8Ooooookaaaay. Yes, I'm late. At least I think I'm late. But in my defense, I warned ya that it would happen eventually. And, I also actually wrote a separate chapter before I wrote this one. Well, I started to write it, but then I realized that I didn't want to "reveal" some stuff, just yet.
I honestly hate this chapter, I don't believe it was the best I could do, but I was facing some writer's block as well, sooo...This was the sh*t I produced. Hopefully the next chapter won't take so long, and it won't be this crappy.
...So, disclaimer: I don't own AOE, and I'm glad I don't. That movie got a lotta hate, didn't it?
. . .
The black vehicles were of no worry as soon as Lia heard the helicopter. Just the sound of the blades whipping through the air made her stomach churn. Lia paced back and forth across the porch, muttering to herself.
Tessa wound her blonde strands tightly around her finger, biting her lip, and Lia's pacing was making her even more restless. "Lia, will you just sit down?" she complained, her voice tight.
With a short groan, Lia plopped herself in the seat Tessa had been sitting in. For a few seconds, she just sat there, feet and fingers tapping anxiously. "Summin's not right," she finally said, realizing she had been chewing on Tessa's pencil.
"Oh, like things were just great before?"
Lia ran both hands through her hair before standing up. The chair toppled over, but Lia paid it no mind as she marched toward Tessa and grabbed the teen's elbow.
"Hey-What the-!?" Tessa tried to yank her arm away. "What are you doing?"
Lia stomped toward the door, swung it open, and dragged Tessa inside. "You, stay in here." She pointed down at the floor. "You can come out as soon as things look okay, but not until you're positive."
"But wh-"
"Just do it, alright?" Tessa crossed her arms, frowning. "Damn it, Tessa, I don't have the patience for this!" Lia's voice rose in pitch. "Don't get near the windows, don't make a sound, and don't let anyone see you. Anyone."
Tessa didn't answer, but let her arms fall to her side. The older girl sighed. "Good. Now go upstairs."
Tessa pressed her lips together. "Can't I just stay down here?"
"Can't ya just listen for once?" Lia retorted, jabbing a finger at Tessa.
Letting out a huff and rolling her eyes, Tessa finally did as asked. "And watch Unity for me, will ya!?" Lia added loudly. She only received the slamming of a door in response.
Lia slipped out, shut the door, and stepped back out onto the porch. Cade and Lucas were jogging out of the barn, and though she had a strong urge to ask them what they had done with Optimus, she didn't dare speak of him.
Not with all the cars pulling up.
Not with the helicopter watching their every move from above like a hawk.
Not with the possibility, as small as it was, that whoever was in there could potentially hear even the tiniest fragment of her question.
Large clouds of dust formed behind the numerous vehicles, making them difficult to count. Lia counted six, not including the other cars parked on the outskirts of the field.
They mowed over the grass and stopped very close to the house, and even closer to Cade, who had walked up in front of them to guard his property. The doors of the first, the one nearest to Cade, opened.
Two men stepped out on the left side, the man in front wearing reflective sunglasses, and sporting a black trench coat. The other man was wearing a black jacket, with his black shirt tucked into his equally dark pants.
The first man, the one with gray hair, approached Cade. The second, taller one, started heading for the porch. Lia scowled and took a step back, and glancing around, she noticed Lucas hiding behind a tree.
"That definitely won't make us look suspicious," she wanted to say. Of course, she didn't.
When the first stood in front of Cade, a helicopter flew overhead. The sight of the black helicopter sent a shiver of warning down Lia's spine. Why? She had no idea. She had seen plenty of choppers before, but this one was...different.
"Mr. Yeager, my name's James Savoy." He introduced himself with honeyed words but a gruff tone. "I'm a federal agent. My men and I are trying to track down a…" He looked over Cade's shoulder. "Abandoned truck."
He finished with a smile. A false smile. Faker than reality shows.
"That would be 'an' abandoned truck, mister!" Lia frustratedly corrected. "Not 'a' abandoned truck!"
The second agent reached the porch, walking up the steps. Cade glanced at him uneasily, the concern evident in his features. Lia made sure to stand behind a chair, putting it between the agent and herself.
Savoy's small grunt was the only indication that he had even heard Lia. "It's a nice spread you got here." He used his compliment as an excuse to take an even longer look over the open field. He was obviously looking for something, but Lia had a hunch that it wasn't just a truck. Not exactly. "Too bad she's for sale."
"Well thanks. She's not," Cade answered, trying not to let his agitation show. He pointed at his own C-10. "That the truck you mean?" he suggested, slipping on his jacket. Lia had to give him some credit there. Playing dumb. Pretty good plan. Though not good enough.
James barely shook his head. " 'Fraid not." He was quiet for a while. "You know, Mr. Yeager, we received a call from someone concerned about this truck.
Lia heard a faint "Oh no" coming from behind the tree. From Lucas.
"That wasn't you?" James asked, knowing well that Cade hadn't been the caller.
Cade squinted at him with his head turned almost completely to the right, since James had taken several steps forward. "Only thing I'm concerned about is you bein' on my property without permission." James huffed humorlessly.
"You know, we got a rule about people messin' with people from Texas." Lia visibly winced at how badly Cade had phrased that. Cade rotated to the right and took a couple steps toward his uninvited guest. "And I don't know what truck you're talkin' about."
James bit his lip, and Lia hoped that a fight wouldn't break out. "The kind that cost American lives," James growled, whirling to face Cade. He looked away. "Search the property!"
Savoy's men scattered like roaches in sudden light.
"What do you mean, 'search the property'?" Cade demanded. "You don't have a warrant!"
James pointed at his shiny face, oily or sweaty, whatever. "My face, is my warrant."
Lia clenched her fists. "Hey, man, screw you!"
James looked over Cade's shoulder; at her. Even though he was wearing reflective sunglasses, Lia could tell he was glaring. She didn't step off the porch, wanting to stay near Tessa's shelter more than she wished to blast the guy's brains out.
"You can't just appear outta nowhere, dressed up like one o' the Pet Shop Boys, and just poke you parrot nose into business that isn't yours! What kinda asshole are you? The biggest!?"
James didn't seem to be paying full attention to what she was saying. Instead, he had a finger on his ear, and for the first time, Lia realized he had an earpiece. How had she not seen it sooner?
Savoy was mumbling, thinking none of the people present could hear him. The one exception listened in, and listened hard.
"No records...Nothing at all?" The voice that answered was more difficult to hear. It was too quiet. "I see…" James glanced at Lia. "I'll see what I can find." He lowered his finger and called out to Lia. "Hey! Hey, you!" Lia stood at attention. "What's your name?"
Cade stood in front of him. "H-Hey, she doesn't have to tell you anything," he defended in a hushed tone.
James jutted his chin out. "Either you tell me right now, or I'll have to take it up with her. Personally."
Cade pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Her name's Lia, alright?"
"Lia what?"
"Lia...Lane…"
Savoy didn't seem convinced, and watched Lia being swarmed by drones for a moment. Not being able to bat them all away, Lia glared right back.
Her murderous glare morphed into a quizzical one upon hearing what the voice had to say about her. With everyone now scattered across the lawn, away from Savoy, hearing the voice had been facilitated.
"Closest match we've got is some 'Samantha' character, but she disappeared ten years ago, and this 'Lia' doesn't seem much older than her."
"You positive?" James persited. " 'Cause she's not in the system."
"Well, your system must be broken," Cade retaliated, not bothering to ask him what exactly that system was. Or why they were looking for her.
"Age?"
"Huh?"
"Age? As in, how old she is," he drawled, as if he needed to speak more slowly because he thought Cade was stupid.
Cade didn't answer the question. "I don't have to tell you anything else." He tried to change the subject. "Wait, what do you mean, she's not in the system?"
James kept his cold face, and kept silent as he watched his team infest Cade's property. It didn't seem he would try to stop them soon.
The invaders were running amok, aiming their guns straight ahead. Some of them headed in Lucas' general direction, and he jogged backwards before hunkering down. "Wait. But if you guys do find a truck we get a reward, right?"
The helicopter noisily made its way across the sky again. The team went on to release several, small drones into the air. Lia thought of them as mini helicopters. Or giant flies, with the wings, and, the buzzing…
Around five people broke into the barn, and Lia couldn't even fathom how they would react to the Guard-Dawg. But when the thought of them finding Optimus popped into her head, Lia bit her lip.
Her eyes swept across the once-quiet lawn forlornly. She actually missed the peace and quiet. Now all the could hear was the constant buzzing of those damn drones, or the crunch of footsteps across the grass as the 'agents' scouted the area.
Out of nowhere, one sound in particular stood out to her among the others.
The faint sound of a car engine.
That confused her. All the vehicles she could see were parked, if not shut off. She was so surprised by the sound that she wasn't even sure if she had heard it at all.
Her eyes rolled to the left, but her head stayed in place. She didn't want to draw attention to whatever she had heard. She spotted a speck of white in the distance, obscured by the tall grass.
"No way," she whispered, not able to contain her shock. "Did Tessa…?" The man on the porch with her was only seeing her lips move. He heard almost no sound. Suddenly, the men started to pool out of the barn.
"There's no signs," one of them said. "We got nothin'." Lia tried not to relax too much, or too visibly.
"There is no way that we're off the hook that easily," she breathed. "There has to be a catch. There's always a catch." She spotted someone signal to his team and point into an old trash can.
"Sir, we've got a live, armed missile in the trash."
"Aaand there it is." That she said aloud. The man beside her didn't understand what she was talking about.
Unlike James, Cade and Lucas snapped their heads to the side to see what had been found. And unlike Lucas, Cade and Lia kept their mouths shut.
"Live? I carried that to the trash! You told me that was a dud, dude!" Lucas sounded betrayed, as he always did. He looked around nervously at all the staring eyes. "I could be dead. Right?"
Cade was running out of options, and finally spoke. "Look. Okay, yes, I found a truck, alright? I towed it back for the parts. I left it here last night. This morning, it's gone."
He swiveled his head around, trying to emphasize his false confusion. "When? Where? I don't know. I swear to God. That's as much as I know about 'im!" He threw his arms up and started to walk away, toward the porch.
Lia's eyes widened. And out came the phrase. "Oh crap." There was no way they'd miss that. He'd said 'him' for goodness' sake!
And then she heard it. The voice transmitting through James' earpiece was louder this time. "He said, 'Him'. He knows who the son of a bitch is!"
James turned and followed behind Cade. "Mr. Yeager," he coolly began.
Cade whipped around impatiently. "What?"
"Excuse me." James finally removed his glasses, revealing his cold, gray blue eyes. "You just said 'him'." Cade stared at the intruder, his chest heaving in a quickening pace. "Take 'em down!"
"What?"
Lia felt two heavy hands grasp her shoulders, yanking her backwards. "What the f-!?"
A man grabbed Cade by the arm, and he looked at James angrily. "They don't know about the truck! I know!" He snapped his head around in a dangerously quick motion to glare at the giant grabbing Lia. "Just let her go!"
"What kind of a man betrays his flesh-and-blood brethren for alien metal?" James asked with an almost disgusted tone. He looked at the man holding Cade. "Get this guy out of my sight."
"Let her go!" Cade shouted as he was pulled back. "They don't know about the truck!"
James was unfazed. "Alright! Load up! Search the perimeter!"
"Let me go, asshole!" Lia shrieked, tugging against her captor. She knew it was useless. As long as she stayed in her human body, she wouldn't be strong enough to get away. She saw Lucas was holding his hands behind his back. "I know you called, Lucas!"
"No!" His tremulous tone revealed his true feelings. "I don't know any of these scary guys!"
"Don't play stupid, stupid! Yer guilty as shit!"
Cade, being harder to hold, had multiple men chasing him. He slapped their arms away and dashed in Lia's direction. "Let her go!" Someone pushed him, and Cade did an involuntary somersault before crashing into the ground.
"Cade!" Lia punched and kicked, but she could squirm out of his grasp. "Let me go!" Her hair was pulled, and a vicious pain shot through her head. She dug her nails into the man's hand until he untangled his fingers from her short strands.
"You're not going anywhere!" the men shouted at Cade, pinning him down.
Lia's heart missed a beat as a ringing voice shouted out from inside the house.
"Daddy!" A nod and hand signal later, a man was already barging through the door.
"They're going for Tessa!" Lia frantically warned.
Amidst the chaos, Lucas was taken a hold of by two men. "No! You're not taking me anywhere!" he protested, grunting. "I'm an American!" He was tackled and his face was buried into the earth.
"Easy, sweetheart," one of his captors taunted.
Lucas was quick to let up. "Okay, okay, okay. Alright. Okay. Alright. I was wrong."
Lia tried to block out all sounds as the same voice from before poured out from James' earpiece. "Savoy. Use the girl."
"Girl?"
Surely he didn't mean her. But Tessa still hadn't been brought out. Had she even been captured? Even if she had, she wasn't out there. Cade couldn't be guilt tripped or-
"Holy sh-!" Lia was suddenly picked up, feeling like holes were being bored into her side due to being held so tightly. Before words could leave her mouth, she was smacked down against the steps of the porch, and the back of her head suddenly felt very warm.
She told herself her vision became blurred due to the impact on her head, and not the tears threatening to spill. She dared to reach behind her head, and a warm substance coated her fingers.
She pulled her hand away and brought it close to her face, only seeing a blurry red smudge. Blinking back her tears, her vision cleared up enough for her to make out the shape of her hand. It looked like she was wearing a glossy red glove.
Ah, crap.
She heard a click, and tilted her head to the left, trying hard to ignore the pain it caused, and came face to face with the barrel of a gun.
She looked away from it with a smirk she couldn't form; her head hurt too much. A gun couldn't kill her. Especially not one like the one in being shoved in her face. Noticing James was holding a gun to Cade's head as well, her confidence came crumbling down.
"Now, you got ten seconds," he threatened. "Where's the truck?"
Cade glanced at Lia. "What? You're just gonna shoot her!?"
"If I have to," James answered coolly.
Just then, two people burst through the front doors of the house. One of them was Tessa, with her arms held behind her back by one of Savoy's men.
She looked like she was about to break down, and froze when she saw Lia laying on the steps, blood pooling out from beneath her head before her very own eyes.
"Lia!" She lunged forward, but was held fast in her place. "Please! Don't shoot her, please!"
Cade tried to get up to help Lia as well, but he was under too much weight. "Look, I don't know! I told you everything that I know! He was in the barn. He's gone. He left. He was in the barn, I swear to God! Just let her go!"
Tessa could do nothing but watch as the gun was brought closer to Lia's head. "Lia! Get up! Get up!"
"He was in there!" Cade shouted, red-faced. "Let her go!"
"Seven seconds," James warned. Lia couldn't even think about laughing, or correcting him. Whether he would have her or Cade shot first was something she did and didn't want to know.
"I'm telling you the truth!" Cade persisted. "He was in there!"
Tessa let out a sob. "Dad! Do something!" She resorted to clawing at the arms holding her, but it was difficult, not to mention painful, to do so in her position.
"Tell him to get away from her, now!" he yelled at Savoy, who didn't move.
An overwhelming sense of defeat washed over Tessa, but she didn't want to give up. She kicked at the air, trying to knock the gun out of the man's hands, even though she knew it was out of reach.
The gun got closer to Lia's face, stopping when it bumped into her nose. The close proximity caused Tessa to panic. "Lia! Move!" She glared at the tall man holding the gun. "Don't do it! Don't shoot her!"
"You touch her and I'll kill you!" Cade threatened, knowing he wouldn't be taken seriously. James suddenly shot a bullet into the ground next to Cade's head.
"You got two seconds."
There was a moment of quiet, in which Lia heard the mystery voice utter a few words that sealed James' decision.
"I need the truth."
That seemed to be the order for James as he turned to the brunette standing above Lia and stated two words that sent shivers down Cade and Tessa's spines.
"Shoot her."
It was then that the man pressed the gun into Lia's forehead, moving it all the way to the right so her cheek almost touched the wooden step.
"Ow…" she mumbled, her injury making any movement quite agonizing. The gun was now positioned on her temple, and after a click registered in her mind, she was out.
. . .
Optimus froze at hearing the gunshot. Being hidden under the barn, he couldn't tell exactly what was happening to who. The first shot had evidently hurt no one, but Cade and Tessa's reaction, including Lucas' gagging, clued him in on the results of the second.
"LIA!"
"NO! Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!"
Optimus was surprised that even then, Cade refused to reveal his hiding place.
"I told you already!" Cade shouted, his voice cracking. "He was in the barn!"
It crossed Optimus' mind to wonder whether the gunshot had actually killed Lia or not. Bumblebee would never forgive him for letting Lia get hurt, much less killed.
Lia was likely still alive, but he wasn't going to take the chance that Tessa would be the next victim.
"Oh God, right in the-Dude, what the hell!"
"Daddy! She's bleeding!" Tessa was sobbing, and her knees were weak. "There's so much blood! DA-AD!"
"What's wrong with you!?"
"Her eye-! Oh my god-" Tessa felt sick to her stomach, and covered her mouth. She wanted to look away, but instead just let her legs give out beneath her. "LIA! Wake up!" She sniffled. "Wake up…"
James kneeled down, getting a glare from Cade. "Now tell me where he is, before you lose someone else."
Cade felt his rage expand as a gun was held to Tessa's head. She was too busy sobbing to notice. "Now you're gonna shoot my little girl?"
"Answer the question, and things won't have to get uglier that they already are." James started to count down. "You've got three, two, one…"
Cade was torn, and his mind was too boggled to answer. Lie or not. Thankfully, Optimus decided to answer for him as he burst through the wall of the barn with a deafening explosion.
"HERE I AM!"
. . .
Consciousness (and a whole lot of pain) stirred Lia as she slowly blinked open her eyes.
Or, more like her eye.
Well then.
She blinked open her eye, her right eye, and found it had decided to become ultra light sensitive. She reached up and rubbed it, groaning. Once her vision cleared up a little, she sat up and looked around.
And immediately remembered where she was.
"Oh crap."
She noticed Optimus had come out of hiding and was shooting down Savoy's team, and that Cade, Tessa, and Lucas were running away from the chaos. She was glad to see they were running toward what she presumed was Shane's car.
She looked down at where her head had been, and saw what she guessed was possibly a crumb of brain mixed in with the small puddle of blood.
"Oh crap."
Once she stood up, she realized her sense of balance was almost nonexistent at that point. Teetering in one direction then veering off in another, she held what was left of her head in her hands, hissing in pain.
Hearing that damned voice again, she attempted to ignore her immense pain and stared at Savoy.
He was listening to the voice from his earpiece, shielding himself behind a car door. He was probably the only person that didn't looked shocked or disgusted. Lia caught a few last sentences before he climbed into the car and drove off.
"Get her, whatever she is. Get. It. That thing's definitely not human, or a Transformer. Something Joshua will be very interested in. Something he'll be willing to pay lots of money for."
Lia tried to swat at the drones buzzing around her without falling over. She could barely stand straight, her vision was impaired, and just moving an inch made pain explode in her head.
If she remained in that body, she'd surely be overpowered. It seemed a stampede of people were rushing toward her, and she knew there wasn't really any other option. She had to…...She looked up a different word online.
Transform, change, alter, convert, transfigure…
"Transfigure? Transmutate?" She juggled the two words around, not being able to settle on one. "Whatever." She hissed, experiencing a sharp spike of pain.
The glowing green circle appeared above her, did its thing, and she appeared in a different spot, a few feet away. Her head was complete now, and she had grown seven inches from her usual height to reach a full six feet.
Bullets began to clang against her, only to bounce right off. Just as she prepared to attack, she remembered something important that was still in the house. That white ball of fur that she cherished so dearly.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted several small dots in the distance, zipping through the air. They were similar in shape to the one she had seen only hours ago, the thing that had gotten stuck in a tree.
Missiles.
"No!" She turned around but raised her arms in front of her face as one missile struck the truck, and the others struck the house. With a blast loud enough to render her deaf, it burst into flames, planks of burning wood raining down on her. "UNITY!"
She stood there with empty eyes, her sudden grief rendering her motionless. The dust engulfed her, the air she inhaled being filtered to prevent smoke from entering her body. The smell of fireworks still invaded her nose, however.
Lia probably would have stood there for much longer, but a series of blasts behind her snapped her out of it. She spun around, finding the blasts were coming from a helicopter that was shooting at Optimus.
"Unity..." She focused on the 'soldiers running towards her, and she held out her hand, releasing a barrage of infrasonic waves. Almost instantly, everyone in front of her dropped, some holding their hands to their throats, others to their stomachs.
With one final glare from Lia as she increased the waves' power, they screamed once before going still. Realizing the others were getting away from her, Lia flew high into the sky. Her green eyes scanned the ground below in search of her human friends.
They hadn't gotten far, and she flew after them. Once airborne, she thought about how she would explain her "resurrection" to them. Or whether they would even want her around anymore. Or how she would deal with the death of her cat.
She tried to free herself of those thoughts as she neared the fleeing trio. Just as she was about to call out, a white Chevy Sonic sprung up and over the hill. The car glided over several unsuspecting agents, and a front tire smacked into one of them.
"Did he just punch that guy with his car?" Lia stopped flying in midair, and simply hovered there for a few moments. Through the windshield, Lia could make out Shane's familiar blonde hair, and his oddly apple red lips.
"Red as a rose," Lia muttered, shaking her head. "Might as well call him Sleeping Beauty from now on."
Shane raced around the small lake, (or was it a huge puddle?) and managed to pull up in front of Cade, Tessa, and Lucas. He leaned across the passenger seat and pushed open the door. "Come on! Hurry up! Get in the car! Let's g-"
Tessa didn't notice her boyfriend's strange behavior as she urged her father to get in the car. "Daddy, get in the car!"
Cade didn't let his bewilderment hinder his speed as he hurriedly took a seat in the front. Shane didn't move a muscle. "What? What are you waiting for, man!? Let's go!"
Shane was staring out Cade's window, and Cade followed his gaze to realize some thing was watching them from a short distance.
Lucas' eyes doubled in size. "What the hell is that!?" Tessa leaned across Lucas to get a glimpse of whatever was making the guys balk.
"What's going on? What is-" Just barely making out a figure in midair, she jumped back with a yelp and covered her face. "Drive, Shane! Drive!"
"Well that's degrading," Lia mumbled, watching Shane comply and speed away from her. "I mean, she didn't even get a good look at me! I hope she didn't. If she did, then that means I look scary, don't it?"
Again, I had the first few chapters written up, though I did quite some editing before publishing them. Obviously. But now I...I've got nothin', to put it simply. Sooo, yeah, this is where it starts to take longer.
Sorry I took so long, I felt pretty sucky knowing I hadn't published anything yet, so...If ya hate this chapter as much as I did, I'm totally get it. I hate every damn word. I mean, that other chapter I began to write up...I just feel like it gave...TMI, I guess.
I don't wanna call this chapter a filler, 'cause it's not, but it definitely isn't very exciting. If you did remotely enjoy it, I'm glad, but if you didn't...I mean, idk, go ahead and criticize it. (Just, plz no flames :)
Also, if you have any questions about anything, maybe something Lia did/didn't do, feel free to ask. It gets confusing, since I don't write all that well, but I'm hoping to improve. (Might even add this to AO3 or somethin')
R&R...