Russia was cold. Colder than I remembered. At first arrival Ky and I wore four layers of jackets but after years and years we could walk hand in hand with only two layers.
I kept my robotic hand in a glove. It felt so much more natural now to have it. I could punch harder than before and my fingers didn't jerk so much when I moved them. In a glove hardly anybody saw the jerky movements. Cade stopped checking on me years ago.
The Hall of Records was still filled with thousands of books of the same color and thickness but with different histories. I would read them aloud to Ky or to myself or to that evil presence that always lingered.
The presence never faded and I often referred to it as Unicron. Some nights the presence felt stronger and I would have night terrors on these nights. Other nights the presence disappeared completely and I had the best nights sleep. I still had visions and daydreams but some of these were unsettling and some weren't visions at all. They were dreams that were simply too realistic but it pulled me in like my visions do.
Ky and I walked hand-in-hand through Moscow's shopping districts. The snow covered the city in a blanket that was colder than it appeared. I twisted the wedding ring with the fingers on my left hand.
"You're thinking of them again aren't you?" Ky knew me all too well. We sat at the tables outside of a small café.
I nodded. "Yes, I know how they're doing but sometimes I wish I could see it for myself."
Ky kneeled by me and wiped my cheeks. Had I been crying? I wiped my wet eyes.
"I hate crying," I whispered.
He laughed. Ky's laugh was warm and contagious.
"Why are you laughing?" I raised an eyebrow at him.
"You. You're too funny." He kissed my forehead. "What do you want?"
"The usual. Oh, decaf, though! Oh no wait, a hot chocolate! That might be better. With some…some…I don't know with something!"
Ky shook his head and muttered something about women being weird, I think. Before I could kick snow at him, though, he walked inside.
I stared down at my ring. It made me giggle. "Five years we've been out here," I told myself.
"I know, we've been counting the months since you left." This voice had just enough sarcasm in it to be Crosshair or Bee. The voice was young and cocky, though. I tilted my head up at Bee who stood awkwardly between the buildings.
My smile widened and I ran into his hand and hugged his face when I was close enough to it. "You found me," I whispered and I could feel warm tears running down my face.
"You can't hide from me. I'll always find you."
"Ah damn. And just when I thought I got rid of you!" Ky's voice was playful. "It took forever to convince her to marry me, you know, so don't you go getting in my way."
I couldn't help but laugh. "Oh Bee, there's so much to catch up on." I put my hand on my tummy. "There's so much."
He walked through Moscow forcing Ky to run if he wanted to keep up. He walked in silence while I wiped my tears. Something seemed wrong with him. Prime, Crosshair, and Hound were outside the city limits like always. They never seemed to want to attract attention to themselves yet somehow they constantly drew attention despite the precautions. The three autobots had the same air of alertness and a type of disappointment about them.
"What is it, Prime?"
Crosshair took up Ky and actually allowed him to sit on his shoulder much like how Bee or Prime would let me sit on theirs.
"We cannot find Scourge," Prime explained.
"Well that's good…right?" I looked at everyone. They didn't share my opinion.
"It isn't good. He can still bring back Unicron if he wants to." Hound explained. "We almost had 'im too!"
"Where did he go?" Ky still held the probably cold hot chocolate now.
"We're not sure. He just disappeared off of our radar."
Something about this didn't make sense to me. My stomach soured but I tried to swallow it down. Unicron's presence was suddenly strong, stronger than before. It felt like he was right above me, laughing. It felt like he was mocking me. It felt like he had never died. What if he never did? What if Unicron wasn't the one who died but Scourge was? What if when Galvatron raised Unicron he made his body improperly and Unicron, after killing his only loyal servants, made a new one? What if the entire time the "Unicron" we killed was Unicron's loyal servant Scourge? Scourge was dead and Unicron was alive.
I covered my mouth. "Oh god, Bee, I need to get down." As soon as his knuckles hit the snow my stomach emptied its contents. It took several minutes for it to stop. Everyone was alarmed. "I'm okay," I was panting and I sat on Bee's hand. "I'm fine," I insisted mostly for Ky's sake. Bee straightened slowly.
"Are you sick?" Hound peered at me closer.
Before I could answer Crosshair jumped back, "No, no, no, you stay right there."
Bee took the opportunity to mess with Crosshair. He brought me closer to him but it only made him back up and repeating 'no' several times. I had a feeling Crosshair wasn't being serious. Ky shook his head, laughing at them.
"Guys, she's fine!" Ky yelled over them. "It's just a bit of morning sickness."
"In the years I've known her not once has she gotten sick in the morning or whatever this morning sickness is." Crosshair complained.
"No, Crosshair, it isn't a sickness. He's saying I'm pregnant and in the first few months this is supposed to happen." Everyone but Prime gave me a funny look. "Okay do none of you know where human babies come from? Unlike you all we do have a sense of gender and we need both-"
"We know, we know, we know!" Crosshair yelled with Hound mimicking him. "But who-?" It seemed to hit him like a rock and he formed the words "how" on his lips.
"We got married a few years ago, guys. You expected us both to stay in Russia and nothing would happen?"
"Well yeah, kind of," Hound admitted sheepishly.
"Will you be okay here?" Bee seemed worried but whether it was for me or the baby I wasn't sure.
"Yes, Bee. We'll be fine but this isn't the point of the subject." I looked at Prime. "Do you feel Unicron's presence?"
"Like he never left."
"I don't think we killed Unicron. I think we killed Scourge. You've been trying to find the wrong decepticon the entire time…or whatever we're calling his side because I'm not even sure what to call it." Nobody else knew either.