Alone Nevermore.

Author's notes: This is an Amber Alert story, with references to PAST child abduction and molestation. This story is inspired by true events, but is not based on them. It is meant for those who have been through something similar. For those of you who are out there and are still going through things like this; do NOT give up hope! We are still looking for you, and we will NEVER stop looking!

He was not a happy mech. The atmospheric entry hadn't been too bad, all things considered, but a thermal inconsistency in the upper atmosphere had caused a slight shift in his trajectory, forcing him to land far from the others in his group. He'd barely had time to transmit his new landing coordinates to the others before he'd slammed into the side of The Devil's Tower in Wyoming. His long range comm system had been knocked out of commission by the force of the impact against the solid granite of the stone plateau, and even though he'd sustained some other injuries during the rough landing it was the loss of communications that bothered him the most. Besides damaged armor and the lack of contact with the rest of the Autobots, his transmission mounts were knocked loose. It wasn't a major concern, especially knowing that Ratchet would be required by standard protocols to come with the retrieval party, but it would force him to go easy on the accelerator and not push himself to high speeds for any reason.

He'd managed to acquire a temporary alt mode within an hour of landing. He'd found it on an old ranch on the other side of The Devil's Tower, and while there were other choices possible, it was the only one suitable for his size. He planned on finding something better after getting some repairs, but for now the badly faded, rusty, beat up, and ragged out LTD would have to do.

The mech was well versed in the protocols of his situation. He knew that with his comm system out he had to stay within sensor range of his actual landing coordinates, just as he knew that he was not to reveal himself to the native humans unless he absolutely had no other option. The problem was that with his long range comm system out, Bluestreak had no one at all to talk to.

The small roadside rest stop was only a couple of miles from the Devil's Tower where he'd landed, so it was well within sensor range of his landing spot and no one who stopped there paid any mind to the seemingly abandoned dull grey 1978 Ford LTD that was obviously not going anywhere without a tow. Since the rest stop was on the only major road to the actual monument, Bluestreak knew that this was the best place to wait for the retrieval team.

For the past two days, Bluestreak had watched the traffic go by. The Devil's Tower was a popular tourist attraction, and being able to observe the groups of humans that stopped was only a minor distraction from his misery. After being trapped alone and damaged for who knew how long after everyone in his district had been slaughtered Bluestreak had a legitimate fear of remembering that carnage, and even though he knew that the others would arrive at his location sometime within another day or so that still meant a total of three days of being alone.

Bluestreak hated solitude! When there were no humans at the rest stop he'd taken up the habit of talking to the native wildlife without being bothered by a lack of response or comprehension on the part of whatever creature he was speaking to; at other times he kept up a constant monologue to himself. He couldn't count the number of times he'd read the marker sign that listed some facts about the Devil's Tower, and he was still not only bored but miserable without someone to talk to in order to divert his mind from the thoughts of the past. He had no clue what kind of aerial creature that was picking at the scraps on the ground, but he noticed with some surprise that its black feathers glistened with blue highlights in the midday sun. Bluestreak was attempting to distract himself from his misery by talking to the creature when he had to go silent because of the white panel van that appeared to be slowing down to pull in to the rest stop. He knew that he wasn't supposed to allow the natives to hear him or know about him unless there were no other options.

Bluestreak blew air from his cooling vents in dismay when he realized that the van was actually going to pull in, and he'd have to remain silent once again. Oh Primus how he hated this! So complete was the mech's misery that he almost didn't notice that the van was still moving as the side door slid open. His curiosity was piqued as he looked over at the van. No sooner had he focused on it, than a small human was tossed out of the side door to land roughly on the ground as the driver gunned the accelerator and quickly sped off.

Um, um, um, um, hey, aren't you forgetting something? Didn't you see the little human fall out? Hey, why are you leaving? Where are you going? Why are you leaving the little one behind? Bluestreak wanted desperately to ask as the white van rapidly vanished from visual sight.

The forlorn Autobot had no idea what to do as the small human sat there on the ground crying. From the information he had on the sentient natives of this world, he knew that a human that small had to be one of their sparklings. In horrified silence Bluestreak could only watch as the child sat there crying for more than an hour.

Later, she went over and sat down at the lone picnic table. The single scraggly tree provided little shade against the late afternoon sun, but it was better than nothing. As nightfall approached clouds were seen building up in the west. Dark, huge, and menacing in their appearance they made it obvious that a heavy downpour was on the way.

With the first drops of rain she pulled her scraped and bloody knees up to her chest and rested her chin on them, then she wrapped her arms around her legs to help hold them there. She was alone and scared, but in a strange way she also felt safer than she had in many years.

She was almost sure that the four men she'd been living with had lied to her. Lied about many things. That her family didn't love her anymore, that her family didn't want her anymore. That she'd been such a bad little girl that her family had given her away. These were only a few of the things she thought that they'd lied about. Still after living with them for seven years, she hoped deep in her heart that they had been lying but she could never, would never, be totally sure.

They'd told her that she had grown too big for the games they liked. She didn't always scream and cry as much when they did things to her anymore. They'd told her that she was a bad girl because she let them do those things to begin with. But they had punished her horribly every time she'd tried to make them to stop. As much as she hated the four men that she'd been living with for the things they made her do with her clothes off, she knew that she'd rather be with them than out here alone. She had cried while begging them not to get rid of her. She'd even promised to be good but it hadn't made any difference. They'd only sneered at her and told her that she was such a bad girl that no one wanted her.

These were the thoughts that were going through the girl's mind when the rain started coming down in earnest. Ice cold drops coming down in thick heavy sheets which hit so hard that they stung like frozen needles. The small bedraggled tree that she was under did absolutely nothing to slow or stop any of it.

She sat there getting soaked before she finally became desperate for some kind of shelter from the freezing cold rain, and she raised her head to really look around for the first time. There wasn't a single house or building in sight. Some of the nearby pastures had been cleared either for grazing or for crops; although there were still some forested areas in the distance she could literally see for nearly half a mile in almost every direction. The only thing even close to shelter was the beat up old car that looked like it had been sitting there for years. With no other options she got up and ran over to the car to try to get inside out of the rain.

When the small human child climbed inside his cabin, Bluestreak nearly panicked right then and there. He knew that he wasn't supposed to interact with humans according to the orders from Optimus Prime, but Optimus surely didn't anticipate anything like this happening. Not knowing what he should do and not having anyone to ask, Bluestreak sat there nearly quivering in his indecision.

The results of a quick scanconvinced him. Thousands of years ahead of human technology his sensors were far more advanced than anything that could even dreamed of by human doctors.

As soon as she closed the door she huddled up on the driver's seat trying not to shiver. A minute later she screamed in fright when the car's engine started up and the heater turned on.

"Relax, please. I'm not going to hurt you, I promise. My name is Bluestreak, and I'm an Autobot. I saw that van leave you here, why would they do something like that? Didn't they realize that they had left you? What's your name? I turned the heater on for you so you can warm up and not be so cold, but I don't have any of that stuff that I've seen the humans who stop here consume. But if I think about it, I might be able to come up with a way to get you some of it. So why did they leave you out here all alone anyway? Didn't they know that you'd get scared? Don't they care if you get hurt? What if something happens to you? How would they find out about it? Do you have any way to contact them and let them know you're still here?" Bluestreak said excited that he finally had someone that he could talk to.

With the first words that started coming out of the car's radio, she froze in fright. By the time the car finished talking she was pulling at the latch trying to get out. Upon finding that the door wouldn't open, she started hitting on it getting more desperate by the second.

As soon as the small human started banging on his door trying to get it open, Bluestreak couldn't take it any more.

"Ow! That hurts! Will you stop please? That really hurts!" Bluestreak pleaded loudly.

When she heard the car tell her that she was hurting it, she stopped and looked at the dashboard. She more than half expected someone from Onstar tell her that she was in trouble and that the cops were on their way. Either that or she was on one of those weird reality shows where they pulled those strange practical jokes on people.

She was scared, she'd been dumped on the ground, her hands and knees were scraped up and were once again bleeding a bit, and her head hurt where she'd hit it on the asphalt when she been pushed out of the still moving van. Now she was sure that she was in trouble for getting in this weird car to get out of the rain. As far as she was concerned things couldn't possibly get any worse.

"What do you want from me?" she asked as fresh tears formed in her eyes.

"I just want someone to talk to so I don't have to be alone. I don't like it when I'm alone. I start to remember bad things when I'm alone. That's why I like to have someone to talk to. I'm Bluestreak by the way, and I'm an Autobot. What's your name? Why did that van just leave you like that?" Bluestreak replied.

"Are you going to call the cops on me?" she asked worriedly.

"No. Why would I call the cops? Are you a criminal? Did you break the law by getting left by that van? Did you do something to the people that were driving it? You're not a criminal are you? I mean how can you be in the wrong when the van is the one at fault for leaving you?" Bluestreak answered.

"What are you going to do to me?" she asked fearfully.

"Huh? What do you mean, what am I going to do to you? I'm not doing anything to you except trying to help you out a little. I thought that you were cold so I turned the heater on. Aren't you cold? You sure look cold when you start shaking like that, and there is a large amount of thermal variance in the different portions of your body, so that tells me that you're cold. That's why I turned the heater on for you. Do you want me to turn it off?" Bluestreak finished in a slightly confused tone.

She shook her head slightly to try to make sense of everything the car had said to her; while at the same time trying to wrap her mind around the fact that the car could talk to begin with. It wasn't that the car was talking fast; it just seemed that the car liked to ramble.

"Huh? Uh, no. Don't turn it off. I am cold. That rain is freezing." She answered hesitantly trying to figure out just how to respond to that many comments and questions at the same time.

"I thought you were cold. That's why I turned on the heater. So you wouldn't be cold. I don't know if you heard, but I'm Bluestreak. I'm an Autobot. I'm waiting here for my friends to come get me. They said they'd be here in about seventy two hours; that's three days, but that was before my long range comm system got knocked out by the landing. So, now I have to wait for them to show up. I thought I'd have to spend the whole time sitting here by myself with no one to talk to, but now that you're here I can talk to you, and why did they leave you here anyway? Didn't they know that you fell out?" Bluestreak said excitedly.

"I didn't fall out; they pushed me. They said I'm too old for the games that they like to play now. So Papa Dave told Papas Tim, Steve, and Erik to get rid of me." the girl answered tonelessly.

The Autobot gunner sank down on his tires as he felt his energon run cold when the small human in his cabin said those words. He could feel his primary logic processor and his emotion processor overheating from both the shock, disbelief, and more than a bit of anger at the girl's words. Bluestreak quickly ran the scene across his HUD and zeroed in on the opening of the van while zooming in. There! Clearly the small human was telling him the truth. As much as he didn't want to believe it, Bluestreak couldn't deny the evidence that had been so obviously recorded by his visual scanners. He froze the replay and expanded the image. Not one but two sets of hands were blatantly shoving the girl out of the van.

For the first time in his existence after being rescued from the shattered remains of his former home, Bluestreak found himself at a loss for words. The shocking realization that someone could deliberately do such a thing to a sparkling was beyond abhorrent to the Autobot. What made it even worse for Bluestreak was that from what she'd just said, they had planned the entire thing! They hadn't even cared that she'd heard them planning it.

As much as Bluestreak despised and hated the Decepticons for the suffering and misery that they'd caused him, he didn't think that even they could do something as horribly wrong as this.

All of this flashed through Bluestreak's central processors in microseconds. The cold broiling rage that he felt welling in his emotional circuits was frightening to him. He never would have believed that he could get this angry, that he could feel such hatred towards anything. Sparklings were the very future brought to life. They were to be cherished, taught, loved, and above all protected. So why, no, how, could anyone possibly abandon one of them intentionally?

Bluestreak shuddered right down to his chassis as he tried to get control of himself. He decided to let Optimus deal with this when he finally met up with the others. Having made the decision to turn the problem over to those with more wisdom and experience took a lot of the weight off of Bluestreak's processor, and he realized that it was the best thing that he could do since Optimus would know how to approach the human authorities about this problem. Bluestreak knew that he'd need more information to give them though, so he set about finding out what he could in the meantime.

"What's your name?" Bluestreak asked the still shivering girl softly.

"I know my first name is Amber, but they changed it to Maigan after I started living with them. They kept changing my last name, and I don't remember what it was anymore." she answered.

"Why would they change your name?" Bluestreak asked while struggling to keep the questions down to a minimum so the girl could answer.

"They told me that my family didn't love me anymore because I was bad. They said that I had to live with them because my family didn't want me anymore. Then they told me that I needed a new name because they didn't like my old one." Amber answered as the horrible memories of that first day brought fresh tears to her eyes.

"I'm sorry they did those things to you Amber. They didn't deserve to be your caretakers, and you didn't deserve to be in their care. I may not know a lot about humans, but I don't think that you did anything wrong." Bluestreak told her gently.

"Then why did they get rid of me?" Amber wailed as fresh sobs racked her body.

"I don't know the answer to that, Amber. I've only known you for a few minutes, but I know that I couldn't do that to you. I will say this though: when Optimus and the others get here, they will know what to do to help you. Until then you can stay with me and at least be out of the cold. I'm not really sure how to take care of a sparkling, since I've never had one before, but I'm sure that I can find out anything I need to know from Optimus and the others as soon as they get here. So will you stay with me until my friends arrive? I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to. I'm not going to make you stay, but I sure wish that you would because it would give me someone to talk to." Bluestreak finished hopefully.

Tears were still rolling down Amber cheeks as she looked out at the pounding rain. She knew that it was cold out there and it was getting dark. She didn't know where she could go and had no one to call. The men had never let her go visit anyone since they didn't want her talking about things that she shouldn't mention, so she didn't really have any friends outside of school either. It was strange because in a way, she kind of knew how the car felt about being alone. There were two questions that kept running through her head at that moment. The first was why did they do this to me? The second was what's going to happen to me now?

Not being able to come up with an answer to either one of those questions, Amber figured she was better off with the car than on her own. At least she'd be out of the rain; she wouldn't be alone, and she'd at least have something that was trying to help her.

Amber nodded her head. "I'd... I'd like that." she answered hesitantly.

"Oh, good! I'm so glad I won't have to be alone anymore. I really don't like it when I'm alone. I start to remember bad things that happened to me when I'm alone, and I don't like to think about those things. But now that you're here I'll have someone to talk to." Bluestreak said cheerfully.

"I... I don't want to be alone either." Amber replied with a hitch from crying.

"Good. We'll stick together until my friends arrive. I'm sure you'll like them once you get to know them." Bluestreak started saying before he was interrupted by a flash of lightning that struck the tree sheltering the picnic table not far away.

One of the most dangerous, and powerful forces in nature, a single bolt of lightning can be composed of more than forty separate electrical sparks. Created by a positive electron charge in the atmosphere and a negative charge on the ground, as the positive and negative charges made contact through interconnecting air molecules, a spark was formed. Capable of containing enough electrical power to supply the energy needs of a small to mid sized town for a month, the electrical spark generated produces more than one and a half million degrees of heat instantly. The superheated air then expands explosively, causing a massive sonic boom more than ample to shatter windows.

Amber jumped at the flash of lightning, while at almost the same instant Bluestreak felt his frame get rocked by the blast of thunder. Bluestreak knew that he was no scientist, but that didn't mean that his processor was slow either. Any electrical spark with enough power to jump five miles through open atmosphere was not going to be stopped by a few meager inches of rubber, simulated or otherwise!

"Wow! That was amazing! Does that happen very often on this world? I didn't know things like that could happen. Did you see that? What was it? That was even more impressive than one of Ironhide's cannons! Look at that! It shattered that weird looking structure that you were under earlier, and made it start burning. What do you call that stuff?" Bluestreak blurted out excitedly as he looked at the results of the lightning strike.

"The flash is called lightning, the noise is called thunder, and I don't like either one. It usually just hits trees like it just did, but it can hit other things too" Amber answered nervously, grateful that she wasn't still out there sitting on that bench.

"I've never seen anything like this before, but I don't think we should stay here while this is going on. That doesn't look like it was controlled, and I don't think my systems could handle getting hit with that much power, and even if they can handle that much power I don't think it would feel very good at all. There had to be a lot of power in that discharge for it to reach that far from the sky. Do you think we should leave?" Bluestreak asked apprehensively.

"Yes, please." Amber agreed wanting no part of nature's fury.

Bluestreak put himself in gear, but before he could move; his attention was caught by the headlights of a vehicle pulling in to the rest stop.

The vehicle came to a stop and turned off the lights. In the light of another flash of lightning; Amber and her new friend could see four men getting out of the van.

Recognizing it as the same vehicle that had abandoned Amber to survive on her own, Bluestreak activated the filter program on his audio sensors. Using that program to remove the sounds caused by the wind, rain, and even the intermittent thunder; the Autobot sniper could clearly pick up what the men were saying and he routed it into his cabin for Amber to hear as well.

"Man, I'm telling you this stinks! This is no kind of weather to be doing this shit in." Said one that Amber knew was Erik.

"Shut up! If you idiots had done the job right the first time we wouldn't have to be out here in this stinking rain at all! I told you to get rid of her, and I didn't mean just dump her either! Do you have any idea what's gonna happen if anyone else finds her before we do? I'll tell you what's gonna happen! She's going to identify us, and then they're gonna find the DNA evidence from our last little round of fun with her, and we'll all end up in the joint for the rest of our lives! Now we find her, kill her, and dump the little bitch where the body won't ever be found! Got me?" Dave demanded angrily.

"They came back... They... They want to kill me! They're going to kill me!" Amber exclaimed in a rising panic, a wave of fear ripping through her chest.

Bluestreak wasn't entirely certain about the situation, but he didn't like the tone or choice of words, so just to be absolutely sure about things he conducted a thorough scan of the four men while recording the results.

Bluestreak knew that the weapons they carried wouldn't do much damage to him, but they would be effective against Amber or another human. Each man carried a large projectile weapon which his sensors told him would eject a spray pattern, along with a secondary single hand model that expelled a single projectile at high velocity, and a non-plasma-charged blade. He didn't need Amber to tell him that the shotguns and pistols were meant to be lethal, because he could see that for himself in the way they were being handled.

"I have to run! I have to hide!" Amber wailed as fresh tears ran down her cheeks.

Before the human could open his door to try to escape her impending death, Bluestreak made sure that his doors were still locked, refusing to let her out.

"I won't let them hurt you Amber. I know you're scared, but you don't need to be. I'm an Autobot, and Autobots protect those who need help, and right now you need my help. Just hold on and stay still; if they spot us, then we're getting out of here, okay?" Bluestreak said in a calm but firm tone.

The Autobot had been in many situations like this before. He knew what to do without any question. Hide, wait, and only when spotted did you move after pulling off an ambush. While there hadn't been an ambush, Bluestreak knew that it was the exact same situation; just as he knew that he was well trained and experienced at his job in the Autobot ranks. Knowing that this situation could come down to split second timing, Bluestreak closed himself off from his emotions. It wasn't like he could imitate Prowl or anything, because he could still feel the emotions that he had; it was just that they didn't have any effect on what he needed to do, and the Autobot knew that he needed a clear processor to get the human sparkling out of this alive without harming the humans trying to kill her. Even though the Autobot felt that he'd probably be vindicated in killing these men, the orders from Optimus were clear. Humans were not to be harmed.

A scan of the panel van told Bluestreak some of what he needed to know. He knew that he wasn't the fastest Autobot. Forget about Blurr, he couldn't even keep up with Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, or Jazz, but still, he could tell that he wouldn't normally have any problem outrunning this human-made vehicle; normally, meaning undamaged.

Once more, Bluestreak cursed the luck that had caused him to slam into that unyielding formation. He knew that he was just as beat up as he looked, but he could still function and move, just not as fast as he normally could.

"Amber, I want you to listen to me, okay? I won't let them catch you, and I won't let them hurt you. But, I need you to be still, and quiet; okay? I want them to get a little farther away from their transport before I make a run for it. I'm going to put my safety restraints on you, so don't be scared and don't scream. I don't want them to know you're with me until it's too late for them to catch us." Bluestreak told her calmly, having analyzed his options in an instant.

Amber nodded her head hesitantly and Bluestreak grinned to himself as he thought this out. He already knew exactly where he would head, and what course he would take. He knew that the men could get back to their van quickly and would soon follow him, but that wouldn't make a sliver of difference once this became a foot race! After all, what short legged human could keep up with a thirty foot tall mech over rough terrain? The only thing Bluestreak needed to make sure of was that he had enough of a lead to safely let Amber out while he transformed to take off on foot.

With his plan of action nestled firmly in his battle computer, Bluestreak waited until the men started moving closer to where he was parked. The men were less than ten feet away, and Amber let out a choked sob when she heard them yelling her name. Then a flash of lightning split the sky and Dave saw her sitting in the abandoned clunker.

"There she is! Get her!" Dave yelled pointing.

As the four men bolted forward; two things happened. Amber screamed and Bluestreak redlined his engine. Just as one of the men was reaching for his door handle, Bluestreak shot forward. He didn't have anything close to his usual speed, but that made little difference as the men were forced to run back to their van before they could give chase.