A/N This chapter and the next ones will follow AOE, but not entirely. The flashbacks will follow AOE, but they will be slightly different from the movie.

"Can you drive faster than this?" a middle-aged man, with brown hair and hazel eyes asked the young man at the wheel.

"I drive as fast as I can," a young man answered, turning his head towards a middle-aged man.

"It's not fast enough," the man said.

"Look, if I drove faster than this we will crush somewhere," the young man tried to explain.

"We have to find Tessa."

"You think I don't know that!?" the young man shouted.

"I don't know. Do you lucky charm?"

"Enough with the lucky charm already," the young man snapped at the older one."I have a name, and it's not lucky charm; it's Shane," he said, looking at Cade. Shane sighed before he spoke: "Look, I now you are worried about Tessa; and, trust me so am I, but we are not going to help her if we crush somewhere along the way."

"It's all my fault," Cade whispered, sinking into the passenger seat."I should have never bought that truck."

(Flashback starts)

"Hey snakebolls! How much for the truck?" Cade asked, a man with the white cowboy hat who was sitting on the chair doing nothing.

"Truck….?" The man asked confused, slightly rising from his seat. "What truck?"

xxxxx

As Cade and Lucas drive the old truck home, Tessa saw them from her bedroom window; she immediately stormed out.

"A truck? Dad, please tell me you didn't spend our money on this," Tessa said, as she walk up to her dad.

"Oh, no, don't worry, he didn't. He spent my money," Lucas began. "A hundred and fifty bucks on it," he said.

Tessa looked at her father.

Cade smiled nervously as he turned to Lucas.

"As an advance on your regular paycheck," Cade said.

"What regular paycheck?" Lucas asked.

"Regular paycheck, which you will get back."

"When?"

"Never. We're broke," Tessa said, as she turned and walked away.

"I knew it!" Lucas shouted, looking at Cade.

Cade watched as his daughter enters the house, before he turned to Lucas.

"See now what you've done," Cade said.

"What… what have I done?"

"Come on lets set up the truck in my barn," Cade said, walking to the barn Lucas following him.

Later that same day…

Cade was in the barn connecting the engine wires to the battery; Tessa and Lucas were there too. Suddenly the sparks start flying and the truck began playing the message on some strange language.

"Calling all... Calling all Autobots," a voice came through the radio.

"Um…I don't think it's a truck at all; I think we just found a Transformer," Cade said looking at Tessa and Lucas.

"Tran... Ugh! Evacuate!" Lucas yelled, running off with Tessa following behind him.

"Wait! Guys!" Cade shouted, as he followed them.

"Dad, are you out of your mind? You need to get that thing out of here!" Tessa said.

"What? No!" Cade said.

"No….?!" Lucas said, not believing his ears. "You have an alien killing machine in your barn. Listen, there's a number you should call."

"I said no, "Cade said, going back to his barn as Lucas and Tessa followed him.

"Let me show you something," Cade said, gabbing a hammer and began hitting the front of the truck."Would an alien killing machine let me do that?" he asked.

Suddenly the truck transformed.

"I'll kill you!" the transformer yelled, on human laguage.

"Call 911! Run!" Lucas shouted, as he began to run, but the alien knocked him down.

"Stop!" The alien growled.

"Lucas? Don't move, just calm down," Cade said.

"Easy, human; I'm not going to hurt you."

"Who are you?" Cade asked, as he slowly approached the transformer.

"My name is Optimus Prime."

(End of flashback)

(New flashback begins)

Optimus explained to them everything that happened and Cade decided to help him.

"Go to the hardware store and you get the list. The whole list," Cade said, giving Lucas the list.

"What?! You're going to try and fix him? He's not a model train set, Cade."

"No, that's right. He's important."

"Yeah, but important to who? You can't keep an alien locked up in your barn. What are you gonna do, play with him?"

"Will you calm down?" Cade said.

"I'm trying to, but I just got hit in the head with ten-foot cannon! If he eats you, I get the GTO," Lucas said entering the car.

"And, not a word to anybody. Do you hear me? Not a single word."

"Yeah, yeah" Lucas said driving off.

And from there everything went to hell.

If only Lucas didn't call that number everything would be alright. Lockdown would not have intercepted his call and he would still be alive and Tessa would be with them.

xxxx

"I don't think we're gonna get that money. Doesn't seem like it," Lucas said, as Shane drove down the road, trying to make as much distance from Lockdown who was chasing them.

"You think?" Cade said, turning his head to look at Lucas.

"Dad…dad" Tessa started. "He only wanted to help," she said, trying to calm her father.

"Well, nice try," Cade mumbled, returning to his seat.

They managed to get away from Lockdown but they lost Lucas in the process to one of Lockdown's grenades; Optimus drove them into the desert where they met Hound, Drift, and Crosshairs. Unfortunately for them Lockdown followed them into the desert. The truth was, that Lockdown was following them the whole time; waiting for his chance to attack them when they let down their guard. And soon he did.

xxxxx

"Come on, Optimus," Cade yelled, as they run from Lockdown.

At that same moment Lockdown fired a missile, hitting Optimus and injuring him; the three humans fall down.

"TESSA!" Cade shouted.

Lockdown fired another missile at Optimus knocking him down; Cade and Shane watched in horror as Lockdown slowly make his way to the injured Optimus.

"I gotta go get her," Cade shouted, but Shane knocked him down.

"Don't go out there! He'll kill you!" Shane said, holding Cade down.

"She needs my help!"

"She's hidden!" Shane said, as Tessa got inside one of the cars nearby,

"Optimus! Optimus, get up, get up!" Tessa cried.

"I can't. Get out of here."

"I feel sorry for you Prime," Lockdown said, as he approached him. "Your allegiance to these humans is admirable, but the trouble with loyalty to a cause is that the cause will always betray you."

Lockdown, brought his ship down and scooped up Optimus who was lying on top of the car; Tessa, who was hiding in the car, was unintentionally scooped up as well.

"No, no!" Tessa shouted, as she tried to escape, but it was too late.

"Tessa!" Cade shouted, as he run toward the ship.

"No!" Shane yelled, as he run behind Cade.

"Tessa!"

"Dad!"

"Tessa, get out! Get out! Tessa!"

"Dad, help me!"

"Tessa!"

"Help me, help me! Dad! Dad! Dad!"

(End of flashback)

"It's not your fault," Shane said, as he continued to drive.

"I'm her father it's my job to protect her; I promise that to Tessa's mother and I failed."

"I failed Tessa too," Shane said.

Cade looked at Shane and for the first time he realized that Shane truly loves Tessa and that Shane would do anything to protect his little girl. He was wrong about him, very wrong.