered the inside of one of the front windows. "Come on. We'd better hurry." Turning away, I grabbed and knocked an arrow, leading the group around another corner, only to yelp and duck behind another overturned car, thankful this one was at least empty.

Glancing over, I watched Lennox and Epps duck behind a car behind it that I hadn't even noticed, and I raised an eyebrow when Lennox began gesturing wildly. What is this, charades?I shook my head cluelessly, before turning and leaning up over the car. My eyes widened, and I shuddered, even as an almost foreign sense of nausea ran through me. "Skeletons?!"

"Ewww!" Rana hissed lowly as she shuddered as well and sat down. Looking over my shoulder she raised an eyebrow. "Uhhhh... I think Will's trying to get a hold of you."

Gee, I hadn't noticed. And here I thought he was just having an episode. I rolled my eyes and looked back. "What??" I hissed, waving my arm impatiently.

Lennox made a bunch more completely random movements before really taking in that I had no idea what he was trying to say. His face scrunched up funnily, before he slapped Epps on the arm, made vague movements with his arm, and darted up the length of the parked cars to my side.

"There. Wasn't that easy?" I smiled mock sweetly, before giggling at he shot me a dark look. "So what's up?"

"There's at least two dozen of them, and six of us. We should surround and come at them from all sides." He pointed to his own chest and then to one of the soldiers. Then he pointed to a side street a few feet away. "We'll go that way."

Epps nodded, quickly pointing from himself to the soldier right behind him. "And we'll head that way." He gestured back the way we come.

I paused a moment, realizing it would be Rana and myself against... I had to peek. Yeah, definitely over two dozen rotting zombie-skeleton monsters. Then my eyes caught silver fur and I amended that to count Star and undoubtedly Ravage. Hearing a garbled squack, I looked up and blinked at the two metallic 'birds' sitting over a window sill above our heads. Six humans and four Cybertronians. Wonderful. "We're gonna have to watch our backs. We're outnumbered."

"I can call for reinforcements."

Shaking my head, I grabbed Will's hand as it raised to his radio. "We can do this. If we wait, we risk losing sight of some of the monsters, or even having more innocent people change into monsters. Go. We'll split up like you suggested."

The guys still hesitated a moment, before they nodded and tore back the way they'd come. As I turned and knocked an arrow, I nodded to Rana, who'd gotten herself a pair of reinforced leather gloves, for support. She cracked her knuckles slightly, and then leaned against Ravage as Star transformed into her fight-ready form in a flash of light and a whir of gears shifting.

"Two minutes to let them get into place, and then we attack. Try to stay behind the cars, in case they do more than shamble forward." I rolled my eyes a little, even though I was undeniably concerned. I felt the heaviness of concern coming from Optimus, and ran a hand over my chest, biting my lip to keep from smirking as I felt his immediate response.

Knocking my arrow, again, I sat back and waited. Hearing a noise, I looked over the hood of the car, and spotted the skeletons shuffling around. Peering through the crowd, I noticed what appeared to be a little girl, but her skin was so pale. I couldn't see her face, but she was crouched on the ground, huddled in a ball. Instantly, my worry rose, prompting Optimus' to, like a domino effect.

I couldn't see her aura, the others around her were so dark and smothering. I just couldn't make it out. Which was weird, I'd never had that problem before. Probably something to do with not having my power for a while. Though it hadn't bothered me before. Gonna need to talk to Ratchet about it.

"Rana, we've got a problem." I crouched back down, the bow shaking. "There's a little girl in the center of that horde. If the guys rush in shooting, they might hit her!" I growled quietly. "Why didn't we think to get a radio?"

"I can rush back and tell Epps. I think I can get to him faster than Will." Before I could even respond, she was up and rushing around the corner, followed by her four legged non-Autobot guardian.

I shot a look to Ravage, who'd taken about three steps after them, and then stopped. "Well?" He turned red eyes on me. "You do realize everyone knows about your feelings for Star. Go after her!"

The corner of his lip pressed up, before he shook his head, returning to my side, only looking back once.

He's not going? A nagging sense of suspicion flowed through me, even as I pushed the thought to the side. I'm gonna have a word with Soundwave and Optimus later. I really didn't need to be baby sat, I'd made it this far. Yeah, but I've also been captured twice, cloned once, and controlled once. Ok, so maybe I did need to be baby sat.

Raising the blow, I pressed the front of it against the hood so the arrow had a clear passage to the skeletons. I saw one dragging a bloody body, only able to tell the man was alive by the fact his aura was still light. Oh no you don't! I let the arrow fly, the bright light catching the immediate attention of the skeletons, even as it hit one and caused it to collapse without a sound.

"At least these guys don't scream." I muttered, ducking behind the edge of the car as I grasped another arrow. Leaning back up, I let out my own startled scream as instant terror and shock flew through me. Falling back, I ended up throwing the arrow, instead of shooting it, even as Ravage growled loudly and leapt forward.

The skeletons had mostly disappeared, but for a few that had...somehow ended up right in front of the car in practically a blink. Their eye sockets were empty but for a nasty black mist that made them seem more like bottomless black holes.

I watched the arrow skim the shoulder of one of the skeletons, and yelped again as it flashed back to where the girl was with a speed that left even my more advanced eyesight in the dust. It opened it's decaying maw, yellowed teeth dripping with a black substance as it reached out, flashing to my side again.

My heart hammered in terror, as I scrambled back, kicking when the creature grabbed a hold of my leg. When did these guys get so fast?! None of the other monsters I'd ever faced were this fast! I really didn't know how else to explain their quick movements as the skeletons seemed to...well...warp around Ravage, causing him to miss several blasts.

A shout caught my attention, and I scrambled back more as the skeleton leaning over me was suddenly knocked aside by a massive silver foot. !!! I clumsily got to my feet and ran back to the owner of the feet, even as I grabbed another arrow, shuddering. And no sleep for me tonight. Undoubtedly, I'd only have nightmares about skeletons that moved close to the speed of light.

"I think I would'a preferred the screaming." I growled, hitting another one dead in the center of the chest, quickly followed by yet another between the eyes. Ye, Gods! I shuddered again as I leaned against Optimus' leg, ducking and spinning away when Star attacked a skeleton, knocking it back and into the large metallic foot. "Hey!" I felt a little better seeing the others there. "Stop hitting on my guy!"

The forced chuckles were enough to relax me more, even as Optimus crouched, his hands sweeping speeding skeletons from my path. I raced forward, admittedly emboldened by his actions as I swatted at the skeletons with my bow and made a B-line to the girl who had yet to move from her position. "Hey!" I crouched at her side and put a hand on her back.

Then I shivered violently, almost ripping it back off. The girl barely moved when I touched her, but she was cold as ice, and I was suddenly hit with a frightening feeling of dread. Blinking, I gasped and jumped back when the girl was suddenly surrounded by the blackest aura. My heart clenched and I closed my eyes, even as the sound of material shifting caught my ears.

When I opened my eyes again, I slowly grabbed and knocked another arrow, barely noting my quiver was getting worryingly low. The girl's skin was the whitest I'd ever seen, putting snow to shame. Yet her eyes were empty black sockets, and a foul blue-ish black ooze seemed to drip from her mouth, her lips a motley green-black. The shard was hanging from a chain around her neck, but what was really on my mind, even as I stared her down, was... What could have been so bad in this child's life to make her go evil?

"Oh my God..."

The voice was low, but it was enough to set me into motion. I raised my bow, aimed, hesitated one more second, and fired. I had to close my eyes, unable to watch the girl turn to dust, then they flew back open with a pained, surprised shout as something sharp sank into my arm, causing me to let go of the bow. The fire raced up my arm, even as I shot my hand out, focusing my crackling power into my fingertips as I pressed it against the girl's chest.

But it still didn't work. She hissed darkly and flashed away the same way the skeletons had.

"Oh hell no!" Will growled as he just managed to duck one skeleton, only to get knocked back by another. "Whoa, 'Hide!" He yelped in a rather high pitched voice and scrambled quickly out of the way of an incoming black foot, grimacing as it landed on two of the skeletons with a rather disgusting 'squish'. "Watch where you're stepping!"

"Sorry." The gruff tone belied he was only half sorry, as he stepped back, leaning on Ratchet as he scraped at the bottom of his foot. "Gross."

A hand came down and wrapped around me almost protectively, as the other bots took turns stepping on several skeletons, some a little carelessly. "Kendra, are you seriously damaged?" There was a flash, and his human holoform was standing right in front of me, inspecting the faint traces of energon from the bits in my arm. "Hm." He turned a dark look on the young girl a little ways away.

Grabbing his arm, I pulled him to me and kissed him chastly before pulling back. "You've been there for most of the quest, Optimus. I'm fine. I've had worse." Pulling back even further, I ran my fingers over his own, before pushing slightly, and I sighed a little as I pointed a look at him out of the corner of my eye when the fingers only hesitantly moved out of my way. "I promise, I'm fine." Dashing out from the grasp of his fingers, I called to Rana and ran towards a building.

We entered the massive building, realizing belatedly that it was an office building, and searched the main floor thoroughly for the little girl, who'd appeared in here only moments earlier. Seeing a door swinging shut across the room, my eyes narrowed at the 'basement' sign on it, before I caught Rana's eye.

"These things are gross." She groaned slightly, swiping chunks of chesh off her gloves, and stomping her shoes to knock even more off her feet. "Eww. Eww. Eww."

"I agree." I stalked forward.

"Hey, how come you couldn't tell that the little girl was one of the monsters?"

Opening the door cautiously, I stepped into the hall and began towards a flight of stairs, climbing down them slowly. "I couldn't see her aura. I thought it was just being drowned out by the power of the others." Now I'm not so sure. Frowning, I focused, looking for auras, but the room was so dark, it was hard to pick out shadow from black aura.

"That doesn't sound good."

"No, it really doesn't." And I sincerely hope it doesn't mean something really bad.

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Tenshi