"How is he, Reg?"

He turned from the unconscious, Australian patient he was administering medication to, to the "punk-ass Dane chick" as she was called by the twins, only to have their supercomputer answer for him.

"Condition: stable. Recovery time: three to seven days." it said in a human-sounding female voice.

"What she said." Reggie added, nodding upwards.

Lizeth cocked her left eyebrow that had four red and silver studs above and below it with a slightly confused look.

"A week?" she asked in a gravelly voice. "How the hell can he recover in a week when every bone in his foot and lower leg were shattered as bad as they were?"

The brusque Chief Medical Officer held up the syringe he just emptied into Matrix's arm, cocked his own eyebrow in a sort of matter-of-factly way, and answered curtly, "The medicine I gave him makes his body repair itself seven times faster than normal."

She nodded her head in acknowledgement before walking over and taking hold of her love interest's right hand.

"How long 'til he wakes up?" she inquired.

Reggie opened his mouth only to, once again, have Valuyonkah take the words right out of his mouth.

"Exactly one hour, three minutes, and sixteen seconds."

Reggie looked up at the ceiling and asked, "Will you let me do my fucking job?"

"I am sorry, Reggie." she replied. "Name overwritten." she then added quickly. "I apologize, Chee Chee."

He groaned and face palmed at the name while Lizeth giggled to herself.

They turned to look at the door to the infirmary when they heard someone clear their throat.

Leila stood there with a very unamused look on her face. Her hands were on her hips and she looked like she just got done with a very vigorous workout. She was wearing sweatpants and a cropped tank top to match her slightly wavy, white hair that revealed all the fighter marks on her upper body; dragon on her right arm, vines and leaves on her left, the Staff of Ages on the front of her torso ending at her navel, and if she turned around, the symbol of the Supreme Earth Force on her back.

It was a ring with the words "Supreme Earth Force" on it which had a phoenix in the center that had its wings outstretched and its forked tail pointing straight down. The phoenix was gripping a banner that said "We fight as one, and we fight to the end." And crossed behind its back were the Staff of Ages and a serrated, one-bladed sword called the Pure Sword. All those marks were to prove that she was indeed the leader of the S.E.F and to strike fear into the enemy. But right now, they were striking fear into one of her own team members, even if it was just a little bit.

"Uh, hi." Lizeth uttered sheepishly with a small wave.

Leila's eyes averted to her unconscious comrade on the berth with a gray cast on his right leg and his normally neat hair a dark gray mess, then back to Lizeth.

"I see you got your mark of a pure warrior." she added. "Makes you look even more badass."

She was referring to Leila's new eye mark. It was a crescent moon around her right eye with a double-bladed sword going through the middle of her eyelid and a small portion of the ends of the moon.

Leila blinked a couple times before finally speaking.

"You know, sucking up to me isn't gonna get you out of trouble."

Lizeth let out a defeated sigh and looked backed down at Matrix.

Leila looked at Reggie and which a quick flick of her head towards the outside of the infirmary, he followed her out there.

Lizeth could hear them conversing outside, but couldn't make out what they were saying. She knew they were talking about her punishment. She didn't care though. She just wanted Matrix to get better as soon as possible.

She pushed her black-framed glasses up farther on her nose and whispered, "Please, Matrix. Come back soon."

They were almost complete opposites; Matrix being friendly and happy-go-lucky, Lizeth being very antisocial and depressed. And she had every right to be. Fifteen years of beatings and abuse will do that to someone.

Somehow, he could bring out the best of her, some of the time. All her life, she had been so close to committing suicide, but some unknown being told her to hang in there. It wasn't until after she met Matrix the first day they arrived at Caelum that she figured out it was Sylvia. Ever since then, she thanked Sylvia every day and every night for giving her the courage to live another day.

Lizeth was abruptly snapped out of her reminiscing when Leila and Reggie walked back in.

"Alright," Leila began, "considering the circumstances that led to breaking the rule, your punishment is to clean the infirmary and operating rooms. Even if you broke the rule, the reason was very noble which is why the penalty is so light. And I congratulate you on how well you controlled the situation and the power you used. Nice work."

"Commander," Valuyonkah started, "the American government has dispatched a secret branch of their military called NEST to investigate the energy spike given off by Lizeth. Arrival time to the forest: six hours."

"Thank you." Leila replied. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to tell the American military to stay the hell out of my forest."

Before she did that though she asked, "Wait, how do you know about NEST if it's a secret?"

"I was made so that I can access everything electronic to gather information and to keep communication open. I can do so without getting caught and traced back here."

"Hmm. Smart." Leila remarked. "Okay, so now I'm going to tell them to scram."

And with that, Leila took off. She shapeshifted into a cloud of white smoke and flew out.

"Emergency." Valuyonkah announced. "Time cut short. Arrival time: thirty minutes."

"Thirty minutes? What the fuck?" Reggie asked, bewildered.

"Armahdon's trying to fuck with us." Lizeth answered venomously.

"Fuck!" Reggie shouted, pounding his fist on the table. "Sons of bitches." he then whispered.

We'll defeat you yet, Armahdon, he thought. You'll pay for what you've done.


"Hey, Major." Epps whispered.

"Yeah?" he asked in a voice louder than a whisper, but softer than normal talk.

"How did we get here so fast?"

"Beats me." Lennox answered. "As long as we got here safely, I don't give a damn."

There was a loud snap and Cybertronian cursing as another tree branch whipped Ironhide in the face and broke.

Snickering could be heard from the twins and a couple of the soldiers, including Epps and Lennox, as they walked by him. They weren't tall enough to have tree branches smacking them like the rest of the Autobots.

They all had to be in robot mode to get through the forest. Their alt modes just wouldn't cut it. Either way, the taller 'bots were having a very hard time getting through the dense forest. They all were constantly getting a mouth full leaves and a face full of splinters. It was a very comical sight, seeing twenty foot robots trying not to trip over roots and clear the forest with their enormous size, even if most of the trees were taller than Optimus Prime himself.

"This is ridiculous." Ironhide said, very annoyed. He powered up his right arm cannon and continued, "I can make it much easier for us if you would just-"

"No, Ironhide. You're not clearing the forest." Optimus interrupted.

Ironhide grunted with disapproval and could hear Sideswipe snickering at him until he got a branch in his mouth.

As he spat it out, Ironhide turned to look at him and with a smirk countered, "Who's laughing now?"

Sideswipe glared at him but said nothing and continued on.

Finally, they reached a small clearing. Across from them was a portion of the Arx Mountains called the Alea Cliffs and there was more forest spreading out in every other direction. The vertical mountainside was covered with jagged, rocky outcroppings. Not even the most experienced rock-climber would dare to reach the top of the mountains from this side of the mountain chain unless they had a death wish.

"Finally." Ironhide sounded relieved and started picking leaves out of his cannons.

"Sorry, big guy, but the signal came from the other side." Lennox told him.

Ironhide grunted and Arcee sighed. They still stood at the edge of the forest while the Autobots collected themselves and tried to get some of the splinters out of their systems until,

"Hmm. I'm detecting a large, organic life form coming in our direction from the north. It seems to be chasing a smaller one."

Everyone just looked at Ratchet until Epps asked, "How big?"

He was answered with a loud roar. Just then, a black horse ran into the clearing near the mountains until it was caught in the mouth of a giant reptile with a large head and legs, very small arms, and tiny horns coming out of its head.

"Oh shit!" Epps yelled. Lennox shushed him and his crew and just stared at the towering Carnotaurus, mouth gaping.

It has to be as tall as Prime, he thought.

Ratchet was fascinated by it until started ripping the horse apart and eating it, same as Optimus. Sideswipe, the twins, and Arcee were at a loss for words and stared while Ironhide pointed his cannons at it.

"I thought those things were supposed to be extinct." Epps told Lennox.

"Extinct?" Arcee asked, dumbfounded and a little worried.

Optimus heard this too and turned to stop Ironhide from shooting it.

"Ironhide, this may be the last one on Earth. Let's not make the claim that they're extinct true."

Ironhide grunted and powered them down, but kept them at the ready.

It was then that the massive beast noticed them. It bared its bloody teeth, took one menacing step forward, and let out a huge roar. Everyone took a step back, except Ironhide until he was pulled back by Optimus, while it took another step forward.

"No sudden movements." Lennox whispered so everyone was dead still.

The beast was still as well, growling, debating whether or not to attack.

Then he saw one of Ironhide's cannons crackle to life. He was about to charge when they all heard someone shout, "Waohntoh!"

The lizard stopped dead in its tracks and turned slowly to the source. There was a girl with white hair and peculiar markings wearing an exercise outfit standing on one of the cliffs just a little higher than the Carnotaurus' head.

She cocked an eyebrow and pointed next to her, saying, "Waohntoh, here, now."

The grand beast that wasn't the least bit afraid of the Autobots surprisingly obeyed the tiny human without any form of protest. He stood "next" to her, so to speak. He was still on the ground, but beside her nonetheless. She reached out and patted him on the nose before turning to the NEST operatives that had invaded her forest.

She crossed her arms and asked in a very commanding tone, "What are you doing in my forest?"

They all just stared at her dumbfounded. They were confused. They didn't know how long she had been there, why that beast obeyed her like a trained dog, and why she was talking to them like she was in charge.

"Well?" she demanded.

They all seemed to snap out of their trance and finally Lennox spoke, "Excuse me? What gives you the authority to order us around?"

She and Waohntoh just looked at each other then looked back at them.

Optimus stepped forward and explained, "We have reason to believe that there is a very large energy source here. Would you happen to know anything about it?"

She blinked and answered curtly, "No."

"I don't believe you." Ironhide asserted. "If this is 'your' forest, then you should know."

She glared at him and growled, "Get out of my forest. There is nothing here so just leave."

"Whoa, wait a second. You have a fricking T-rex that's supposed to be extinct. There's gotta be-"

"GET OUT!" she screamed.

"I don't take orders from an insubordinate, lying child. Do you even know who we are?" Ironhide argued.

"I don't give a shit about who you are! If you won't go on your own, I'll make you go." she snarled.

She closed her eyes and put her hands in front of her chest like she was praying then separated them just a couple of inches. Then her markings started glowing and a glowing white ball appeared between her hands.

Every member of NEST took a step back, awestruck. They had no idea what she was doing or how she was doing it, but they were all thinking the same thing: it can't be good.

She opened her eyes which were also glowing and spoke something in a language nobody could understand.

"Ahfaiyckeyi nahslahsteh ahsteyi!"

The light given off from her body became blinding and consumed them all.

The next thing NEST knew, they were at their base back at Diego Garcia.

Looking around, they realized they had no memory of why they were gathered there.

"Uh, Major, why are we here?" Arcee asked. "Are we going on a mission?"

Will looked down at his gun and shrugged.

"Not that I know of." he answered.

"Damn, I'm hungry. Let's go eat." Epps suggested.

"Alright." Lennox agreed then walked off with him and a plethora of the other soldiers.

Meanwhile, back in Aether Forest, Leila fell to her knees after the light had faded.

"Damn," she gasped, "that took a lot outta me."

Waohntoh let out an apologetic groan and put his head to the mountain for her to climb on.

"Thanks." she acknowledged and climbed on, lying down on his massive head.

"Alright, let's go back to base."

Waohntoh grunted in approval and headed off towards Bicallis Cave on the opposite side of the mountains.

Stupid NEST guy, she thought. Can't tell the difference between a T-rex and a Carnotaurus. Dumbass.