Ruby - Origins - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Orange Smoke

"Get in the car!" Sam screamed at his parents.

"Not without you!" they said back.

"I have to get this to Optimus!" Sam waved his sock, "I'm going through with this,"

The sun was hot on Ruby's head. Sweat slid down her back. The sound of Ironhide tearing apart Decepticons across the town ceased. They didn't have long.

"We have to move," said Ruby, "I'll protect him," she told Sam's parents. They looked her up and down in disbelief.

Ruby rolled her eyes, "If you don't believe in me, at least believe in your son."

She watched the violent red colour drain from Sam's dad's face.

Finally, he sighed, "Okay, but you come back!"

Ruby ran with Sam and Mikaela, surprised at how slow it felt. The deep sand pulled at their feet, slowing them even more. Planes circled overhead, and it was impossible to know if they were friendly, or alien.

 "What's going to bring Optimus back?" Ruby asked between breaths.

"The matrix," he said, his anxious eyes darting between the red flares and the planes in the sky.

"The what? Where is it?"

"It's-" he huffed for breath "- an energon source. I have what's left of it in here," he waved his sock.

"What's left of it?" repeated Ruby, puzzled.

"It turned to dust," said Mikaela, her black hair streaming behind her, gleaming in the sun, "-when Sam went to pick it up,"

Ruby's heart fell. Her hope crashed and burned in the desert, the ashes becoming lost to the sand. How was a sock full of dust supposed to help Optimus?

A jet hurtled right over their heads, shaking the ground. 

"Whoa!"

"We need to go faster!"

Smoke clouded Lennox's base from view. Behind it guns popped and bombs blew, the blasts ringing in their ears. Ruby put on a spurt of speed, her legs pulling her along like machines as she drew away from Sam and Mikaela. She had to clear a safe path for them.

Her eyes burned from the smoke. It got stuck up her nose and down her throat. 

"Wait!" cried Major Lennox's voice from somewhere in the smoke. 

Ruby slowed her pace, "What's wrong?" 

"Bombs are about to be dropped!"

A glint of metal caught Ruby's eye. And running straight for it, was Sam. Vivid orange smoke swallowed him up. 

Ruby turned sharply, spraying up sand. Before she could get up to speed, something soft knocked her from the side, sending her flying.

"Puh!" she spit sand from her mouth. It grated against her tongue. And, urgh! It would take an age to get it all out of her hair!

"Ow," a solider lay sprawled behind her. He lifted his head, "That was like tackling a boulder."

Ruby flared her nostrils, and jumped back to her feet. A hand curled around her ankle like a shackle. 

"No you don't," said the solider, "This way,"

Ruby reluctantly let him drag her over to the Major and Tyrese. There were so many voices shouting through the village Ruby was surprised anyone could understand what was going on.

"I hope these pilots have good aim," said Tyrese,

"Why?"

"Because I told them to hit the orange smoke," he said in a small voice.

Ruby's breath caught in her lungs. Sam ran into that smoke.

A second grenade blew, sending a fresh cloud of orange over them all.

Major Lennox dropped his shoulders, and his face fell, "That orange smoke?" he said in disbelief.

"It wasn't my best toss OK?"