Dove
…
What was supposed to be a ten hour drive ended up being almost fifteen. Numerous roadblocks and detours were stationed along the interstate to keep anyone from even getting near Chicago. The opposite side, however, was a nonstop chain of vehicles from Illinois to Ohio.
They switched drivers every few hours and went straight through the night. Even Aria had a turn while the man called Epps gave her pointers. It brought back old memories.
"I don't know how I'm supposed to see anything with your big hood in the way! What if someone was right in front of us?"
"That's why I said to look further ahead, punk." Ironhide's voice came from the speakers. "Then you can anticipate instead of—"
She slammed on the brakes as a bird flew across the road.
"React," Ironhide finished.
"What if I hit that bird? Then what?"
"You're hardly doing twenty, Aria. We need to try main roads eventually."
"No, I'll stick with the gravel. Better yet, the passenger seat."
Everyone in the vehicle was quiet, listening intently to the radio. Depending on the station, it was either updates on Chicago or people yelling about the existence of the Cybertronians and how the government dared hide them.
At least the Autobots would be safe from the fallout this news would surely bring.
Epps had only brought up her bow once during the entire ride. He had asked her where she had got it from.
"It was a gift," was all she had said.
At first, it looked like clouds blanketed the morning sky, but as they neared the city, they thickened, and the smell of burning filled the cab of the car.
It was smoke.
At the city limit, people wearing tattered clothes lined the grass along the highway. Some had their thumbs up to hitchhike, others merely walked beside the endless sea of traffic.
It looked like there had been one last police barricade before entering the city, but it had been destroyed. The cars were still on fire.
Aria jumped when somebody banged on the window.
"What are you doing here? Leave!" The woman's frantic voice was muffled by the glass.
It wasn't just her, everyone was either yelling at them to turn around or to let them in. Epps only drove further into the burning city.
The smoky skyline was dotted with alien ships. Gunfire and explosions rang out from all around them, shaking the ground when one was particularly close.
Epps parked and everyone got out of the vehicles. Aria wandered behind Sam, surveying the surroundings. Not far off was a subway car, one end laying on the road and the other leaning on a building.
She went to look closer while Epps was yelling at Sam, telling him there was no way they were going any further into the city. Sam on the other hand was going to get Carly with or without them.
She agreed with Sam. There was no way she was leaving until she killed Sentinel.
He wasn't going to away with it.
Not while she was around.
Lound jet engines whirred overhead and a second later loud shots rang out in rapid succession.
Aria ran under the subway train, holding her hands over her head. There was shouting and screaming. The ship fired at them relentlessly. Through her fingers, she witnessed people being shot and immediately disintegrating.
No blood. Just bones…
And dust.
Something large flashed through the sky over their heads and hit the ship. It spun and crashed sending more people running out of its path.
A gun cocked behind them. Aria whipped her head around. She'd only just heard that sound days before.
But it wasn't Sentinel. It was Optimus.
But…Sam had said they were gone.
Everyone was just as surprised as she was. They came out of hiding to see him.
The other Autobots drove up behind Optimus in a long convoy. Three that she had never seen before went straight up to the Decepticon crawling out of the ship and tore limb from limb.
As Optimus and the three new Autobots explained how they got out of the ship, Aria only stared. Stared at all the Autobots. They were all there.
All except…
"Hey Aria, over here."
She looked down. Wheelie and Brains came towards her from the Autobots who were discussing what their plan was.
She knelt in front of them, pulling them both into her arms.
"You guys are okay!" she said through fresh tears. It was so good to see them again. "Thank you, Wheelie, for telling Sam to come get me."
Wheelie gave her a pat before prying him and Brains out of her arms. "Yeah well, I figured if any human was smart enough to sneak up on Sentinel and kill him, it was you. But we're back now, so we can go get him together. I mean, if you haven't noticed," Wheelie gestured up to Optimus. "Big guy's just as pissed as you for what Sentinel did."
"We all are," Brains added.
Sure enough, each and every one of the Autobots wore hard expressions.
Whatever discussion Optimus and Sam were having was over. Bee was now getting into the crashed ship, Sam just behind him, climbing onto his shoulder.
The Autobots transformed into their alt modes and went after Sam and Bee.
"Come on," Epps called to her. "We're heading to Trump Tower!"
She finally came out from under the train. Sideswipe slammed on his brakes and the door flung open. Aria got in, followed by Wheelie and Brains.
"What are you doing here?" Sideswipe hissed as soon as she closed the door.
"The same thing you are."
"We've got it now, Aria. You don't have to be here. Ironhide—"
"I know this is the last place—" She choked, "he would want me. But that doesn't matter now, does it?" Her breathing grew more ragged. "All I have left is this hollow feeling in my chest and a bow."
"Yeah Swipe," Brains said, "she deserves to be a part of this just as much as you do."
Sideswipe made a disapproving noise but still continued to follow the convoy. "Just try not to do anything too stupid…for Ironhide's sake."
She didn't reply.
A few blocks away, above them, the ship Bee and Sam were in began shooting at a building. That must have been where Carly was. Sideswipe drifted around a corner, sending her body into the door. The convoy had changed directions, now headed toward the place Bee's ship was spiraling toward.
By the time they got there, Sam, Bee, and Carly were scrambling out of the wreckage. The three of them looked a little beat up but otherwise okay.
Aria got out of Sideswipe's alt form and went over to the downed drone everyone was gathering around. They were trying to contact the military. When the drone moved, Carly began to tell it where the pillar was.
And Sentinel.
The Autobots quickly left to scout ahead, leaving her and the humans behind.
She knew where Sentinel was now. An investment building by the river.
Sam and the others were discussing how to shoot down one of the pillars, but the pillars didn't matter. The whole world could come crashing down and she would still find Sentinel.
While the others planned, Aria's eyes drifted through the wreckage. Something orange glimmered. A dual sport motorcycle. Unlike her new bike, this one resembled her childhood dirt bike. Something that could handle this terrain.
She lifted it back up onto its kickstand. The key was still in it.
The others were still talking, but she already knew where Sentinel was.
She got on the bike, kickstarted it, and rode off. The sound of the bike drowned out the calls of her name.
Her bow and arrows were back in the side pocket of her backpack. Eight in total, three of which would explode on impact.
Those were for Sentinel. He could have all three.
She was going as fast as the ravaged cityscape would allow her. Anything small she simply rode over, occasionally catching air on the larger objects. The wind was sooty and burned her lungs. Gunshots grew louder.
Then, a Decepticon stepped out from behind a building ahead of her. It looked like the one the three Autobots had ripped apart before. It had no resemblance to anything human, like it didn't have an alt form. It was just…an alien.
Its red eyes found her. All she could do was swerve out of the way as it pointed its gun. A streak of light passed as the bike slid out from under. She rolled on the dirty asphalt, only coming to a stop when her body hit something hard.
Her head still spun. Which way was up?
The sky came into focus, and so did the destroyed car she was up against. It blocked the Decepticon from view, but its quacking footsteps drew closer, causing the car to shudder.
She grabbed the bow from her backpack. Arrows fell out onto the ground as she did so. She picked up one of the regular arrows.
The bow transformed in her hand, glowing vibrantly against the dullness of the city. She notched the arrow, pulled back, and stood from behind the car.
The Decepticon had just caught sight of her when she released the string. His arm raised but abruptly stopped when her arrow landed in a thick cord on its neck.
It was one of the places Ironhide had told her to aim.
"The neck is a weak spot. An arrow there will stun."
Thick blue liquid oozed from the wound and the Decepticon froze and convulsed as if it were being electrocuted.
"Then, when their chest is exposed aim here." Ironhide pulled at his chest plates to reveal an enclosed chamber inside. "The arrows should be just strong enough to penetrate, but your aim has to be precise."
"I don't think I could do it."
She pulled back and loosed another arrow at the small target between its chest plates. It stumbled and toppled over into a building.
"As long as I'm around, you'll never have to."
She went up to the fallen Cybertronian, stopping beside its head. She grasped the arrow and ripped it out of the cord. Then she stepped onto its chest and yanked that arrow out too. Energon from its spark chamber sprayed her skin.
She held up her arm observing the drops on her wrist. They were fading quickly, shrinking into nothing.
No, that wasn't it, they were absorbing into her skin.
It made the ache in her head go away. And the pain in her hip from hitting the car too.
The bike felt even lighter when she lifted it back up. She kicked it back to life once again and continued along the river, her vision blurred by tears.
She had never felt so strong and yet so, so…
Empty.
She scanned the tops of towering buildings, balconies, reflections in the glass, but nothing.
Carly had seen the building Sentinel was on, and this was the way they'd come from.
She had to be close.
A ship descended from the side of a building like a fly taking flight. It dropped until it was only feet off the ground in front of her.
But she didn't have time to waste. The second the movement caught her eye, she stopped the bike, planted a foot, and had the bow aimed at it.
Her arrow penetrated the small portion of glass and the ship lurched to the side, scraping against the asphalt.
The bow transformed back, and she shoved it back into the pocket before kicking the bike back into gear and speeding past the crashing ship.
Only another few blocks down, something red moved on the top of a building. She hit the brakes so hard that rear tire came up.
It was him.
He was over one hundred yards up, and from this distance…it was nearly a two hundred yard shot.
The furthest she'd ever shot accurately was eighty.
Sentinel paced back and forth between two cupulas on either end of the building. She could just make out a faint glow within them. The pillars.
The pillars that had wasted so much of her time. Time she could have spent with him.
The bike fell as she swung herself off it. From here, she would be just an ant to him. The pathetic insect he thought she was.
But he messed with the wrong one and he would pay for it.
He would die for killing Ironhide.
She pulled back the sting, one of the explosive arrows notched. It glowed brighter and brighter as she forced more and more Energon into it. More and more anger. More and more hatred.
She pulled back on the string harder, willing it with every fiber of her being for the arrow to hit its mark.
The bow made a noise, and as if acknowledging her. The ends extended further, the string pulled further back, more symbols shone cerulean.
"What do the symbols mean?" She asked, running her fingers along the etchings on the bow.
"They're like," Ironhide paused, thinking. "Wishes." He took her hand in his and guided it across the bow. "These mean protection. And these mean strength of will." He went to another. "This one means focus, for your aim, I mean. And these," their hands rested over a series of tiny glyphs. "Are a poem you once made for me."
Her cheeks suddenly burned. "You remember it?"
He nodded. "I…added to it."
"You did?"
"There once was a blackbird
Who met a dove,
They sat for a time
Looking above
Words unspoken,
But they know it's love."
A scream ripped from her throat as she pulled back as hard as she could and released the arrow.
…
