The Big Change- Final Chapter

Shadowlocks felt lethargic. Her eyes were heavy and every part of her body felt like they weighed tonnes. One part of her was wondering if this was what it felt like to die. Another part of her was furiously trying to keep that from happening.

She only hoped she could stay alive ling enough for someone to find her.

Dawn hung her head. It was useless. They had been searching for the better part of the night. Everyone was tired, but Starscream wouldn't give up. "We can't stop now!" he'd say and convinced everyone to work harder than they did before.

Right now, Dawn was finishing her cup of coffee and ready to start searching when a thought erupted into her head, making her choke on her coffee. "Caitlin!" she called out as her room-mate and Red Alert walked through the dorm-room door, shaking snow from their hair. "Did Shadow take her phone with her?" Dawn asked as she hurridly pulled on her jacket, whilst trying to pull on her shoes.

Caitlin absently nodded her head and grabbed a cup of coffee for herself. "Yeah, I think she did. . . Oh my god." She muttered and put down the cup hastilly, letting it spill on the ground and running out the door, right behind Dawn.

Red Alert stood his ground, puzzled, but finally realised what Dawn had meant. Following the girls, he was praying to Primus that they weren't too late.

The mine shaft she had fallen into was dark and looked abysmally decrepit to Shadowlocks. Here eyes were closed, her voice was hoarse and she felt like the dead. How she was still alive amazed even her/

It was too dark to make out the shapes of the rocks or any obstacles around her, so she accepted her fate.

A sudden thought struck her and Shadow inhaled the stale air sharply. How could she have forgotten something that seemed so insignificant at the time of her near death.

With the little strength that she had left, she fumbled about in her pockets, searching for her cell phone. "Come on, come on!" she mumbled and pulled out the sleek black phone from her pocket and promptly dropped it.

Cursing, her head swimming, she slumped against the wall of the shaft that she had used to prop herself up and calmed her fast-beating heart. It was too dark to see where the phone had fallen to.

Her knee was starting to turn numb; shock was setting in. The illness, she knew, had stolen the last of her energy and she felt the dampness of the stale, re-cycled oxygen fill her lungs over and ver again.

She just wished that death would come on swifter wings.

A shrill ringing sound had pierced through her consciousness and Shadowlocks looked around the pitch darkness, forgetting where she was for the time.

The ringing continued and then she noticed the a small green light coming from her left. Turning her stiff neck, Shadow gasped in delight as she saw her phone, once lost to her, ringing with life.

But it was out of her reach. But it was also her last life-line out of the mine that would soon serve as her tomb.

Reaching out and letting her stressed and tired body fall from her resting position on the wall, she began her task of slowly crawling agonizingly towards the phone.

Still just out of her reach, she gave out a sharp yell and pushed forwards, grabbing the phone just as the last ring sounded off and died.

Dawn hung her head as she put the phone on the tabletop. It was no use. Shadowlocks wasn't going to pick up because she was either badly hurt or even dead.

Caitlin was looking at Dawn, knowing that the worst was revealed. She didn't want to believe it herself, but she knew it would soon be over for the worst.

Red Alert looked from one girl to the other, feeling his heart go out to them. Silently, he placed a comforting hand on Caitlin's shoulder. Silence stretched on between the three until a shocking ringing shattered the stillness of the early morning. Clumsily Dawn picked up the phone.

"Hello?" she asked and stood up/ "Shadow! Oh GOD! Where are you?!" she screamed into the phone, expecting answers.

Red Alert and Caitlin looked at one another before Red Alert ran off to tell the others that contact had been made to Shadowlocks.

Caitlin just sat on the log where she had been waiting with Dawnand couldn't help but smile. They had technically found her. Now they only have to physically find her.

Shadowlocks took a shuddering breath and moved onto her back, the phone pressed to her ear, happy to hear the sound of Starscream's worried voice. "Screamer! Shut up, for my sake." She muttered hoarsly.

"Where are you? What happened?"

She had to think harder to answer his questions. She was just strolling along . . . And that was all she could remember. That's what she told him.

Shadowlocks could hear him relay what she had said to the others who were no doubt searching for her. Suddenly she heard him yell and the voice of Red Alert talk to her. "Do you remember seeing any signs or trees or anything familiar like strange rock formations that you can describe to us before you fell in?" he asked strongly.

Shadow thought for a long moment then remembered some things that she had seen moments before she fell in. "Um, wait! There was this big rock on the top of a cliff in the near distance from my left. And then there were these weird toadstool things –yellow and red– that grew near and on these two dead tress. Will that help you?" she asked and heard Caitlin's voice float through the conversation.

"I know where she is. She's just left of Lovers Peek and . . . in one of the underground mines near Dead Willow!!!" she yelled triumphantly.

"Huh?" Shadow asked, confused. "Never mind. Get me outta here. I cut my leg and I think it's infected. Please hurry. I really don't wanna die." She said in a near whisper.

What she didn't know was that Starscream was back on the phone and more determined that ever to get her back alive.

Amity-Star: I love it when I up-date. It makes me feel organised and special.

TorikaBlayde: you're NOT just GOING to LEAVE it LIKE THAT?!?!?!

Amity-Star: Maybe

TorikaBlayde: I could kille you right now.

Amity-Star: You couldn't do that.

TB: Oh, and why not?

A-S: Because I haven't finished.

"Shadow!"

"Shadowlocks!"

"Sis!"

They all yelled out in an attempt to find her. They all looked for any sign of the collapsed mine shaft, but it had snowed earlier and it was hard to see anything. They all knew that they were running out of time, their phone was their only connection to Shadow.

"You're gonna rake up one hell of a phone bill, Shadow." Dawn joked and heard her friend give a feeble laugh in return.

"Yeah, I think so – " the line went dead.

Dawn called out in alarm. "Shadow? Shadow?!" but it was no use. Shadowlocks' phone was dead.

"We have to keep looking." Optimus said, teeth grinding against one another to ward off the cold.

"Uh, guys. I think I found something." Sideswipe said and pointed to a white square log that poked out of the ground.

It was a miracle that no one had tripped over the camouflaged mine beam and onto the precarious pile of wood and rock that had sealed Shadowlocks' prison. "How're we gonna get all this stuff outta the way?" Jet Fire muttered, ashen-faced.

Red Alert suddenly appeared with a laser-like device, his face unsure. "By using this. It's called an Atom Disruptor. It removes atoms from one physical thing and re-organises it itself in another place. Where that place is, I have no idea. But," Red Alert stopped and looked nervously around him, "It hasn't been tested yet."

Starscream strode forwards and took the Disruptor from Red Alert and shot at a rock by his feet. It slowly seemed to shimmer and then disappeared. "There, its tested. Now let's get her out of there!" he growled and pointed it at the jumble of rocks.

"WHOA! Starscream stop!" Red Alert cried and jumped infront of him. "There are some other difficulties with the Disruptor."

"What kinds?" Optimus asked.

"Um, okay, where shall I start? Um," Red Alert started and then noticed something. "Yes, that'll do. Look here. Do you all see where this plank is integrated with this concrete? Well, the Disruptor can only move things that have the same atoms and chemical balances like the rock. It wood and concrete were fused together like that, and you used the Disruptor, it would just overheat the machine and create something really unstable." He finished looking from everyone's faces to land on Starscreams finally. "You must be careful."

And with that, Starscream set to work.

Shadowlocks breaths were coming in short gasps now. The phone had died, but she felt the sense of reassurance that she wouldn't die after all.

Somehow, that had changed over the passed hour.

She became aware of her consciousness slipping constantly from her, scaring her at how helpless she had become.

Suddenly, she heard voices and movement from above her and her heart skipped a beat. They had found her, they had really found her.

A light blue beam hit the big boulder that was wedged deep in the destruction of the collapsed mine shaft. The light and the boulder started to fade and then it disappeared entirely from his eyes and he stared in shock at what lay before him in the now clear and dark mine.

"Shadow!" Dawn screamed as she saw the huge gaping hole that led into the old mine. In the middle, where the early grey dawn light filtered in, revealing Shadowlocks' unconscious body.

Starscreams mind went blank and before he knew what he was doing, he had jumped down into the hole, shouts from Optimus and the others ringing behind him.

He landed with a thump and, ignoring the pain that shot up his legs, kneeled by Shadowlocks' side. "Shadow?" he asked, brushing some of her multicoloured hair from her forehead. He gasped when he eyes fluttered open.

"Screamer?" she asked but felt his lips crash onto her own. She was stunned, to say the least, but completely melted at his touch. Slowly, he pulled away and stared at her smiling.

"I've been wanting to do that since I met you." He muttered as he hugged her and buried his face in her dusty hair.

"Starscream? I've also wanted to do that, but I've been too afraid." She said hoarsely and exhaled. "I'm so tired. I want to go to sleep." She murmured lazily and relaxed in his hold.

He pulled back and watched her face, stern and strong. "Shadow, what ever you do, do NOT go to sleep!"

"But I'm so tired." She said as she struggled to keep her eyes open.

"Do it for me." Was his soft reply as he stood up, placing her gently back on the ground and turned to look through the gap to see the others look down at him. "We need help. She's fighting to keep alive. Call someone. Emergency or something." He yelled loud enough for Caitlin to jump to her feet and dial Emergency Services.

Starscream hoped it would just come in time.

A white glare pierced through Shadowlocks' dreams. Everything was white; clean white. "Am I dead?" she asked stupidly and only then opened her eyes.

Starscream chuckled and patted her hand. "Not yet."

Shadowlocks smiled, shutting her eyes against the glare. "Where am I?"

"The hospital. You've been out for about a week." Starscream said in his normal husky tone.

"A week?!" she cried out and tried to sit up, but her body didn't respond. She moaned and lifted a hand to her forehead and shut off the glare.

"Yeah. A whole week." Starscream said and Shadow was startled to feel his breath on her neck.

Dawn, Optimus, Caitlin and Red Alert walked into Shadowlocks' hospital room and stared in shock.

Infront of them, Starscream and Shadowlocks broke away, trying to look like they were doing something else –hence the fact that Starscream's magazine was upside-down.

"Well, I think we'll leave you two alone." And Caitlin and Dawn ushered both other boys out of the room.

Blushing, Shadowlocks looked to Starscream and said "Where were we again?" and they both continued what they had started.

Amity-Star: I wonder where all those rocks could've gone to?

TorikaBlayde: {away in a room which suddenly fill with rocks} AMITY!!!!!!!!!!!

Amity-Star: Ooops. Gotta run. Thanks to all who reviewed and thanks to Dual Mistress K and Honesah for letting me borrow their characters!!!!!! Luv YA!!!!

TorikaBlayde: AAIIEEYA!!! {for those of you who didn't know what the hell that was, it was her war cry.}

BLESSED BE!!!!