American Woman: Prolouge
She was heading out west to see a very old friend of hers. The two of them had met once and had become friends, but times had changed and as they had gotten older both of the young women had fallen out of touch. So it had been almost three years since the two of them had gotten together. She smiled as she leaned against the plane window and thought back. They had been the class odd balls to be sure, neither her nor her friend had ever really seemed to mesh that well with the rest of the world around them.
Some had told them that they marched to a different beat, others had just called them plain old weird. Either way the strangeness they had felt had drawn them closer, and had resulted in something strange developing. Despite the fact that her friend was quiet capable of taking care of her self, she had become protective of her. Almost to the point of being violent on more than one occasion, it had gotten to be so bad. Her friend had never said any thing about any of that, and she's never really commented on it her self. It was just some thing that was between the two of them, and no matter how hard she tried. She couldn't change it. She couldn't change the fact that for some strange reason she felt responsible for Frankie. Not particularly like she needed taking care of, just that it was an imperative to make sure that she was happy for some reason.
It had gotten a lot worse when she learned about her friends nightmares. For some reason that she couldn't fathom, her friend having those dreams pissed her off down deep on the primal level. She knew to the depths of her soul that what ever had caused these dreams deserved a good beating, and if she ever found it, she was the first person in line to administer said ass whupping. Nothing had ever proven to cause it though, no reason had ever been found and she had spent a lot of time resenting the people in Frankie's family for nothing. None of them had been at the root of the problem.
And her friend did have a problem. She had seen it, she'd seen it show up in her eyes on more than one occasion. She was scared, scared of having a relationship, scared of being around people of the opposite sex. Which baffled the girl even more, if Frankie had no reason for these emotions, as every one she had ever talked to said, why did she still have them? The lack of answers bothered her that much more, which resulted in her being that much more protective of her friend. It was pretty much an endless cycle.
Still there had to be something more too it, she thought as she continued to stare out at the clouds. It wasn't as if she didn't have her own fair share of strange dreams. Her's didn't make much more sense than her best friend's. She credited them however, with this burning need she had to protect every one around her, specifically her best friend.
In her own dreams she was there, and she knew horrible things where happening. Happening just beyond something to people that she some how knew and loved at some point. No matter what she did though, there was nothing in her dream that she could do. She was forced to play the part of some one who agreed with the horror that was going on around her. Every day she lived in her dreams, the guilt of what she had done, or rather what she was unable to do, got worse and worse. So much that eventually her dream self snapped. When those she had tried to care for had finally been saved, they had looked at her. Despite what ever looks those she saw at night may have had on their faces, she always saw them as looks of accusation.
That was where her bad dreams always ended. There was more than that she knew, some how though it was locked away in her mind. No matter how she tried to dig it out, she could never quite reach what she was looking for. So like her best friend she lacked a lot of answers.
Now however, all of that was beside the point. She was heading out her to just enjoy her self and be around her friend. She sighed turned back to the cabin, nothing out there in those clouds was going to help her get to Frankie or to find her answers. So she was left to simply wait out the plane ride and wonder what life had in store for all of them.
It was safe to say that, from her point of view, life couldn't get any stranger. That is where she would, for one of the few times in her life, prove to be dead wrong.
Several hundred miles away: Outside the autobot base
Frankie was standing out side the base, but right then she wasn't Frankie any more. Truth be told, she had no idea what she had become or how she had done it. But apparently this had always been there inside of her waiting for some thing to come along and shake it loose. A bad bump on the head from a rouge steering wheel, along with witnessing a fight between Optimus Prime and his brother had been the keys she needed to do just that. To break down the walls to her real mind and apparently her real form as well.
So there she was, wearing this new shape, trying to come to some kind of grips with the images in her mind. There were at least two others like her she knew now. But how she was to go about finding them or bringing them here was any one's guess. She wasn't really sure that she wanted to. The truth and the knowledge of what had gone on in her past life was very hard to bear. It explained a great deal of things though. Why she had trouble sleeping, why she had the dreams of being chased by some thing with red eyes. It explained why she had such a hard time accepting any thing, or trusting any one. It also explained why she had such a hard time making any relationship she had ever tried last. So many mental scars where there, even if the physical ones no longer remained. So much to deal with that there had been times in the last few days that she had almost been over whelmed.
Not to mention that there was an added complication. Axis, the very person who had caused all of this, the monster with the red eyes who had chased her in her dreams for years. Well he was real. He was real, and it seemed that he hadn't given up. He was still horridly jealous of his brother, and he still wanted every thing that his brother had. Once a very long time ago he had tried to take it, to take every thing that he had wanted. He'd failed then. Now apparently he thought he had the power to succeed where he had been stopped the last time.
Frankie, or whoever she was now, desperately hoped that this didn't come true. She hoped that no one would ever have to face that darkness again. Axis all consuming darkness, that swallowed body, soul, and everything else.
So she was making plans to fight him. To some how stop him before he managed to become powerful enough to try what he had failed at again. Even if he did fail once more, the price to be paid was to much. His price was one of, flesh and blood and he wouldn't stop until he was destroyed.
That's what had to happen this time, there could be no mercy. It was clear to her that the mercy he had been given the last time had no effect on him. Being shown the better angels of those around him had not caused him to see the error of his ways, and change. No all it had done was prove to him that those around him were fools. So he had to be stopped before he had a chance to harm any one else.
Frankie, Or Ariel, as she had learned her name on cybertron had been, realized that she seemed more than a bit blood thirsty over this. But to her, to some one who had seen his evil first hand, that was the way it had to be. There was no room to reason with him, no way to show him that he was wrong. No this time he had to die. She was going to see to it personally, even if that meant loosing what small bit of humanity remained in her.
