Moments after impact, she could hear Collins' groan of pain before lifting himself off of her.
"Are you okay?" He breathed as he unbuckled his lap belt.
"I think so." She groaned before sitting up and removing her own belt.
"Then get up. We need to get off the plane and assess the damage." Collins ordered as he stood up and moved to stand in the isle.
Giving a strained nod, Elizabeth shakily stood to her feet and moved to follow him. However, she stopped and began to wrestle open the last overhead compartment to grab her tools.
"Is that really necessary?" The man questioned in confusion.
"Yes, these tools are my livelihood. I can't just leave them behind." Elizabeth frowned as she clutched the bag to her chest.
"Whatever, let's just get out of here." He grumbled as he moved into the middle part of the plane.
Stepping past the cloth barrier between the back of the plane and the middle, Elizabeth's eyes widened in horror. It seemed that no one had survived the crash. The bodies of men, women, and children were sprawled all around the inside of the plane. The several soldiers that Elizabeth had thought about were there too. Bile started to rise up in her throat, and she couldn't help but rush over to side and empty out the contents of her stomach. Collins was standing just before his fallen comrades with a saddened expression before turning to check on the vomiting woman.
"I'm sorry that you had to see all this." He mumbled as he pulled some of her hair back and rubbed her back.
"I just wasn't ready for this." Her voice shook as tears started to fall from her eyes.
"I know, but we can't stay here. You saw what was out there, didn't you? There's no way this was an accident." Collins frowned as he gently led her out of the plane.
"Yeah, it was some sort of birdlike creature. I'm assuming it was a Decepticon. Wait, it looked right at me. Was I it's target?" Elizabeth gasped as she turned to look at the soldier.
"You could be, and if you are, then we really need to get moving." He spoke quickly before taking her hand heading away from the crash.
Glancing around the wreckage, Elizabeth noticed that the plane had leveled an area that had been primarily trees. Nothing manmade anywhere in sight, she sighed in relief when she realized that no one outside of the plane was hurt. Feeling Collin tugging on her a little harder, she picked up her pace to keep up with him as he weaved around the trees. Her bag was heavy on her shoulder, and her lungs already felt like they were burning as they ran through the dense forest. After they had gotten a considerable distance from the crash site, Collins finally slowed to stop and released her hand. Hunching forward and placing her hands on her knees, Elizabeth wheezed as she tried to regain her breathing before glancing up to the huffing male in front of her. His hands were folded behind his head and he stood straight up with his knees slightly bent. He was obviously in better shape than she was, since he wasn't dying from a lack of oxygen after all that running. Sadly, he only gave her a few minutes to catch her breath before setting off again. Coming out of the dense trees, Elizabeth took in the sight of flat lands that stretched on for miles. Unsure if it was really safe to leave the cover of the trees, she watched Collins as he weighed their options. Frowning in aggravation, he motioned for her to follow him and took off across the field. Her anxiety was starting build when they finally came across a driving path.
"We just need to follow the tracks. Once we make it to a town, we should be fine." Collins sighed as he pointed ahead of them.
Nodding in agreement, Elizabeth quickly followed after the man down the flattened tracks. Finally hitting a fork in the path, the two glance both directions before noticing the end of a street to their right. Relief was flooding through their veins as they quickly made their way down the grassy path and towards the gravel road. Stepping foot on the gravel, the two looked down the street in exasperation before walking forward in the direction that the road was going. Finally making it to the end of the road, they had reached asphalt that stretched in both directions. The two turned on the highway and started walking in hopes of coming across someone that was driving. They could really use a ride, and it didn't matter what type of vehicle it was. Walking several miles took them forever as their pace had slowed and there wasn't a single soul in sight. It wasn't until about another hour later that sirens could be heard in the distance. A smile donned on Collins' face as the blinking blue and white lights came into view, however, his smile faltered when he noticed the speed in which the vehicle was moving.
"Get off the road." He whispered as he stepped over to the side and slightly in front of her.
"What?" She asked.
"Get off the road!" Collins shouted as he pushed her out of the way of the speeding vehicle.
Tumbling through the tall grass beside the road, she barely caught sight of the man narrowly avoiding being hit by the police car. Pushing herself to her feet, she crouched in the tall grass and made her way towards the street to see what was happening. The sound of tires screeching to a halt before the grinding of gears met her ears. Whatever it was that nearly ran right over Collins was transforming, so that could either mean one of two things. There was an Autobot nearby, or a Decepticon was tracking them. Suddenly, gunfire erupted from the street and peeking her head out of the grass, she noticed that Collins was open firing on the large robotic being. Her eyes widening when she recognized who had transformed before them. Hearing the click of the gun after the last bullet had exited, she watched in horror as the Decepticon transformed it's right hand into a cannon and pointed it towards the reloading marine.
"Stop!" Elizabeth shouted as she jumped in front of Collins.
"Witwicky! What the hell are you doing!?" The marine shouted as he finished reloading his pistol.
"Elizabeth Witwicky." Barricade's voice was deep and void of emotion.
"Barricade? What's going on?" She asked as she took a small step back.
"I am under orders to secure you, now that you are no longer under Autobot protection." He growled as he took a large step forward.
"Who said she wasn't under our protection! Elizabeth, you need to run." Collins shouted towards the Decepticon before reaching up and pulling the woman behind him.
"You are sending her away because you humans and the Autobots have no more need for her, yes? Well, she would be of great use to us. Now move aside, unless you want me to kill you right here." Barricade sneered as he continued to step closer to the pair of humans.
"Collins, I'll be fine. You need to be able to report to Lennox and the others. You can't die here." Elizabeth whispered as she clutched his arm tightly.
"I can't. It's my duty to make sure that you are safely returned home." The man argued as he gripped his gun tighter.
"Then you die here!" Barricade shouted as he lunged forward, a blade sprouting from his opposite hand.
"No!" Elizabeth screamed as she quickly got in front of Collins and put her arms out.
Barely stopping in time, Barricade held the blade directly against the woman's neck. Incoherent grumbles could be heard spewing from the Decepticon's metallic lips before the blade retreated and his servo reappeared. Acting quickly, Barricade reached forward and yanked the woman off the ground and towards him, taking several large steps back.
"Hey!" Collins shouted as he rushed after them.
"No, Collins! Stay back! I'll be fine, I promise!" Elizabeth called out before Barricade transformed around her and took off.
She could still see the marine standing in the middle of the road behind them as Barricade sped away. The look on the man's face was that of horror as he watched the woman disappear from sight, but he immediately took out his phone and began calling NEST headquarters. Flying down the road, Barricade was moving in silence as the woman sat rigidly in the passenger seat. It had been nearly a year and half since they had last seen each other, and it was beyond awkward. Elizabeth never imagined that this would be the way that they would meet again, and it almost reminded her of the first time that they had met in her garage. However, all she could think about was the way he spoke. Barricade had said "we", which could only mean that he lied about defecting from the Decepticons or he rejoined them. Her emotions were clashing inside, and she didn't whether to feel sad or angry at this betrayal.
"Your face will get stuck if you keep making that ugly expression." Barricade's voice mumbled through the radio.
"That's rude." She snarked with a subtle smirk.
"It's the truth." He rumbled as he began to decelerate.
"Barricade? Were you lying all those years ago?" Elizabeth finally asked the question that had been weighing on her mind.
"About?"
"Don't play dumb. Did you lie about defecting?" She snapped as she stared at the radio that was situation in the center of the dash.
"Yes." He answered shortly before falling into silence.
Clenching her fists in her lap, Elizabeth sat in silence as she watched the scenery fly by. There were lots of trees, fields, and farms that passed by. Some had livestock meandering through the fields, which won her attention every time. It wasn't until they had come up to a dead end that Barricade stopped and opened the passenger door to let her out, and the nervousness began to build in her stomach again. Stepping out of the police cruiser, Elizabeth looked around the deserted field that they had arrived at. The place was absolutely barren, the grass was dead and there didn't seem to be any living things in the fields, other than a few vultures that circled it. Taking several steps forward, Barricade led the woman near the center of the field. Her nerves were at an all time high as she stood behind the Mech, but she couldn't help but also feel safe with him around. She knew that even through his tough and intimidating stature, he had no intentions of actually harming her. Although, once they reached the center of the abandoned field, the sound of a jet's engine came within earshot. Looking up at the sky, Elizabeth noticed a fighter jet circling above. Barricade was also looking up at the aircraft with slight indifference, but the look in his optics told her that he knew exactly who they were. Watching as it descended to the field, fear built up in her core when it transformed into the Second in Command of the Decepticons.
"I see that acquiring the human girl was a success." Starscream spoke huskily as he landed several meters in front of them.
"Yes." Barricade nodded as he stepped to the side and revealed the trembling woman.
"Good, hand her over and I'll take her to Lord Megatron." The triangular shaped Decepticon grinned as he stepped forward.
"What makes you think I'm going with you?" Elizabeth snapped as she took several steps back.
"You don't have a choice, fleshy." Starscream growled as he swiped at her.
"Starscream, you have to be gentle with the human or else you'll break it." Barricade snapped as he grabbed a hold of Starscream's wrist.
"Yeah, yeah." The Mech grumbled before "gently" grabbing Elizabeth and lifting her into the air.
"Gentle my ass." Elizabeth gasped as she attempted to wiggle out of his spiny fingers.
"You'll receive your orders soon." Starscream mumbled before transforming into a jet and taking off.
Sitting in the cockpit, Elizabeth squirmed and kicked at the control panel as he flew through the air. The harness inside had wrapped around her to keep her from moving too much, but there wasn't much that he could do about her kicking at everything. Pushing the limits to his speed, Starscream flew across the ocean and away from the familiar country that Elizabeth had lived in. Seeing the ocean below, Elizabeth began to panic as she realized how far from home she was going. Reaching up and clutching the harness in front of her chest, she squeezed her eyes shut to block out her surroundings. Feeling lightheaded, she finally relaxed against the seat and tried to level her breathing. The air beginning to get thin was causing her to start losing consciousness and her grip on the harness began to loosen. Feeling the woman start to slump in the seat, Starscream began to slow down and drop altitude. It wouldn't take long for them to arrive at their destination, and he knew that Megatron would want the woman to be awake. Coming across the coordinates, Starscream quickly descended to the ground and transformed allowing the girl to tumble across the ground harshly. Disoriented, Elizabeth shakily stood to her feet and looked around their surroundings. She was in the middle of a dead grassland with different animals off in the distance. Seeing animals from the Savanna, her eyes widened when she realized that she was somewhere in Africa. Suddenly, the ground started to shake beneath her feet and she looked over to see Megatron approaching her from a makeshift tent. He had a torn up parachute wrapped around his head to cover the extensive damage to his cranium from his previous fight with the Autobots.
"Now that I'm getting a good look at this fleshy. I'm having some familiarity. Why is that?" Megatron grumbled as he leaned forward to inspect her.
"She was there during the battles for the AllSpark and Matrix, My Lord." Starscream, the fighter jet, answered quickly.
"Yes, you managed to shoot my optic. Normally, I'd kill you for that, but as it turns out, I'm in need of a medic. The Doctor was killed during our last encounter." The large Mech loosely wrapped his long, slender fingers around her body.
"What makes you think that I'll help you?" Elizabeth spoke harshly as she glared at the Mech before her.
"I wonder if it's stupidity or bravery that compels you to speak out like that, fleshy. But what say you to a trade?" Megatron laughed humorously.
"What kind of trade?" She asked as she wearily looked at his fingers.
"You fix me, and I'll give you two options. One, I'll allow you one call but you will have to stay with me as my personal doctor, or two, I give three days to run and try to find the Autobots before it's too late." The Decepticon leader spoke with a sinister smile on his face.
She met the Decepticon leader with silence as she stared at him with wide eyes. What kind of trade was that? He pretty much only gave her one option, since the second was clearly impossible. She was on the other side of the world, there was absolutely no way that she would be able to make her way to them. Face scrunching in frustration, she looked up at Megatron defiantly which caused the evil smile to widen.
"You promise one call, for as long as I want it? You won't cut it short, and I can say whatever I want?" Elizabeth inquired as she glared at the Mech.
"But of course." Megatron grinned before leaning back and removing his servo from around her.
"Fine, but you have to let me assess the damage first." She sighed before pulling her large bag from her shoulder.
Megatron huffed in annoyance before motioning her to follow him into the tent. Following behind the large Decepticon, she peeked over her shoulder and noticed Starscream taking off into the sky. Stepping into the tent, Elizabeth noticed that Megatron was already laying down and waiting for her to get started. Taking a deep breath, she removed the cloth that hugged around his helm and gasped softly at the sheer amount of damage. There were some wires still sparking, but all she needed was to solder them together and then find a way to cover the exposed wire. Looking around the area, she noticed that there were some parts lying around and so she got started on pulling out her equipment. Putting her soldering iron together, she quickly explained what she was getting ready to do. Hearing no response, she took that as her signal to start. Grabbing the first wire, she immediately began to solder everything together as accurately as she could. If anything, Megatron's wounds were mainly healed and all that really needed work was his helm. So, she felt confident that she could complete this fairly quickly. The Mech would twitch occasionally, which would cause her to scold him, but he would never move to harm her. His red optics remained on her figure as she hovered over his head and worked, which caused for some discomfort as she didn't know how to feel about the leader of the Decepticons watching her so intensely. It wouldn't be until several hours later that she would finally sit back and look over the wiring before breathing a sigh of relief.
"You have finished?" Megatron questioned gruffly.
"For the moment. I still have to go over the soldering again later, then I can find something to cover the exposed wiring." Elizabeth answered meekly as she wiped her brow with her sleeve.
"I see." He grumbled and sat upright.
"Can I ask you what you're planning?" She asked hopefully, while she started to put away her tools.
"No."
A sigh of disappointment escaped her lips as she eventually started to dig around the pieces of scrap metal that littered around the tent. Megatron had kept his optics on the woman as she moved things around before turning towards the little Decepticon that was bouncing around the debris. Elizabeth had also noticed the little thing moving around, and she had made it a point that she was trying to avoid it as best as she could. Turning her back on the creature, she finally found a piece that would work until Megatron was able to get his servos on high grade Cybertronian metal. Grabbing the piece of sheet metal, she pulled it over to the tent and looked up at Megatron as if asking if he would be okay that she used it. She could clearly see the look of disgust on his face, but she didn't have anything else to use to cover up the gouge in his helm.
"Is this okay or not? If you don't want me to weld anything on you, then just say so." She grumbled as she tapped her foot impatiently.
"I don't want any of your materials being permanently fastened to me." He sneered.
"Okay, I'll finish the soldering tomorrow and you can figure out your own head covering." Elizabeth sighed as she left the piece of sheet metal where it stood.
Sitting beside her bag of tools, Elizabeth opted to watch the wildlife that grazed roughly a kilometer away. She hadn't even realized how long she had been watching the movement of the zebras until Megatron had harshly nudged her back. He hadn't uttered a word as he transformed into an old truck. Grabbing her tool bag, she placed it under head and laid down for the evening. She had a hard time falling asleep that night since the air was cold and she had no way of making herself warm. The temperature had been dropping steadily as the sun went down, and she could feel her shivering and teeth chattering begin to worsen.
"Stop that annoying chattering." Megatron snapped loudly.
"I'm sorry, but it's cold and I don't have a way to keep warm." She choked out as she curled into a tighter ball.
"Tch. Fine, come here." His passenger side door opened quickly.
It took her a moment to realize what it was that he was offering, but when she did, she quickly took the chance to enter the cab. Surprised at the warmth, Elizabeth curled up on the seats and slowly started to drift to sleep. However, Megatron remained awake as he watched the woman in confusion. She hadn't hesitated to get comfortable or ask questions about his motives. He could've just attempted to kill her, but she just ignored the danger and hopped in. It was also quite astonishing how quickly she had fallen asleep. Barely two minutes had passed since she entered his cab, and she's sleeping like a rock.
"You humans are so weird." Megatron mumbled before falling into recharge.
The next morning, Megatron woke up to see the woman still asleep in his cab. Huffing in annoyance, he slowly started to transform and allowed for the woman to roll onto the ground. Waking up from the sudden movement, Elizabeth looked around wildly before her eyes landed on Megatron's amused red optics. Giving a sheepish smile, she grabbed her bag and motioned for the Decepticon to lay down so that she could finish her work. Luckily, everything she had done previously was perfect, so she finished the last touches within an hour. After she had finished, she put her tools away and moved to sit on the opposite side of the tent. Digging through her bag, she found her phone, but it had no service. Of course, she knew why it didn't. She was no longer in the United States, and she wasn't near a cell tower, so her phone was pretty much useless at this point.
"Hand me your phone." Megatron finally spoke after several minutes of silence.
"Okay." She whispered as she handed the Mech her cell.
"You don't have unlimited time to talk, but you can at least call one person." He spoke before handing the phone back to her.
Looking at the phone, she noticed that it was now attached to cable that was extending from his servo. Realizing that he was using himself as a receiver, she thanked him before opening her phone and scrolling through her contacts. Scrolling past Lennox, she stopped for a moment before going back to ring him. Figuring that since he was the leader of NEST and closest to the Autobots' leader, he would be the best choice in communication. Dialing the number, she listened to the continuous ringing. At first, there was no answer, so she tried the number again and prayed that nothing had happened. However, she would be on the receiving end of both good and bad news. While she was still trying to reach Lennox, Starscream had arrived and alerted Megatron that Sentinel Prime had risen and was securing the pillars. Providing their coordinates, Megatron began to prepare for their departure. The moment they mentioned the Prime, Elizabeth grew anxious. She remembered the last conversation that she was a part of, and Sentinel Prime was the center of it. Optimus planned to retrieve whatever was on that fallen ship, and hoped to find his predecessor. If Sentinel was there, then that meant that Optimus had found him and brought him back to Earth. However, she couldn't seem to process why a Prime would be siding with the Decepticons. Dialing Lennox's number for the fifth time, she finally sighed and moved on to another number. Pulling up her cousin's contact, she dialed Sam's number. Although, the same thing happened. She continued to call, but he wouldn't pick up the phone. Glancing up at the two Decepticons, her anxiety began to build and she realized that her friends were in deeper trouble than she originally thought.
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I do not own Transformers as it is owned by Hasbro and writer/producer Michael Bay.
I really only own Elizabeth Witwicky, who is Sam's cousin, and the employees of Ben's Mechanics.