Chapter 9-

"It's... It's nothing Optimus. Just never mind." I try to convince him but it fails miserably. He is still worried. Dang it, why won't he stop? He looks in their direction to see what I'm looking at. I move to stop him but it again fails.

"Is it those two men over there?" He asked pointing to the cause of my secret problem who was staring at me.

"No. I don't know them." My breath quickens, to my dismay, as I try to fool him. It gives me away immediately.

"Love, you are a horrible liar at times. Look, why don't I go see what they want? That way you won't have anything to worry about." He smiled at me as he stood, comfortingly placing his hand on my shoulder as he walks toward them.

"No please don't." My whisper is lost in the noise of the crowd. In the corner of my eye I see the others looking at me trying to find out what's going on but I ignore them and follow Optimus. Now is not the time for me to be standing by myself. Even if the alternative is going by those two.

I quickly catch up to him and latch on to his arm. He moves so he has his arms wrapped about me and I hold tight. We grew nearer to them and they begin moving toward us. I keep my eyes averted. Soon they are right in front of us.

"Is there a problem here gentlemen?" Optimus asked calmly.

"There's no problem. I'm just looking for my daughter. And thanks to you I've found her." He gives his fake smile. Optimus leaned down to whisper in my ear.

"This is your father?" He kept his volume low. So only I can hear him.

"Yes. The other one is my brother." I nodded in affirmation. He turned back my family.

"Excuse me sir but why are you looking for her?" He asks staring him in the eyes. I shudder mentally. He doesn't need to know that. Not yet anyways.

"Just call me Zeke. And this is my son Kierz. Why, she ran away from us not long ago. What kind of father would I be if I wasn't concerned from my daughter?" My grip on him tightened as my father spoke. Like he actually cared about what happened to me. I leaned up to whisper in Optimus's ear.

"Can we get out of here, please? I really don't want to see them right now." I pleaded with him. He looked down at me questioning me with his deep blue eyes. "I'll explain everything to you on the way back." I sighed in defeat. There was no way I was going to keep this from him.

"Alright," He turned back to them. "We'll be going now. There is no need to continue anything. Your daughter is perfectly fine." My father glared at us as we walked away.

His arms still wrapped about me we walked back over to Sam, Mikaela and Bee. "We're headed back to base. Anna has some explaining to do. Are you staying here?" Optimus asked the three.

"Nah, we'll follow you." Responded Sam. We all headed back to their alts with all of our purchases.

"Thank you Optimus. Now, I assume you want that explanation, eh?" I asked him quietly once we were on our way. I really didn't want to do this but I knew I had to, if only to him.

"Yes, I do. I don't enjoy watching you when you are that frightened. And I can't do anything about it if I don't know what it is." He looked calmly into my eyes and I just couldn't help myself. I leaned forward and wrapped him in a tight hug.

"Thank you so much. You don't know what this means to me." I knew now that I need to tell him.

"For what, Anna?" he looked at me curiously.

"For being you and being there for me. The only one other than Sam that's given a rat's ass about me was my mother." I looked downward at the thought of her. I missed her so much. It wasn't right what happened to her or me.

"Tell me what happened." He said simply. He was right. I couldn't beat around the bush any longer.

"It's been going on for a while now. My dad isn't a good man. He did things to me and my mother. When we moved to New York last summer things got even worse. My brother started joining in and things escalated too quickly." My voice broke and I had to pause. It was hard for me to remember everything. All the things they put my mother and I through.

Optimus thought I was slowing so he prompted me, "What did he do to you?" His face was radiating concern for me; I had no choice but to continue.

"He used to…" I wasn't able to continue as we were sideswiped off the road. Behind us Bee swerved to avoid getting hit as well. Optimus shut off his holoform so he could concentrate on the road and getting us straightened out. Unfortunately that didn't work so well and we crashed into the ditch on the side of the road. I poke my head out the window to see who had hit us. I wish I hadn't because it was my father in his rusty, old, red Ford.

"Anna, baby, come here to daddy. We need to talk." My father called to me and I shrunk back into Optimus's seats. There was no way in all the seven hells I was going to go anywhere near him. But then I heard the gentle baritone voice of my love.

(Optimus's POV)

"Anna, my love I need you to get out. We have a situation." I tried to keep my voice as calm as possible. The situation had just gotten twenty times worse. My sensors had just informed me of another unwelcome guest, actually make that three. Starscream and his trine were flying overhead and were headed this way. I knew she didn't want to but I needed to transform, regardless of her father.

"Alright. What's going on?" She slid toward the driver's side door away from her father. Her heart rate was erratic and I knew deep down that nothing was going to go my way.

"Decepticons." I told her simply. That simply made it even worse, and my spark ached for her as she hurried out and off to the side. I was on my own for a while as I had told Bee to continue with Sam and Mikaela and get them to safety. As soon as she was clear I transformed and not a moment too soon. Starscream had just landed not ten yards in front of me.

"Ha, the great Prime caught out with his little human. Megatron will just love this." Starscream drolled on in mockery. I glanced behind to see Annalina already running in the other direction, far away from the battle that was about to ensue.

"Starscream, this battle is uneven. Surely even you should want some sort of sporting chance for all in a battle." I glared at him. He was about to make a comment when I continued. "Perhaps you should call some more reinforcements."

He glared at me and with a roar of anger, charged at me for all he was worth. I met him dead on and the clashing of metal went ringing through the air. I jabbed my fist towards his face and felt it connect as I swung my torso around to face the other two. Thundercracker stood slightly off to the side as he raised his cannon and let out two rounds. Anticipating this, I used my leverage and swung Starscream straight into the ammo's path. Releasing the SIC, I was knocked forward by Skywarp as he suddenly appeared behind me. They were trying to keep me on the defensive because they knew they were outmatched, but I wasn't going to fall for that. I let out a battle cry and lunged at Thundercracker, catching him unawares. I gave him an uppercut to the face and not him backwards. At the same time, my left leg swung up to connect with Skywarp's upper torso. Starscream finally got up with several holes in his chassis. He was leaking heavily and sparks were everywhere.

"Skywarp, Thundercracker, retreat!" Starscream shouted loudly as he shot off into the air. "You may have won this round, Prime. But mark my words, Megatron will have the female and there is nothing you can do to stop him!" He transformed with his trine and left with a bang. With them out of the way, my priority was finding Annalina. Who knows what could have happened while I was preoccupied with Starscream.

AN- Yes I know that this is really irritating but I've become severely irritated with this chapter. Part 2 will be up in the next few days or so detailing what happened to Anna while Prime was otherwise engaged. I am really sorry for doing this.

On a side note, I finally got my Decepticon insignia necklace to go with my autobot one, which hasn't come off since I got it. YAY!

So review and yell at me. I honestly have it coming this time.