A/N: I will try to upload another chapter tomorrow. If any part of this chapter confuses you, let me know, though re-visiting the beginning of Chapter 28 may help. Thanks for reading!

Chapter 35

Alexis took a deep breath, her knuckles white on the steering wheel. They had been driving for an hour. The city had been left behind once more.

Starscream and Skyfire sat in the wide front seat, with the others on benches in the back, surrounded by precarious piles of laundry. Her eyes flicked, for the hundredth time, to the rear view mirror. They were not being followed, and she was resisting the huge urge to put her foot down.

London had thinned out and they were surrounded by fields once more, drawing nearer to the house. Alexis glanced in the mirror again. Still nothing. For some reason this only made her feel more nervous.

Starscream was chain smoking once more, the cigarette pinched hard between his lips, his eyes almost closed. Something inside Alexis knew not to bother him, she wondered if he was trying to discern unseen threads of information in this strange place, like Skyfire could. The old man was sitting between the two of them, and as her gaze flitted round, his wrinkled features creased in a small smile.

'So… Alexis was it? How are you enjoying your time in the Decepticons? When did you join up?'

He stuck his tongue into his cheek, eyes glittering in amusement as he watched her.

'Didn't join up, as such. I sort of … fell in by accident.' Alexis overtook a slow hatchback, swerving the wheel of the van impatiently.

'Ah! That makes two of us.'

She turned her head slightly, surprised. 'Really?'

'Mm, it was my size they were interested in, perhaps. They all thought size equaled force.' Skyfire shook his head from side to side, chuckling. 'I was once…' He trailed off for a moment. 'But now look at me.' He turned his aged hands over, tilting them in the fading light. 'If Megatron could see me now, I don't think he'd be so eager to have me on side.'

'What will happen when we get to the barn?' asked Alexis quietly.

'He'd turn in the pit if he could see me now, if he could see any of us! Hm?' The old man chuckled.

'Answer the question, Skyfire.' She didn't take her eyes from the road.

Skyfire was silent for a moment. Starscream was sitting up straight, his eyes closed. Alexis wondered if he was listening.

'I don't really know, human.'

'How can you not know?' Alexis frowned. 'Starscream said you built this thing.'

'Built, yes. My finest creation. Tested though? I never quite got round to that.' The old man grinned, leaning back in the seat, his hands behind his head. 'An amazing thing. I sometimes wonder if I ever even invented it. It's more like I supervised the creation of something that already knew what it was. Do you understand?'

'Not really.' Alexis felt her heart begin to pick up speed as she turned into the road that led to the house. What if the barn wasn't there? What would they do if it wasn't? What would they do if it was?

The house came into view. The wheels crunched over gravel and Alexis looked up to see the barn was indeed there, a reassuring bulk in the evening light. The whole company poured out of the van, Alexis looking to Skyfire. 'Now what?'

A sound made them all freeze. Someone was inside the barn, hidden behind the closed doors. Frenzy stepped forward, his brow creased in revolted curiosity. 'What is that?'

Alexis listened hard. She heard gasping, retching. A voice moaned, then one of the doors jolted slightly, as if someone had slumped against it.

Thundercracker pulled out his knife in the blink of an eye, inclining his head towards Starscream as he moved forward.

Everyone watched as he tugged on the doors, then tugged again.

'They won't open. Weird.'

Thundercracker rubbed his chin, eyeing the stout doors up and down before trying again, Arcee stepping forward to help him. 'Hey! Who's in there? Show yourself!'

'Skyfire. What happens now?' Starscream turned to the old man. It took a few moments for him to locate him. Skyfire had slowly backed away, shaking his head as if trying to dislodge something. He reached out a hand to steady himself on the van.

'They're coming,' he croaked, his eyes widening. 'So fast… how are they moving so fast?'

The tone of his voice chilled Alexis' blood. Starscream strode up to the old man. 'Who? Who's coming?'

'I don't know… I don't know…'

'Helpful as ever,' Starscream said darkly. As Alexis watched, Skyfire swayed on his feet, leaning into Starscream. He began to whisper rapidly into the Decepticon leader's ear. She saw his expression alter, his features closing, becoming mask-like as he listened.

'Starscream?'

She was distracted as a battering sound rang out behind her. The rest of the group were trying their best to force the doors apart. 'Alexis! A little help?'

Still staring behind her at the two men, distracted, she wandered forward. Arcee, Frenzy, Skywarp and Thundercracker were panting and straining at the doors but they wouldn't budge. Suddenly she had an eerie sense of déjà vu, recalling a scene so similar to this one, years ago, as she ran to help a group of strangers try to take refuge in a dark cathedral…

'Hold back a moment and let me try.'

'You?' Skywarp looked her up and down skeptically. 'No offense, missy, but how…'

Frenzy pulled the wingbrother's hand back. 'Let her try. You alright, fleshie?'

She nodded almost imperceptibly, and pushed at the doors.

They swung open, yielding beneath her hand. Before she could even wait to hear the exclamations of surprise from the others, she stepped inside, her fleeting gaze registering the familiar clutter, turning towards the noise in the right corner.

A human, a man, cowered in the shadows. As her eyes adjusted to the light her hand flew to her mouth.

The man had one eye, and was wasted almost to a skeleton. A dark, lumpy liquid lay in puddles before him, and trickled from a corner of his mouth. He was gasping desperately for air as though drowning, animal moans hissing from between his teeth.

'You…' she whispered, crouching down beside him. The smell of him made her gag, but she forced herself to stay close and look at him. The mech with a false name, down in the slave pit. The one that had destroyed her supplies to force her out of her body.

The one Starscream had killed.

The one whose spark she had lost.

She helped haul the pathetic figure into a sitting position, though it was like trying to lift a sack of cement. His head was bald, with a few wisps of hair clinging to his skull, his empty eye socket like a gaping wound.

'What are you doing here? You're... dead!' she whispered. Without thinking, she reached to steady his head as it lolled to one side.

'You never believed that,' he said, his voice a scratchy whisper. For a horrifying moment she thought the dark energon was speaking, and recoiled back, her hands to her mouth once more.

'I saw you die,' she sad eventually, when her courage returned.

He laughed, the laughter quickly merging into racking coughs. He moaned in pain.

'Who are you?' she pleaded. 'Are you a friend, or an enemy? I have to know!'

'You were kind to me,' he said. There was no emotion in his voice now. He looked and sounded as if he were fighting sleep. 'You were kind, when you had no idea if I could give you help, or harm, slave.'

'No… you helped me, remember? You gave me a gift, the phase shifter! We're the same!'

He laughed again, a bitter shout. 'Ha!'

'Please, help me. I need to find the Requiem Blaster. We need it to get out of here, to get home. Your spark… back on the ship… it merged with the Blaster, didn't it? Please, I know you can help us!'

He lifted his head, and in that moment, he was truly awful to behold, the ugliness of his look like a physical blow. 'Go outside, little organism. Go and tell your master what you have done.'

'What I've done? I don't…'

'Go on! Go! Tell him!' The awful face was grinning now. 'Go tell him how you brought me all the way here, you wondrous, stupid thing…'

He slipped sideways, landing with his face in the dark muck he had vomited earlier. Alexis was already on her feet, her body slamming against the doors in her haste to get away from him.

Minutes passed in silence.

The corpse-like figure was sobbing on his face now, too weak to raise himself. Footsteps on the straw stopped by his head and the young woman grunted and strained as she hauled him upright, allowing him to slump in the corner. Moments later and a soft, musty blanket was tucked round his shoulders, the corner used to wipe his face clean.

'Why?' he snarled as she stepped back, wiping her hands on her dress.

The human woman shrugged. 'Pity, perhaps. I'm a human, after all. It's what we do.'

She left the wooden building the way she had come. The doors fell shut.

As she stepped out of the barn and back into the open air she opened her mouth to call for Starscream. The cadaverous stranger had been right about one thing – Starscream must be told about him, and what had happened to that mysterious spark. He would know what to do, he always did.

A high pitched whine… she heard the sound before she saw the glowing tip of the laser, pointing straight at her. She stopped dead, the scene before her was so unexpected she stood and stared dumbly, unable to take it in.

Her eyes flew up the barrel of the weapon in an instant, to be met with a horribly familiar face – feminine and cruel, her armour trimmed with purple and gold.

'Thunderblast?'

'Aw… the little vermin remembers me!'

The femme tilted her head on one side in mock celebration. Beyond her Alexis spotted numerous other thuggish mechs restraining the human Arcee, Thundercracker, Frenzy and Skywarp. The van they had arrived in was on its side. Starscream and Skyfire stood beside it, dwarfed by another horribly familiar figure: Stormstrike, looming back in his mech form, grinning at the scene. 'Well, well. If it isn't Starscream and his little gang. Squishiness suits you, Lord Starscream!' Stormstrike gave a mock bow. 'Remember how I said you would beg me for death, hm? I'll give you a few kliks to rehearse, ha!'

Thunderblast used her foot to shove Alexis forward, forcing her chin up with the tip of her gun. 'Still as small and disgusting as I remember, vermin.'

'And you're back in your cheap shitty armour,' spat Alexis. 'Is that all it took for you to get back with Stormstrike? Easily bought, just like your aft plates, bitch!'

Thunderblast growled, raising her fist, but Stormstrike boomed, 'No!' We don't touch them until the Mouth of Unicron arrives.'

'And who's that?' Thundercracker growled, struggling against the mech holding him fast. Alexis' eyes flicked to Starscream some feet away. Skyfire was clinging to his arm, still apparently trying to tell him something, but Starscream looked closed off, like a statue. Alexis knew the look well, and snakes of unease coiled in her stomach.

'You're about to find out,' Stormstrike said, grinning more widely. 'Get ready, human maggots.'