The apartment complex was six stories high, towering above the rest of Bogota's urban architecture like a pillar of strength. Completely evacuated, Cade was able to break into the locked front door easily – all it took was a few hard hits from the end of the Cybertronian weapon, and the lock released in broken and hanging attempt at security.

Bryce and Elaina followed him into the building, and they quickly did a survey. It was indeed empty, as shards of broken windows rested in piles across the foyer. Wind cascaded into the open windows now, and after a quick perimeter scan, Cade pointed to the ceiling.

"Let's go up," he said, keeping his voice low, "and see if we can't spot Drift with the kids." With confirming nods from his counterparts, he led the small team up the flights of steps after discovering the elevator was out of commission.

Cade wondered if Mira had made contact with the Autobots as they took the stairs two at time, Elaina right behind him and Bryce bringing up their six. Cade tried to regulate his breathing, but it was difficult amidst the pumping of his heart and the rush of blood in his head. His face was read, he was sweating in the muggy South American heat, and his legs burned as if fire had sank into his bones. The weapon in his hand was a heavy, foreign metal, and weighed on his shoulders as the make-shift strap dug into his muscle.

He pulled up short when he heard the distinct whump, whump, whump of chopper blades overhead. Immediately, Cade pressed himself against the wall, partially praying it would consume him entirely, with one ear listening for any indication of who the flying intruder would be. Then, the building rattled slightly as if it had taken on more weight, and Cade turned to look around Elaina's form to Bryce.

He nodded, flashed two finger's in a closed "V", and gestured farther down the hallway, simultaneously mouthing "go, go, go" as he tightened his grip on the weapon. Cade chewed on his bottom lip and was about to bolt for the daunting set of stairs when Elaina grabbed his arm and pulled out her cellphone, staying him from the action altogether. He paused and watched her unlock her device.

"Wait," she shushed, "It's…I dunno whose number this is," she passed her phone off to him; "It's not Mira – I texted her and told her we were here, but she hasn't responded. You recognize this?" She shrugged her shoulder and jerked her hair out of the way.

Cade grabbed her phone and wrinkled her brow – the number was unidentified, which concerned him. With the CIA and other government factions involved with this alien war operation, any unfamiliar numbers set them up between a rock and hard place. He considered busting the phone beneath his heel, but immediately forwent it – they needed outside communications with Mira and the Autobots, and not everyone had a flashy alien armor suit with built-in communications. They'd have to keep their eyes open for unwanted tails while watching for Drift.

Spiking a brow, he shook his head and handed the phone back to her. It certainly wasn't an Autobot message, either, because it was a phone number – not a line of code. Alarm blazed a trail of warning through his blood and kicked up the pulse in his ears.

He shrugged a shoulder, "I dunno," he waved it off and gestured with his head towards the stairs, "don't answer it. We don't have time to figure it out." It occurred to him that the CIA might be able to trace them, but he sighed and rolled his eyes to the ceiling in a dramatic manner. If it wasn't the CIA, it was Galvatron, or Lockdown, or prototypes – everyone was after them. He'd lost track.

Elaina beat him to the thought, however. "You think it's the government?"

Bryce guffawed. "At this point," he snorted, turning to check the flight of stairs below them for anyone who might have slipped into the building during their conversation. Once satisfied there was no one, he looked over his shoulder to finish his thought, "Lockdown has probably traced us and knows exactly where we are. He's been feeding the CIA this whole time – if we were trying to stay under the radar, well, we're not under it anymore." He pulled out his own phone when his pocket buzzed, "Bumblebee and Sides are right outside, waiting for orders. No 10/20 on Mira."

Elaina pocketed her phone again and sighed, raking her hand through her untressed hair. Cade took a moment to realize that Mira's friend wasn't all that unattractive – she was built a bit leaner than Mira herself, but not by a lot, and had dark skin attributed to her South American heritage. Raven hair finished off her features that touched just below the shoulders, and matched dark eyes. She, in a way, reminded him of Emily. Almost.

He was jerked from his observation when Bryce shouldered them forward, "Let's go," he said, pausing again to look at his phone. "Drift is upstairs, waiting." With a nod, Cade led them up the final flights of steps before they burst through the emergency exit door, to the roof.

A blast of hot, Colombian hair hit them, giving Cade pause. The sun was hot and blared down on the roof, bouncing off the metal air conditioning units and venting systems that riddled the roof. He shielded his eyes against the sun, scanning the perimeter in a complete three hundred and sixty degree turn as Bryce and Elaina jogged to the awaiting Autobot.

Drift slid open the chopper door with a loud bang, and produced Tessa first. She bolted off the chopper and rushed for her father, throwing her arms around his neck tightly. He held her as she sniffled against his shoulder, his hand rubbing her back reassuringly. She trembled, only slightly.

Bryce knelt to receive his nephew, who wrapped his arms tightly around the bigger man's neck. Bryce plucked him off the ground swiftly, the boy latching himself like a starfish around his Uncle, as Bryce turned to intercept Joshua, who was already rapidly gesturing and speaking to Elaina, pointing at the Seed.

Drift's holoform was crouching on the door of the chopper, one leg draped out of the vehicle. The other gripped the railing tightly, and gestured to the Seed when Cade turned and stepped into the conversation. His brow was wrinkled slightly as he observed Joshua from the corner of his eye.

"What's up?" Cade asked. It took a fraction of a second for him to notice that the Seed was beeping rhythmically, with a flashing red light pulsing with every beep. His stomach jumped into his throat before it sank down into his boots and his head snapped up to Joshua, who had paused his arguing.

It was deathly quiet on the rooftop between the parties – the only noise was the sounds of distant battle, and typical urban noises that filtered through cities. His brow spiked to attention over his eye. He swallowed back a breath, Tessa folding back into him. She turned her head to look away from the offending object.

Gesturing between himself and the Seed, he frowned. "What's this?" He demanded. Elaina nervously tucked her hair behind her ear and Bryce stepped away to begin conferring with Drift. It took him a fraction of a second to ask again, "Joshua – what's this?" He reached forward andg grabbed the man's jacket lapel.

The man threw his hands into the air, his face paling to a white that was almost as bright as paper. "I promise, I did nothing! It just started to – to beep!" He ran his hands down his face, raggedly, "I can't make it stop!"

Cade groaned, shouldering past the billionaire to stop in front of Drift, his hand folded tightly around Tessa's as he jerked her behind him. The Autobot samurai turned from his conversation to register Cade, who braced the Autobot gun against his wrist and nodded to the holoform.

"Drift," he inserted quickly, "You know what this is?" He nodded at the offending object.

He made a "so-so" gesture with his hand, and with the other, rubbed the back of the holoform's neck to quell nervous energy. "Not as well as Optimus does," he sighed, "but if my assumptions are correct, I believe the Seed has explosive tendencies –"

Tessa gasped and Cade's brows shot up, surprised. He felt as if a rock had been thrown at his chest and collided with his sternum. "What? Explosive tendencies? As in – a bomb?"

Drift put his hands out as if to placate the group of now frenzied humans into serenity, "I am not entirely sure – it could also be signaling location," he said quickly, "But as I said, I –" he turned his head when the console's chopper began to beep sporadically, in a quick fashion. Cade managed to maneuver past him for a quick look, and found the chopper's radar screen blinking.

The holoform dissipated immediately, then there were a few switches and buttons that were activated before Drift slammed the chopper's door closed. He continued, though didn't finish his initial thought, "Get to the ground floor!" He said loudly, his voice ringing out through the open window of the chopper's cockpit – "Get to the ground floor and rendezvous with Mira!"

Before he could lift off, however, there was a moment of peace from the glaring sun. For a moment Cade wondered if they'd gotten reprieve from a cloud passing by, but when it lingered and became a dark shadow that enclosed them, he turned to glance over his shoulder.

Tessa screamed, and clutched to his arm as Elaina bolted towards the edge of the complex's roof. Looking down and out, she leaned over the side and managed a lightning fast series of hang gestures. She turned to address the group, her hair whipping across her face – Cade was far too busy watching the sky to be concerned with what she had to say.

Because, right now, Lockdown's ship was hovering over the city, and it was coming right for them. He swallowed back the lump that had risen in his throat, and jerked to attention when Drift powered up his rotor and the chopper's blades began to spin furiously. In a matter of seconds, the Autobot lifted into the air and dropped below the skyline.

Elaina grabbed Cade's arm, and Cade was suddenly aware that Bryce was already trucking towards the stairwell, Merrick in his arms. Joshua had strapped the leather case and the Seed to his back and was not far behind the pair. When Elaina gestured with her head, Cade finally nodded and grabbed Tessa's hand.

She was sweating, and grabbed her cell phone to unlock a text message. "Sideswipe and Bumblebee are outside the building; looks like they've secured the block. We should be safe –" Her sentence was cut short when there was a sudden burst of air in the form of a gunshot that shot past them, riddling the A/C unit just to their left.

Elaina ducked, Tessa screamed, and Cade pummeled his daughter to the floor. When there were no other shots, Cade popped up on his haunches to look around – across the way, he could see the figure in a black trenchcoat and sunglasses staring at them. His heart kicked up a notch beside his adrenaline, which had already laced his body and numbed most of his extremities to primary functions, and squinted.

James Savoy was screaming at them, but between the rushing wind and the noise of Lockdown's alien vessel looming ever closer, it was impossible to hear him. But, Cade got the idea when Savoy began to look around and sum up the distance between their buildings – it may have been too far to jump, but it wasn't too far to shoot. He sank back down to the floor of the roof, and turned to Elaina and Tessa just as another shot rang out overhead.

The shots whizzed by them in a barrage, riddling the objects along the top of the roof and sending tufts of duty from the concrete down around their heads. It was getting difficult to breathe the particles in, but Cade pressed Tessa farther onto the roof beneath them to shield her. Elaina crouched low behind the ledge of the building, shielding her head, while Bryce flinched away and adjusted his grip on the weapon in his possession.

Cade gestured to Elaina across Tessa, who was cowering into him and trembling. "Get her downstairs!" he screamed over the wind. What once had been a slight breeze had picked up now, as the ship came closer; turbines and other thrusters making the wind almost unbearable. It stung his skin as his shirt's hem flapped around wildly. Elaina was having trouble moving her hair out of her face, as was Tessa, as the doctor reached for his daughter's hand.

Cade locked eyes with his daughter. "Get downstairs, to Bumblebee –"

Tessa started screaming, "No, Dad – I'm not leaving!" Her face was riddled with a mixture of shocked and angry tears as more shots rang over their heads and collided with various objects around them on the roof. The shots were growing shorter together and getting closer and more accurate, so he didn't have the time to argue with his seventeen year old, as much as the idea of leaving her killed him inside.

"It's okay, Tessa," He grabbed her by the back of her neck and pulled her into his chest, kissing her forehead, "I want you to go with Elaina, down to Bumblebee, and be safe –"

The shake of her head cut him off. "I want you to be safe!" She exclaimed, her voice tainted with anger, "You don't have to do this – this isn't your fight!" Everything in her voice wanted to make him believe his daughter was right, but as Cade stared into her face and realized he was thinking more about Mira and Optimus than his own future, he knew he couldn't abandon this battle. Their lives would never be the same if he backed down, now – he would forever live with the guilt of running while everything else around him was clawing for survival.

His gut rolled over as if it had been a sick dog, and he gave Tessa a slight grin and a nervous chuckle, "You're so much like your mother," and kissed her forehead again, before shoving her towards Elaina, "I love you. You're the best thing I ever made, Tess – remember that,"

"Dad, please – " she whimpered, reaching out for him, " – please come back," Elaina was pulling her away, across the floor in a low military-style crawl, her eyes forever cemented on the salvation of the door to the stairs.

Cade gave his girl a nod and a half smile that appeared more confident than it was. "Don't worry, kiddo – we'll get you to graduation yet," before he waved them off with a stern hand. He watched them go, lying across the floor, until they reached the door.

When they were away, Cade scanned over the gun, and swallowed back a nervous lump. The ship was getting closer – he could feel it coming through the vibrations racing through his body – and he was sweating more in its shadow now than he had been without the reprieve from the sun. He bit down on his lower lip, and finally when he rapped the apparatus above the trigger guard, the gun whirred to life and something clicked inside its mechanics. It was suddenly heavier, and warmer.

Popping up, he brought the gun to brace against his shoulder, and took aim across the expanse between the two buildings. Savoy was already bringing up his handgun when Cade was within firing range and muttered to himself under the din of the encroaching vessel.

He uttered under his breath venomously, "Come get some, robot killer," before he released a calming breath and felt the jitter from his hands fall away under the practiced cool of concentrated focus.


Mira could feel Optimus' spark-beat against the chest of the holoform – at first, it was always the steady and calm beat she remembered, but as his eyes scanned the sky and took in the severity of Lockdown's presence within the city's borders, it intensified. From his bi-pedal form behind them, she heard an obscure fan kick on as a growl rumbled through his chest, deeply.

He held her against him tightly, unaware that her adrenaline had kicked up a notch and leveled her head. The ache in her skull began to dissipate to a dull throb, and Mira was suddenly able to stand on her own two feet as she cleared notifications from the CAST system in her left eye. She watched the ship loom closer, aware that Drift's holoform was upon them.

Optimus pressed his holograph's hand to his ear, his other arm still wrapped around her shoulders. "Autobots – fall back, to these coordinates." immediately there was a notification blinking in Mira's eye, which she opened, and found the coordinates. Prime continued," Disengage, and protect the humans!"

He whirled on Mira immediately, his holographic heel crunching on the gravel beneath his boot. Taken by surprise, Mira bristled as he grabbed her shoulders and looked down into her face from his towering six foot tall holoform. His grip intensified. "Lockdown is here for me, Mira," he said warningly, "I need you to get the Seed out of the city before Galvatron –"

Something blinked in Mira's eye so rapidly that it made her head spin slightly. She staggered backward half a step, overcome by the intruding message, before she realized it wasn't a message at all – it was a transmission. Confused, she opened it, and the channel opened. Realizing no one else was included on the channel, she was bombarded with the following message – it was from an unmarked terminal in Lockdown's vessel.

Prove to me your stature with Optimus Prime and your wretched planet – bring me my Seed and face the day of reckoning.

Mira's stomach dropped and she tried to trace the sender's coordinates when she was suddenly hit with a sharp scream of white-noise in her ear as the signal jammed to a stop. Mira cried out, and dropped to a knee, this time Drift now beside her.

"Mira!" Overwhelmed with concern, Optimus' bi-pedal form approached them and he killed the holoform, "What is happening -?"

She extended a hand to stay his advance, shaking her head as her fingers bit into the concrete earth beneath her. The rough ground slid beneath her fingernails bitingly, but she didn't pay any mind to the pain in her body – only the pain in her brain. "No," she exclaimed, "it's – fine. A…transmission – " she lifted her head and screamed again as the sound intensified," – from Lockdown's…vessel,"

There was a piercing flash of what felt like jagged bolts of pain that shot across the back of her skull, and she shrieked again, this time giving both Autobots pause. She balled her hands at both of her temples and screamed as the noise intensified, her body rocking back and forth in an attempt to quell the searing pain. In an instant, the noise blinked out of existence as if it had never existed – there was no log or trace of the message in the system's internal memory banks.

Drift also extinguished his own, and Mira was left on the concrete as the helicopter broke apart a few yards away and transformed. Drawing his twin blades, Drift bypassed the pair of officers to scan the skies in a perimeter check. Optimus took a knee before Mira and extended his monstrous hand down to her. Mira craned her neck back to stare up at Optimus, and he flickered his optics at her; a concerned expression marring his features.

"What did the transmission say?" Optimus said as Mira gently crawled into the palm of his hand. He immediately stood to his full height, again looking to the skies where the vessel was slowly looming over the city, "And why did you receive a transmission when I did not? It's illogical."

Mira massaged her temple as Optimus beckoned Drift closer to their pair. "I'm not sure," she signaled the armor to do a sweep for any trace of the channel the transmission had originated from, but it can back negative on two counts. She wrinkled her brow in confusion, "but the transmission said for me to bring the Seed."

Prime's optic ridge lifted, almost immediately. He looked as if he would say something, but then refrained as Drift came up on them, slowing from his earth-shaking job. "Drift," he started, "the humans and the Seed are contained?"

Optimus turned to face his comrade fully now, who pointed with his blade in the direction of the apartment complex Mira had set as a rendezvous with Cade, Elaina, and Bryce. Drift nodded. "Yes, Sensei," he started, "they are currently safe, in that –"

Mira's communication linked buzzed, this time with a transmission from Bumblebee. "Mira, Boss – this is Bumblebee! The humans are taking fire –" he cut out momentarily, "looks like one of the guys from Cemetery Wind is here!"

Mira's eyes bolted to the complex building, which towered high into the sky as Lockdown's vessel approached it at a slow, menacing crawl. Her throat clamped closed and it felt as if her tongue had dropped into a raw, cold muscle in her mouth. Her heart began to bombard her ribcage to the point where her bones were almost rattling.

She gasped as she finished processing the transmission, which took only a fraction of a second after Bumblebee had closed the channel to keep it secure. "Cade, Bryce – Merrick!" She exclaimed, looking up to Optimus with a fearful, ghostly essence. She went to stand. "Optimus, I have to –"

Drift's optic ridges widened as if he just received the intel report, and he replaced his blades quickly before throwing himself into a transformation. He squealed off, leaving Optimus and Mira alone in the courtyard, and they watched him go for a fraction of moment before Optimus' optics darkened and his face fell into a cold, steely glare. He looked towards the building, and then nodded back at Mira.

"I understand," he nodded his confirmation again before he opened his hand fully, "we will secure the Seed, and our allies, before Lockdown can get to them." Prime knelt and Mira left his palm quickly, looking to the complex again as the vessel approached at a slow crawl.

Optimus added, this time into a transmission, "Autobots – converge on the building, and do not engage the vessel. Retrieve the humans. I am en-route." With nothing more than an authoritative look, he transformed into the Western Star, popped open a door, and beckoned Mira inside.

Once she was securely fastened in the cab and Optimus was moving towards the apartment complex, there was a still silence that overtook the air – a silence that promised a conversation, given a few moments of contemplation. Mira watched out the window, her fingers drumming against the window's ledge to her left, and glanced down at the moving instrument panel lit brightly with gauges and switches and buttons. The radio sparked to life a moment later.

"Your enhancements," Prime said, his voice a gentle quiet of sobriety, "they are the doing of the Shield."

Once the radio was quiet, Mira was able to nod and scrub her face with a hand before she looked to the implant on her wrist, and the engraved Autobot crest there. She ran her other thumb over it and covered it with her hand fully. She swallowed back a nod and looked back to the radio.

"Yes," she said, her voice not as clear and strong as she would've preferred, "they are." She drummed her finger on her knee and added quickly, "Something happened with the terminal aboard the ship, Optimus –there was a message. For me."

The radio immediately flickered to life and he asked, "A message? That is impossible, Mira. Where did it originate?" His tone was concerning, and the rearview angled sharply, where Mira saw her full reflection staring back at her, though she knew Optimus was studying her intently. The wheel turned gently in front of her.

Mira was suddenly unsure if she should tell Optimus of the events that had transpired aboard the ship with the Dinobots – she wasn't sure how her friend and the Autobot Commander would react. Given all that had happened thus far, Prime might take the information badly and fly off the handle. He did not, after all, seem appreciative of the new implants she'd acquired from the terminal.

But, he had given her the Shield – and with it, his trust and confidence. He deserved to know what had happened to her, as her guardian, friend, and CO. He deserved to know what had happened to the Shield of the Matrix of Leadership, and her capabilities. As his first officer and closest ally on this world, it had been vital that he knew sensitive pieces of intelligence during her days in NEST – Mira didn't really see how things had changed too much.

She reached up and tousled her curls with her fingers, only to rub the back of her neck in uncertainty. She felt a rush of heat explode onto her cheeks from her stomach, and when she glanced at the side-mirror through Prime's window, she saw that her face was red. She groaned, scrubbed her face with a hand, and clamped her jaw.

"Mira," Optimus said slowly, "please, tell me – there is no need for secrecy."

He was right. "The message was from Cybertron, Optimus – from Alpha Trion, your old mentor." She swallowed a shaky breath and flashed her wrist to the rearview mirror. "He told me about Orion Pax, and your people on Cybertron; their leaders – the Primes. He addressed me as the Countess of Iacon – he knew me, Optimus." After a pause, she added, "How did he know me?"

He was silent for a long moment, the engine beneath the semi's hood rumbling and sending small vibrations up through the floorboards to Mira's spine, again. She sent pensively, wondering what he was thinking, until the holoform suddenly began to materialize to her right, in the passenger's seat. Within moments, he was facing her, a pensive look of deep contemplation and disturbance on his face.

He looked up to meet her eyes. "It's been said that the Matrix imprints itself to those it resides within, and leaves a lasting impression – Prime's have been known to possess lasting connections with the Matrix and the Shield," he massaged his temple and sighed visibly, his shoulders shrugging forward, "Alpha Trion knew the Primes well – he guards the Covenant of Primus. It stands to reason he has a connection with the Matrix just as the Primes do. How and why, I am uncertain."

He reached across the seat to her hand, and turned her wrist up to run his thumb along the implants. "As you are the Keeper of the Shield," he continued, "and as we are bonded together by blood, I imagine that the Matrix has made this known to those who still reside within its scope of influence." He blinked his eyes, which were even more blue than Mira remembered, and he squeezed his hand, "There hasn't been a Countess of Iacon for generations. They were rumored to be mystical. I…you're sure he addressed you as the Countess?"

She nodded slowly, "Yes," she looked up to hold his gaze, "the Countess of Iacon is what he called me."

He released a slow exhale and nodded firmly, "Well, then – we will have to explore what that entails. I have not read much in the Archives about the Countess – there was only ever one to exist. Awestrike, who was the companion to Nexus Prime in the battle against Unicron. They led Cybertron for eons together." He quirked a brow, "It's been rumored on Cybertron that together they were one entity; that they had spark-bonded, and that is how the Countess was selected for the Prime's, though it has never been a certain fact."

Her brow quirked, and Mira's features visibly fell into a frown. She'd heard of spark-bonding before from Ratchet and had read of it in the Archives that Optimus had allowed her to access during their time in NEST. Spark-bonds were the Cybertronian equivalent of marriages, which made entirely no sense to Mira in their case. She had not spark-bonded with Optimus, to any knowledge of her own, but had imprinted to him during their guardianship. From her understanding, they were two different instances.

She quirked her brow again at him, her hand still resting in his own, where she noticed for the first time that his hand was tattooed with what she recognized as the language of the Primes. She bit her lower lip and looked up at him from their hands, and let out a shaky sigh before she inhaled a quick breath.

"Optimus," she said sternly, "we're not -?" she stopped her own statement before shaking her head, looking to the metal implant on her wrist again. She reached up to touch the implants along her left eye, which was still swimming with information. She focused her good eye on the holoform, who was staring pensively at her as she tried to reason through her mind entirely what he had said, "We're not…spark-bonded, are we?" She shook a hand, "I mean….we would know….?"

He put up a hand, nodding his understanding. "I do not believe that during our guardianship we were spark-bonded," he looked out the windshield to the complex, and the vessel, before looking back at her, "but it is entirely possible that the Matrix has made that assumption, given our closeness. It may have been interpreted by Alpha Trion differently than it was here – we cannot leave out that possibility."

She swallowed back a breath. "I – I don't know what to, what to say," she scrubbed her face with a hand, "Only that I –"

He stopped her mid-sentence, a small grin playing on his lips, and squeezed her hand reassuringly. Then, he reached across the seat and pressed his palm against her cheek, where his fingers gently considered her implants. His eyes looked over them carefully, looking regretful, until he released a heavy breath and looked back to her.

"There is nothing to be said," he said quietly, "we will figure this out together, Mira. That much I guarantee." He dropped his hand from her face when she nodded her understanding and gave him a small smile of reassurance.

Suddenly, the cab vibrated, and the panel to their right went haywire with a series of rapid, incoming beeps and energy signatures. Optimus braked hard, the tires of the Western Star locking entirely as they skidded to a halt. Mira braced against the door and felt the seat-belt release as the holoform gripped her wrist and pulled her toward him.

Before them, the corner of a building collapsed in on itself, and a window shattered to the sidewalk. The earth began to rumble and quake beneath them, rattling the windows and the instrument panel stretched out before her. Optimus kept a strong arm around her shoulder as Grimlock rampaged through the intersection in front them.

Mira gaped, and the monstrous Cybertronian creature took pause to glance at them. Optimus released the pressurized air from his braking system and rolled forward, as if nudging the being forward. Grimlock pawed at the earth, shook his head before letting out a loud growl and rushing away farther down the street. In his wake, what was left of the building crumbled to the street, and the earth crumbled in on itself in the form of massive, Cybertronian footprints.

Optimus was silent only for a moment. "The legendary warriors," he said reverently, staring after Grimlock, "they – they are alive," he sounded contemplative, as if trying to remember a distant memory, as the truck shifted into first gear and began driving again, quickly, "I did not think they had survived stasis."

Mira watched as the RPM spiked, but the semi didn't move. Prime didn't seem concerned. He had bypassed the truck's transmission with Cybertronian code to preserve it, instead fueling it with Energon and alien horsepower to settle the overworked system. She leaned forward again, watching Lockdown's ship; worrying about Merrick and Bryce, wondering about Cade and Elaina and Tessa. Concern flooded her about the Seed and the transmission, while confusion about the Dinobots circled around her brain in a wave of contemplation.

She nodded and glanced into the rearview, then back to the holoform. "They told me you had exiled them from Cybertron, back during the war," she inserted quietly, looking out the window in the direction the warrior had fled, "but I don't understand, Optimus – you'd never do that to innocent beings. Freedom is everyone's right." She wrinkled her brow, "That's what you've always said."

When he didn't respond after a good while, she added in a hushed awe, "You did exile them, didn't you?" She swallowed back a lump of disbelief, and held the attention of holoform, who stared at her with a ghostly reflective stare filled with regret and uncertainty. She sank back farther in the seat, awaiting her best friend's answer, and he released her.

He let out a heavy sigh, and the wheel turned right, the truck turning into the intersection quickly. She felt the tires pull slightly against the street, and the rumbling cab vibrated up her spine through her feet. She spun one of her curls around her finger nervously as Mira awaited his answer, unsure of what he'd say. When the holoform smoothly glided across the seat to her side, she felt a pinprick of nervous energy rush through her as the CAST system recognized the presence of the Matrix.

Optimus downshifted gears again. "It was a long time ago, Mira," he started quietly from beside her, "the war was escalating quickly, and our resources were depleting. They quickly were beginning to become unruly and disloyal the cause." He released another heavy sigh and ran his fingers through his holographic hair, "The Council decided it would be best to exile them from the planet, lest any more destruction befall Iacon. The task fell to me to dispel them – it, it was all so long ago; it is difficult to remember such grudges."

She nodded her understanding, slowly. Then, Mira interlaced her fingers and cracked her knuckles as if to outlet her nervous energy, sneaking another look up to the rearview mirror. She swallowed back a growing lump of disappointment in her comrade, but forced herself to understand his plight. It had not been his desire to exile the warriors, but those of his superiors – and as she stared at him from the corner of her eye, she could see his deep regret.

As if reading her thoughts, he added in a somber whisper, "If I would have had my way, things would've been handled differently." After that, he dropped the conversation as he shifted gears once more, this time bringing up the See-All screen. "The safest place to take the Seed is back into the United States," he said, pointing to the screen, "From there we will decide what to do with it. It is approximately three thousand miles from this city's capital, to Dallas." The See-All illuminated a map showing the two destination points.

Mira's brow wrinkled, sensing the shift in conversation. "What about Galvatron? And Lockdown?" She gestured with a hand to the ship out the window, and she cocked a brow to the rearview again before looking down at the radio. "We can't just let them tear the continent apart. They'll follow us – to Dallas, Bogota, anywhere."

He seemed to take this into consideration, and he scrubbed his face with a hand. "I will handle Lockdown. Galvatron, for now, is not our primary concern, as we are unable to trace his whereabouts. Until the time is right, I must focus my efforts on Lockdown – for if he is allowed to leave this planet, a greater threat will return." He added bitingly, "For now, we must –"

He was cut off sharply when there was a high-pitched, mechanical whine that blasted across the air. It bit through Mira's ears and her implants, and she squealed and clamped her hands over her ears to quell the noise. However, it passed right through to rattle her eardrums and shake the implants into a static, white-noise uselessness.

Optimus braked hard again, cried out, and came to a halt in the middle of the street not two blocks from the apartment complex. Mira opened her eyes to stare at the vessel, to find that a massive hatch had opened beneath it to reveal some type of thruster. Her eyes widened as she watched the ship hover – and as it stood stationary, the sky became littered with debris and other objects in a radius as it lifted off the ground.

The shrill shrieking stopped, and Mira dropped her hands from her ears to stare out the window. When the holoform beside her didn't move, she quickly maneuvered herself out of the cab and dropped onto the street. Immediately she could feel the pull upward, and suddenly her left arm lifted off the ground. She yanked it back down, only to feel it lift again in a strong pull, and she looked back up to the vessel – objects from every direction were lifted.

Suddenly, the semi beside her began to skid across the street. Mira scrambled away as she listened to Optimus fight the urge, and she snapped her head back up to Lockdown's vessel in the sky. It clicked in her mind immediately as she resisted her own urge to pull upward. She began backpedaling, quickly.

"It's a magnet!" She opened a channel and screamed it into the line, "Fall back, fall back! It's a magnet!" She was pulled forward, her feet almost off the ground, when suddenly she felt the earth pounding with vibrations and heard the movement of air behind her.

She craned her neck, to find that a series of cars were launching right in their direction. Mira screamed, and tried to drop to her knees – instead, her body relaxed for half an instant and she was plucked upward. Panic began to lace her veins and she glanced down at Optimus' form, which was still skidding down the street in an urge to resist the magnetic pull. His tires were smoking as they squealed and spun against the street, his stacks smoking with dark black smoke.

"Optimus!" She screamed down, watching as other objects and debris around her lifted into the sky. He was making small ground in his reverse trek, and as she lifted farther off the ground, she screamed again, "Prime!"

Before she could think, the tension left the air as if it had been cut off with a knife – and gravity claimed her once again. Immediately, she was pulled back down the earth, among the other objects of debris around her that crashed into a myriad of buildings and wreaked chaos. Buildings began to crack and shake as cars and other pieces of architecture crashed back down into the earth around her. Mira screamed again and went to activate the CAST system before she could hit the earth –

-and instead, she collided with something metallic still forty some feet off the ground. Once her world had stopped tumbling end over end and her sight was filled with the vision the looming spacecraft, she was able to process fully that Optimus had caught her in his hand. Her stomach began to settle as bolted upright, almost immediately.

"Merrick!" She exclaimed, looking towards the building. Strafe, the flying creature, soared by quickly with what looked like Bumblebee on his on wing, who waved to them as he passed. Almost immediately calls began to flood into her open channel from the Autobots, all confused and overwhelmed with the new development.

Mira looked back to Optimus, "Do you think it's over?"

Optimus gave her what appeared to be a flat look. "No, I do not. We must find away aboard that vessel too –" He paused and his optic ridges fell into a sneering glare, as he focused his attention on the ship overhead. "-Lockdown. He's aboard the ship," he paused again and then flickered his optic ridges, "and it appears that he is not alone this time."

Mira jerked her attention back up to the ship. "Galvatron," she spat venomously, turning to look at Optimus over her shoulder. "What do you want to do?"

He looked back at her. "It is likely Galvatron will follow the Seed. I want to get you back to our allies and connect with Sideswipe and Bumblebee, to bring the Seed out of the city," He then snarled a breath, "when I deal with Lockdown. If we can keep Galvatron chasing after us and stay two steps ahead, we stand a better chance apart."

She nodded her understanding. "Alright then. Let's roll."