"So, what happened to Timothy?"

Sitting alone by herself, Sideswipe came up behind her. Alexis didn't know what she had been thinking about, but ever since getting away from the Decepticon base, her thoughts had been conflicted.

She frowned. Her stomach gave out, and her eyes began to moisten. Dropping her head to her knees, she responded as calmly as she could.

"He's gone."

He said nothing further for Cynthia interrupted with a question and dragged the Autobot away. She left her boyfriend behind who sat down beside Alexis without asking. She had only been with the couple for less than a day, and yet she didn't like either. It wasn't often when she met someone whom she was immediately repelled by. But she couldn't stand them. Maybe it was just her, it was probably her, for she couldn't stand the Autobots either.

Lying back on the picnic table she was sitting on, Alexis stared up. A tingling went down her back, a fear now attached to the very sky above her. If the medic hadn't helped her get away, who knows what she would be doing right now. How quickly hope could go, come back and spring back up. She knew she was lucky. Knew someone had to be watching out for her. Mouth trembling because the image of Timothy flashed beneath her eyelids, she bent her neck to the side.

Thundercracker was Timothy. Timothy was Thundercracker. Knowing it was true didn't stop the pain of Timothy's death, feeling it was true didn't ease the sorrow of his murder that occurred right before her very eyes. She remembered the blood, the loss of warmth, the way the life left his eyes, and his fingers dropped away from hers, leaving her lost and broken.

None of it was real though. His death, his life, the fight that she thought he was sharing with her. It was all lies, all deception and twisted convoluted truths. Alexis hated him, despised him... and she missed him. Even if he had probably used her to lead her to the humans, even if he was Thundercracker. Timothy had been her friend.

She trusted too easily. She believed in someone too readily. She cared too much.

Doug, Cynthia's boyfriend, wandered off, joining his girlfriend as the pair ate. No one invited Alexis, or offered her any food. She didn't care. Not with the group long and she already felt like an outcast. Twisting her head to the other side, she watched the shadows slowly stretch back until they disappeared completely with the arriving darkness.

It was cruel coincidence that the place they stopped for the night had a cave nearby. Ordered inside by the Autobots and given some sleeping bags, they were expected to go to sleep.

Alexis couldn't though. Her shoulder still sore and her chest still burning from the stab wound, she opted not to take any more of the medicine provided. She was only to take it when it got really bad, and despite the discomfort, she could manage. She was getting better, healing fast. That should have made her feel better, but her mood was such that nothing seemed to touch her.

Except perhaps anger and frustration.

All day Alexis was forced to watch Cynthia flirt and throw herself at Sideswipe. The woman had volunteered to travel with Alexis to look after her, but quickly enough, Alexis found out her motives were far less magnanimous. The way the woman giggled and squirmed, laughed and spoke to the Autobot, disgusted Alexis and made her want to gag.

And now with the sounds that were coming to the left of where Alexis slept, that feeling returned in force. Revolted and offended, Alexis rolled herself carefully into a sitting position. Biting down on the pain and ignoring the terrible spasms, she stood to her feet and exited the man-made cave. The woman had no scruples. Flirt all day with the Autobot and then fool around with the boyfriend she had ignored the whole time while Alexis was just a short ten feet away, making it obvious exactly what involved activity they were going to be next, if they weren't already. Alexis most certainly wasn't going to check.

Getting far enough away that the horrible sounds stopped, she leaned against the cold wall of the cave. Bright spots gyrated underneath her eyelids. Feeling the blood rush out of her face and her heart race cruelly in her rib cage, she knew if she moved any further she could either throw up or pass out.

She slumped down and rolled over. Warmth rolled up and down her body; pain broke loose and assaulted her head, shoulder and chest. Breathing carefully, she fought the nausea, suddenly fascinated by the lights that were dancing before her eyes. Alexis stayed as still as she could. When she began to feel the cold of the rocks underneath her body, and she could breathe without having to fight throwing up, she carefully reached for the medicine in her pocket. Further pain came from the simple movement until it died with the injection of the painkiller. Giving herself a double dose, bliss and euphoria blocked the pain and discomfort, sending her spiraling into the darkness that was her head until she fell into an uneasy sleep.

The first thing Alexis did after waking was look for Timothy. It took her a good five minutes of confusion, frustration and fear to understand that Timothy wasn't there, and he wasn't returning.

She didn't know what was in the medicine given to her, but as she sat up, she realized the pain had totally subsided, just a slight discomfort remained. Alexis wasn't sure if the stuff just blocked the pain or was treating the underlining cause. But being able to walk without feeling like death was trailing behind her was nice. So far, the only side effects were the confusion and short-term memory loss, which compared to how she had felt many days previous; she knew she was lucky to be standing at all.

Noting where she slept, she understood the pain in her back and the numbness in her neck. Stretching slowly so as not to cause herself further problems, Alexis tried to work her sore muscles. She hadn't slept long though, it was still dark out.

She walked outside and spotted the Autobots parked in a nearby lot in front of where the concession and soda machines were. Sitting down on the nearest bench, she was relieved to find that walking was becoming much easier. She really was healing. Alexis wished then that she had thanked the medic. Alexis didn't know his name, only knew that he had helped and freed her. And that he had an uncommon compassion that was heaven-sent.

Yet here she was free and still struggling. Not just because of the emotions that were tangled up inside her brain, or even the experiences she had deal with, but because she felt an undeniable need to get away from the Autobots and the two humans. She didn't belong with them nor did Alexis want to remain with them.

Alexis needed to separate from the group. But she couldn't because they were taking her to Josh. She knew that. But that didn't stop the need to get away from them. She couldn't stand them. She didn't like them. She felt suffocated and pinned in.

It was silly and inconsequential in the light of other things, and yet she couldn't deny the need for distance that she felt. Getting up, delighted that she could, Alexis began to walk slowly. She could feel the Autobots watching her in their vehicular mode and waited for them to change and approach her. They didn't.

Alexis continued to walk.

Alexis felt better the longer she walked. The pain was tolerable as long as she didn't move her arms or shoulders too much. It was when the sun started to peak out and the darkness was pulled back that she realized she had been walking a very long time. The medicine did more than just block her pain; it gave her the ability to function and move when she shouldn't have been able to.

Realizing that she had managed to get away from the group, she smiled her first real smile in over ten days. She could manage on her own. She would be perfectly fine. Alexis knew where her brother was and would find out how to get there. She would need a little longer to heal, but she knew she would make it.

That adamant belief came into question five minutes later. The sounds of engines filled the surrounding air, and she had just enough time to duck out of view behind a pole of a poster board before the first Decepticons drove by. There were so many of them, more than she had ever seen in one location: SUVs, tow trucks, taxis, motorcycles and even a moped, they came in all shapes, sizes and forms. All the vehicles had one thing in common, the Decepticon symbol visible along an area of their frame.

Wondering exactly what was going on and where they were all heading, it was when a group of three cars broke off and started to drive in her direction that she realized her separation from the others wasn't as great a prospect as she had thought.

She took all of two steps when someone materialized in front of her. Sideswipe stepped toward Alexis, pushing her back against the pole. She tried to speak but he shook his head, thought better of it and then covered her mouth with his hand. Her body began to tingle. He kept his blue eyes on her; they were vibrant and fierce, tainted with reproach. The three Deceptions approached, slowed down and then continued on their way.

The tingling stopped and Sideswipe backed up, pushing his bangs out of his eyes with the flick of two fingers. He grabbed onto her wrist and pulled Alexis along, stopping when she complained of the pain and then picked her up in his arms. The tingling began again.

"What is that?"

He seemed distracted and edgy, but he answered all the same, "Personal cloaking shield adapted for holo-form usage," he replied gruffly. "You wander off on your own, putting yourself and others in danger. Do you have no care of anyone but yourself?"

She bit down on her mouth and tilted her head to the side. "I don't belong with you guys."

"And who do you think you belong with? The Decepticons perhaps? You want me to return you to them? Would you be happy then?" He made the motion of turning around to emphasize his point.

"Put me down," she requested, her tone building to be as tense as his own.

He shook his head and continued to walk briskly.

Sideswipe looked down at her and frowned. "So you were captured by the Decepticons, stabbed by one of them and toyed with by Thundercracker, you better get yourself in gear or your going to end up right back with them."

"It's not that easy," she argued as her emotions got the better of her, causing her to say more than she wanted. "I can't stop thinking about it, can't stop thinking about what they did to Timothy. Please, please put me down."

He finally did. Sideswipe looked down at her. His eyes slowly dropped along her body before lifting back up to stare. "Look, Alexis, you're going to survive. So many of your kind cannot say the same. It's unfortunate what happened to your friend, but casualties are to be expected when the Decepticons are involved."

Her mouth trembled, and some tears escaped. His lack of compassion and forthright manner was more than she needed. He didn't care that Timothy was dead and how he knew that she was stabbed or involved with Thundercracker in any way made her feel paranoid.

"I don't belong with you guys," she repeated again, her words ringing with petulance and affront.

Tugging on the leather jacket he wore, Sideswipe brushed his hands down his dark pants, cleaning off small specks of dust. He shrugged his shoulders, fingers going through his spiked hair as he dismissed her words completely. "Yeah, well, I don't belong on this planet, but that doesn't stop me from doing what I must." He jerked his head to the side. "Get inside."

A shiny red Lamborghini purred alive and came away from an area of thick bushes, tires crunching along the grass and small pebbles. The door opened, and Sideswipe dissolved away.

The engine revved impatiently, a firm voice drifting from the dashboard. "Now, Alexis. We need to leave."

Alexis briefly considered her options. Thirty seconds later, she was seated inside the vehicle and speeding away.

"This isn't the right way," Alexis spoke up twenty minutes later. Yes, they had taken some alternative routes to avoid the Decepticons, but even she could see that they weren't heading back to where they had been.

"We don't have time to join up with the others. In fact, your little attempt of escape couldn't have come at a worse time. Sunny said I should have just left you behind."

"Why didn't you?"

"I was following you already."

"Why?"

"You ask a lot of questions."

"You do a lot of peculiar things."

He chuckled at that, a new sound that wasn't as terrible as it could have been. "Says the damaged human who wanders away from safety and heads straight to the nearest armada of Decepticons."

She ran her hands down the seat belt, her eyes drifting along the glowing sound system and all the devices and instrumentation she had never seen in a car before. They managed to interest Alexis, and her gaze lingered. "About those Decepticons," she finally spoke up.

"You want to know where they are headed?"

She shook her head.

"The same place we are, off this planet."

"What," she choked on the suddenly impossible word, her hand twisting the seat belt. "What did you say?"

He spoke readily, his words matter of fact. "Your planet has been lost for some time now. You just didn't know it. Look out my window, Alexis, look at the clouds, what do you see?"

She peered out the window and did as he said. The clouds had turned dark, darker than she had ever seen them.

"A storm coming."

He huffed out at that, an interesting noise that tickled that back of her seat. "Yes, a storm all right. One Megatron has created. He has poisoned your planet. Any human that remains past the next couple of hours is as good as dead," he finally told her, even managing to try to sound sympathetic but it came out distracted and forced.

"No..."

The Autobot continued to speak, failing to notice the horror and terror uttered in her one word, "If you weren't so stuck inside yourself, you would have noticed that things aren't exactly normal right now. And if you weren't stuck in the medical lab, you would have noticed increased activity on the Seekers' base. They were the ones who deployed the Telan canisters. And the Decepticons' departure means that we have even less time than I originally thought. Fortunately, for you, my environmental seals will protect you from the gasses. And you are also fortunate that I was stuck with you because we are being tracked and followed. They won't catch up with us. I am way too fast for them, but that won't stop us from being attacked. Buckle up, if you can, and brace yourself for the last memorable drive you will ever have on your planet."

Once again, Alexis was astounded by his lack of consideration and compassion. He didn't care about her planet. He didn't care about her. He was more interested in the oncoming attack and outmaneuvering and outracing the Decepticons, even delighted in showing off. As he shifted into gear and began to drive faster than any car she had ever been inside, Alexis watched her world turn hazy and gray until even Sideswipe's headlights couldn't pierce the murky depths of poison.

This time when she cried, it wasn't for herself.