Run. That's what'd I'd been told to do. I stumble a bit as I'm practically ejected from the car. The ground shakes beneath my unsteady feet. A sudden impact tremor makes the asphalt ripple like water as something big and heavy lands a bit too close for my comfort. But my comfort has not been a priority for anyone today, so why start now? Slowly, I look over and then up, and up, and up two metal legs and a body that seems to be some reinterpretation of a fighter jet. It has all the same shapes, even the wings, but it looks like it was part of a lego set a three-year-old put together on a whim. The familiarity of it all has me rooted to the spot, petrified. I keep telling my legs to move, to run like I had been told. But they are stuck, firmly entrenched in the ground as I just stare upward at this metal monstrosity. I'm fixated on its face. Well it's an approximation of a face. It has eyes, a mouth, some semblance of a nose and it causes a chill to crawl its way up my spine.

For all of my training and all of my bluster, I can't believe I just stand here. I have the urge to scream but it becomes lodged in my throat. Fear has gripped me so tight, my mind becomes a bit hazy. And that's when it all starts to trickle through. That scream that was lodged, stuck in my throat, choking the life out of me, rips its way out and he actually smiles down at me. Yes. He. I remember him. I remember the sound of my leg snapping in his fingers like a twig when I wouldn't give him the answers he wanted.

"I did miss your screaming, fleshbag." His voice sounds like something out of a speaker; a high-pitched whine that warbles and yet still seems to slither out of his mouth. It makes my skin crawl so bad my whole body shudders.

"Lia, MOVE!" I'm yanked sideways by a sharp tug on my arm. I feel my feet let go of the ground with such abandon at the urging they trip over themselves and I fall. Harper is there, helping me stand back up and the relief that he's there, and ok and not freaking out as badly as I am, bolster me into moving more quickly. He urges me ahead of him and I see Jodi's black truck just ahead of me. The sound of metal impacting metal fills the air. My ears are ringing and I hear my own heartbeat, erratic and fast. Just as I get to the truck, Daniel is pulling me down, curling around me from behind protectively. We're braced against the side of the truck, like it would make much of a difference right now. I peek up over the bed and can see sparks flying off the giant robot. Yeah, that's right, a giant frickin' robot. Starscream, his name flashes through my mind like lighting along with a new flood of memories. The last thing I see is Starscream stumble to the side as what I can only assume is blaster fire impacts him. I squeeze my eyes shut and twist away, clinging to Harper as I try and not freak out even more.

"Daniel, get her in the damn truck. We need to move!" I hear Jodi shout as Harper tries to get me to stand. This whole keep calm and carry on bullshit just isn't working for me. My heart is racing and it's getting harder to breathe so I just cling to him more.

"Daniel...don't let them get me again. Don't! Please!" I sound as weak and pathetic as I feel at the moment, a small part of me hating every second of it. The majority of me thinks it's rather appropriate to be freaking out. I remember what happened last time.

"Hey, Lia. I'm not going to let anything happen to you, now come on." My legs are still pretty useless and not listening to anything that I tell them. The initial burst of movement from earlier are all they are willing to give me. My hands are fisted in Harper's shirt and bless him, he doesn't ask me to stand again, he just picks me up and opens the cab door. Harper puts me in, looking around to make sure nothing is heading our way and shuts the door. As he moves away from the window, heading for the driver's side, I can see the battle going on. My car, or what looks like something that's wearing panels of the Tesla as parts of its body, was trying to get in between us and Starscream who is twice his size. Yeah, it is definitely a "him" if that voice and projection are anything to go by. There is another one running around on the other side and they seemed to be trying to split his focus, taking pot shots at him but trying to stay well out of reach.

"So you decided to join the human loving Autobots, Barricade? You really have gone soft." There is a sudden flurry of motion as Starscream fires in our general direction. The ground next to the truck explodes and giant chunks of dirt and asphalt hail down. I think I let out a scream, but there's so much noise I can't even hear myself. My arms go up instinctively to cover my head and I turn away. The windshield stays in place. I look back out at the dirt clods and chunks of asphalt that litter the hood.

Starscream turns to fire at the one he called Barricade, charging at him. The horrible screech of metal crashing into metal, scraping and sliding against each other makes me wince as they collide. "CADE!" I hear Jodi shout and I swivel around in my seat to look at Jodi sitting in the bed of her truck, dirt and debris covering her head, stuck in her hair. She's mucking about with something in the toolbox behind her cab. She looks at the fight every few moments, slightly worried while still digging around.

"Get in the truck and go, Jodi!" The other giant robot yells, the warbling, gritty bass of it's voice sounding vaguely familiar. He, I can only assume at this point, is with Starscream, trying to keep him from coming in our direction. "No freaking way…." I mutter to myself, slowly turning back around. It sounded like her boyfriend, kinda. The voice has more bass to it, much more synthesized, but it is definitely the guy who drove the Mustang. I look, really look, at the thing tussling with Starscream and realize it is the Mustang. "Oh Jesus fucking Christ…." My mind is not ready for this.

Harper climbs into the driver's side, slamming the door closed in a rush. I feel more than hear the engine turn over as he opens the sliding window in the back of the cab, "Jodi, get in."

"No, just drive." I hear the priming charge of a laser as Jodi slams the lid on her toolbox. I whip back around in a panic. My eyes search wildly around for another one that's going to blast us all to hell. But it's just Jodi. She's holding something rifle shaped and almost as big as her. But that's not like any gun I've seen before. There's a lot going on right now that I've never seen before so I don't even bother to try and figure it out.

"Jodi, what in the hell-"

"Danny! You worry about driving, I'll deal with the giant robots, ok?" Jodi clips straps to her belt from either side of the truck bed, anchoring her as Harper cursed under his breath and starts the truck. Now, in another time, possibly another life, I'd point out he was cursing, possibly laugh. But it is just too much for the here and now. Harper drives as I cling to the handle built into the doorframe, trying to avoid getting underfoot. That becomes increasingly difficult as a pair of lamborghinis screech to a halt right in front of us and just….stand up. There really is no other way to describe it. They become vertical, bipedal beings, panels, bits and pieces of car all sliding over each other to get in position like a very elaborate stage show. The truck starts to skid. Harper slams on the brakes. The back end swings out and we're almost sideways. One second I'm staring in horror out my window at what can only be described as a leg. We're sliding right toward it and I am just waiting for the moment of impact. It doesn't come. The leg disappears as they simply lunge over us and into the fight. I can hear Jodi firing off a few shots as Harper gets the truck back under control from the slide. After that we just shoot down the freeway.

I watch the battle in the side view mirror, blurs of yellow and red the only thing I can track after awhile. Objects in mirror may be closer than they appear is right. An entire planet, an entire galaxy is too close for my liking to Starscream.

I zone out for I don't know how long, staring out the window but never actually seeing anything. My mind is trying to reassemble itself after the floodgates opened. I don't even realize we've pulled over until Harper appears in my line of sight outside my door. I blink at him. Then I blindly grab at the handle of the door, missing it a few times before my fingers grasp the handle and pull. The door swings open and I try to get out. Something holds me back though, I can't even get up. Frantically I look around, grasping at myself, trying to figure out what has tied me down and is putting pressure on my chest when Harper reaches in and unbuckles the seatbelt. A freaking seatbelt. I can feel a sob trying to claw its way out of my chest but I suck in breath and hold it, squeezing my eyes shut as I feel hands slip into mine. I grip them tight, trying not to completely fall apart on the side of the road.

"Lia," I hear Jodi next to me, another hand grips my shoulder. "We're going somewhere safe, ok? Just need you to scoot over so Daniel can get in." I nod numbly, sliding along the bench seat, one hand still gripping tightly onto Daniel's. Staring out the windshield off into the distance, my mind is processing everything, the memories, the fight we just ran away from, the fact that there are alien robots on this planet. It all kind of overwhelms me. I remember everything. I remember being taken by a giant mechanical bird to some cave in the desert. I remember giant robots walking around, talking about me like I wasn't even there. At least that's what I assume. I couldn't understand them. But they looked at me every so often while they talked. I was up high on some sheared off stalagmite with no way to get down. I could have climbed down if my arm hadn't been completely useless.

I remember my leg snapping like a twig as one of them tried to pick me up. Apparently us "fleshbags" are tiny and frail and too stupid to have created a teleporter. Well, supposedly I had. That's how I had ended up in the middle of Death Valley to begin with. It was the only rational explanation. But what I kept seeing, over and over, were the sharp lines and jagged edges of metal that all seemed to come together to form a face with eyes as bright as tail lights, screaming at me.

Starscream.

He wanted me to make it work again. He demanded I make it work again to prove it was mine. But I didn't even know how it was supposed to work in the first place.

I don't even notice when we get to Mars.

Yes, I know I said Mars. No, I don't mean the planet. That drive would take more than a few hours. No, I mean a place way out in the middle of nowhere California. Mars has one thing going for it; a large 70 meter satellite dish for deep space communications called Goldstone. There are smaller dishes in the area called Venus and Apollo, and lastly, where we're heading, Mars. There's literally nothing else out here. So it makes perfect sense to hide and entire contingent of alien robots here. And to get there, you have to go through a rather huge military base. Fort Irwin is just outside of Barstow, and is basically its own little town in the Mojave desert, complete with families, a few shops and a few fast food restaurants. At least that's what I think they are as we drive through the middle of this tiny military town. It barely registers, any of it. I only start looking around because we had slowed down to pass the checkpoint and I notice it's gone dark. The sign for Fort Irwin is lit by a small spotlight as we stop at the guard shack and it's the only source of light in the immediate area besides the shack. Jodi had simply flashed a badge at them and they waved her through, no questions about us, about who we were, or why we were there. The town and surrounding desert are something new to look at rather than a flat expanse, which is distracting enough. And then I see it, in the distance, hanging from the side of a building down the road, the white and green sign calling out to me. Jodi pulls up right in front of it and cuts the engine.

"Just...stay here. I'll go inside. Then we're gonna go someplace that will give you some answers."

"Oh good," Harper drawls. "Because I have lots of questions."

"I'm sure you do, Danny." Jodi looks at him. "Riley can handle them." Before Harper can protest, Jodi slams the door and heads inside. I still don't feel like talking, but I think the shock is wearing off.

"Well, this is not how I saw today going." Harper sighs.

I answer without thinking, my voice flat. "Don't think anyone sees their day starting with their apartment getting blown up by giant robots." Harper takes a second to look at me and I catch his eye. A laugh bubbles up unbidden. It comes out quickly and sets off a chain reaction. Harper starts laughing and I join him. But mine start coming out slightly hysterical and I don't even try and stop them. At least it's something other than silence.

Do you know how subtle the difference is between a laugh and a sob? It doesn't even register I had stopped laughing until Harper pulls me into a hug, cradling my head to his chest. My whole body shakes as the breakdown I've been trying to keep at bay just lets loose. He doesn't say anything, just rubs my back and lets me completely fall apart. I was kidnapped and tortured by those things! Months of rehab and more than enough pins in my body to set off any metal detector and now I finally remember why.

But that doesn't bring me comfort.

How do I even begin to adjust to this new worldview? Universe-view? Because that's what it is. Learning there are things beyond this little world that want to kill us is pretty mind-altering. Sure, there are lots of movies about contact with alien life, some good, some bad, and you think you'd be used to the idea if and when that day ever comes, but…

When it slaps you in the face and literally treats you like a fly it wants to pluck wings from purely for amusement, nothing can ever prepare you.

"Drink." Jodi says as she opens the door, holding out a frappuccino. It looks like my monstrous crack in a cup. Harper takes it from her and holds it for me as I try to regain control over my breathing. Blasted hiccups. I sit up, take a sip and it's like a wave of calm follows the cold sensation as it travels down my body. It's something familiar and comforting and I clutch at it as Jodi starts the truck and beings to drive back the way we came. Resting my head on Harper's shoulder, I slowly savor the cold coffee, trying to focus solely on it and the sensation of cold sliding down my throat and settling into my chest.

The drive to wherever Jodi is taking is seems to go on forever, the road stretching out in front of us beyond her headlights into infinite darkness. I have no idea how she even knows where we are going until I see lights in the distance. They start to resolve themselves into buildings and lampposts, floodlights and headlights all bunched together. Looking over at Jodi, I can finally see I'm not the only one who's tense. She's just not a blubbering mess like me. She stays silent as we roll to a stop and she puts the truck in park. A man in fatigues comes over just as Jodi turns the truck off and gets out.

"You people seem to misunderstand the concept of 'Top Secret Base'. It doesn't mean bring more civilians here, Jodi."

"Oh shove it up your ass, Lennox!" The man named Lennox stops and sighs, putting one hand on his hip, the other pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Jodi…"

"I was given a job, Captain. And here's my report. She remembers. Now deal with the fallout yourselves." I clutch the empty cup as I watch this exchange, still in the cab. Captain Lennox looks over at Harper and I in the cab, then back at Jodi, before pointing back the way we came.

"They're five minutes out. All in one piec-Hey! Damn it…" We all watch Jodi sprint back up the road for a few moments, before Harper makes the first move. He opens the door and gets out, putting a hand on my arm to try and coax me to follow.

"C'mon Lia. We should be good here."

Lennox steps forward and tries to give me what seems to be his comforting smile. It isn't very good but I get out of the truck anyway. "I can scrounge up something from the mess and tell you a little story about our alien friends."

He tells me, in cold clinical terms, their version of events. It helps, it lets me be detached from it and take it all in without totally cracking all over again. I had been taken by what they call Decepticons. It seems they lost their engineer, and without it, they were stranded and desperate. So when I had teleported in the middle of my drive, it was a giant flare to them. They wanted that technology. But I was not what they had expected.

At this point I learn about the Autobots, the supposed good guys in this fight. Well, they aren't the ones that blew up my apartment, so I suppose that nudges them in that direction for me. I had met a few already, Lennox tells me. Harper's cousin, Riley is partnered with one. I remember that piercing, unnaturally blue gaze, reaching for the name. Prowl. I think for a moment, trying to justify the rather human looking officer that had been in my hospital room with a giant mechanical biped like the ones I had seen on the freeway. Then I remember Cade. He seems to be one as well, and Jodi had been with him all this time.

"What about Cade? The one with Jodi?" Lennox looks a bit stonefaced at that, choosing his words carefully before answering.

"Barricade is, well he is a special case. Just like Jodi. They aren't really aligned with anyone but themselves. Think of him like a defector from North Korea. He-" Lennox pauses again, thinking. "He and Jodi have been through some shit. But he's mostly rehabilitated. Prowl at least tries to keep him in line."

"Are they really brothers?" Harper asks, leaning forward onto his arms, perched on the table. Lennox nods as he sips at his coffee.

"So they tell me."

I lean against Harper, exhaustion setting in. The fear of being chased or run down has subsided, my fight or flight instincts have been turned off and suddenly I am bone tired. Emotionally and physically spent. I feel so heavy I can barely keep my head up. I'm trying to listen to Captain Lennox as he talks about some of the other members of the Autobots, but nothing is sinking in. I cannot intake any more information. A yawn forces my mouth open and my whole body seizes until it passes.

"Yeah, ok, that's it. You're right, it's late. We can go over stuff tomorrow. Both of you look like you're about to fall over. C'mon, I think we have some spare rooms around here."

We're given a place to sleep, a small empty barracks room with two beds, after Harper and I both loudly protest about being shown separate rooms. I don't care that the bed is only big enough for one person, I just care that Harper is in it with me because there is no way I can sleep alone right now, in a weird place, surrounded by beings not from this planet. Hell not even from this galaxy. So I sleep pressed against Harper, his arms around me, a solid, warm comforting mass at my back. I crash so hard I don't even dream.