Chapter 50- A sweet Good-bye

It had been nearly twenty-four hours since everyone was discovered missing and so for there was no sign of any of them. Even with the little infomation Blitz-Gear had given them,now it was like a clock was ticking away over all their heads.

Blitz-Gear leaned against a wall with his arms folded over his chest, beside him were the humans and Ameba. They were in the conference room with Optimus,Ironhide,Blaster,Scout and Ratchet-everyone else had been sent out to try and locate those who were missing. Scout glared at Blitz-Gear, obviously blaming him for helping Amber get away with all of this and as if he thought that the ferrari wasn't telling them everything. Chris was scowling,he was the most annoyed and felt that he had the most to lose, now that all his connnections had disappeared.He, however, wasn't completly on his own, he had one card left if it came to it.

'Is it possible that they actually made it out of the city?'

Ratchet pondered aloud more then questioning anyone, he was staring down at some sort of computer screen-Ironhide growled in return.

'If they did then we'll be chasin' our own tails trying to find them'

he grumbled, moving over to look down at the same screen as the medic.

'What about the space bridge. is it up yet?'

Blaster asked, he'd been monitoring that up until a few days ago so he was already certain of the answer to his own question,though he could hope anyways.

'Not yet'

Replied Optimus, turning his gaze at a larger screen that hung from the ceiling, it was blank.

Curtis glanced up to his Yaris and sighed, he was partly to blame for this as well, though he'd not expected Amber to actually do something this insanely nuts-

'The Decepticons haven't done anything yet, that's a good sign,right"

He hoped it was-Ameba glanced down to her human and smiled supportively, but her mind was elsewhere.

'Maybe'

'Or we're all going to die'

'Ratchet!'

Ameba snapped at her mentor, but he only gave a shrug before returning his attention to what he was doing. The room fell silent once more as all were lost in their own worry and troubling thoughts-what was going to happen to them all now? If the Decepticons got the code, they'd use it almost instantly-and even without the location to the Autobot bast, it would end the war. And at the same time, if they got the location of the base, they could take the oppertunity amongst the chaos and panic to launch a massive attack. Chances were, that the Decepticons knew the humans were gone as well and were looking for them at the same time as the Autobots. Optimus huffed heavily, looking at the blank screen still, waiting...waiting for something, but what?

Crusher hissed darkly as the Subaru stepped into her path-he was smaller then him, she could easily over power the Autobot,she would love nothing more then to tear him apart but she restrained herself. Not because Pomperous had his guns aimed at her chest, but because Liane had decided to meet up with the human who'd called her out. Liane let her blonde hair fall limply on either side of her face, her eyes narrowing to slits as she faced the dark haired man who stood before her. There had been a time when she would have been glad to see the man, she would have run to him, happy to share an adventure with him. But now...all she saw was hate and felt was pain, in a fair fight she knew he was the stronger, ut thats why she had no intentions of fighting fair. Brian stood in his normal indifferent fashion, watching his once common-law wife, he wasn't surprised to see her with a robot now. However, there was not a doubt in his mind that either were there with the 'good' intentions of saving the human race. He didn't care really, he was more there to resolve something that started long before either knew about this war. He was there to get the burden of te past off his shoulders and try to see if there could have been away to have avoided all this-or was it all sappoused to end like this?

'Did you call me out here, just so that you could stare at me?'

Liane growled angerly, she wanted to watch the Autobots run around like idiots-not waste her time standing around having a staring contest with someone she no longer cared about.

'Impatient as always, Liane'

Brian responded with a dark smirk, his stance didn't change but he did look as if he were about to spring foreward on a second's notice.

'What do you want? I'm sure we both have more important things we could be doing right now'

'Not really'

Was he trying to provoke her? Liane growled, slowly balling her hands into fists, this was annoying.

'Just tell me what you want'

'Heh. YOU need to talk. Keeping everything locked away inside, it'll give you a tumor you know.'

'I'm FINE! Or I was until I saw your ugly mug'

Liane reeled, she could feel the years of pain coming back to her in a rush of rage.

'What are you doing here?'

'I'd like to ask you the same, but thats not why I'm here'

Brian had to try and keep Liane from changing the subject,avoiding it all together, like she was famous for doing.

'You just want to torment me further'

'no'

'Wasn't what you did over a year ago more then enough?'

Brian growled thugh he made no effort to show his dark disagreement.

'Why can't you accept that it was an accident?'

'Because it wasn't!'

'Liane!'

He breathed heatedly, though his voice was sharp and his words harsh,Brian never raised his voice while speaking to the woman.

'You were being selfish as always'

'Me!? Selfish? you're one to talk, all you did was sit on that damn computer and yell at Grace'

'I was tired from working all day'

'You barely worked at all, how could you possibly have been tired?'

'After Grace was born...'

'I loved her more then anything'

'No'

'Liane, you've let your hate blind you and cloud your mind...Grace was my world, I was there for her more then you ever were'

Something inside Liane snapped and she yelled in anger more then anything.

'LIAR!!!"

She dashed foreward,moving straight for Brian, he readied himself to catch her. He grabbed her one arm but as he went to grab her other arm, she pulled back enough to get him slightly off balance. As he tried again to reach for her, he felt a sharp pain in his chest-gasping, he looked down. Protruding from his chest was a thin dagger-Liane had it hidden in the sleeve of her shirt, and when Brian had been thrown off balance, she'd slipped it out. Using her own body weight to her advantage, Brian growled but refused to release his grip on the woman.

'This is my beautiful good-bye'

Liane hissed with a dark look in her eyes, there was no light in them, like she was souless. With a grunt he grabbed her around the waist and tossed her several feet behind him-she yelped in pain as she twisted her ankle while landing. Brian opened his mouth but no words escaped-then he crumbled to the ground.

'Brian? Dammit!'

Pomperous' moment of distraction was his downfall, for at that moment Crusher lept foreward-seizing the chance to destroy the Autobot, it didn't matter anymore,it was the end...

Blitz-Gear slid down the wall and tired to catch the humans attention, while the Autobots were all busy looking at something on one of the screens. Ali slowly turned her head to glance at the red car, she had a look of distrust on her face but was curious as to what he wanted.

'I never did tell you why I followed you the night Overkill was killed'

He began in a hushed tone,Chris turned his attention to the conversation but didn't move so that he wouldn't be accused of ease dropping.

'Because your lot is a bunch of unsensative jerks"

Came Ali's response,she didn't even think that there had been a reason other then Blitz-Gear being an Autobot..

'Hey..not all of us are like that...'

Blitz-Gear looked almost insulted but only smiled and shook his hed, keeping an e;ye on the others to see if any of them were paying them any attention.

'Believe it or not...this was ment to happen'

'What'

'Well...you and I...you have no idea how long I've been looking for you'

Ali growled again, she didn't seem impressed with the implications not being said...

'How do you even know about me?'

'Ah...well...'

'You Are a stalker'

'No, not really'

'See...Stalker...'

Blitz-Gear rubbed the back of his head trying to think of how to explain this without the human calling him a stalker again.

'I was instructed to find you by someone else, who was adiment that I keep you alive.'

Ali quickly looked tense and let out a long low growl that ment she didn't like what she'd been told.

'By who? who would care if I lived or not?'

'Uh...Do youknow a girl named Jennifer..'

There was a pause as Ali shot Chris a quick look, he gave a slight shrug as if he had been asked a question.

'The same one as in...Holly's late best friend?'

'The very one'

'I never met her personally, why...how does she even know who I am...she was 'dead' before I met Holly'

'Ah, so you know that she's...'

'I think almost everyone does by now'

'That's not a good thing'

Blitz-Gear glanced to the ceiling but his thoughts were broken by Ali, who wanted her questions answered.

'Now tell me what I have to do with anything currently going on'

'hmmm, you...are one of the 'Guardians''

'The Fuck...what's the...'

Blaster interrupted Ali's question as e made a loud sound of surprise.

'' has a message from the Decepticon's.'

He announced as came darting into the room, he looked like he'd come form a fight, and was on the losing side of it to boot.

'Quick,, what do they have to say'

transformed into his cassette form, hoping into a slot by the computer so that the images could be played for the others to see. Splashing across the screen Optimus had been staring at appeared the images of Freeway,Amber and some red haired man that wasn't familier to those watching the recording. The hotstages were all beaten fairly badly and bound-Scout growled

'Dammit-Amber!'

Optimus placed a hand on Scout's shoulder in an attempt to calm the mech.

'Now that I've gotten your attention,Prime...'

Megatron's voice sneered darkly,though remained out of sight,instead Starscream stepped into the shot, smirking widely and holding a gun to the hostages.

'you know what I want,and I know that you couldn't live with the death of these humans on your shoulders. so, deliver it to me at the following co-ordinates, or all three will die.'

There was a snicker as Starscream moved behind the three,he glanced up, smirking even more wickedly.

'oops,looks like only two are left'

Starscream cheered and as he raised his gun the video cut out but the audio ran still-there was several screams followed by a blast...then silence...

'Don't make the other two join their friend'

And that was were the message came to an end. A stunned and angered silence hung over those in the room. They'd just witnessed the last moments of someone's life, but whose? And what was worse was that the Autobots didn't have what Megatron was demanding-did he already know this? Was it just to lure the Autobots out? Scout had gone silent,staring at the screen and replaying what they'd just witniessed in his mind.

'Prime, what are we going to do? you're not really going to meet that slagging scum,Megatron"

Ironhide demanded, just about as angery as the others-Optimus sighed and turned to face Scout.

'One of them is dead...'

Scout began quietly before Optimus had a chance to say anytying to him, he turned his gaze to Blitz-Gear stood.

'And its your fault!'

'What..wait...what"

'If you hadn't taken Amber out of the base...left her in who knows where..'

'If I hadn't...'

'This wouldn't have had to of happened'

'Don't blame me for what that stupid human'

'Now's not the time to fight amongst ourselves'

Optimus held Scout back, knowing that he wanted to get into a fight with Blitz-Gear.

'I've got to do something...'

Curtis dashed past the others and out the door before he could be stopped, Ameba chased after him, knwoing that she'd be able to catch him and find out what was his plan.

'Curtis! Stop'

Once they were gone, all eyes and optics were upon Optimus once more.

'Prime...what are we going to do?'

'...We're going to meet Megatron and end this...'

I look back-I see pain

I look ahead-I see dreams

I look back-I see hurt

I look ahead-I see beauty

I look back-I feel helpless

I look ahead-I feel empowered

I look back-I feel loss

I look ahead-I feel hope

I look back-I know no way out

I look ahead-I know my destination

I look back-I have hate

I look ahead-I have love

I look back-I don't knw where I'm going

I look ahead-I know my direction

I look back-I have fear

I look ahead-I have faith

I look back-I lose my innocence

I look ahead-I gain wisdom

I look back-I lose my youth

I look ahead-I gain experience

I look back-I am trapped

I look ahead-I am free

I look back-I hide bruises,by broken spirit

I look ahead-I share my heart, my soul...

The end of Book one: The Guardians...