Disclaimer: "I do not own any part of the transformers franchise, or any of their characters. I own only Harper, and any original content that I make her do or say. Everything else is property of the amazing men and women who brought this story to life on the big screen. Thank you."

Chapter 8

While Sam and half the group stop at the bunker Bumblebee is held in, Harper sprints in the direction that Tom had already said Dragonfly was in. Of course, they had already labeled him as NBE-Three… but Tom figured out very quickly that if he didn't want a broken nose of his own, he should never call her bike that ever again.

She still has the pass she swiped from another agent, so by the time they reach her, the doors are already opening, and she runs inside and immediately screams, "NO!" The rest come in to find Dragonfly being electrocuted and continuously frozen using the cannons of cold air.

And when Harper goes ahead and, at the very least, sprains one of the men's ankles while disarming him, Tom hurriedly hollers for everyone else to stand down and let the alien go.

Dragonfly flips around immediately to find Harper, having heard her voice the second she walked in. Then, upon seeing all the other guns in the room, he drops down his face mask and levels his own blaster at everyone else.

Only Harper's cry of, "Fly! Whoa, stop! Don't! They're okay!" stops him from firing on everyone but her. Face mask still down, his eyes scan over her body again. And she can hear the fury in his voice as he says, "They hurt you."

Will and Epps look at each other, both in shock by all of this. But Harper simply says, "No. No, not them. This one…" She points to Tom, and then says, "Well, I don't really know this one. But these guys!" She hurries over to Bobby and Will, and says, "This is my unit. Remember? The guys I told you about?"

Dragonfly stares a moment more, and then lowers his gun and his face shield lifts away. Tilting his head curiously, he says, "You said they were dead." "I thought they were. I was wrong. They… well, most of them are still here."

The others stay perfectly still as Dragonfly leans in closer, eyes scanning and taking all of them in. Then he turns to Harper and asks, "Which one is William Lennox?"

Harper knows her face has turned to match the same color as her hair. Will, for his part, simply raises a hand at first while saying in surprise, "Uh… that's me." Dragonfly brings his face right in front of Will's body. Then, after a moment of scrutiny, he says, "Harper speaks very highly of you."

Grinning a bit, glancing at Harper who is blushing ten different shades of red, Will asks, "Is that right?" "Yes. I can see why she…" Harper shouts, "Fly!" Her robot leans back, "What? I was just saying…" "Well, don't say, alright. We don't have time." Will shrugs, "Oh, I don't know. I'd kind of like to hear…"

She points a stern finger at him, "No. Not now." "Later then." He smiles when she groans before she turns to glare at Bobby, who finally can't stop himself from laughing. Resigned to eventually coming back to this, Harper then turns to Dragonfly and says, "Look, the cube is here. We're gonna take you to it, alright?"

She jumps when he leans down hurriedly and asks, "Here? Truly?" "Well, yeah. So hurry up and change back so we can get moving. You'll get around easier as the bike." He holds out his hand for her first, and she shocks everyone when she immediately steps into his palm as though it were second nature. Then Dragonfly transformed swiftly back into his bike, with Harper already seated on the back. Revving the engine, he says, "Let's roll."

In the chamber with the cube, as soon as they breach the doorway, Dragonfly shifts back into his normal body. Harper ends up in his hand again, and he places her back directly next to where Will is standing.

As Fly moves to join Bumblebee at the cube, Will nudges Harper. "So… you bought a bike." "Yeah." "And he's…" "An alien. Yep. Who knew, right?" He grins at her, and then smirks while adding, "And he knows me by name." Harper turns away, but Will pulls her back. Bending down so he can catch her eyes, he adds, "And you speak very highly of me." "Will, I am not in the mood." "Really?"

She couldn't really help it. Much as she didn't want to talk about this, his smile was infectious. Shaking her head as she grins with him, she says, "Just… please, not now." He stares at her meaningfully for a few moments more. Then he relents. He still pulls her into his side, but he simply runs a hand up and down her back soothingly while saying, "Don't worry, Harper. One way or another, this is all about to end soon."

As Bumblebee and Dragonfly work with the cube, Epps can't help but comment, "Okay, here we go. They're doing something. They are definitely doing something." And sure enough, with a flash of energy going through the massive cube, even Harper's jaw drops open when the thing suddenly begins folding in on itself. And where a cube that was at first twenty stories high had previously stood, now a box that could easily be tucked under a person's arm, rested in Bee's hands.

Then the Camaro says through his radio, "Message from Starfleet, Captain. Let's get to it!"

And Harper smiles wide, and can't help loving him even more, when Will seems to understand exactly what he's saying. Stepping down with the others in charge, he says, "He's right. If we stay here, we're screwed with Megatron in the other hangar."

And he was calling the evil robot Megatron. Not NBE-One. Could the man get anymore perfect?

Pondering it a moment, Will then says, "Mission City is twenty-two miles away. We're gonna sneak that cube out of here, and we're gonna hide it somewhere in the city." Keller agrees wholeheartedly, but then Will sighs and says, "But we cannot make a stand without the AirForce."

At that, Harper tilts her head. Pulling out her own cellphone, which by some miracle, actually is still working, she shoves it in Epps' direction and says, "Go ahead. You can usually get right through to them, right?" He nods, but then explains, "Communications are down all over the world, Harp. We can't even use landlines." "Why does no one tell me these things?!"

As Keller and Simmons form a plan to find a radio with short wave transmissions, Will rounds up his men, "Alright, let's move! Sam, get in the car…" He turns to Harper, "Bumblebee?" She nods, "Bee, for short." Nodding, he then points to her and says, "And you, get onboard Dragonfly. We're getting out of here. Now." Back to Keller, he says, "Mr. Secretary! Get our birds in the air. When we get to the city, we're gonna find a radio, and I'll have Epps vector them in! Okay? Move it!"

They're all loading up and raring to go, when Epps starts hopping into the driver's seat of the vehicle Will had intended to drive. Will gives him a confused look, but then blushes himself when Bobby simply says, "What are you standing here staring at me for? Go hitch a ride with your girl!"

Glancing back to where Harper is already sitting astride Dragonfly, he ponders for a moment if now is really a good time to be doing this. Teasing was one thing. But this… he'd probably forget for a moment that he was on a crucial mission.

But… the bike probably wouldn't, which would definitely be helpful. So without thinking it over anymore, he runs over. "Hey, Harper!" She snaps her head up to see him approaching. "Yeah?" He takes a minute to catch a breath, and then, "I just… uh…" And then he throws up a hand as though not knowing what else to say, and asks, "Is there room for two on your friend here?"

Harper honestly doesn't know the answer to that at first, but then can't help laughing when Dragonfly, before their very eyes, stretches himself to be a bike that accommodates two riders. Smiling back at her, Will waits for her to scoot back, and then hops on in front of her. And though he could reach the handles, he found the car was already revved and pulling out before he did anything. All he had to do was hang on for the ride.

Well… sort of. They were about halfway to Mission City, when Harper suddenly threw one hand up and shouted, "Optimus!"

The truck and three other vehicles that passed them down the road then all made sharp and quick U-turns, making to follow them into the city as well. Turning his head, Will asks, "More Autobots?" Harper nods, and as those vehicles move in to help with the perimeter around Bee, she says, "Okay, the GMC is called Ironhide. The emergency vehicle is Ratchet. The Pontiac is Jazz. And the giant flaming truck is the leader." "Optimus?" "Yes!"

The kiss to his cheek makes him grin. If he kept it up with remembering all of this, he'd eventually get a kiss on the lips.

First things first, protect the cube. Then worry about making the love of his life swoon. But first, the cube. God, he needed to get a grip. Though her hands wrapping around him tightly weren't helping much.

Not that he was going to tell her to let go. No way in hell.

They're only about a mile from Mission City, when Sam yells, "Harper!" Dragonfly speeds up to be next to Bee, and Sam explains, "Cop car! Same cop car!"

She glances back to see the same God-forsaken cop car that had terrorized Sam earlier. Glaring at it, she says, "On it!" Then to her bike, she says, "Fly, get me to Jazz!" Will turns his head and asks, "What's happening?" "See that cop?"

Will glances to see it, "Yeah?" "Not a cop. Decepticon." "Shit." "Exactly."

Pulling up next to the Pontiac, Harper hollers, "Jazz! Decepticon at six o'clock!" "On it, my lady." Harper blinks at the phrase, 'my lady', but smiles all the same as the car brakes back to talk to Optimus. Will turns his head again and asks, "Did he just call you 'my lady'?" "Don't even get me started. That's a whole other story."

And as they continue driving down the road, Will feels Harper tap his shoulder. Turning his head, he watches in amazement as the giant flaming truck begins transforming in the middle of their high-speed drive towards the city. "Damn! He's even bigger than Bumblebee." "He's the leader." Nodding, Will then turns back to be facing forward while asking, "He gonna be okay?"

He's rewarded with another kiss on the cheek for his concern over the giant robot, and then she says, "Optimus can handle the cop car. I'm sure the others wouldn't have left him behind to handle it if he couldn't." "Good. In that case, first thing we need to do when we get to the city, is find a radio. Some way for us to signal the air support of what we need from them." Harper nods, and clings to him tighter as Dragonfly revs up to go faster. Whatever they were going to try and do, they had to do it faster. They were running out of time.

Will was honestly about to give up looking for any sort of radio that would be able to do anything for them in this place. Then Harper, from the other end of the pawn shop they were in, shouts, "Will!" Running up behind her, he looks down when she sighs and says, "I… well, I thought I had something."

She holds up the bulky shortwave radios that she'd managed to locate within the store. Shortwave, meaning that the planes and jets would have to be exceptionally close before they'd be able to get any sort of message up to them. And Harper was about to put them back down, because what good was that actually going to do them.

But Will picks them up and says, "Better than nothing. Good job." He kisses the side of her forehead, grinning a bit when she blushes. Oh, he was going to enjoy teasing her about some of this later. But right now, they had a cube to hide, a war to win, and a decepticon to hopefully kill. Not necessarily in that order.

Grabbing her hand, he runs back out to where the trucks are stopped waiting for them. Along with the autobots.

He has to rejoin his men now. On the journey here, there wasn't much to decide or command of them, except that they get here with the cube. Now, there would be a lot more decision making to be done, and he was their leader.

Which meant Harper would have to go on with Dragonfly, without him. And he knew the autobot was protective of Harper. No harm would come to her so long as she stayed with the bike. But… well, it still wouldn't be the same as when he could keep his own eyes on her.

Gripping her arm as she hops onto her seat again, he says, "Be careful." "Back at you."

She tilts her head at the long look he gives her. There was clearly more he wanted to say. Maybe more he wanted to do. But they both knew they didn't have time. Finally, he sighs. Kissing the side of her head hard, he says, "Don't you dare die on me today. Understand?" Harper nods, a bit bewildered by how desperate he seemed to be for her to listen to that command. But then she shakes herself and says, "You either. Or I will be fucking pissed." He finally grins, "Yes ma'am."

Running towards the jeep with Epps, he says, "I got shortwave radios." As he hands them off, Epps stares at them for a moment before saying, "Wait… what am I supposed to do with these?" And even though it was better than nothing, Will honestly didn't know what he was supposed to do with them either. But he simply shouts, "Well, use them! It's all we got!" "Man! This is like… RadioShack-dinosaur-radios or something, man. I'm only gonna get twenty or thirty miles out of these things."

Will glances at him with an impressed look, because he honestly hadn't expected to even get that out of them. Perhaps they weren't as bad off as he'd originally thought. Epps then says into the mike, "Are there any aircraft orbiting the city?"

As a jet shoots overhead, Will points out, "F-22, twelve o'clock. Alright, I want planes for air cover and get black hawks on station to extract that cube. You got it?" "Copy."

Halting in the middle of the street, Harper pulls up beside Sam as Will and Bobby begin trying to make contact with the jet. But even as they try, popping green smoke to signify the location of the target for extraction, Harper can tell something isn't right.

And Sam can tell from the look on her face. Briefly touching her wrist to get her attention, he asks, "What's up?" "I don't know. But… the jet is taking it's turns entirely too close to the buildings. It's like he's showing off… except there's no one to show off for."

And then Ironhide, from behind them, hurriedly transforms and says, "It's Starscream!" Harper glances back at him, and then jumps in surprise when Fly immediately starts moving her backwards down the road. Ironhide stands up straight, "Backup! Take cover! Bumblebee, help me with this!"

Fly would've kept moving her backwards, except Harper leaned forward and jerked down the brakes. "Harper, we must…" "My brother is still up there in the middle of this. So is the love of my life. I will not go back and sit on the sidelines safely, while they're in the midst of a firefight. So either protect me while we're in there together, or sit back by yourself and watch us get hurt."

The bike sighs, "You know I would not do that. But your safety is my priority." "The cube is everyone's priority." "Perhaps. But your safety matters more to me than that." Harper grins at the bike, and then says, "Well, I appreciate that. But they're safety matters more to me. So let's go."

But even as they head back into the fray, with everyone else now understanding that they needed to get the fuck out of the way now, Ironhide screams to Fly, "Dragonfly! Protect the humans!"

He quickly transforms, Harper ending up in his hand again. Then he grabs Sam and Mikaela in time to hunker down before the missile hits the truck that Bee and Ironhide were lifting as a shield to try and take the blow. Both of them end up blown back hard from the explosion, but everyone else seemed okay.

Even Dragonfly got knocked down, rolling to a stop near the trucks again. But as he opened his hands, the three humans in his charge were fine.

Bee, on the other hand. Sam scrambles over to him, begging him to get up. But the autobot's legs had been crashed into and cut off. He was a legless machine now. Still functioning… still alive… but obviously in pain, even as he continued trying to drag himself back into the fight.

Harper grabs Sam in a tight hug so he doesn't freak out more than he already is, and then says, "He's hurt, but he's still alive. They can fix him." Sam nods, remembering that even though they were living machines, they were still machines. Made up of parts and pieces that could be fixed and put back together. And with that in mind, he turns his head and yells, "Ratchet!"

But the other robots are now trying to deal with the tank that is rolling down the road, crushing cars beneath him, firing at Will and his unit to try and kill them before they can protect the cube. Glancing at all of them, Harper then looks up to Dragonfly. Gesturing to the others, she says, "Go and help them." "What will you do?" "I'll stay here with Bee. Try and figure out how to get him out of the street."

Dragonfly nods in approval of that, and then hurries to join his brothers in taking down the tank. Meanwhile, as Sam sets himself before his car, declaring he won't leave him, Harper grabs Mikaela's arm. "Tell me you know how to hotwire a car." Mikaela blinks, but nods, "Yeah, I…" "Good. Come with me."

They race towards the tow truck in the alley on the side of the street, and after knocking in the window, Harper says, "Get that started, back it towards him. I'll help you hook him up. We have to get him out of here." "On it."

As they're wrapping him up, Will and his unit begin falling back towards them. Will shouts, "Harper!" Jerking around to look at him, she points when he asks, "Where's the cube?" "Right here!" He nods in approval, and then keeps running past her as he tries to figure out a plan. There's a tank at their front, a helicopter at their back, and neither are friendly or easily taken down.

Also, he's pretty sure Jazz is dead. But he'd tell Harper that after this was over. If they all survived, that is. Eyeballing the building on the next street over, he says, "That'll work." He hurries back over to them, looking up at Sam as he says, "Alright. I can't leave my guys back there, so here. Take this flare. Okay? There's a tall white building with statues on top. Go to the roof. Set the flare."

Sam's eyes have grown as wide as saucers, but before Will can argue with him as Sam says that he can't do it, Will jumps and rubs his arm when Harper punches him. Hard.

Glaring at the man that is admittedly the love of her life, she says, "You can't ask him to do that!" "Why not?!" "Because I'm here and I can run faster than him." Yanking the flare from Sam, she then asks, "What else?" Will grabs it as well, attempting to take it back from her. But he only succeeds in pulling her closer to him, since she refuses to let it go.

One thing he found infuriating about her, while loving it at the same time, was how stubborn she could be when she'd set her mind to something. There was very little that could come along to change it when that happened.

It's part of why he didn't want to say 'I love you' over a screen, or right now in the heat of a battle. She'd chalk it up to that, to the intense situation around them. Not to his real affection for her. Then she'd avoid him. Then she'd refuse to talk about it ever again. No… no, getting her to believe he loved her, after all this time, was going to require a more private setting, with at least a little more time for him to make sure he could convince her he was telling the truth.

And he was honestly looking forward to having to convince her. Hence his loving her stubbornness a bit. But right now…

Glaring back at her, he says, "I'm not sending you up there." "Oh, but you'll send my little brother? I don't think so." "I don't have time to argue, Harper!" "Good! Then quit and tell me what I need to know."

They stare each other down for a moment more, and then Sam hops down from the truck. Going alone… yeah, he wasn't really okay with that. But going with Harper?

Nodding, he says, "I'll go with her. We'll both go. What do you need us to do?" Will glances at him, and he's honestly still not thrilled about it. But Harper not going alone was better than her doing this by herself. So he says, "Set the flare. It'll signal the choppers that you have the cube. You need to take it, and get it into military hands, while we hold these guys off down here."

Glancing at Mikaela, he says, "And she needs to leave." Harper just gestures to the truck, "Not without Bee." And on that point, Will can agree. Nodding, he says, "I'll finish helping her rig this. But you two, you need to get this done. Now."

As they're about to head off, Will grips Harper's arm again. Pulling her close again, he says, "Do not forget. You promised me you wouldn't die." "So did you." She was still pissed that he'd almost sent her brother alone to do this, so he leaned down closer. Sighing against her neck as he rests his head at her temple, he says, "I'm sorry. I just… I can't lose you."

She softens her features at that, but then says back to him, "And I can't lose him." Will nods, because he knows that too. Then he lets her go and says, "Hurry." "Copy that." As they begin to set off in that direction, Ironhide and Ratchet join them, saying, "We will protect you." Harper nods her appreciation, but then glances around and asks, "Where's Dragonfly?"

Ratchet moves to help fend off a bullet that was headed for them, and then answers, "He is back with your army unit, doing what he can to help them." And both he and Ironhide can't help grinning when Harper simply says, "God, I love my bike."

Starscream ends up causing them the most trouble. He sends a blockade of cars tumbling over one another, nearly crushing both her and Sam. But with Ironhide and Ratchet's help, they manage to chase that little pest back into the skies. Both autobots thoroughly worn out, they still pull themselves back to their feet while saying, "Get to the building. We'll cover you from here."

Of course, as soon as they get near the entrance, Harper hears Megatron say, "Give me that cube, boy!" The two just glance at each other, before kicking it into an even higher gear.

Sam pauses for a moment once they're inside the building. But Harper jerks on his arm and says, "No time for admiring scenery. Let's go." "Right."

They'd no sooner gotten into the next part of the building, then they heard one of the large front windows shatter, and Megatron declares, "I can smell you, boy!" Rounding a corner on the stairs, Harper lets out a huff while whispering, "Well, that's attractive." Sam actually manages to grin at her, before they both jerk and run as the floor beneath their feet begins lifting and tearing apart. Megatron's giant head sticks up out of the floor, taking up almost the entire space from floor to ceiling on this level. And one large hand reaches up with him to swipe at them.

Diving into another room, Harper grabs Sam up off the floor, shoving him towards more stairs. "Come on. Faster we move, faster we get rid of this, faster we can get him off our asses." "Right."

When they finally get to the roof, Harper holds out her hands and says, "Switch with me." "What?! Why?" "Because Megatron knows you have the cube. So if he gets up here before the chopper, he'll go for you first. Then he'll see you don't have it, and then he'll go for me. Which might buy us enough time to pull this off. So switch!"

He takes the flare while she takes the cube, and then they both hurry in opposite directions on the roof.

Meanwhile, on the ground, Epps says, "Lennox! Choppers want to know who has the cube. Boy or girl. They're apparently going in opposite directions." And it doesn't even take Will a second of thought to figure that out. Cursing under his breath, he says, "Harper has it!" Epps blinks, "You sure? I thought you said…" "I did. But at this point, she'll have it. So tell them it's the girl!"

Back on the roof, as the chopper lifts up in the air high enough for Harper to see it, she thinks they may have finally gotten it done. The cube would be taken away and put somewhere safe. Megatron would never get it. He wasn't even up here yet to try and stop them. Maybe it could finally be over.

But as she starts handing the cube off, Sam screams, "Watch out! Missile! Watch out!"

Harper pulls back with barely enough time to get out of the way. And then she has to scramble back so the tail of the helicopter doesn't slice her in half. Bricks still get broken and tossed about, one hitting her in the head and making a trail of blood leak down her temple.

Sam helps her to her feet, brushing at the blood with his sleeve. Wincing, Harper then starts to ask, "Now…" But she doesn't finish, as Megatron begins crashing his way through the roof to be with them. Shoving Sam back from her, she says, "Go the other way." "What?! But…" "Go! Now!"

He sprints back to where he had been heading, and Harper heads in her same direction from earlier. Finding one of the statues, she climbs on the ledge and rounds the other side of it. She offers herself one brief glance towards the ground, just as a reminder to her brain that if she steps off at this point, she's going to go splat and die at this point.

Then she trembles a bit when Megatron asks, "Is it fear or courage that compels you, fleshlings?" He makes to head towards Sam at first, just as Harper had predicted he would upon arriving. But, to her amusement and chagrin, he takes a sniff at the air, and then immediately turns in her direction. So, it wasn't just them that he smelled. It was the cube itself. And now he knew that she had it.

Glancing down again, she curses the fact that this building doesn't have any extra fire escapes or anything like that. She needs a new way down, and there isn't any other exit in sight.

In spite of the fact that she was, at this point, probably going to die, she tightens her grip on the cube when Megatron says, "Give me the allspark, and you may live to be my pet, little girl." Peeking around the statue, glaring at him, she says, "Never!" "Oh… how very unwise." "Yeah, well, you calling me 'little girl' was your mistake."

Narrowing his eyes, he unleashes what can only be called his own personal wrecking ball from his hand, and then smashes it into the space between her statue and the statue next to it. He obviously couldn't hit her. She had the cube, and he'd end up hitting that if he hit her. And who knows what would happen to it if that happened. But... the impact of smashing into the portion of the building next to her... just that alone, sends Harper flying back and into the expansive space between herself and the street below.

She hears Sam's terrified scream of, "HARPER!" She also thinks she hears Dragonfly shout, "NO!" from somewhere in the distance.

Then she feels herself come to a halt much sooner than she should have, and Optimus' voice says, "I've got you, girl." Opening her eyes, she sees him holding himself up between two buildings, somehow rather stealthy for an autobot that was by far the largest that they'd seen yet. Smiling, Harper then says, "About time you joined the party."

He offers her a brief smile, and then says seriously, "Hold onto the cube." And then his mask covers his face, and Harper huddles herself around the cube while Optimus curls his entire hand around her protectively. And then they begin crashing their way back towards the ground.

Of course, she can feel when Optimus is no longer the only one bringing her down. Megatron was now on top of them as well, trying to force Optimus to drop her, and the allspark in the process. Yeah… that never happens. Optimus' fist only opens again when they're on the ground. Harper stands up still on top of him, and then jerks around when his voice says her name in more of a question, "Harper?"

Nodding to him, she tilts her head when he comments, "You risked your life to protect the cube." And as Sam makes his way out of the building, sighing in relief to see her alive, he can't help smiling when she says in answer, "One thing I did actually learn from my dad. No sacrifice, no victory." Optimus nods approvingly of that statement, and then says, "If I cannot defeat Megatron, you must push the cube into my chest. I will sacrifice myself to destroy it."

Harper tilts her head at that, but before she can argue with him, he says, "Get behind me." Scrambling down to the ground, grabbing Sam as he runs up beside her, they hurry into one of the trenches that was created by an earlier explosion. Running through the water and muck below, as Megatron and Prime go at it, Harper turns to Sam and says, "I have an idea."

Will and his unit are trying to make their way towards Optimus, but have to come up short when the decepticon chopper arrives and begins making his way towards the fight as well. Epps listens on his radio, and then says, "Fighter jets in sixty seconds." Then into the mike, he explains, "We got friendlies mixed with bad guys. Targets will be marked."

But what if, as had been happening for the past week and a half, something else happened? What would they do then? Will takes a breath as he comes up with one rather crazy, and quite possibly, insane idea for the moment. Then again, it may be the best plan yet. Patting Epps on the shoulder, he says, "Bring the rain. Let's kill these things."

They head out on his command, and then he turns back and says, "Fly!" The bike comes up the rest of the alley and stops beside him. Sighing, he says, "I need you with me. And I need you to trust me. And I also need to know if you'll get hurt if you end up on your side and skidding down the road." "I am at your disposal. And that will do nothing to me, though I do not know why you would have me on my side." "Just trust me. Let me drive." "Copy."

And sure enough… something else happened. The robot figured out he was being targeted, and turned his attention on Will's men. Epps, ever the dedicated air men, stays in place on the ground in spite of the oncoming attack, though he tells everyone else to move and get the hell back. Because this guy was definitely incoming.

Further back, Will revs the engine and asks, "You ready?" "Yes." "Let's roll then."

He speeds off down the road as fast as Fly will go, which is actually pretty fast considering all the things they still have to dodge around. Then, right as they reach the decepticon, Will turns the bike sharply and lets it fall on its side, allowing himself to slide off in the process. Screaming profanities up at the massive thing, he shoots several rounds up and into him from underneath, where their armor appeared to be the weakest. And with the F-22s finally arriving with their own fire power, the massive creature finally goes down hard.

Will is still staring at the thing upside down from his position on the ground. Then he jumps in surprise when Fly's hand scoops him up and places him back on his feet. Nodding to the robot in appreciation, he then yells, "Run! Let's move it! We need to kill this thing! Now!"

And he'd no sooner said it, then Fly scooped him up again. Turning into a bike, having Will end up sitting astride him again, he then takes off towards Megatron and Optimus. And consequently, towards where Harper and Sam are putting themselves right into the thick of this mess again.

As soon as all the fire power began weakening Megatron, Harper and Sam sprang into action. Harper had given her brother the cube again, knowing that Megatron would follow her first since she'd had it last. And as she went in a straight line down the street, she kept Megatron well within the sights of the soldiers and the jets that were preparing to fire on him.

Then, as he turned back to Sam, Harper sprinted back in that direction. Sam had the cube. The important part of her plan was now up to him. But she still intended to get there in time to pull him out of the way, if something else happened after.

And as Megatron, who is basically crazed out of his mind, obsessively keeps demanding the cube, Sam gives it to him. Just not the way he wanted it.

Optimus had said shoving the thing into his chest would kill him. So, likewise, it should kill any other creature that was of a similar species and design.

And as it dissolved and disintegrated into Megatron's chest, Harper can tell by the malfunctioning tone of his systems, that he is definitely dying. And about to collapse on top of Sam.

Will sees it about to happen too, and hops off of Fly hurriedly before shouting, "Get him out of there!" And by the time Harper gets to Sam, Dragonfly swoops in, grabbing them both and rolling out of the way before Megatron crashes to the ground.

For a moment, the stillness and silence that follows is almost as deafening as all the nose had been before. Then Optimus rises to his feet, looking down on Megatron with pity, in spite of the terrible creature he had become in his pursuit of the power of the allspark.

Bending down to Sam and Harper afterwards, he says, "Sam, I owe you my life." But Sam just points to Harper, "All her. All her idea." Optimus looks over at her, and then tilts his head, "I told you to shove it in my chest."

And as Will rounds the corner to see her again, he can't help grinning at her reply. "Well, if it's going to kill you, then it's going to kill him. Makes a whole lot more sense to me to kill the bad guy, as opposed to killing the one I like. Just my opinion."

Grinning at her, Optimus bows his head, "We are in your debt, little one." And as he rises back to his full height, even with Will and the others approaching, Sam asks, "And you aren't offended by him calling you little?" And the entire unit can't help chuckling when Harper says, "He says it like it's an endearment. Megatron said it like it was an insult. It's all about your tone, Sam. Your tone of voice says a whole lot, even if your words might not."

Harper turns when a hand lands gently on her shoulder. Finding Will behind her, she hugs him tight while Sam turns to Mikaela to hug her. Sighing against him, she then mutters, "Thank God." Will still hears the muffled words against his chest, and smiles before pressing a kiss to the top of her hair. Breathing out his own sigh of relief, he says, "Yeah. Sounds about right."

She laughs against him, but then turns to the autobots when Ironhide says, "Prime. We couldn't save him." Will feels her slump a bit in sadness at the sight of Jazz torn in two. Unlike with Bee, who had only had one and a half legs severed off, Jazz was torn almost completely in half.

Prime takes him into his hands, "Oh, Jazz." He sighs in his disappointment, but then straightens up and declares, "We lost a great comrade… but gained new ones. Thank you. All of you. You honor us with your bravery."

And then Harper jerks and slaps a hand over her mouth in surprise when Bee, using his real voice, asks, "Permission to speak, sir?" With a happier tone, Optimus replies, "Permission granted, old friend."

Harper can't help laughing when Sam bursts out, "You speak now?" Bee seems to grin in amusement too, but then says seriously, "I wish to stay with the boy." And coming up behind them, Dragonfly nods towards Harper, "And I wish to remain with Harper." Optimus nods his own approval, but adds, "If that is their choice."

Sam just smiles and nods his head, "Yes." And then he grins when Harper says, "Well, yeah. I paid twenty-five hundred for my bike. He can't just up and leave me stranded. That would be rude." Fly bends down to her, tilting his head in amusement. Harper just grins up at him, but before she can say anything, Ratchet steps up and says, "The little one seems to have recovered from her depression. Is there a reason that it happened so quickly?"

Fly stands up again and explains that her army unit isn't actually dead. At least, not all of them. Will leans down closer and asks, "Is that the EMT you mentioned?" "Yep. He's incredibly smart." Although she frowns when he then says, "She is incredibly tired though. Given all that her body has been through the past few days, I'm amazed she's still standing. Humans are so strange."

Will's arm at her back makes her sigh before she says, "I'm fine." "Maybe. But you are tired. You already told me that." "Yeah, well…" She ponders for a moment, and then says, "You know what, I don't have anything to add to that. The war is over, we won, and it's all ended now. I'm allowed to be tired." Will grins, and then glances over when Ironhide comes up and says, "I can provide transport for these two home."

Harper doesn't exactly understand why he can't offer to take more than just herself and Will, considering how many people needed to get home from this. Not to mention the fact that they still needed to wait for someone to get here to decide how this entire event was going to be cleaned up. But before she can respond, Optimus asks, "Do you wish to stay with the young officer?"

When Ironhide nods, Will can't help feeling a sense of pride at being chosen by one of them. But he can't help chuckling when, as Optimus asks why, Ironhide simply points, "I like the little one. And it seems the man will be often found around her." Ratchet nods, taking a whiff of the air before saying, "Yes. It would seem…"

But before he can finish, Harper throws up her hands, "Nope! Everybody just shut up!" Sighing and rubbing at her temples, she says, "I have a headache. I need sleep, before I can handle anymore of this." Will doesn't argue with her on that point. But when she makes to get on Dragonfly, he pulls her back with him. Opening the back door of Ironhide's truck form, he helps her in, and then climbs in behind her.

Epps throws him a thumbs up and then a salute, a sign that told him they could handle the rest of this here. All they needed Will to do now, was take care of their Harper. He gives Ironhide his address, and before Harper can worry about giving him hers, Will draws her in closer to himself.

Laying down in the backseat, he pulls her so she's laying half on top of him. Running a hand over her messy hair, he says, "Rest. It'll be a while before we get to my place." "I can go to my apartment. I need to shower, and…" "You can do that at my house." "But…" "You are not an imposition to me, Harper. Furthermore, having you close by will help my sanity immensely. So we're either going to my house, or we're going to your apartment. My house is bigger, but if you really want, I can ask Ironhide to switch."

A pause, and then Harper sighs tiredly before saying, "Just promise to wake me up for a shower. I really need one." "I promise. Now, sleep."

He waits until her breathing has evened out, and then sighs against the top of her hair. Kissing her there, he whispers, "We still have things to discuss Harper. But, they can wait a little longer. I've already waited this long. Another day or two isn't going to kill me at this point."

Though as she snuggles further into his body, soaking up his warmth and curling more around him, he wonders if that's actually true.