Part Three:

Significance

The Matrix stopped, and all if a sudden, the strobing blue light started to beam over all of Chicago, the lights blinding the men, who covered their eyes. Optimus blinked, wondering what on earth was happening, and Bumblebee chose that time to look up, and he saw the ashes falling again, only this time they were white, pearly, and fluorescent. On closer inspection, he noticed they weren't ashes, nor snow-

They were white feathers.

"Do you see what I see?" the radio sung, the old Christmas song playing out for all to hear. Optimus looked to Bumblebee and then noticed what he was seeing.

"What are they?" he asked.

"I believe they are feathers, Optimus," Rachet supplied.

"Wait a second: why would feathers fall from the sky? The Matrix don't carry that trick with it," Skids commented, scratching his head, humour in his voice.

"The ashes fell like snow," the radio sang again, and Bumblebee watched silently as those feathers fell softly, quietly to the ground, before something occurred to him. He looked down to the angel, her hands still outstretched, her stony, yet friendly eyes watching Sam's body below her. Her wings stretched out behind her in massive swoops, graceful, yet terrifying. A guardian angel, he mused, before he felt another twinge in his spark. He was meant to be Sam's guardian angel.

He looked further down again, and saw the feathers were slowly trickling down Sam's body, caressing him with the touch of something he would never have the chance to feel ever again.

"Holy Mother of God, I think this is some sort of- holy miracle!" One of the men piped up, before making the sign of the cross, and getting down on his knees. Lennox looked up, watching the feathers dance through the air with a questioning glance, Epps behind him, carrying more of a what-the-hell? expression.

The lights in the sky shone like lightning holding itself long enough to be seen, and Bumblebee couldn't help but stare, his eyes lost in the one picture of beauty lost in the graves and the death below it. Was it a sign?

As the feathers continued to fall, he noticed they'd begun to sparkle, carrying with them a golden luminescence that quietly dissolved all of the sadness the group of fighters had experienced. It was like these feathers had travelled through their bodies, warming their hearts again, but it didn't work for Bumblebee, and neither had it worked for Carly, who stood, dumbfounded, by the bright lights in the sky. She was shivering, her heart completely frozen from losing the only person for her.

One feather landed on Bumblebee's hand and abruptly it dissolved into a hundred different colours, making Bumblebee jump back in confusion.

"What are they for?" Optimus asked.

"Did anyone shoot a whole nest of birds in the past five minutes?" Skids quipped.

All their questions were paused, as a brief second later; they heard a set of tires rolling through the streets close by. Optimus looked away from the sky, and went into battle mode, quipping himself ready for whatever was around the corner. No more deaths today, they'd had enough, and Optimus was not letting anything through his steely gaze.

But the transformers who passed their vision was not who they were expecting to see, and Optimus had to zoom in on their faces in order to understand what exactly he was seeing.

No, it couldn't be.

"Ironhide?" he called, "Mudflap? Identify yourselves."

Skids looked over to see his brother transforming into Autobot mode right before his eyes, and then he launched into a full run, throwing himself on top of him. "Bro, I thought I'd never see you again! How did you come back? What happened? I thought you was a gonner!"

Mudflap laughed hysterically, boxing Skids in the face, "I was! I was! We both were, bro! Up until we saw Sam! He told us we had to come back! He said he'd be able to activate the Matrix, and then we'd come back!" Mudflap indicated himself and Ironhide, who was looking at Optimus, a slight smile on his face at the expression he saw.

"Hey, Optimus, you look like you've seen a ghost, what's wrong? Did we miss the action? We won, didn't we?" There was a hint of a joke playing on Ironhide's voice, and it dawned on them. They didn't know the truth.

"Sam brought you back with the Matrix?" Skids' doubtful voice caused them all to look to the sky again, and Bumblebee stared hopefully at the Matrix, wishing Sam would come back, Sam would be back at any minute-

"Yes, he appeared to us, as bizarre as it sounds. Sam can't operate the Matrix, since it was inside of you, so we figured we were going mad. Sam told us that we were needed to come home. He told us this was our home, and that all of you were waiting for us. All of a sudden, we were awake, and in the sky we saw these bright lights-"

"-And we headed on over here. Of course, Ironhide here nearly had one hella heart attack when he hears the fighting was over- He really wanna kill some Decepticon butt!" Mudflap chorused his chuckle the last thing they all wanted to hear.

"What is wrong, everyone? It's not surprising we were brought back from the dead with something that could bring us back from the dead, is it?" Ironhide's voice held a tinge of worry, and Optimus looked away from his comrades faces, looking to Sam's body.

"He must've brought you back, as I did not activate the Matrix." The heavy eyes with which he regarded Sam, reflected in the faces of the others and when Ironhide caught up to Optimus, he realised what he was looking at so sadly.

"What? Sam is-"

"His body temperature suggests that of being dead for the past half hour, Ironhide," Rachet supplied, grief etched on his face, and collectively, everyone gasped when the feathers abruptly stopped falling, as they disintegrated into dust shards, falling into the palms of the men and machines.

The Matrix stopped it's glow, receding into itself, slowly hovering back down to eye level, back to where Optimus stood, before swinging slowly toward Bumblebee, stopping in front of his blue optics. Bumblebee leaned forward, wondering if he could see Sam inside, and to his surprise, the Matrix leaned in closer, almost touching his face.

'I'm here,' it seemed to say,' I'm here, and I'm not leaving.'

N'waaaaaaaa! Okaies, come on, we all know what's gonna happen next! x/x

What do you think? I do love reviews, no matter what you wanna say!

xoxoxox