AN-Okay so here it is. Took a bit longer that i had expected. Dang chapter kept acting difficult. So anyway this chappie is a little different. We're gonna play a game this chapter. I have four references marked out. The first person to correctly name the four thing i am refering to wins a one shot of their choice and/or previews of chapter before i post them.

And if you feel so complied please check out my other stories as well, including my newest one shot. The opinions are always appreciated :)

Review and Good luck! :)

Chapter 13-

We arrived at the base in silence. Neither of us had really wanted to talk, knowing it would bring up Sam's betrayal. I slipped out of Bee's alt mode and walked up to my mech friend, I guess you could call him.

"Hey, Optimus. We got the shard." His optics locked on to mine.

"Annalina, it's good to have you back at base. May I have the shard?" he knelt down to my level. I reached into my pocket and fished out the tube Sam had put the shard in. I looked at it carefully before placing it in his out stretched hand.

"I can't believe Sam did that." I said dejectedly.

"It's going to be fine, Anna. Sam has the right to his own decisions, and if this is his choice then so be it. I, too, wish it could be different." He placed his finger on my cheek in a comforting gesture. I smiled at him knowing he was trying to comfort me as best he could.

"Hey Bee." I turned to the scout. "I'll be staying on base for a while now, so why don't we start my stay by hanging in the rec room?" I needed to get his processor off it just as much as my own mind. I jumped onto his hand and waved bye to Optimus as the two of us walked away. The short walk would have been great had we not ran into someone unfamiliar on the way. Bee replaced me on the ground so I could speak freely with the man.

"Who are you?" I ask straight out.

He gives me a long look before responding. "I am Director Galloway, NEST's new government liaison. Better question being who are you and why are you on this base. This is no place for civilians."

"I have direct orders from Optimus Prime to be here for my own protection. My name is Annalina. Are you always this… well rude?" I couldn't help myself. The man just screamed 'I am better than you' and it just got on my nerves.

"You have no right to be here. I don't care what that tin can said. If I have my way they won't be here much longer any way." He sneered at me. I glanced up to see Bumblebee glaring at the small man. And against my better judgment, I decided to walk away. There was no need to stir up trouble when the Cons were causing enough as is. "I might just be able to convince the government to simply take them apart to find their secrets. Starting with the big one." That was the last straw for me.

"Never threaten my family." I whispered lowly as I whipped back around and nailed him right between the eyes, sending him sprawling on the floor. I stepped briskly back to Bee and we continued on to the rec room. We walked through the doors and headed over to where Ironhide was conversing with Sideswipe. Bee set me down on the table and I moved to inspect my hand. It stung a little from its contact with the idiot's hard head.

"What happened, Anna?" Ironhide inquired when he saw my actions.

"Ugh…well we ran into Galloway." I began slowly not wanting to really explain.

"That is one lousy excuse for a human." Sideswipe interjected.

"No kidding. He obviously has no sense of self-preservation going against Optimus like he did." Ironhide was none to impressed with the man. "But that doesn't explain why you are inspecting your hand."

"Well, he started insulting you guys and made to threaten Optimus. And well… I lost control of my temper and decked him." I cast my green eyes down in shame for a moment but then raised them again when Ironhide spoke again.

"Optimus won't be too happy about this." He stared me down, getting across his message quite easily.

"Yeah, well, rule 18: better to seek forgiveness than ask permission*." Both he and Bee rolled their optics at my response while Sides chuckled lightly. "Come on, let's do something interesting." I suggested and we went off immediately.

Several strange games later, the four of us decided to split ways. I went with Ironhide to try and track down Prime. I would have thought that he would have already found me at this point but I guess I was wrong. Then suddenly Ironhide picks up his pace and we're running toward the control room.

"What's going on?" I question worriedly. Ironhide places me next to Lennox and starts talking with the other autobots in cybertronian. I turn to Lennox and ask again.

"Sam and Mikaela were kidnapped by the cons." He says simply. My eyes widened and I looked up at the mechs. What were we going to do? Suddenly Optimus addresses me.

"Annalina, I need you to remain here while we rescue Sam and Mikaela. With not only contact with the Allspark making you a target but a earlier warning about the fallen, I cannot put you in any more danger." He commanded seriously.

"I understand Optimus. I shouldn't be interfering with such an important task" I smiled at him, trying to assure him that I would be fine here at base. There was a nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach that told me I was dead wrong. I choose not to mention this to my already stressed mech. He returned my smile and addressed his men.

"Alright Autobots, roll out." Optimus, Ironhide, Bee, and Ratchet all transformed and left the hangar. Sighing, I returned my attention to the major. He looked like he was torn between wanting to follow them and do what he had to do here.

"Hey, Will, maybe we should focus on something else…" I would have continued had not something shiny caught my attention. I let my body move towards it seemingly of its own accord. When I reached the object, I looked to discover it was the all spark shard I had given Optimus earlier. It must have fallen out of the tube Sam had put it in. I stared at it for a minute pondering what my next move should be. Finally I decided to pick it up. It was too important to just leave lying around. As soon as I touched it, it felt like I had an encyclopedia shoved into my brain. Symbols flashed before my eyes and then just as quickly as they were there they were gone. "Or not." Lennox was up behind me now.

"Are you okay?" he sounded concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine. But you know, I was thinking. Maybe we should follow them, give a little assist if they need it." I had that devious look in my eyes, and apparently it caught the attention of the minor twins from across the hangar.

"Wat you two gots goin' on ova her?" Skids asked in his ridiculous accent.

"I'm gonna follow them, just in case. Help me out?" It was only a small lie. I knew why I wanted to go but they didn't need to.

"Yeah we help you out girlie. Prime's not gonna be too thrilled wif us tho." Mudflap was the one to answer.

Lennox suddenly had a question, "wait a minute, I thought you agreed that you shouldn't help on this."

I laughed a little at this, "I agreed I shouldn't help. Didn't say I wouldn't*." Will shook his head at my antics and I got into Skids now green alt mode. We had a ways to go to catch up.

We drove in silence for most of the trip, much like Bee and I had on the way here. It seemed like forever had past when we suddenly saw Sam and Mikaela running in a section of wood s by the highway. We drove toward them and let them slip in the back seat of Skid's alt. Skids picked up speed as we drove away trying to shed ourselves of the battle we knew to be raging. I turned to see if the two of them were okay only to catch a glimpse of Bumblebee following us.

"You guys okay?" I give both a quick look over for any injuries.

"Oh my gosh, I am sooo happy to see you, Anna. I friggin love you right now." Sam was fanatically happy with me and it was kind of funny. Neither seemed to be any worse for wear, so I allowed myself a silly reply.

"Hey Sam watch it. All we gotta do is just be friends. It's time to say goodbye to the cons.*" He laughed at me, which was good. I knew what it was like to be in their nasty clutches. "So what happened?" I was curious to know what had transpired in the past hours since I last saw him.

"Well, not long after you left a con showed up looking for that shard. We told him we didn't have it but he took us anyway. Turns out his name was Soundwave. Megatron was creepy but I don't think anyone is surprised by this. Apparently they wanted the information that was on the shard. But I don't know what it was. It didn't get much further than that because the autobots showed up." Sam explained it to me as well as he could. That made sense that they would want the info.

"I know what they want Sam. I touched the shard trying to get it out of the way and crap tons of info got like downloaded into my brain. They are looking for the Matrix to power the star harvester." I still wasn't sure myself how I could understand the mess that it all was. I chalked it up to my brain having its own version of Google Translate.

"Do you think Optimus and the others are gonna be okay?" Mikaela asked me. I was concerned for their wellbeing as well but knew they would be fine. I told her as much.

"Miks, they'll be fine. I mean he's Prime, Optimus Prime*. He can take whatever they can dish out and more. And heck they have Ironhide, who I swear is the proverbial immovable object." Everyone laughed at that, including the autobots we were with. "So Sam, we are gonna need some assistance with getting to our destination. And you know where we are going to find it?"

"What destination? And no I don't." Sam spat out quickly.

"We are going to find the matrix before the cons do and we are going to go find the only man on earth who could be of any help to us." I smiled at the thought.

"Who?" Mikaela this time.

"Simmons."