NOTES: While reading this chapter, I advise listening to the song "Close Your Eyes" by Christopher Beck, from the Buffy: The Vampire Slayer soundtrack.

The rising disk of the sun was greeted by a chorus of birdsong, underscored by the deep rumble of elephants and the roar of lions. Nearby, he could hear the quiet chitter-chatter of small mammals emerging from their dens, taking advantage of the early light to feed while their natural predators - usually reptiles like snakes and lizards - were still waiting for the full strength of day to warm them up. The zebra, gazelle, and wildebeest herds were stirring again, preparing for another long day of grazing.

Yet, in the midst of it all, Hound remained still and silent, his back to the sunrise, and his optics focused on the little ceramic jar he held in his hands. For an Autobot, the weight was really negligible, but to him, it weighed more than anything he had been ever made to carry.

The jar contained Addy's ashes, all that was left from the rather informal cremation ceremony done at Seronera. He had been late for that, but it was not his fault - not really.

He lifted his gaze to look at his shadow, which stretched long and wide across an expanse of savannah. It almost felt like an entire vorn since the last time he had spoken to her, even though he knew that it was only a few days. At that time, he and Addy were once more preparing to settle down for the night when his sensors picked up an unusual signal. When he focused on it, he realized that it was a Decepticon signal - one of the Seekers, that much he was sure, but it was hard to tell which.

He had turned to Addy then, but she was looking at him with a small smile on her face that did nothing to conceal the worry in her eyes. "It's them, I suppose?"

For the first time in his many vorns of dedicated service to the Autobot cause, Hound was torn. He knew that it was his duty to go after the Seeker, to find out what they were up to, and then radio in to his comrades, but he did not like leaving Addy behind. He considered taking her with him, but he didn't want to, either; it was too dangerous, and the last thing he wanted was for her to get caught in the crossfire.

But through that easy understanding that Hound found both strange and comforting, Addy knew his dilemma, and understood. She smiled and walked over to him, placing a hand on his forearm. "You have to go."

"I can't leave you here," he said, keeping his voice low to prevent it coming out hoarse.

"There is a ranger station not too far from here, only fifteen minutes away. You can leave me there for now." Her fingers squeezed gently, and though the pressure was light, he knew that it was meant to reassure him. "I will be all right."

At length, he nodded, and transformed, allowing Addy to break up her camp, pack up the equipment and her gear, and get into the driver's seat. Addy gave him the directions to the ranger station, and he took off in that direction at a tearing speed, making it there in good time.

He did not transform out of his alt-mode even when Addy had finished unloading her things. He wanted to, but time was of the essence, and he was just going to be wasting energy if he transformed.

Addy ran a hand over his steering wheel, and leaned forward to press her forehead against it, before finally dropping a light kiss onto it. "Please," she murmured, and Hound felt his spark flicker at the emotion in her voice, "please, come back safe."

"I will, I promise," he said, knowing that he meant every single word of it. He was determined to do his job well, so that he could come back and see her again.

She got out then, and he turned around, preparing to head off in the direction of the Decepticon signal, but then, he abruptly remembered something. "Addy, there's something I-"

"You can tell me when you get back," she said, her voice firm. "Make it your reason to come back safe."

He would have smiled, if he could, but in his alt-mode, he could not. Instead, he settled for repeating the promise he had made earlier on, and when Addy waved in farewell, he dashed off after the Decepticon signal.

The rest of it went off as planned around a Terran year ago back at the Ark. He tracked the Decepticon all the way to Mount Kilimanjaro, where he learned that Megatron was drilling holes into the mountain in a bid to reawaken the slumbering volcano and harness that energy to make energon cubes. He radioed the Ark, and was told to stay put and continue surveillance while the others flew over on Skyfire. This he did, carefully monitoring the Decepticons' movements until Skyfire finally arrived with his comrades.

From there, it was the usual routine: the Autobots engaged the Decepticons on Kilimanjaro, managing to defeat them and send them scurrying back to Megatron. The Autobots made sure that there was nothing dangerous left on the mountain, and filled up the holes that had been drilled. After that, the others boarded Skyfire to head back to the Ark, but Hound asked for a couple of days more so that he could see Addy. The others saw nothing wrong with that, and Hound gave Skyfire directions to Seronera so that he could come back later after dropping the others off back at the Ark, while he and Trailbreaker made their way back down to the ranger station where he had left Addy.

He could still remember how excited and happy he had been at the prospect of introducing Addy to Trailbreaker, certain that the two of them would get along famously. On the way down to the savannah, Hound filled Trailbreaker in on everything that had happened in the past year, about all the things that he had seen and enjoyed while with Addy, as well as about Addy herself. Trailbreaker had listened with a mixture of amusement and curiosity, at the same time enjoying the trip they made through the marvelous Tanzanian landscape.

But when they reached the ranger station where Hound had left Addy, all that greeted them was a smoking mass of wood and metal. One of the rangers on the scene recognized Hound, and told him what had happened: a group of poachers had attacked the ranger station without warning not a few days ago - the day immediately after Hound left, to be precise. At first, they were able to hold out, but the poachers had superior firepower, and it did not take them very long to overwhelm the station's defenses and get to everyone inside.

"But where is Addy?" Hound demanded, his systems vibrating with extreme worry.

The man was silent for a while, but length, he looked up, and replied: "Ms. Rowan was fatally wounded in the fight. She fought back, you see, took down three or four of them, excellent markswoman that she is..." He shook his head. "She was taken back to Seronera for medical treatment."

Hound knew that there was no time to lose. He and Trailbreaker raced to the Seronera settlement, praying as hard as he could that she would be alive when he got there.

It was all for naught. All that he had managed to reach was the scent of something burning on the wind, and the tail end of a cremation ceremony.

A hand squeezed his shoulder then, and Hound lifted his head to look at Trailbreaker, who gave him a small, sympathetic smile. "It's not your fault, Hound. You did what you had to do. You didn't know that the ranger station would be attacked."

"I know that," Hound replied, his voice sounding heavy even to his own audios. He looked at the jar he held in his hand, remembering how he had pleaded to have it, since Addy didn't have any family, and none of them knew how to contact any of her friends. "It's just... I wish I had some more time."

"Time for what?"

"Time to say things that we didn't have to say to each other, but that I promised I'd say when I got back." He managed a smile then, but even he knew that it was a sad, half-hearted one. "You don't think I'm foolish, acting like this, do you?"

Trailbreaker shook his head, smiling. "No Hound. I don't." His expression became serious. "But we have to go. Optimus is waiting for us to go back and report on the situation."

"I know." She would have told him that he had to back, that much he knew. She would have told him to go, because she knew that he was needed elsewhere, that their bond had to take second place to something much, much larger than the both of them.

And he knew, with absolute certainty, that she would have smiled while watching him go, the same way that she smiled when he left her for the first and last time.

He turned to face the rising sun, savoring the warmth as he removed the cover from the jar. He waited for the wind to blow in just the right direction, and when it did, he upended the jar in one smooth motion. He watched as the gray ashes inside scattered to the wind, swirling and moving on the air before dissipating completely. As he did so, a flock of birds burst out from the trees, soaring and wheeling into the sky, while out on the plain, a cheetah raced after a gazelle, bringing it down in one swift, elegant pounce.

Her words at the elephant graveyard came back to him then, as if he had summoned the memory from the depths of his processors: "...I can live a hundred million different lives, a part of every living thing that exists. When those beings die, they return to the earth, and they shall become part of another hundred million lives. And so the cycle continues, as it has since life came into being on this planet, and so it will continue, for as long as this planet exists."

For as long as this planet exists. As long as Earth existed, as long as life on it continued to flourish and grow, she would still live too. And as Hound though more and more on that, he felt his spark grow lighter, and his quest to defend Earth alongside his fellow Autobots solidify and take on a more personal dimension. He would protect Earth, not simply because he was an Autobot, but also because he once loved a human woman named Adelaide Rowan, and in her memory he would fight to protect anything that she had held dear.

"Thank you Addy," he murmured, covering the jar again, and kneeling down to nestle it at the base of a nearby acacia. "I'll miss you, but I'll never forget you."

He turned to look at Trailbreaker, and nodded, the smile on his face warm, but wistful. "Come on, Trailbreaker. Let's go home."