Cracking the code on the iPod wasn't hard. The person who originally owned it decided to put it as 1234.

The stupidest passcode in the universe.

I was fighting to figure out where the language option was in the settings as I waited for my clothes to dry. Cybertronian obviously isn't a choice, and I don't understand... Whatever this language is. Arabic? I don't know.

I finally saw multiple options to choose from, and one of them said English.

Hallelujah.

I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror finally. I had on the fake glasses. There were a little bit of dark marks forming under my eyes. There was a really light baby blue streak in my hair.

Shit. I need that injection.

I grabbed my bag and stepped out of the bathroom, ignoring the look the woman was giving me when I walked out the door.

I sat down on a bench and played with the iPod a little, going through the music that was on it. It was odd. The language was set to some foreign and complicated one, but the music was in English. Besides one song called "Yoredet."

The dryer I was sitting in front of buzzed. After pushing the glasses back up my nose, I sat the iPod down, pulled out my clothes and stuffed them all in my bag. I kept the grey sweater out and put it on over my pink dress with the blue skirt.

Something kept nagging at me that I shouldn't wear a dress at the moment, but I didn't feel like changing, so I pulled out the black leggings that were just-above-my-knee-length and put them on under my dress.

That was when I realized that everyone else in the laundromat was staring at me.

Oh scrap.

Then I realized that I still had the glasses on. Maybe they don't realize it's me.

Fake an accent! Fake an accent!

"What?" I say, forcing a British accent. "Have you never seen a girl before?"

They all immediately went back to whatever they were doing. I rolled my eyes, packed up my stuff, put my garbage in the plastic bag and threw it away in the trash.

And I walked out the door of the service center.

. . . . .

Dear Primus, what am I doing here? Did I take a wrong turn? Did I go left instead of right?

Because I'm standing in front of a blocked off area. Inside Chicago lines.

Being here, with everything that's going on, is like suicide.

So why am I here again?

I was about to walk off when I saw a group of boys crawl through a hole in the fence and run down towards the stadium.

Primus, dammit. They're not supposed to be in there. That's like a Cybertronian Grave Yard.

I crawled into the hole after them. The boys went down onto the field and wandered around the crashed combat drone. Then they went out towards an escape pod.

An older escape pod. I felt like I had seen one like it before. Maybe in a history drive or something. The markings on the side of it reminded me of the ones on... On him...

I snapped out of my thoughts when I saw the kids climbing up on the escape pod, looking in through the glass dome on top.

That was when I realized who was in the escape pod.

"Hey! You! Get the hell down from there!" I shout at them, stomping over.

One of the boys -- a chubby little thing with dark skin and a black t-shirt -- squinted at me, but he just scoffed and looked back through the dome. "Yeah, that thing is definitely dead."

Oh, he did not just ignore me.

"Hey! I know you saw me!"

Another boy -- a scrawny little thing with glasses and a plaid shirt -- looked up at me and said something to the chubby kid.

"Nah, man." He said. "We're kids. We get away with anything."

"Attention! This is National Security!"

We all looked over to see a Sentry standing directly next to them, red laser pointers on all of them.

I cursed under my breath and dived behind a broken concrete slab. I forget about those damn Sentries.

My first thought was getting the hell out of here. I was the idiot who left my weapon at the junkyard.

But I'm not leaving without looking in that escape pod.

"Please step out with you hands up and surrender quietly."

I peeked out from behind the slab. The kids stepped out from behind the pod and into the open with their hands up.

'Serves them right for coming in here.'

"Hey!" I heard a kid squeal. Which confused me because they were all boys and we it sounded more like a girl.

The Sentry turned around and almost immediately after it busted into flames.

The kids then took off running, another girl joining them. She looked like she was 14 or 15.

I waited until the second Sentry was out of sight before running after them.

She took them really far, and they ducked down under some patch of concrete. I then realized that the second Sentry was coming and wiggled myself under a pile of concrete, watching it closely.

I covered my head went it turned and faced my direction. For some reason I was expecting it to shoot me, so I was bracing for that impact.

I did hear a gun fire, but it never hit me, and when I looked up the thing fell to the ground.

I crawled out and looked back. I saw a man with long hair digging out something from the back of a run down vehicle. I felt like I recognized him...

Aw hell. It's Cade.

Fuck! I'm in trouble.

"Bee! Do it now!" I heard him shout into a device.

The next thing I knew, Bumblebee came flying out of the torn up building and on top of a Sentry, making me cover my head again.

"Rya! Get over here!" Case shouts at me.

I ran over, and I wasn't even able to stop before he hoisted me up into the back of the buggy and and sped off towards where the kids were.

"Hey! If you plan on making it out of here, you better start this vehicle back up." Cade says to the kids as he got out to fire back at the Sentry Bee was practically destroying.

"There's no keys!" One of kids shouts.

"Hey! You got keys."

"Fuck it, I'm hot-wiring this bitch." The chubby kid climbed down from his seat and reached for the wires, doing a sloppy job of trying to start the car.

I was about to do it myself when the vehicle started.

Well, he's good for something.

We ended up driving the kids back to a hole on the opposite side of the blocked off area, and Case was trying to get them out as quickly as possible.

"Wait, you're that guy. The guy from Hong Kong." One of the boys says to Cade.

"Yeah. I know. Now get going." Cade says.

"You know we could turn you in, right?" Another one of them said, crossing his arms.

"You know I can punch you in the face, right?" Cade says. "You want that?"

The kid shook his head.

"Then get going."

The four boys nodded and ran through the hole in the fence. The girl just stood there with her arms crossed.

"You're not excused, Sweetheart."

"I'm not going." She says.

"Why?"

"I live here."

"This is a sad place to live." I say, climbing into the front passenger seat.

She rolled her eyes at me.

"Whatever, just go. Away from us." Cade climbed into the driver side and drove us away. "Welcome back to the business, Rya."

I rolled my eyes. "I assume you're here for that escape pod?"

"Smart girl."

"I'd be careful if I were you. That thing is ancient. No telling what's in there."

He scoffed. "Come on. I'm always careful."

"You're the one who fired a live missile into your own house."

"Aw, it got blown up anyway."

"You sound very happy about that for some reason."

"Yeah. I don't have to worry about a house payment anymore."

"You're weird, Yeager."

"Do you see me denying it?"

"Nope."

We pulled up to where the escape pod is and I grabbed a jacket and the crow bar and climbed up the side of the pod, Cade coming up after me.

Glad I put the leggings on.

I took the crow bar and smashed the glass dome, then slowly climbed inside. As soon as my foot touched the Mech he jumped, trying to put his guard up even though he was too weak to.

I don't know if he can speak English or not.

"Hey, hey, hey. It's okay. We're here to help you." I say in Cybertronian as I slowly got my other foot down.

He got even more jumpy when Cade came in, him telling the Mech to calm down.

"Take it easy. We're just trying to help you."

The Mech pulled off its mask and breathed heavily as Cade put pressure on the open wound he had.

I already knew he wasn't going to make it. He had already lost too much Energon, and I doubt Cade has any to give to him.

The Mech held up his servo, a small metal emblem, to Cade, pushing it towards him to take it.

"The tallisman... Will protect you..."

"No, you don't owe me anything. You keep that." He says pushing his servo back.

It was at that moment I realized the Mech was staring at me.

"You... You are Prime." He says.

I nod slightly with a small smile, tears building up in my eyes at the mention of his name. "Yes, I am. I was adopted."

"You do him proud."

"You've met my father?"

"Once. You were small. Young."

I smile. "I'm glad you remember."

"Hey, I hate to break up the romance, but ask him if he saw Prime out there." Cade snapped

I rolled my eyes. "What is your position?"

"I was... I was one... Of the Thirteen Knights."

"Knights of what?"

"We... We protected Merlin's race..."

"Merlin was human. Before Merlin."

He opened his mouth to speak, but the light in his optics disappeared before he could.

Cade huffed slightly. "Too bad." He whispers.

"May Primus accept your Spark into The Well. Rest, Brave Knight." I mumbled the final prayer under my breath. "Primus Bless."

"What'd you say?"

"Hmm?" I snapped out of my thoughts and thought up a white lie. "Oh, sorry. I didn't realize I was speaking in Cybertronian."

"Oh. Well, did he see him?"

I shook my head. "He wasn't able to answer."

Cade sighed and started to climb out of the pod, talking into the walkie talkie when he landed on the ground. "Let's go, Bee. He didn't make it. This turning into one shitty ass day."

"You said it."

We were about to walk out when a bunch of black Hummers started circling around us, all of them bearing the TRF symbol.

Shit.

There were green laser dots on both of us, and at that moment we dropped our stuff, put our hands up and got our knees.

I felt tears forming in my eyes.

I never imagined going down like this.

"Positive IDs, sir." One of the troops said, handing an iPad to who I assumed was the guy in charge. "The guy's Cade Yeager. The little girl is the Tiny Transformer Tyrant; Ryanna Prime."

Nice to know society's given me a nickname. Frag you all.

He walked up to us, crossing his arms. "Why don't you help yourselves out. Where are they? The ones you're hiding."

"Go to hell." I snapped. I only ended having Cade whack my arm.

"I don't sell out friends." He said.

The guy chuckled slightly. "Friends? This is an invasion. One day, we wake up, and they're in charge. Little Miss Priss here will have you doing her laundry."

"Alright, fuck you, man. You're obviously fucking blind. I'm not in the faction you should be worrying about--"

"Ryanna, that's enough." Cade cut me off. He turned back to the dick head in front of us. "Do you see any of them in charge? They just keep falling out of the sky. Something's coming, you won't be able to shoot your way out of it."

I heard an engine revving behind me, the next thing I knew the troops in the Hummers were shooting at a bright yellow Camaro with black racing stripes.

Bee.

He pulled up closer and transformed, but he fell into pieces mid air. Literally.

I started crying when his head rolled up in front us. It wasn't because of what Bee had done. I just couldn't take it anymore.

I've been running from everyone for 6 years, and this is how it ends? Arrested by punkass cops?

Hell no.

"The hell was that?" The guy asks, looking at Cade.

Cade just shook his head. "That was a mistake."

At that second, all of the parts that went to Bee started to move a click themselves back together hitting a bunch of the troops in the process of gathering and coming together. The mouthpiece on his head grabbed onto the guy's leg and the head went flying up, taking him with it. Bee then let go of him and pinned him to the ground with his barrel. "Next time you shoot someone, don't go near them until you're sure they're dead!"

"Just trust me," Cade says to the troops that were now aiming guns. When he was sure they weren't going to shoot, he turned around to face the extremely pissed off Autobot. "Easy, Bee. Easy,"

"I'll burn you so bad, you'll wish you died as a child." Bee pushed the barrel down a bit.

The guy shouted out. "Shoot him!"

It was at that second Cade tossed me my weapon (that he was carrying for some reason) and aimed it at the Commander. "You'll be dead before I hit the ground."

"Try it." I added, looking back at the troops as I did the same as Cade. "Stand down."

"Take the shot! Take the shot!"

"Don't do it, Bee!"

We all looked over at one of the Hummers, and...

"Lennox?" I was questioning my vision. I haven't seen him in Primus knows how long.

He's working with this dickhead now?!

"Hold your fire! Hold it!" He walked up to us, flailing a walkie talkie around in his hand. "Don't do it, Bee." He looked to Cade, who was barely moving with the gun pointed at the Commander. "You! Drop the weapon!"

"I'm not dropping shit." Cade snaps back.

Lennox just groaned. "Hey, hey the military doesn't want it this way, Bee. You gotta believe that."

"How?" I ask, wiping the snot off my face. "How are we supposed to believe that? You've killed us off one by one." I failed miserably at holding back more tears.

"It's a new world order, and these guys are calling the shots." He says.

Cade huffed. "They just want a home, and you know it. You push them, they push right back."

I looked back to see Hound pull up, yelling about he was ready to shoot.

Cade shook his head. "Let's go. They're not gonna touch us."

Bee pulled his barrel back and put it away. Then he picked me up by my sweater collar and gently pulled me up onto his shoulder, walking off behind Cade and eyeing the troops as they watched walk off.

"You sure you don't wanna shoot? I'm a big ol' target." Hound says. "Wusses."

We found Cade's buggy and Bee sat me down in the passenger seat. "You n me gonna talk later."

All I could do was nod, feeling the guilt bubble up in my gut again.

With that, we had all left.

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