Wound

"Going to a gig on the hunt for two Russian cosmonauts. Nothing like driving in a Maybach, eh?"

Terra rode in the back with Sam and stared at him sympathetically. So far, he had been upset about the argument he had gotten into with Carly upon leaving the loft. When he told her about it, she placed a hand on his shoulder.

"She needs time." she said.

Sam sighed. "Maybe."

"Human emotions still remain a mystery to me." Terra replied, glancing ahead of her.

Sam frowned a little. "How do you explain you and Ironhide then?"

"I care for him. There are positive sensations from the Autobot that I do experience."

"Come on. Don't bullshit."

Terra looked down at Sam. "Science proves many things, Sam. But it fails to explain affection."

"Some things don't need to be explained, you know. You just feel right with that person. That's it."

Terra was silent, obviously contemplating this.

"Germans know how to make cars, let me tell you." Simmons piped up, turning their attention ahead of them. "My Dutchman, former NSA cybersleuth extraordinaire, tracked them down.. here."

They stopped in front of a building and Simmons took out a pair of binoculars. He was watching a man with two women under his arm enter the building.

"So, these cosmonauts went into hiding. Why?" Simmons questioned.

Dutch smiled triumphantly down at his laptop. "Bingo. I got a match."

"You're a German Shepherd, Dutch." Simmons praised.

The four entered the building and approached a door with a small shutter.

"The thing about Russians is, they never like to talk," Simmons told the others, as if it was big news, "It's gonna take a little of the international language."

Terra smiled a little. "That isn't true."

Simmons gave her a look and knocked on the door. The shutter opened and a pair of eyes glared back at them. It was the bouncer.

"Do svidaniya." Simmons said.

"That means good-bye." The bouncer snapped. The shutter closed.

"Let me try." Terra suggested, taking a handful of money from her pocket.

Sam's eyes widened at the sight.

Terra knocked on the door and the shutter opened again. She smiled at the man pleasantly. "Zdravstvuyte . My khoteli by ... prosto pogovorit' (Hello. We would like to...simply talk)." she told him, "My gotovy platit' za vozmozhnost' (We are willing to pay for the opportunity)."

The bouncer hesitated before he took the wad of offered cash.

"Spasibo (Thank you)." Terra told him.

The door opened and the four entered. They observed several people sitting at a bar, having drinks and talking in Russian. Most of them didn't exactly look thrilled to see the four. The bouncer led them to a man sitting at the table with the two women. Terra informed the others of "Dmitri" and "Yuri". Their threat level was currently at a seven and it made her tense.

"Stay loose." the bouncer told them.

Simmons smiled at Dutch. "Hey Terra, give me something tough."

Terra started to speak, but Dutch interrupted her.

"I have a book!" he said.

Terra gestured calmly for him to proceed. "Very well."

"Ah..." Dutch paged through his small handheld book of English-Russian. "B- baryshnikov."

Terra looked at him, confused. "Profiteers?"

Dimitri frowned at the sight. "We do speak English."

"Dutch, you suck." Simmons snapped at the other man.

"It's a Cyrillic... alphabet!" Dutch insisted, pointing at his book. "It's like all the buttons you never push on a calculator! I don't suck..."

Terra smiled at him. "It was a good effort."

They stepped to the bar so that Simmons and Sam could talk with the cosmonauts.

"Agent Seymour Simmons, Sector Eight, formerly Seven," Simmons introduced. "We know who you are, cosmonaut."

Yuri scoffed. "So what?"

Simmons smiled a little. "You were supposed to travel to the dark side of the moon, then... Tch, it all got shut down. The question is, why?"

A Russian woman beside the men began speaking in her native tongue and she sounded agitated. At the bar, the tender also looked at Dutch and Terra with anger and drew out a shotgun, pointing it at them. Dmitri did the same and leveled a handgun in Simmons' face.

"Ahh- okay, all right, okay." Sam stammered.

Simmons wasn't the least bit terrified. "Go ahead, shoot me. I'm willing to die for my country. Are you?"

Terra glared at the bartender. "YA by podavil eto, yesli ya vam (I would put that down if I were you)."

But the bartender did not and Terra grabbed her arm, slamming her head into the counter. Dutch let loose as well, swinging on two other Russians who charged with weapons. Sam held out two hands and Dutch aimed the guns he had taken from the charging Russians at them.

"Whoa!" he cried. He glared at Simmons. "Control your boy!"

"Control your girl!" Simmons yelled back.

Sam looked at all of them insistently. "Okay, let's everybody just calm down, let's lower the heat, lower the guns, let's relax." he encouraged. "World War Two is over."

Dutch dropped his guns and Terra eventually released the bartender in her merciless grip.

Dimitri let out a sigh and lowered his weapon.

oOo

Dimitri and Yuri led the four into a basement and gathered folders from the shelves. Yuri helped collect some boxes filled with photos.

"You are about to see one of the biggest Soviet secrets," Dimitri told them. "America first to send man to the moon. But USSR first to send camera. In 1959, our Luna Three take picture of the... dark, the shadow side. Sees nothing. But in 1963, Luna Four sees-"

"Strange rocks." Yuri finished.

Dimitri gave him a look, but nodded. "Yeah."

They laid out the photos for the others to see, showing them the snapshots the Luna Four had taken. Sure enough, they bore a resemblance to the pillars Sentinel had informed everyone at NEST about, neatly stacked in pyramids. Terra's brow knotted thoughtfully. Simmons looked mildly concerned.

"Around the ship. Hundreds of them." Yuri continued.

Dimitri nodded and gestured to the drag marks around them. "With some... drag marks."

Sam shook his head. "I've seen these. These aren't rocks, these are pillars," he explained, to the Russians. "Alien pillars for a space bridge. We know about them because the Autobots have five of these."

"Decepticons must have raided the ship before Apollo Eleven ever got there, took the pillars, and hid them." Simmons replied, frowning.

Sam looked at him. "It doesn't make sense. The Decepticons have the ship. They have all those pillars," he pointed out. He looked up at Terra, who also seemed to be trying to work it out in her head. "Why would they leave Sentinel when he's the only one who can use them?"

"He's the one thing they still need." she said.

Sam stood up. "We've got to meet up with Sentinel, rendezvous with him and keep him safe."

Terra and the others followed him as he quickly rushed out of the basement, into the bar and finally outside.

"I do not fear for Sentinel Prime." Terra told them, as they gathered themselves into Simmons' car.

Sam started to go to Bumblebee, but stopped and frowned at her. "Why?" he asked. "He could be in danger. Decepticons are going to find him!"

Terra made a face, but reluctantly nodded. "That is true. Perhaps we should hurry then."

Simmons had caught the look.

Later, they rode down the D.C. Parkway. Terra traveled with Simmons and Dutch to inform them of the situation. She sat in the back seat with him while Dutch drove. Eventually, Sentinel had joined them and Terra observed the sight of the bot from a distance in his vehicle form. Her lips pursed.

"So...what's the deal with you and this Sentinel?" Simmons asked her.

"What?" Terra looked surprised by the question.

"I guess you ain't too fond of the guy," Simmons replied, shrugging his shoulders. "See, in my experience, the ladies tend to show a lot in just a few face gestures. Like... if a girl's not that into a guy, she has this 'excuse game' she plays."

"I can assure you, there is no 'game' I'm playing..."

Simmons arched a brow. "Okay. Well, when you're in the mood to talk, I'm here to listen."

Terra suddenly looked over her shoulder and noticed three black Suburbans tailing them.

"We have company." she said.

The vehicles suddenly transformed, taking on the Decepticon shapes of Crowbar, Dreads and Hatchet. Terra had quickly analyzed their every detail via her goggles, but she had no time to study further as Crowbar reached for Simmons, letting out a monstrous roar before tossing him from the cab of the vehicle.

Simmons screamed the entire time and Terra quickly jumped from the vehicle to assist him.

"Oh God..." Simmons groaned, lying on his back.

Terra leaned over him, studying his damages. "Simmons, you have a broken leg." she said.

Simmons groaned.

"Nice. And what else?" he muttered.

"Possibly a mild concussion."

"Fantastic. Help me up."

oOo

"Move! Keep moving!"

Sam and Lennox quickly met up through the facility.

"We got Decepticons everywhere!" Sam cried.

"I've got my whole team deployed looking for them." Lennox assured him. He looked up at Ironhide. "Ironhide! Protect Sentinel. Get him locked up inside."

Ironhide nodded. "Consider it done!"

"Hey, you've got to guard him, 'cause he's the key to the whole thing." Sam told the Autobot.

Sentinel turned, smiling at them all. "Indeed I am," he said, his vocals taking on a darker note. "What you must realize, my Autobot brothers, is we were never going to win the war. For the sake of our planet's survival, a deal had to be made..." A smirk lit his lips. "...with Megatron."

With that, he drew out his cannon and took a shot at Ironhide. The blast tore through his chest and back so quick, he had no time to retaliate.

Screams erupted from the humans and they backed away.

"Get back!" lennox shouted.

From the hangar, Terra stood, frozen in horror as she watched Ironhide's body slowly crumbling to rust.

Ironhide choked, staring down at his hand as green fluid spurted from his lips. "What have you-done -" he choked.

Sentinel glared coldly down at him. "I hereby discharge you from duty."

Ironhide could see Terra standing there and he let out a groan. "No - "

Sentinel took another shot, obliterating the Autobot's chest into nothing more than rusted metal and tattered wires. NEST soldiers and Autobots scrambled to avoid Sentinel as he literally rampaged throughout the facility, but Terra didn't even hear them. It was as if the world had shut off around her.

"Take cover!"

"Watch left! Watch left!"

"Oh- hell no-"

Terra slowly removed her goggles, shaking her head as if she couldn't fathom what she saw. Ironhide reached out to her before he was reduced to nothing more than a pile of rust.

Sam, Lennox and several NEST soldiers rushed to find their comrades and saw Terra standing there.

"Terra, oh shit..." Sam gasped.

Terra slowly fell to her knees and reached out with one hand, digging into the ash. She didn't notice those circling her, the sounds of their warnings to leave. The sounds she began to make were wounded, terrible noises that Sam had never heard her utter before since knowing her.

"Terra, we need to go!" Lennox ordered.

Terra uttered a choking groan before glaring off into the distance. There was no logic in her gaze, no calm response. Her body shook and it almost looked like she was choking. What she uttered next was a terrifying animal howl of rage and pain that felt as though it echoed throughout the city walls.