Chapter 4: Why Are My Clothes Wet?

Barricade POV

I watched as she ran into the trees surrounding the field with a heavy spark. I didn't want to let her go off on her own, but I couldn't have her stay in the field. Now all she has to do is listen to me and hide. I could always hope….

Yeah, right. What was I thinking? She doesn't ever listen.

I sighed and turned back to face the four Autobots driving towards me.

When they stopped, I turned off my holoform and transformed so I could face them.

A few seconds after I had, they transformed. I recognized the Autobot leader, Optimus Prime, the black weapon specialist, Ironhide, and the gold and silver twins, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe.

Just my luck. They bring the weapons specialist with a temper who could've possibly gotten close to Nicole when she was younger, and a temperamental twin. Yes, I've heard of his anger issues.

Fanfraggintastic.

Prime spoke after a few seconds of silence. "Where is she, Barricade?"

I answered with what I hoped was a guarded expression and with some contempt in my voice. "Who? You Autobot scums must've finally overloaded your processors."

So fast that I wasn't prepared, Ironhide lunged at me and pinned me to the ground, with his cannons shoved in my face.

"You know who we're talking about, you glitch! You've probably handed her off to your Decepticon buddies by now! If she's harmed in anyway-" e was cut off as we heard the sound of a jet nearby. Three jets to be exact.

The weapons specialist looked away from me as Starscream and his two trinemates, Thundercracker and Skywarp, landed a few hundred yards away.

Ironhide leaped off me and pointed his cannons at the three Seekers and the other Autobots took on fighting stances as well.

Starscream laughed, a horrid noise that sounded like he had what the humans called a cough. "Did the Autobots finally catch up to you, traitor?"

I growled and hauled myself back to my pedes. "Still haven't got your vocalizer fixed yet, Starscream? Oh wait, that's the way its supposed to be, isn't it?"

Starscream growled, and Skywarp, the insane mech he was, laughed out loud.

"Shut up, idiot!" Starscream snapped.

The Autobots watched us in confusion. Even Prime didn't try to hide his confusion.

"So where is she, hmm, Barricade? Or have you already lost her to the Autobots, and they were about to finish you off?" Starscream asked, pointing his null rays and missiles at me and the Autobots. Thundercracker and Skywarp did the same, following the example of their trineleader.

"So, wait, you don't have Nicole?" asked the silver twin, Sideswipe, with a confused expression on his faceplates.

"If we had the squishy, we wouldn't be here would we?" snapped Thundercracker, who sounded impatient.

Starscream growled. "Neither of you have the squishy, do you? Skywarp, search the forest."

As soon as he had finished the order, Skywarp was gone in a rush of air.

Prime must've commed the twins to attack Starscream and Thundercracker, because they lunged at them while the Autobot leader and weapons specialist darted towards the forest.

But everything seemed to freeze as we heard a crash come from the treeline.

And then I heard the scream.

A human femme scream.

Quicker than I thought I could, I took off running towards the trees. I could make out the shape of Skywarp standing in the exact same place where Nicole had vanished. I started praying to Primus that he hadn't landed on her.

I felt slightly better when Skywarp started running inwards through the trees. I barely noticed the pounding footsteps behind me as I entered the trees, and I surely didn't turn around to see who it was.

I focused all my energy on keeping up with Skywarp, because if he was running, then that meant Nicole was running.

Frag that girl! Why hadn't she run?

A little voice at the back of my processor whispered to me. 'Because you never told her the truth. She didn't know what to expect.'

I pushed it away angrily, but guiltily. It was true. If I had told her the truth, maybe she would've run. Maybe…

Then I realized that Skywarp had stopped.

I slowed, but I could still hear the pounding behind me. I slowed to a walk, and then came to a complete stop a few yards away from Skywarp.

We were standing on a cliff that was overlooking an ice-covered river. Right in the middle of the river was a hole where the ice had broken and cracks were splayed around it like spider-webs.

And Nicole was nowhere to be seen.

Nicole POV

I struggled to grasp the ice and stay afloat. I was cold, my clothes were heavy, and the hypothermia was setting in.

My fingers were numb, and my breaths were becoming shallow. It was hard to think a clear thought, and I could hear Jazz telling me something, but it was too hard to tell what it was.

Suddenly, my grasp on the ice slipped, and I fell back into the water, barely managing to take a breath.

I started struggling to get up, but I just couldn't. I faintly heard Jazz say something that sounded like 'kick your legs'.

I tried it, and surprisingly, it worked. I kicked harder, and shot up.

With one last kick, I shot upwards….

And into a ceiling of ice.

The pain in my head was unbearable, and I began to see dots. I felt myself sinking, but at that point I didn't care.

I was thinking of the people and cat I'd leave behind. Spice, Taylor….and Cade.

I didn't know what to think about Cade. How had he just disappeared, and then his car transformed, talking with a voice that sounded just like Cade's.

I didn't know what to think. But I knew what I did know.

I loved Cade.

As darkness closed around me, I thought that last thought.

Suddenly I felt a hand on my face, a warm hand. It was rubbing my cheeks, as if trying to warm me up.

It worked. I opened my eyes to see Jazz's worried face. When I groaned, he smiled.

"Thank Primus, Nicole, for a second I thought you were with the Matrix. I thought tha' maybe the Primes hadn't kept their promise."

"Jazz-" I started, but soon I started coughing. I tried to sit up, but everything felt so heavy.

"Shh, you need to just sit still. I'm gonna help ya out, 'k?"

Jazz moved out of the way, and came behind me. He stuck his hands under my arms, and started pulling me towards a moving-symbol-covered wall. I realized that we were back in the room where I had first met Jazz.

Jazz leaned me against a wall. I looked at him as he stood back in front of me.

"Am I dead?" I asked with all the strength I had left.

Jazz smiled again. "No, not yet. But if I don't get movin' your gonna be."

Then he frowned. "Maybe I shouldn't have said that."

His blue eyes glowed a brighter blue, and just like that, he vanished.

'Why does everyone keep vanishing?' I thought as I closed my eyes.

Barricade POV

I started towards the river, half running, half sliding down the cliff.

I knew that Nicole didn't know a thing about swimming. That much was obvious when Nicole, Taylor, and I took a trip to the river and I had to carry her across two feet deep water with my holoform.

So I'm guessing that a deep frozen river wouldn't be much better.

Halfway down the cliff, I felt something grip my shoulder, then my arm. I looked back to see that Prime had shot grappling hooks at me.

"Barricade!" he yelled. "Don't go in the river! We don't know where she is under the ice! Back up is on the way!"

I snarled, and with one hard pull I pulled free of the grappling hooks. "She doesn't know how to swim! She'll drown!"

But Prime wasn't looking at me anymore. He was staring at something behind me. Slowly I turned around.

At first I saw nothing, but then I saw something under the ice. It couldn't have been Nicole. That was impossible.

Suddenly an arm broke through the ice, ten feet away from the hole. But it wasn't Nicole. A dark-skinned man pulled himself out of the ice, and I almost collapsed when he pulled Nicole out behind him.

He was wearing a gray shirt and dark jeans that were….dry.

I watched as he pulled Nicole off the ice, stepping off just as the ice broke all the way.

He laid Nicole on the ground against a tree. Then he looked back up at me. His eyes were the exact same glowing blue color of the Autobots.

"It's 'bout time she learned the truth. You'll have 'lot to explain when-and if-she wakes up. But I sugges' that you try to revive her." Then he looked at Prime and smiled. "How's it goin', boss bot?"

And like that he disappeared.

After a few seconds, I got in gear and immediately waded across the river to Nicole.

As soon as I was in range of her, I knelt down on my knees and scooped her up in my hands.

She was pale. I had never seen anyone that pale. And…. She looked so lifeless….

But the most alarming thing was that she wasn't breathing at all. I turned her on her side and started rubbing her back.

At first nothing happened, but then she coughed. Then she coughed again, and this time she coughed up water. I sighed in relief as a little color returned to her cheeks and she started breathing again.

I held her to my spark to warm her, and only then did I look up to see if anyone had decided to blow my helm off for holding Nicole.

Skywarp was nowhere to be seen. He had probably run off to his trinemates to tell them of his failure.

But Prime….He was still staring at the spot where the dark-skinned human had disappeared, and his arms were hanging loosely at his sides. "Jazz…." I heard him whisper as a crashing noise came behind him.

The trees shook as Ironhide came running through the tree line to a stop beside Prime with his cannons blazing.

"Where is she, Prime? Those two fraggin' Seekers flew away with they're equally fraggin' brother. We weren't sure if they had her…" he trailed off as he noticed that Prime wasn't listening to a word he said.

Then he looked around, as if he was at loss of what had happened.

And then he spotted me.

Immediately he snarled and pointed his cannons at me. "What did you do to her?" He growled. So he had spotted Nicole's limp body.

"I didn't do anything to her. Skywarp was the one who chased her into the slaggin' river!" I said, turning so that Nicole wasn't in his view.

He looked confused for a second, but then he put a hardened look on his faceplates. "Give her to me Barricade."

I pulled Nicole closer to me. "Over my off-line body!"

I prepared to run as I heard Ironhide's cannons power, but suddenly Prime broke out of his dream-like state.

"Wait, Ironhide." he said, putting a servo on his shoulder. "There is something we don't know here." Then he turned to me. "Barricade, there will be explaining to do…..if you will come with us willingly."

I almost immediately said frag no, but then I thought about it. If I went with them, their medic could help Nicole. Or, if I refused, I could try to make it out of the woods(hopefully in one piece) and try to make it to a hospital.

But then again the doctors would want to know why I was dry and she was wet.

And…. If I went with the Autobots, they would most likely take me to their base. Where there's most likely other Autobots. And army weapons.

Their base would be the safest place for Nicole.

I wouldn't be very welcome, but I wouldn't let them even try to take her away. Where she goes, I follow. No matter what.

Slowly, I nodded.

Nicole POV

I took a deep breath.

Wait….I breathed?

Slowly I opened my eyes.

Jazz was sitting in front of me with his legs crossed. He smiled when he saw me. "So, you finally woke up, huh? Barricade must've got to you quick."

I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously. I was back in the room where the walls were covered in moving symbols. Just like the symbols that I saw before that purple robot practically landed on me.

Wait a second. Robot?

I stood up so fast that Jazz jumped back a little.

"What happened? Where's Cade? Why the hell did his car transform into a giant robot that sounded like him? Why does everyone keep vanishing?" I sucked in air as more questions filled my head. "What the hell is going on?"

Jazz stood up and smiled at me sadly. "You'll have ta figure that out when ya wake up. But for now, you'll have ta just wait."

I glared at him. "Why cant you tell me?"

When he opened his mouth, I held my hands up. "Never mind. Don't answer that." I rubbed my temples. "My head hurts. I'm tired. And I'm cold. Why are my clothes wet? Don't answer that."

I sighed a deep sigh and plopped back down. "Jazz….My head feels so full. Its like every time I close my eyes I see….things. Like symbols and images. Words keep popping up in my head randomly. Like… Decepticon, Prime, Autobots, and All Spark. That one happens a lot. Stupid head. Stupid day." I muttered childishly.

I looked at Jazz. He was staring at me with a look like he almost didn't believe me.

I glared at him some more. "What? It's true. All of it." Jazz just stared at me. "Will you stop fraggin' staring at me?"

Jazz finally reacted by looking at me in shock. "Did you just say frag?" he asked quietly.

I almost said no, but then I covered my mouth and felt my eyes go wide. I has just said that. Something was seriously wrong with me.

I felt tears come to my eyes, but I wiped them back furiously. I was not going to cry. I would never cry again. Never.

I sniffled and shut my eyes. "What's wrong with me, Jazz?"

A few seconds later I felt something warm wrap around me. I opened my eyes to see that Jazz had knelt down and hugged me.

I smiled and wrapped my arms around him. He was warm compared to my wet clothes.

For once in the last 24 hours, I felt sure. Sure, and safe.

I sighed deeply, wondering why life couldn't always feel like this. I mean, yeah, I had been loving life the past year, with Cade and Taylor and Spice… But, there were times when it was all too much and I wished so badly that I could see my parents, talk to them. Hell, talk to anyone that knew them. I felt like I barely knew them, since I had lived most of life without them.

I missed them. That much was obvious.

And suddenly I knew what I had to do.

I pulled back from Jazz and smiled. "Thanks, Jazz. I feel better now, and I know what to do."

Jazz looked happy that he had helped me. "Anything tha' I could do to help, baby girl. I always know how to help someone in need of a shoulder ta cry on-" he stopped as I got up. "Wait a sec, what are ya gonna do?"

I didn't answer him as I walked to one of the symbols on the wall and studied it. As I leaned towards it, it stopped moving as if it were waiting for me.

I just had this feeling that if I touched a symbol, something important would happen. I had to know what, before I woke up.

Still looking at the symbol, I gestured to Jazz for him to come stand by me. "Jazz, if I touched that symbol, what would happen?"

He shrugged. "Don't know. And ya still haven't answered my question."

I glared at him. "You'll find out when I wake up." Then, hesitantly, I reached forward with my index finger and touched the symbol.

I felt a shock in my finger, and I blinked. When I opened my eyes, a roaring sound met my ears, and I stumbled from the change of quiet peace to the sound of war.

I regained my balance, looking around.

There, about 100 feet away, was a giant robot thing. It had no colors but gray and a blue-green color on its earfins and bright red eyes. It was standing on a giant rock, with a spear that was almost as long as it was tall.

And one word popped in my head.

Fallen.

I gasped and blinked. And when I opened my eyes, I was back in the room with Jazz.

My head was hurting, bad, and I almost fell but Jazz put his hand on my back. I heard him ask if I was okay, but I didn't answer. My head was spinning, and I needed to wake up.

After a minute, I opened my eyes. I looked at Jazz, who looked like he had wanted to ask me some questions, but I shook my head. "Jazz, I need to wake up. Now. I just have this feeling that if I don't, something will happen to Cade."

Jazz shook his head. "Okay, but one more thing before ya go."

As the darkness closed in, I barely heard the next thing he said.

"His name is Barricade, not Cade."

Barricade POV

I walked through the small path that I had made chasing Skywarp. We had caused quite a bit of damage.

As I walked in the open field, I saw the Autobot medic, Ratchet, and the small purple form of Arcee.

I hesitated in walking closer to them, but Ratchet held open his hand. Reluctantly, I walked closer and handed Nicole to him. I worried about her. Her lips were tinged blue and her skin was pale.

I turned back to Prime and Ironhide, wondering if they would shoot me now that I let go of Nicole.

Living up to his promise, Prime didn't make a move to kill me.

Instead, he started to speak. "Barricade, would you care to explain why you did not hand over Nicole to the other Decepticons, and why you have her in the first place?"

I glared at him. "I quit being a Decepticon three and a half Earth years ago. And as for why she is with me, I wont answer that. All I can say is that she came of her own free will. You'd probably shoot me if I told you the truth." Which was probably right. I'm not sure how they'd react to us being in love, but I'm sure it would be close to them shooting my aft off.

Prime sighed. "We just want to know why she's with you. I promise not to shoot you."

I hesitated. He had kept his promise before, so why not now?

Trying to keep it straight and to the point, I said the truth point blank.

"I love her. I've been dating her for the past three years."

For a second nothing happened, but then Ironhide had an out-raged look on his faceplates.

"WHAT?"

Nicole POV

Slowly, I came back from my sleep. And the first thing I thought was, 'What?'

What the hell had Jazz been talking about? His name's not Cade? It's Barricade?

And then it clicked.

The black and silver robot that had been Cade's car was Cade. But his name was Barricade.

For a moment I was stunned. How exactly are you supposed to act when you find out that you've been dating a car for the past three years? Were his-or it's-feeling even real?

And that's when I realized I was being held in something warm, but hard.

I opened my eyes and looked straight up….

Into the face of a silver, yellow, and red robot.

If a robot could feel shock, and show it, this one was doing a damn good job at it.

I was shocked, too. I sat up so fast that one of my cracked ribs made pain shoot through me, but it wasn't as bad as before(for some strange reason).

My clothes were still wet, and I was still cold, and my head still hurt.

But we weren't by the river. We were back in the field, and the robot was holding me in it's hands.

I scrambled backwards, and almost fell off side of his hand. He caught me with his other hand and said something like 'Don't freak out'.

Then I saw the black and silver robot that had been the Mustang GT. The robot that had dated me all these years. The robot that lied to me.

He was saying something to the blue and red robot. Then he stopped, and the black Topkick robot and semi truck robot had a shocked look on his face.

Then the black Topkick robot shouted "WHAT?"

He raised his arm, which was now a cannon, and aimed at the car that had transformed from a Mustang.

I knew that if I didn't do something, I wouldn't have the chance to kill the Mustang robot.

Which I fully intended to do myself.

I thought back to the parking lot incident where I had teleported, I guess, and thought about being on the shoulder of the Mustang robot.

I felt a chill go down my spine, my vision went black, and I felt weightless.

Then everything brightened as I dropped on the shoulder of the Mustang robot.

He jumped in surprise, but seeing the Topkick's cannon glow brighter, I teleported us all the way on the other side of the field.

I felt the strain of teleporting something so large, but then it was over, and I, along with the robot, fell into the snow.

I fell flat on my face. The snow was freezing cold, and I was so tired I could have taken a nap right there.

Note to self: don't teleport things that are large, like a giant robot.

…...

Bumblebee POV

I opened the door for Jackie as she walked up from her high school.

She sat down and threw her bag in the passenger seat. "How was your day?" I asked her.

"Horrible. Mrs. Jenson hates me. I got a C on the test."

"The big English one?"

"Yep. But enough about me. How was your day?"

"Same as every day. Drop you off, drive around, recharge for a few hours, pick you up, recharge again."

"You make it sound like a bad thing. I'd rather do that than face Mrs. Jenson."

"It gets lonely after a while."

Jackie was silent and she had that thinking face on. Then she smiled. "Aren't there more Transformers like you?"

That took me by surprise. "Yes, but not all of them are exactly friendly. The ones that were my friends…. I haven't seen them in 12 years."

"Well, why not?"

I hesitated, not wanting to bring up old memories. "Something…happened 12 years ago. My best friends died. I couldn't handle it, so I drove off. I haven't heard from them since."

Jackie stared at the steering wheel. "So, ever since I met you, 2 years ago, in dire need of repair I might add, you never bothered to tell me that there's more of you?" She slapped the dashboard and glared at me. "You need to send them a message, telling them your sorry and that you'd like to see them again. Where are they anyway?"

"There's a base on an island called Diego Garcia, but there is a land base too."

"Well, I want you to go see them. I can walk to school for a while."

"But….." I couldn't find a reason not to do what she said. I had thought about it for a while, but had never really considered it.

But what I worried about was….would Nicole ever forgive me for leaving her? She didn't even know what I was.

I sighed. "Ok, I guess I'll look to see if they've sent me any messages."

Jackie stared at me in shock. "What, you receive messages too? You're holding out on me."

I laughed and pulled up to her house. She pulled her keys out to make it look as though she had been driving. "See ya later, 'Bee. I'll try to sneak out after Mom and Dad are asleep." She got out and shut the door.

When she was in the house, I started going over my messages. I had at least three hundred.

I sighed. This would take a while.

After 289 messages from everybody at the base, I was getting tired.

The first messages were all about telling me to come back, and after around 150, they were updates on Decepticon activity and reports from the base.

But when it got to 295, I got interested.

Optimus sent me one saying they were following Barricade up North. Why, but in the next message I found out.

Now I for sure had to go back.

Ratchet said they were near the Canadian border. They had been chasing Barricade because they found out that Nicole was with him.

What the frag was she doing with him?

I got ready for recharge, since I would have a long trip. In the morning I would send a message to Ratchet and tell Jackie goodbye.

Hey you guys, im trying to get my chaps in faster than last time. Thx for all the wonderful reviews! I enjoy hearing what people have to say. I hope this ones not too short compared to my last one. Review! Oh and if you have any questions, ask me! And I know. Bad ending, isn't it? But I got Bumblebee in!