A short warning before you begin to read.

In this chapter there will be some harsh scenes, therefore, if you can't stand violence, I advise you not to read it.

Thanks for the attention, enjoy the reading!

An old urban myth said that it did not matter how forsaken a place could be, or how uninhabited your surroundings could appear, if you were in need of something to eat, then, a McDonalds would have magically appeared in front of you from nowhere.

Hilarious, really, thinking of finding a fast food so close to a desolate place as the Grand Canyon was, but the door Lennox and his men were opening with a hesitant gaze was indeed a McDonalds's door, so was the yellow and red intern and the smiling shop assistant behind the cash desk.

- Welcome, sir. Can I help you?

Captain Lennox raised a bleeding eyebrow to the impassive face of the shop assistant, surprised by how calm the adolescent was behaving despite their shabby appearances and hanging weapons.

Commendable, really, the way the green eyes of the young man could remain peaceful while scanning the line of battered and dirty soldiers at his back with the same plastic smile he brought back on him with his glassy eyes.

- Would you like to eat inside or out, sir?

Seriously, the man was beginning to unnerve him.

And not only because he was tired, or hurt, or mentally exhausted.

No. It was his smile to make his hands itch, but he was hungry, and he wanted to sit, so the soldier decided to hide his itching fists in his pockets while leaving a muddy trail on the floor as he reached the counter with his hair full of sands, his uniform ripped and an annoyed scowl on his face.

- Out.

- Would you like the red chairs or-

- I would like silence, is this possible, kid?

- Of course, sir.

Unnerving.

Had he been trained by the CIA?

How could he be so peaceful, so self-possessed? What kind of classes did McDonald organize for his employees?

A really good one Lennox reasoned with himself while his men ordered their menu with some grunt or swear, a behavior the shop assistant was facing with his unnerving smile and glassy eyes, almost as if he was used to deal with strange people all the time, quite possible, given the place.

After all, who could be so crazy to search for a McDonald's inside the Grand Canyon?

Only crazy and strange people, of course, and in fact, the one who had proposed to have a "chat" there were not normal people or people in general, but crazy, oh yes, they were the craziest being Lennox had ever met.

- Got it. I'll be right-

- Wait a minute kid.

For an instance, the green eyes of the teen showed a little surprise for the soldier's recall, but as soon as it had appeared, it disappeared, leaving behind only a quiet silence.

- Yes, sir? Are you waiting for someone else?

Yes, they were, but even before Lennox could give him an answer, the creaking of the door anticipated him.

Curious about the kid's reaction about the coming of the twins and a little tired of standing for so long, Lennox rested his elbows on the counter, his eyes focused on the face of the shop assistant, and just as he had expected, the green eyes did not show anything apart from a friendly light while the plastic smile returned to bend his lips.

What a smart kid.

Maybe he should have proposed him to enroll in the army, they needed someone like him, so impossible and hard to fold, so unshakable to –

- Welcome!

When the too excited greeting reached his ears, Lennox could not prevent himself from chuckling a little for the fluster he could recognize in the large smile the shop assistant was throwing now to the newcomers,or, to be more, to the young woman with the baseball hat who had just entered the fast food with two dark and beautiful men to her side.

No army then, not yet at least, he was still a kid after all, a kid with a poker face that the coming of a fascinating young woman could break easily, not that Lennox could really blame the poor kid, she was quite difficult to watch without blinking a second time in wonder and blushing furiously.

And what he meant with blinking a second time was when your brain was too confused from what it was seeing to be able to compose a reasonable thought, not that at the time of her introduction his mind had been able to make a coherent and linear thought.

Optimus 's menacing behavior, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe deadly hostility towards them and, most importantly, the fact that who had been kidnapped by the government was probably the young, stunning woman who had begun to look at them warily after taking a human form, had been too much for him to bear without glitching, as his friends often said when they found hard grasping some of the human's habits.

And shame on him, but when he had recognized the mark on her forehead, his fingers had hardened instinctively around his gun, but then, he had met her red and vigilant eyes, and, surprisingly, Annabelle's face had appeared in front of his shocked gaze.

A funny thing since the young woman in front of him had nothing in common with his daughter.

Except for their eyes. Yes.

They had the same gaze.

Soft. Curious. And timid. Frail.

There was a heartbreaking fragility in the blinding scarlet eyes of the young woman, in the uneasy way she kept on watching them and then her parents with worry, to make him cringe for his previous acts, to make him feel bad.

A monster.

Ridiculous, really, after having seen what she could do, what harm she could bring, how deadly she could be, but pointing a gun at her had made him feel horrible, at some point.

It had been like aiming a weapon against a harmless child, and Lennox had been through too much war to not be able to recognize a victim, an innocent, when he saw one.

To not recognize the look of an abused child.

Therefore, he had felt aghast and disgusted with himself when he had tried to reach for his gun, when he had been almost ready to shot at her, and then, they had appeared from nowhere, closing between them the young woman with such fierceness to make him take a step back instinctively.

Tall.

Black-haired.

Hard to look at without blinking and blushing, just like Lucile, but with something wicked in them.

Something cruel, something so harsh and savage to make him realize that he would have really lost his hand if he had not moved it away from his gun.

- Welcome sir.

Blinking a couple of times to break free from the awful awareness to have almost lost a hand, and maybe, all of his limbs at once, Captain Lennox returned to look at scene in front of him with a hint of curiosity, feeling soon a motion of pity for the poor kid who was smiling too happily to the young woman who was rubbing uncomfortably the hem of the large and silver sweatshirt she was wearing with her fingers, her face hidden under the hat that Sideswipe pressed down on her curly head with a growl when he noticed the kid's attempt to meet her eyes.

- Fuck off – the Autobot snarled, encircling Lucile's small shoulders with one of his arms, tanned arms where Lennox and the kid could see powerful muscles twitching dangerously while Sunstreaker scanned the menu with an adamant gaze, before looking at the green-eyed kid and smile sharply.

- Try again to peep at my daughter, squishy, and I will have a hamburger with your interior as a sauce. Are we clear?

Lennox could feel the hairs on his arms and on his neck pricking up when he caught the metallic edge in the Autobot's voice, but even before Sunstreak could reach the neck of the clerk and break it as he feared when the teenager decided foolishly to act brave and look another time where he did not have to look, another hand reached out as the door behind the counter opened, showing a short man with a chef hat and a terrified look who was trying to reach the cashier with one hand placed on the receiver of a phone.

- Alan – Lennox heard the short man whisper weakly, trying to attract the attention of the teenager who was facing the twins with a brave, plastic smile.

Maybe he could enroll him, after all.

- In this country, yours is considered harassment. I can sue you for this, sir.

A horrible, horrible smile tilted Sunstreaker's lips when the useless threat reached his audio receptor while his gleaming blue eyes became almost electric and Lucile's soft grip around the hand he had left to his side failed to act as a deterrent to his rising insanity.

Even Sideswipe, who actually had Lucile wrapped completely in his arms did not seem inclined to soften his edgy grin or putting down the thin cane he had just taken from the jar on the counter, thin cane Lennox watched with a frown, returning to put his hand close to his gun, just in case.

Because there was something ill in the way the Autobot was playing with it, throwing short but intense glances to the shop assistant's throat, a strange act that not the now stiff soldiers to their back or the tiny man with the chef hat failed to notice.

And it was just the last one who acted before Alan could do something stupid again, handing him the phone before the teenager could find himself with a thin cane stuck in his throat, and the look Lennox had praised so much, the impassibility he had admired and envied went away along with all the color on Alan's now terrified face.

- You blew up a car?

Lennox frowned a little when the concerned, feminine voice popped in the quiet room as a flick, but rather than to the shock to not understand who she was referring to, and which car was blown up, he let the wonder lit up his features as a waterfall of curls fell on Lucile's shoulders when she looked up abruptly, her hat and the secrecy of her identity now forgotten and forsaken on the ground.

- Did you really do that papa?

Squinting as she had just pinched them on the side and cursing humans' s bad habit to talk too much, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe deserted the menacing behavior they had been keeping in favor of a more lukewarm demeanor Lucile welcomed with a cute frown that made the twins chuckle a little and Lennox raising an eyebrow in wonder for the human display of affection in front of him.

- I did not – Sideswipe answered simply, ruffling her hair with an innocence that Lucile did not buy, not even when the Autobot tried to distract her with small talk about the size of her cola.

- Papa?

- Yes, sugar ball? – the Autobot cooed, smiling a little too sweetly.

- Are you telling the truth?

- Do you not believe me, sugar ball?

Lucile bit her lower lip when the wounded eyes and voice of her creator made her rethink about what she was hearing in the head of the cashier in front of her and by the cornet she saw shaking in the hand of the young boy, but then, she remembered that she had not asked her other creator about it yet, and despite everything, she knew that none of them would have ever lied to her, not even on small and trivial things.

When Sunstreaker felt the weigh of Lucile's curious gaze on him, he did not betray worry for the answer she wanted from him, in fact, he smiled a little when her pretty sparkling squeezed softly his hand, asking without really voicing a question to which he answered with candor.

- He was out of tune.

Lucile let out a surprised sound while Sideswipe's lips began to tremble and Lennox's eyes went wide for the confession of the twin, in no way touched by the matter or eager to explain himself and his actions, choosing, instead, to ask Lucile if she wanted her favorite happy meal as nothing had just happened, as he had not confessed to have blown up the car of someone because he was out of tune.

How could be out of tune be a plausible reason to blow up a car, anyway?

- One Happy Meal, a Caesar salad and a Big Mac.

Sunstreaker frowned darkly when the squishy in front of him did not take his order.

Actually, the useless human did not seem able to breathe or to move, at the moment, but he did not care about it.

What he cared about what his food, the squishy could have a heart attack and die on the spot if he wanted, but only after serving him and his sparkling their order, only after, not before it.

- I am talking with you, human.

When the young boy saw the large and visibly strong hand reach for him, and, more precisely, for his neck, many things happened at once.

Lennox, still a little too baffled from the display of kindness of the twins failed to act in time.

The soldiers to his back could only take a step forward before drawing Sideswipe's gaze on them and freezing on the spot.

And Alan, poor Alan, too terrified to fight back the hold, covered his face with both his hand, preparing for the blow while Alejandro, the tiny chef, hid under the counter with a squeak.

However, Sunstreaker's hand failed to even touch the young boy's neck, or head, or whatever belonged to him, because, even before his fingers could only touch the tip of his hair, something brought back to his side his hand and his arm, closing him in a hold for which the yellow twin raised an eyebrow and the corner of his mouth.

- Oh? Are you trying to restrain me, Lucile?

When Lucile's small chin sunk into his chest, there were many things Sunstreaker could have done while looking down into the eyes of his sparkling.

He could have easily shaken off Lucile soft arms around him to end what he had begun.

He could have ignored the pleading in her eyes and do what he wanted, what the squishy deserved to receive after doing something for which Optimus Prime had lost his servo.

He could have simply gone mad, but Lucile's soft touch and gentle eyes were chamfering the sharpness in his eyes and the stiffness in his limbs.

Therefore, the arm he freed from her grip did not try to reach the young boy's neck, actually, his existence had become suddenly irrelevant as his strong arm closed around the slim back of his sparkling and the pretty smile Lucile showed him made the other corner of his lip rise a little.

- I am proud of you papa.

Sunstreaker did not smile.

He simply raised the corner of his lips to show his amusement, his sarcasm, when he was going to strike, but Lucile was able to soften even the hard line of his mouth, to make him want to be kind, a kindness that left his eyes and his lips when he heard the chocking sound that made him frown and Lucile turn her head in confusion before launching herself towards the other twin.

- Papa!

When Lucile's soft arms closed around him, Sideswipe let go of the neck that poor Alan covered with one hand, coughing and looking in shock at the man who had decided to strangle him from nowhere, without even giving a hint or the time to think before founding himself strangled to death by the beautiful man who now was hugging back the pretty girl as if nothing had happened, as if he had gone simply mad, but Captain Lennox was smarter than that.

Because it was enough one look at the face of the handsome man, to the way he happily hugged back the young woman in his arms, to how ecstatic he seemed in having the complete attention of Lucile on him, to make the soldier realize that he had done it on purpose.

Strangling the young boy had been just a pretense, a trap to attract the young woman's soft eyes on him.

With a snort, Sunstreaker decided to let Sideswipe's display of stupidity and jealousy go unpunished, because he was hungry, his sparkling was probably hungry too, and he wanted just to sit and eat with his stupid brother and gentle sparkling in peace.

- Let's wait for the order outside, Lucile.

- Did you hear Sunny, sugar ball? It's time to eat!

A grimace from Sunsetraker followed Sideswipe's stupid nickname while Lucile took the hand the yellow twin had left on his side while keeping a hold on the other twin's hand, relieved to save the poor boy from the flying temper of her creators.

Actually, Lucile wasn't used to share her creators with other people, to be aware of the way they could react to them, to her.

It had always been the three of them, after all.

She, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe. No one else.

Such a small world, a world that Lucile loved with all her might, but even she knew that their little world had to widen a little bit, that they had to let other people see and enter it, even if she was not so sure about the soldiers or the blonde man with kind eyes who smiled to her when she met his gaze in looking back to the young boy, showing him an apologetic smile.

No she reasoned to herself as she returned to look in front of her, opening the door to let the sun lit up her scarlet eyes.

It was still too soon to open up to them, to humans.

But she would have listened to them.

Optimus had asked her to try them, because he trusted them, and even if she wasn't sure about them, she would have tried, for him.

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe covered with a hand their eyelids when the blinding sun made their eyes squint, Lucile now gone from between them in her hurry to reach the truck the twins watched in silence, a blank expression on their face, their eyes as hard and sharp as blades.

Humans.

They did not trust them. They did not trust Big Boss. They did not trust anyone except themselves.

Expect Lucile.

Lucile who had just turned to see where they were. Lucile who was calling to them.

Lucile who was smiling at them.

And they would have listened. They would have tried to be calm. To not rush things.

Even if the need to kill them on the spot made their servos twitch.

Even if the madness in their systems made them glitch.

But they would have waited, for now.

However, when both of them noticed the young boy's eyes lingering a little too long on their sparkling as the door was closing behind their back, a twin wicked smile twisted their lips while Alan's green eyes moved away from the slim back of the beautiful woman, glancing out the window where the Mc'Donalds employees probably parked their car.

A look none of the twins missed.

A look they would have held in consideration for later.

- The green one.

- Got it.

Lucile had always loved to learn the things she did not know, to see things she had not see before, especially if what she did not know concerned her creators.

She knew by heart Cybetronian language.

Their use. Their story. Their biology. But the way they express their feelings, the way their sparks acted and how they bonded was something she was still trying to learn, to grasp.

She knew how Cybertronian acted towards their sparkling, obviously.

The unbreakable bond between them.

She was, after all, a sparkling herself, even if she was already an adult now, but she had always been interested in the approach of her creators with others of their kind.

But Sunstreaker and Sideswipe did not like to talk about other Cybetronian.

They did not seem to care about them, about their dying planet, their comrades, their kin, and yet, her creators seemed to have fun with the growling mech and the frowning Autobot in front of them.

She could tell it by the way their metal lips were twisted into a sly grin, and by how lazy their moves were, almost as they did not feel the need for stiff positions or menacing acts.

They were behaving playfully, and she could not help herself to feel grateful towards the mech in front of her, because she had never seen her creators so…relaxed.

They were always wary, a little gloomy, always ready to spring, to strike, but there was nothing menacing in the way she saw her creators hit grandpa.

A small smile folded her lips when she saw the growling mech try to hit back the two twins, but they were too fast and too sly to be hit, even if she could not prevent herself to stiffen a little when she saw who her creators called doc rise a wrench with the evident intent to hit them, ready to jump in and protect them from the blow.

- Ratchet is simply expressing his relief about Sunstreaker and Sideswipe's good health, Lucile. You do not have to fear him.

Relief? Lucile asked herself when she heard Orion's kind, metallic voice came behind her, frowning a little when she caught the growl of her creators after being hit by the heavy and probably hard wrench, but none of them seemed prone to strike back as they always did when attacked, they simply threw a dirty look at the Autobot before muttering something under their breath, leaving her a little confused and surprised.

- Did he always hit the people he loves to express his relief about their well- being?

A gentle laugh escaped Optimus Prime's radiator when Lucile's confused voice reached him, feeling a pang of softness melt his spark when he felt Lucile's scarlet eyes on him, picking up the flash of discomfort that dirtied her irises when she felt the weight of many eyes on her.

Shifting uncomfortably for the unwanted attention, Lucile tried to hide behind the empty box of her food, still not used to be watched for so long in her true form.

She did not like to be at the center of attention in general, but she was aware of how her looks could be hard to digest.

Still, she did not like it. To be watched. To be stared at.

It made her feel uncomfortable, unfit, and she was trying to return to her usual peaceful self, to feel at easy once again in her own flesh.

A sharp creak made her look up with a line of confusion to mark her forehead, and when she saw the opened door, her confusion increased a little, leaving her to stare at the truck with a hesitant gaze.

- Come.

Orion's soft voice made her jump a little, but she did not dare to take a step forward, unsure if it was appropriate for her to enter him.

Because she knew that even in their alternative form Cybertronian could feel quite a lot, that her weight on the intern of the car was equivalent to a hug, that her light touch on their steering wheel could be interpreted as a caress, and she wasn't sure if Orion was aware of that, of how things could become strange, especially after having ascertained how their direct contact could become …electric.

Usually she averted to touch humans because of the energy field that surrounded her body, making her touch dangerous and strange.

There had been a time when she had inadvertently touched a woman on the street by the shoulder, but that simply touch had been enough for the woman to fall after a faint she had caused with the electricity that had upset the woman's nervous system.

Therefore Lucile had always tried to not touch anyone and anything, to not invade other's personal space, expect Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, of course.

They were aliens, after all, she shared with them the same spark, the same energy, thus she was alright with touching them, actually, she loved to touch them.

She had always been an affectionate person since from the beginning, and she liked to express her love towards the people she loved, to make them feel her love for them, and she, she liked Orion, she wanted to touch him, but she wasn't sure if he wanted the same.

He was kind, after all, and he had always been so accommodating with her to make her feel guilty for his kindness, since people had been kind to her just because they wanted something from her.

But Orion was different. He had proved it. More than once.

Maybe, maybe he had seen her discomfort and just wanted to help her, he just wanted to be kind to her, and she wanted to be kind to him in turn, to show him how grateful she was for what he had done for her, for her creators.

An electric discharge nibbled her fingertips when she touched the vehicle door, a harmless shot of energy strong enough to make her nose wrinkle but not so strong to hurt her, actually, it was like when you drank a coca cola.

You could feel the strong flavor pinch pleasantly your chest and tongue, leaving you a little dizzy and light-headed.

It was strange but not unpleasant, just as sitting on the soft leather of Orion's seat.

It was embarrassing, and a little odd at the beginning, but Lucile wasn't feeling uncomfortable as she had feared at first.

Actually, it was almost reassuring feeling Orion's around her.

She could feel safe, shielded, and when she noticed how the height of the truck made the soldier unable to look at her, a small smile softened her features as she let her head fall gently on the seat, bringing her legs to her chest while her eyelids covered the tired eyes she was failing to hide.

- Sugar ball?

- Lucile?

The worried and anxious call of her creators made her back tense a little while a rush of a guilt made her frown a little for not having advised Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, worried about not seeing her close.

- I am with Orion, papa. I am safe.

- You are tired.

Sunstreaker's colorless statement tore her a gentle smile for the hidden shades she could recognize in his apparent cold voice, the vibrant worry she could touch, because if there were many things she had to discover about her creators, there were other things she knew by heart.

As Sunstreaker 's twisted way to show his emotions, and how frail Sideswipe really was under his playful smirk and gleaming eyes.

Because her creators were frail, the war had broken them more than once, just as humans had broken her many other times, but their irregular corners had found a match with hers, and in bonding, they had become whole once again.

She kept them whole as they kept her the same way, and until now, she had been able to bear the weight of her silence, her sins, her darkness, but Orion's existence, the discovery of her secret and the chance to make new bonds, to help her creators to collect the pieces forsaken on the way, to build a new world for them was starting to make her feel a little overdriven.

Her powers were strong, and she still failed to keep them at bay, especially when her feelings were so confused and unclear.

She needed to rest a little, to find refuge in her secret room for a while without interferences from the outside world.

She needed to think, to prepare herself for what was coming at her, to decide what to do from now on.

Hiding or coming out?

That one was the decision she had to make.

She had to consider the consequence of her actions, of her decisions, even if the discovery of how the presence of their kin could change Sunstreaker and Sideswipe was a sign of what she had to do, what path she had to choose.

But humans? She asked herself, opening her eyes when she heard a soft thud on her right.

Could she trust human again?

When the ground under their feet began to shake, few realized that the sudden movement of the earth did not have anything to do with a natural, physic event.

Because if earthquakes could make the ground shake and things fall, they could not change the sky's mood, making the wind blow in a different way, but there was someone who could do it, someone who could affect her surrounding with the electromagnetic field her distraught feelings could form around her as a protective shield, to keep away dangerous things and dangerous people.

A danger Sunstreaker and Sideswipe could not see, or feel, or hit, so to make her feel safe, to make her smile once again, but the smile on Lucile's face was now gone, her lips a trembling line the twins watched in horror before seeing them.

Lucile's eyes.

Glassy as a clouded window beyond which a storm seemed to rage, a bleared surface that seemed on the verge to break, Lucile, seemed on the verge to break again, and not Sunstreaker nor Sideswipe could understand what was breaking their sparkling before they noticed what Lucile was holding in her trembling hand.

A paper bird.

Tiny and ruined on the corner, a harmless human thing that their sparkling was watching as if she was staring at something scary.

Frightening.

A ravenous fear that led Lucile's eyes to let go of the paper bird to see her creators running towards her with desperate gazes, her lips opened into a deafening scream that seemed to slow down the world around her, and the hasty moves with which Sunstreaker and Sideswipe tried to reach their sparkling before she could be lost once again in one of the dreadful nightmares from which Lucile had always struggled to get out without leaving a piece of herself behind.

Darkness.

It did not matter where he looked. If he moved. If he turned around.

Darkness was all that William Lennox could see around him, but the fact to be surrounded by complete darkness wasn't the only unsettling thing to disturb him.

Because, if being lost was upsetting, the awareness to not be able to feel his own body was damned scary.

- Where am I?

- Shut up squishy!

Swirling on himself, or he imagined to swirl on himself since he did not have a body to do it, Lennox tried to individuate the owner of the hiss he had just heard a few steps from him, stiffening a little when he heard a growl beside him.

- What have you done to Lucile, Prime!

- Optimus is here? – asked the soldier in a tight voice, silenced soon by another growl and by another, familiar voice that made Lennox swirl on the other side in relief.

- What the slag is happening here?

- Ironhide?

- We need to calm down a little. There is an explana-

- Ratchet?

- Captain Lennox?

- If you do not shut up, I am going to cut your throat, human.

Whatever relief Lennox was feeling at the thought to not being alone in that madness left him along with his voice when Sunstreaker's menacing hiss seemed to pierce his chest, snatching away his breath and the courage to speak again.

Because, if he was sure that no one of the Autobot he knew would have ever hurt him, he knew with as much as security that the twins would have really cut his throat if they had had the chance, and he was not eager to find out if he was wrong or right about it.

- What is happening Sunstreaker?– Ratchet asked with a concerned voice from nowhere, feeling a little uncomfortable with the situation he struggled to explain even to himself - Where are we?

- We are in Lucile's mind.

When Optimus's tight voice pierced the silence that Sunstrekaer had demanded so harshly, a trail of animal growls and dark hisses could be heard from the bottom of the darkness, growls that filled Sideswipe's vocal cords when he returned to bark against his leader.

- And whose fault is it, Big Boss?

- What have you done to her?

What have I done?

Optimus Prime turned the same question in his head over and over again, failing every time to find an answer to the question that was eating him alive.

Because something had upset Lucile, and he knew that it was his fault, somehow.

- I did not…

- What was the paper bird she had in her hand, Chief? Where did you found it?

A paper bird?

Despite his comrades and Captain Lennox, Optimus Prime wasn't feeling so lost or disoriented to not be able to collect his thoughts and think over.

He had already been there, after all, and even if this time the air seemed heavy and the darkness more suffocating than the other times, he did not let himself be downhearted, not when he knew that under that thick darkness there was something beautiful and frail to protect. To bring back to light.

And hopefully, his clarity wasn't the only thing to come back to him.

- One of the humans who had been imprisoned for the kidnapping of Lucile had entrusted the paper bird to me.

Even before Lennox could ask Optimus more detail on the matter that had brought them there in the first place, a blinding light prevented him to speak up.

And between all the things he could have expected, between all the dreadful things that could have happened, seeing an elegant man dressed in a white coat pass through him as he was a ghost was indeed an unexpected turn of events, just as it was seeing National security advisor Theodore Galloway did the same thing before stopping in front a metallic door with the man in white at his side.

*- A minute, Mr. Galloway.

- What is it, Doctor Agrama?

- This is insane! Can someone explain to me why Galloway is here with us now? - Ironhide snarled, out of his helm by now – What-

- He is not really here, Ironhide – Ratchet explained in a tired voice, sighing painfully, almost as if what he was going to say was hurting him too – I think this is a memory of the young woman called Lucile. Am I wrong, Sunstreaker?

A tight silence followed the doctor's soft question, a softness that Ratchet preserved when Captain Lennox asked in a whisper how he could be so sure of that.

But he knew that what he and his comrades were seeing was a memory, a very painful one.

Because he had already seen something like that.

He could recognize a trauma, when he saw one, just as he could recognize the glitching of a mech who had seen too much war, too much pain to remain whole, and it was painful for him to acknowledge that such a young soul could have suffered such a trauma at her young age.

However, when the man in front of them, or the memory of the man in front of them opened the door, not even Ratchet could prevent himself to lose his breath and all the light in his optics when he saw the small child handcuffed to the table staring at him with fear and a laboured breath.

- Good afternoon Lucile. Are you feeling more collaborative today?

When they saw the man approach the small child with a sharp smile not Sunstreaker or Sideswipe could not try to strike the man, as much as impossible was for them given the situation, but they were feeling desperate, they were feeling powerless, they had always felt that way when Lucile had not been able to control her power and her nightmare, but they had never seen a full memory, only small shards where she was already an adult, when she had already changed.

Nothing as painful as that, as seeing the tiny child facing the black man in her dream with the small body that they saw shaking for the incomplete transformation into a Cybertronian, a transformation that needed time, patience, and their presence at her side to balance the change, but Lucile had been taken away from them even before it could finish, leaving her with only one electric blue eye and a sick skin color.

- Here.

Optimus Prime, who until then had been frozen in horror and shock for what he was seeing, looked down at the map that Galloway had just pushed towards Lucile, her messy curls spread on the tiny table while her eyes did not even try to peek at it, to deign the map of her attention, a rejection that Galloway did not seem to like, raising a hand that he had to withdraw with a hiss of pain when an electric discharge burned his fingertips.

- Little monster.

Lucile jumped a little at the man's insult, but the hurt in her eyes was soon replaced by a harshness that made her look more like an adult.

Wrong.

It was all wrong.

- You will never find them. I will not allow you to touch my creators.

If she had not been a child and her voice had not been so small, so broken, her words would have been more threatening, but she was just ten years old, and Galloway did not seem touched by her show of bravery.

- You can't hide them forever.

- I can. And I will – Lucile answered without even skipping a beat, lifting her chin with defiance – I prefer to die rather than allowing you to find them.

- Every man had a breakpoint, even you, Mindbreaker. And when I will find it, you will feel it.

A cruel smile twisted Galloway's lips, but Lucile did not even blink, she kept on watching him with strength, even if she was chained, even if she was feverish, even if she was weak and so small.

She kept on watching him, to challenge him, even when he left the room with a click of his tongue, and only when she was left alone with the doctor Lucile allowed her shoulder to fall back, her eyes to water, her lips to tremble.

When they saw Hyppocrates Barnabas Agrama approach her, everyone stiffened, but the man did not try to strike her, to touch her, he simply slipped out of his white coat a paper bird that Lucile grabbed in her hands, wetting his paper wings with the tears that Lennox could feel rolling down his cheeks, tears he would have shed, if he had a face, but he had none, and when he closed his eyes to shield himself from another blinding light, he prayed to wake up from that nightmare, he prayed for the child to be spared, but when he heard the intake of air beside him, Lennox knew that something worse was coming.

Something that tore both the twins a pain so deep to make them cry out while, in front of them, doctor Agrama and another two humans moved rapidly on the sleeping form of Lucile, chained to a stretcher as a laboratory mouse.

- How is it going?

Lennox had never felt much sympathy towards the advisor, but now, now, what he was feeling towards the annoyed man in front of him was pure hatred.

The hatred of a betrayed soldier. The hatred of a pained soul.

The hatred of a wounded father.

- We are entering now.

Entering?

None of them, not even Ratchet, who was used to listen to such medical terms understood what was going to enter, where, but when his optics saw the white cloth that covered the child's head, when he saw them approach the sides of her head with a bistoury, where there were her ears, something inside him snapped.

Screamed.

- Stop!

Foolish of him to shout like that, to believe to be able to make them stop, but not even Sideswipe and Sunstreaker could be still, could do nothing about it.

Shouting. Screaming. Cursing. Biting the air.

The twins were going mad, they had already gone mad, but when they heard her agonizing scream, when they felt the air freezing, the ground shaking, while the flames burned everything to ashes, they kept on screaming, on trying to reach out the now weeping woman with red eyes who was watching the havoc around her in horror.

- See? I was right from the beginning. You are a monster, Mindbreaker. And not even you creators would want you back now.

When Galloway's voice pierced the thick silence, there were no more words to say, no more curse to throw, no more name to give to the deafening pain that had swallowed Lucile's eyes and her voice muffled against the cloth in which she had wrapped herself, hiding her tears and her pain, her existence, but when the twins tried to reach for her, once again, they grabbed her, and when the truck's door opened in front of them, when Lucile crumbled into their arms, they did not dare to speak.

They did not dare to move.

They simply tightened their arms around her.

To keep her whole.

To squeeze without breaking.

To breath without crying.

To call her name without dying, while the world around them kept on going on as nothing had happened.

As no one had been wounded.

As no one had been crying.

As no one had seen into how many pieces a heart could break.

When Lennox saw the military helicopter vanishing between the dark clouds, he let his outstretched arm fall to his side with a heavy sigh before turning his head, walking towards the imposing truck who had just opened his left door for him, inviting him to go up without a word.

Not that Lennox wanted to talk. His throat was still too tight for what he had seen to be able to speak.

- By human standards yours is considered treason, Captain Lennox. Are you sure about this?

Optimus Prime felt the human stiffen a little on his seat when he heard his cold voice through the radio, but he was in no mood to be careful of his words.

Something had broken inside him, and even Lennox could feel an invisible wall between him and the Autobot leader, a sort of harshness that he was not used to receive, not from him, not from a friend, but after what he had seen, after what both had learned, he could not blame him or the twins.

No. No more.

He could not criticize their hatred, their cruelty, their hostility towards the humans, not when he was beginning to hate his own kin for what they had done, for how low they had gone, to be sick of everything.

Of the war. Of the death. Of the losses. Of the secrets.

Because a soldier knew when it was time to retire, to go back, and Lennox was beginning to think that maybe, it was time for him to take a break from all that.

To return home.

- How is she?

He did not dare to say her name.

He was too ashamed to even look at her now, but Lennox knew, deep down, that even if had found the bravery to look at her, Lucile would have been where he had left her two days ago.

In front of them.

Still standing. Still with her eyes focused in front of her. Unmoving.

Waiting. And for what, for who, he knew too well.

Are you leaving me?

When he had heard the broken voice of the woman, Lennox had moved away his eyes from the scene with a heavy heart and a strangled breath, ashamed to have looked at a private conversion between the twins and the young woman he had seen crying when Sunstreaker and Sideswipe had asked her to wait for them there, to not follow them. Not that time.

And he had tightened his eyes while his heart had clenched in his chest when Lucile's quiet Can't I come too had crushed something inside him too, and only God knew how hard had been for the twins to refuse her, her plea.

But he had understood their motive, their need to have her there, safe, because where they were going was no place for her, not for what they were going to do, what Optimus Prime had granted them in exchange of their trust,without even blinking, without even hesitating, and it was then that Lennox had realized that something had really changed inside the leader of the Autobot.

Because, even if his eyes had become less understanding, even if his pose had become more intimidating, even if his heart had become harder, colder, merciless, allowing one of his kin to kill a human was, after all, something the leader of the Autobot would not have ever allowed. Never.

But he had done it.

Optimus Prime had allowed the twins to find Galloway and to kill him.

To do what they wanted to do to him.

Without intervening.

Without retaliation from him.

But with his blessing.

A silent blessing even Lennox had given to the twins when they had become a tiny spot in the sunset, leaving behind them a lonely woman to wait for them. For their return.

And Lucile had not moved, not even a millimeter, since they had been gone.

And when it had begun to rain, she had not flinched, or moved, not even to find a shelter.

She had waited where they had left them, her back tense, her eyes focused, her lips a hard line that not even Optimus Prime's voice had been able to soften.

Because he had called to her more than once, but Lucile had gently declined his company, his advice to approach them, because, according to her, they would have cried if they had not found her right there, and not even the leader of the Autobot had been able to refuse her desire to be left alone.

Even if he had seen the tears mixed at the rain digging her cheeks.

Even if he had seen her hands shaking, and her eyes watering, and her form swaying a little, but Optimus Prime had respected her desire, watching over her from afar, waiting for her to be ready again.

And he would have waited forever, for Lucile, just as he knew that Lucile would not have moved from there for anything in the world, not even if she was dying, not even if someone attacked her.

And when he saw her move, when he saw her smile and her hair swaying in the wind as she took a first step towards the sun, Optimus Prime made a wish.

The second one, since he had known Lucile.

Since he had decided to wish for something else apart from his own demise.

He wished to be the one to receive her breathtaking smile.

Her blazing heart.

Her gentle soul.

Her loving gaze.

Her undying and unconditional love.

When Captain Lennox heard his telephone ring, his hand did not tremble or hesitate as he pushed the green button to hear the husky voice of his superior on the other side, his eyes hard and his mouth sealed as the General informed him of the attack of some Decepticons who, the previous night, had assaulted a prison of maximum security where they had killed some of the prisoners in their rampage, and that, between the deceased men, there had been even the National security advisor.

- I heard of your desire to take a break from the war, soldier. And I heard that you are taking with you the Autobot for some sort of rehab. Is someone of them missing right now?

Lennox knew what his superior was asking him, what he really wanted to know, but when his eyes caught the move in front of him, Captain Lennox could not help a little smile to twist his lips as he cleared his throat of the dryness, shielding with a hand his eyes from the blazing sun and the two shining form who were crushing a petite young woman into a firm hug.

- No, sir. No one is missing. We are all here.

*Memories.

I admit this chapter had been particularly hard, but the next ones will be more fluffy and delicate. Happier. Thanks again for the attention!

At the next chapter!