Hey there! This is my first Transformers fan fiction! Hope you enjoy!

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters relating to Transformers, even though I own the DVDs. I only own my OCs that are in the story.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT– scene change

Name: change of the pov

Italics telepathy, "italics" talking on a phone

Well that's it. On with the story.

I'm not really sure where to begin in this story. But then again I did not even know where I was until I asked a doctor in the hospital I woke up in all those years ago. You see . . . I only remember getting hit with some kind of energy beam, speaking with my friends, and then blacking out. Only then waking up in the hospital a full six days later!

The doctor even told me that he wasn't sure I was even going to make it at all! Boy did I surprise him!

Though I guess with any good story, it is best to start at the beginning. Finally I believe I have the strength and the heart to write in my own hand the events from both my own and my friends' points of view as they took place one by one.

I still remember that first meeting like it just occurred yesterday even though it started long before that when I was young, and did not truly remember who I was. It began on a dark, rainy night, just as I was returning home from a family reunion in Indiana . . .

I switched on the wind-shield wipers on to the second setting, just as the downpour that I was driving in came down even harder to almost make the road disappear from my eyesight, if that was even possible. But then again the month of May is when my home city of Duluth in Minnesota starts getting a ton of rain from Lake Superior. The wind didn't really help either as I struggled slightly to keep my little blue Ford car on the road.

The highway I was driving on was full of twists and turns. It would not be a straight path for a few more miles. I wanted to drive faster, since I wanted to get home real badly. I had been cooped up down in Indy for the past two weeks, having to share a room with one of my two annoying sisters, and I just wanted to get home and have some alone time. And most importantly some quiet. I had not been able to get one moment of peace at the reunion and I hated when that happened. My family was not the easiest to get along with, especially when most thought themselves to be far better than those around them.

My foot started to press the pedal to the floor but my mind overruled it and I moved my foot back as my grandfather's lecture ran through my head about all the things that happened to people when they tried to drive fast on a road in this kind of weather, so I just took it slow.

My notebooks and laptop shifted a little in the passenger seat as I turned at another curve. The noise of the rain competing with the bass from the Toby Keith song that blasted from the speakers of the CD player. I turned right one final time and looking through the gloom of the pouring rain, just barely made out the lights of Duluth in the distance.

The cranes that stood above the bay, where they loaded and unloaded cargo ships stood like soldiers guarding the town from any outside invaders. I crossed the bridge over the lake and turned onto the main street that led to the center of town. The street was still brightly lit on either side since the volunteer workers had not yet taken down the Easter decorations on the light poles lining either side of the street, even though we were almost into the middle of May.

I turned onto Kennedy Parkway, and drove up the large hill to get to my subdivision. Well, it really wasn't a subdivision; the houses that people lived in were, and still are built right into the city but are all located above the city on the side of the mountains that are on the western side of Duluth. My house was located on the edge of Silverstream Drive, just about four city-blocks away from the edge of the cliffside that looked down on the lake. My house faced the bay just enough so that I could sit outside in the morning on my second floor balcony and watch the ships go in and out of port.

My house's storm-blue paint color blended in with the slight misty fog that the rain had started to create. Other houses in the area were painted bright colors; most people here didn't like to lose sight of their house in a rain storm like this. I pulled up into my driveway and slowly drove my car into the garage, and got out after grabbing my things on the other seat. I put those into the backpack I had so they wouldn't get wet from the rain.

The only upside to this dreary weather was that my car got a free bath. The downside was that my garage was not connected to my house in any way. Not that I minded, I had an umbrella.

I slung my bag onto my back and opened the umbrella after closing the garage door. I had just started walking towards the front door when I noticed it for the first time. I turned and saw an ambulance parked outside of my house, on the curb at the edge of my lawn. I had seen ambulances before but not one like this. This one was pure white except for the red markings on its front, sides, and back.

The ambulances, heck even the fire trucks around here were painted with this more lime than yellow shade of color. That sure did not help add to the fact that people couldn't see them in this weather anyway unless their lights were on. Some of my friends in town had petitioned for a new paint job, but no one at city hall had listened to them.

I put my backpack into the house and then went back outside to inspect the ambulance. I circled it, carefully checking all around for signs of damage or missing pieces. Thank goodness there weren't any. Sometimes it seemed like this town had more problems with vandals then with actual criminals, and that was not an exactly pleasing thought. I turned and went back into the garage, and grabbed a large black vinyl tarp that I had on a shelf and brought it back outside. Spreading the tarp over the ambulance was not easy, but it worked. Not only was the car now covered from the rain, it was also, hopefully, protected from any vandals patrolling the streets looking for an easy target to swipe.

Nodding at my handiwork, I picked up my umbrella and walked back into the house. Leaving the umbrella next to the door, I went upstairs to change out of my now soaked clothes and took a shower. I was sure to first take off the silver pendant that I inherited from my mother; I did not want to ruin it. I sat in the warm water, letting it soak into my cold joints and muscles. Exiting the shower after a good hour, I was in my pajamas and ready for bed. I looked out the window at the rain. Don't get me wrong I like the rain, just not when it has been going on for a record of six days. I spotted the dark shape of the ambulance in the darkness sitting just where I had left it.

I smiled slightly, and went to bed, falling asleep almost instantly and expecting everything to be peaceful.

I was dead wrong.

I had been dozing for about an hour when the sensations started again. Unknown to me, my pendant had started glowing a faint sky blue and had levitated a few inches off of the table. The horrible sense of pure energy, for that is the only way for me to describe it, was coursing through my body and trapped me in a world of hideous nightmares.

Shots ripped through me, abject the terror and pain as I was being pulled back deeper into the dream. A strong, horrible sense of loss engulfed me as I felt myself being torn, no, forced away from everything that I had ever known and loved. And finally the ultimate blackness of oblivion as I felt myself leaving my body to take on another life and also feeling the pain of my two friends that felt the same way as it happened to them.

My eyes rested on the face of a robot, glaring at me with blue eyes as he nodded his head and snapped his fingers, turning everything to black.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

The sleep visions that tormented me all night eventually subsided near dawn like always. It wasn't as if this was the first time, the dreams felt like some sort of lost memory of a previous life or something. Strange, I know, but for some reason that explanation seemed to work for me more than anything else at the time.

I pulled myself from the latest of the nightmares. Waking up to find bright sunlight shinning in my face as it came in through the large, floor to ceiling windows that led out to the balcony. I turned over to try once again to find some peace when I heard knocking and the ringing of my doorbell from downstairs. Sound travels feely through my house.

I looked at the clock and found that it was nearly eleven a.m. Tugging myself out of the mangled sheets, I threw on some socks, blue jeans with a jewel design of a red, silver, and blue butterfly on the right front pocket, and a plain all-white, v-neck T-shirt. I clasped my necklace, took a brush to my hair, and then ran downstairs to open the door for the person who was so determinedly pounding on the darn thing before they grabbed something to tear it off its hinges.

Opening the door, I found my two close friends standing there grinning at me. I had to smile at them. They were both determined little things, I say little because I towered over both of them with my 5'8" of height. Though I was surprised that Jennifer, or Jen, was even here since her father seemed to believe that Tara and I were a bad influence on her.

Jen is the shortest out of the three of us with her 5'4" in height. She had long, waist length dark blonde hair and hazel eyes. Tara, on the other hand, was 5'6" in height with shoulder length auburn hair and chocolate brown eyes. What was weird though, even with the fact that Tara stood between both Jen and me in height, I was the one who stood as the mediator. Tara and Jen always fought over just about everything.

I glanced between the two of them as I leaned on the doorjam.

"Hey you two, what's up?" I yawned, "What are you doing up here anyway? I thought, Jen, that your dad believes that T and I are corrupting your little mind."

Jen grinned as she pushed her bangs out of her face. "I'm gonna ignore that comment for now. Besides I can hang out with you if I want, you're my friends. Besides I'm not sixteen anymore, he can't order me around."

I motioned for them to come in, as it was still a little cold from yesterday. Both of them dropped off their coats on the bench and went into the kitchen. As always, they were hungry, I swear both of them were bottomless pits in that department. Tara grabbed a coke and Jen a root-beer and followed me into the living room. Tara sat on the L-shaped couch, while Jen got the loveseat, and I sat down in my favorite recliner chair.

"You didn't answer my question. What exactly are you two doing here? I thought you two were going to the mall in Minneapolis today?"

Tara looked at me. "You haven't seen what's on the tube this morning?"

I shook my head. "No. You two woke me up with your banging. What is on there? More on the war or something?"

Jen put down her glass and got up to turn on the television, flipping through the different channels before coming to the local news station. I just stared at the TV, my mouth nearly falling open. There was a familiar stretch of I-2 that I took to work in Fargo, not exactly right outside town, but close enough I guess. The camera was far away but it could make out some planes coming towards the city as well as a huge semi truck with a black cab that had windows tinted purple.

As they got closer to the camera I could see the violet symbol that humans had come to fear. The symbol of the Decepticons. The camera pulled back and showed that these Decepticons were a large group of vehicles with the Autobot symbol. The Decepticons were heading towards the city, with the Autobots in pursuit. The only question in my mind though was, why?

"You see now why we're up here?" Tara asked. "Are you going to come with us out of the city or not. If the Decepticons are coming here then you know there's trouble, but why'd they're heading here, don't know."

Jen nodded, "The mayor issued an order that everyone is to get out of the city before the Cons' and Autobots get here. You coming?"

I shook my head. "No I'm going to stay here; you two can go on if you want. There's something I have to do first though." I guess any reasonable person would have called me just plain stupid.

But thankfully not these two as Jennifer and Tara stared at me and then plopped themselves back onto the couches. A smile graced my lips as I looked back at them, they never did anything without me and if I was staying here to ride this out then they would too. Talk about true friends when they stuck with ya no matter what happened. They had been doing that ever since we met back in elementary school.

"Stay here until I get back then." I ordered, throwing on a jacket.

"Alright, we'll be here. Don't be too long!" both of them said in sync like they had practiced it as I went out the door.

I had to laugh. Those two seemed to speak in sync a lot, more times than once making me think they were twins in another life.

I went just a few feet from my door and down the walkway before I stepped on something. When I looked down I saw that it was my black tarp that I had covered the ambulance with the night before, nicely folded with a small note attached. The note read, 'Thank you for keeping me . . . my car that is protected from the rain and other people, if I can ever repay you just call using the com . . . phone attached to the tarp with this note.'

Weird. Did this person not know English? Or was he stopping himself from saying something he wasn't' supposed to? I shrugged and picked up the phone device. It was silver with gold symbols imprinted on it along with the red symbol that the ambulance had on its hood on the back surrounded by a white outline instead of black . . . wait red symbol? I looked down at it again, then the tarp.

Oh my God! Mental head slap. Boy do I feel stupid! I thought, mentally smacking myself in the head again.

Just as I was about to go back into my house, the large gas tanks the dock workers used for the ship exploded downtown. I whirled around in time to see the mushroom cloud rise over the waterfront part of the city. Oh man, I didn't think that they were that close to the city. Turning towards the garage to get my motorcycle to check it out I saw the ambulance from last night speed around the corner not far from my house.

What in the . . .? I shrugged it off and got on my motorcycle, making sure that my desert eagle was in place in its side holster, put on my helmet, and took off after it. Okay so it was crazy thing to do, but like most people my curiosity got the better of me.

My motorcycle seemed to fly down the road as I followed the ambulance. Only stopping when I got closer to where the explosion had sounded off only about five minutes before. The ambulance continued around the corner as I got off my bike, removed the helmet and moved to the corner with my gun in hand. Looking around the edge of the masonry building I saw at least two of the Decepticon planes; they must have flown ahead of the others.

They were removing glowing cubes from the factory that had been supplied with the diesel fuel for the ships before it went up in smoke. The one colored red and silver seemed to be the leader but by the way the other acted they didn't like him in charge so either the red one was a stupid lackey or just a really stupid and annoying second-in-command.

The ambulance stopped just a few feet away from them and transformed as well. He changed into a large white robot with the red ambulance markings still visible and pulled out some kind of gun before yelling at the two transformed jets.

The red one turned and shouted something else before he and his partner fired upon the Autobot, as I got closer to hear the conversation. The two cons fired on the Autobot knocking him backwards into a building on the other side of the street across from me. Once again I saw the symbol as he tried to get up. But he fell back down again and held his head where a large concrete slab had hit him. He sat in a slight daze, unaware of the Cons approaching him.

Not sure why exactly I did what I did next but I knew I had to do something. Glancing at my gun to make sure that all fourteen of the semi-automatic rounds were there and mentally kicked myself in the head. I then swung around the corner I was hiding behind, aimed my gun and the red one's eyes, and shot twice.

Ducking behind the corner again as the Con screamed, holding his face where both his eyes had once been, I scrambled to get behind a large green dumpster before the other Con noticed me. The blue and silver one looked around for me and was aiming and shooting at anything that was located where the shots may have come from.

The Autobot in the meantime, having gotten his vision back, had gotten up from where he was laying on the ground. He had a surprised look on his face at the scene before him. But he took advantage of it and shot the other Con, who was searching for me, and blasted him in his chest plate. He shouted something that I couldn't really make out over the still screaming robot but he grabbed the red one and blasted off into the sky and flew away from the city. Being careful to make sure the Autobot didn't see me; I ran the long way back to my bike and took off for the house.

Pulling into the driveway and nearly running over Tara and Jen who had both run out of the house and were yelling at me, asking where I had gone off too, I still managed to get my bike into the garage. I told them that I had gone into town for some food but it had gotten knocked out of my hands when the attack had started.

This explanation seemed to calm down their ruffled feathers enough for me to shoo them back into the house before going back to the front door to get the tarp off the front walk so people didn't trip over it. When I did, I spotted the Autobot, sitting in front of my house in his vehicle mode again. I smiled slightly as I folded the tarp again to carry it under one arm back to the garage when he finally said something.

"Thank you." He said.

I turned and walked back towards him, stopping on the sidewalk. "Your welcome, I guess. But what exactly did I do?"

He laughed a little, making his ambulance form shake a bit from side to side. "You've saved my life. I don't know what would have happened with those Decepticons if you hadn't followed me. You are quite a marksman."

"It's no problem. You needed help. I always give that freely no matter what the circumstances. I was beginning to wonder what exactly you were last night; we don't normally get someone like you around here."

"No I supposed you don't." he laughed again.

"You have a name?"

"It's Ratchet. And you?"

I smiled. "My name's Alia Maxwell but you can call me Angel. Everyone around here does."

"Alright, Angel. I like the sound of that." Ratch said. "I have something I want to ask you."

"Shoot," I said, tilting my head to one side.

"I wanted to know if there was a place around here where I and maybe some of my comrades may stay when they get here."

My eyes widened. "There are more of you coming here. Why?"

"There has been some recent Decepticon activity around here, as you saw earlier. I was sent here as a recon agent to check it out. The others are coming here to help me find out what exactly they are looking for. Though . . .?"

"What?"

"My commander gave orders that I'm to give him a report when he gets here. I'm not sure what to tell him, I wasn't really supposed to make contact with any humans in this area."

I looked down at my feet. Oh man, what have I done now? Then I said, "You can tell him what happened Ratch, just leave out the parts where you had help and met me. I'm sure he won't get mad if you don't mention it in the first place."

He thought about this for a few seconds before answering. "I guess I could do that just this once. Do you know of a place?"

I nodded. "Yeah I do. Why don't you meet me here in the morning and I'll take you to the place. No one goes up there anymore so you should have as much privacy as your group wants."

"Thanks. I'll meet you here in the morning then." He said. Then he drove off down the road, honking his horn before going around the corner. I waved at him. Then I went back to the garage to put the tarp away before heading back into the house.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

I woke up bright and early the next morning. For once I was well rested as the night visions had not tormented me. The visions were quiet, I wasn't sure of the reason then but I just figured that I had finally grown out of them. I dressed and went downstairs to the kitchen. I grabbed a blueberry muffin finishing it in three bites and grabbed a bottle of water before going outside to wash my motorcycle in the driveway before Ratchet got to the house.

Backing my bike into the driveway I balanced it on the kickstand before filling a bucket full of water and soap. I dropped the sponge into the bucket and grabbed a stool. Setting it down next to my bike I sat and started to clean off the dirt from the chrome and tires.

I sat back in my lawn chair admiring the new cleaned and polished bike that sat in the driveway drying in the sun's rays. My jacket hung on the back of the chair. Ratchet pulled up at the end of the driveway as I took a swig of water. Closing the lid, I grabbed the jacket putting it over my shoulders as I walked towards Ratchet.

"Hey."

"Hey yourself." Ratch said. "Nice bike."

I smiled. "Thanks. It's a Harley. I've had it for a couple of years."

"Really? Looks brand new." He replied.

I put my hands on my hips. "Are we gonna talk about my bike all day? Or am I going to show you where that place is?"

He laughed and opened the driver side door for me. I walked over and climbed in. Ratchet drove to the end of the road to the guardrail and turned around heading down the street. I looked around inside of Ratch's cab. I'd seen the inside of ambulances before but those were not as roomy. But I could understand that with him being an Autobot and everything else. The controls were basically the same except that the steering wheel moved by itself. I was looking at a screen in the middle of the dashboard when Ratchet's face appeared on it.

"I'm going the right way correct?"

I nodded as I leaned back in the seat. "Yeah. Just take the right two streets down."

Ratchet drove down the street past the hill that led to the center of town. He came up on Hillshire Road and turned right. This place at the top of the hill had been home to several automobile factories at one time before I had moved here. But now the factories had moved to somewhere else down south out of the cold weather.

Not that I blamed them when sometimes around here it got to forty below zero. A large group of construction workers had helped with the dismantling of the internal factory workings. But they had left the actual buildings still standing, though now completely gutted and left to collect dust so to speak.

Ratchet stopped in front of the one just next to the hill's crest. I had checked out this place yesterday. This warehouse was the biggest of the old factories on the street. The whole building was about eight stories tall to hold the cranes that had once been on the different assembly lines.

The great thing was about this place was that because this factory was the first one in the long row of buildings no one really paid any attention to it at all when they drove up here to get to the cliffside that over looked the mountains that stretched out with some of the water from Lake Superior flowing beneath it. They mostly just looked in the others in the row for extra concrete or parts that had been left behind to fix their cars with.

I got out of Ratchet's cab and slipped on my jacket as I walked over to the building's four story garage door. I heard Ratchet transform behind me as I opened up an old wiring panel to get at the door opener. I punched the button and closed the panel as the door started to open. I went inside and waited for the door to open up the whole way for Ratchet to come in, then I punched another button on an inside panel and the door started to slide back down but I stopped it so it was high enough for Ratchet to drive out of when we left.

Ratchet walked around the inside of the first room checking out the completely open space except for a stairway that led up to some offices that had been left there if the car manufacturers had decided to put a replacement factory up here. Rumor was that the city was going to tear these down and use this area for a new school or two but so far plans for that had fallen through the chain of command.

"Well, I didn't expect it to be so roomy in here." Ratchet said finally.

I laughed. "Yeah. You could never tell when all the equipment was here but now that it's gutted you can see it pretty clearly."

"What are those doors over there?" Ratchet asked. He pointed to a large door that went up all eight stories of the building.

"Oh those. Well there used to be multiple floors in the building but they took those out when the plant moved out of here. The people left the doors standing. Those slits in the door marked where the floors were when the plant was in full operation. The door marks the entrance to another room and then there is a third one in the far back." I explained.

Ratchet walked over to the tall door and pushed it open. All sections of the door were attached together to the same pulley system so obviously they all opened at once. I followed Ratchet as he went into the other room but stayed put as he checked out the third. He came back after a few minutes and gave the room another once over checking for any damage that anyone might have missed before. Finding none he walked back into the first one and made sure I was with him before he pulled the door shut.

"This will do really well. The last room I can set up a temporary medical station while the others set up a base in the second room. While this one . . . well, not sure about this room yet but I'm pretty sure that the others will find some use for it."

I looked up at him. "Glad you approve of it Ratch. This factory shell is truly ignored by anyone who passes by on the road itself down the hill but you will have the occasional sightseer that drives up here. But other than that I don't think anyone will investigate and strange new activity and find you up here. Just try not to make too much noise." I paused and looked up at him. "When are your friends arriving anyway?"

He looked down at me. "I spoke to Optimus, my commander, before rejoining you in the second room. He says that they are not too far outside of town and should be here either tonight or tomorrow morning, early at the latest. You okay?"

A look of shock must have passed on my face to make him say that. "T . . . tonight or tomorrow? Jeez you guys travel fast when you have to."

Ratchet laughed. "When a situation concerns the Decepticons we have to move fast to protect all you humans. Though . . . I do have to talk to you."

I looked at him questioningly. "About what?"

He shook his head. "Not here. Get in and we'll talk while I take you home."

I stood in place for a minute. But, shrugging, I finally complied getting into the passenger seat. Ratchet started to pull out of the abandoned factory and stopped long enough for me to press the button to close the garage. He then pulled out and turned to head back down the hill. We drove in silence for a while. He was driving slower than before. I looked out the window and sighed. Whatever it was that he had to talk to me about apparently wasn't good. I jumped about two feet in the air when he started speaking again.

"Angel . . ." he started.

"Jeez! Don't do that, you scared me!" I exclaimed leaning back farther into the seat. I heard him chuckle under his breath and his face came up on the monitor again.

"Sorry," he started again. "The thing is Angel. I'm not sure if it's a good idea for everyone to know about you yet. It's not that we wouldn't want another human friend, it is just that . . "

I nodded understanding. "You just don't want the Decepticons to find out about me and possibly hurt me while you all are here right?"

"Uh huh. I especially don't want anything to happen to you. I'd never forgive myself if you were hurt. Just give me some time to try and explain the situation to Optimus and the others." Ratch said concern adding an edge to his voice.

Ratchet pulled up to my house slowly. I nearly screamed when a human popped up in the seat next to me. I noticed that he was sort of see through like a simulator image they used at the museum to act as a tour guide for visitors. The hologram had short red hair with startling blue eyes and was dressed in a white t-shirt with a dark blue jeans and a light blue jacket trimmed in white with a red cross symbol on the right breast pocket, also outlined in white.

"Ratch. What's that?" I asked.

"It is a hologram. I activated it because your friends are standing in your driveway."

I looked ahead through his windshield. Sure enough there were Tara and Jennifer both standing there and boy did they look mad about something. Yikes.

Ratchet went around the end of the street and turned around, pulling up in front of my driveway. Tara and Jennifer stayed where they were as I slowly got out of Ratchet. I looked at the monitor as he nodded to me. 'I'll see you when I can.' He mouthed silently. I nodded back and shut the door behind me. Ratchet's hologram image nodded to me one more time and then he drove off.

I smiled as I watched him drive down the road and Tara and Jennifer came to stand by me. I knew that Ratchet cared about me. But I could sense what he wasn't saying too. He and I both weren't positively sure that the other Autobots would accept me as a friend. For them to find out about me would let Optimus Prime know that Ratchet had gone against orders and made contact with a human. I did not really want him to get in trouble. Hopefully when I finally met the others they would understand.

But I never expected things to go as badly as they did.