Shards (Transformers Prime, Shattered Glass)

Chapter 12

Sierra tried to ignore her father's raised voice, but she shuddered as he slammed the phone down.

As he and her mother went into the kitchen, speaking with hushed tones. She already knew what they were saying.

She curled her knees up tighter against her chest and from her perch on the couch, peered out the window at the two cars that rolled up into the driveway.

Did it really take two cars to spirit away one broken girl?

She sighed and set her shoulders, wondering if the rumors about children being dragged away to be used in unholy experiments were true, or if they'd just drive her to one of the salt flats and shoot her.

Guess she'd find out pretty soon.

She stood up and smoothed down her skirt as a man dressed all in black marched up the walkway and pounded on the door.

"Si-si?"

Sierra turned and gave her sister her brightest smile, reaching out to hug her.

Cas burst out sobbing and turned and ran out of the room.

Sierra swallowed hard, but kept her smile steady as her father answered the door.

He might've argued with the agent, her mother might've said something. But Sierra didn't really hear any of it. Her hearing aids were working just fine, but her mind didn't want to hear any of it.

Somehow she ended up outside of her home, by the strange man's side. She glanced back once and through the haze of sudden tears, saw her parents' silhouette in the door.

She was pushed into the backseat of the smaller car; an eye-bleeding green vehicle with a set of devil's horns as a hood ornament.

The seats were black leather and the seatbelt stuck as she tried to pull it over herself. It took several sharp tugs before it'd unroll.

She closed her eyes as they started moving. Brave as she looked, she couldn't stand to watch as Jasper rolled away around her, as her home sank beneath the horizon, like they said the sun used to do.

----

Raf was quiet as they walked through the Groundbridge, the corridors of the Ally melting away in a whirl of energy, replaced by a snowladen forest.

He let out a soft breath of awe as he slowly turned in a circle, head upturned as he stared around him.

"Wow..."

"It's pretty isn't it? I think Earth has the nicest snow I've ever seen," Soundwave said, looking around with Raf "There's a bit of an overlook a little ways down there, if you want to go for a walk."

"You've come here before?" Raf asked as they started tromping through the heavy drifts, it came up almost to the boy's knees, but for the 'con, it was hardly more than a carpet of frost.

"Yes, a couple of times actually. We where tracking down an Energon signal a while back and I thought it was just a nice place so I've come back a few times, just to look."

"Where are we again?"

"In Colorado. I like it here, it's very green."

"I've never been here before. I've never been anywhere except Jasper, well aside from the Ally."

They came out from the trees into a clearing blanketed in pristine snow.

"Over here," Soundwave pointed towards an outcropping of rocks "There's a drop and you can see the whole valley."

Raf scampered to the rocks and climbed up one, steam pouring out of his mouth as he panted from effort. Beneath him the mountain dropped away to a canopy of frost covered pines.

"It's amazing isn't it? There's nothing like this on Cybertron y'know. No snow, no trees, no mountains, or not like this anyway..."

Soundwave trailed off, happy to admire the view. Raf slipped off the rock, his landing muffled and his hands dug into the snow, pulling up a clump and pressing it into a ball.

"You okay, Raf? Not too cold-hey!"

The snowball splattered on the edge of his mask and he wiped it away as Raf laughed.

"Gotcha!"

"Oh really?" with one of his tentacles he scooped up a pinch of snow and threw it lightly at the boy. Deliberate and careful as the action was, Raf still tumbled over, though he was laughing. He jumped back up again, another clump already packed between his hands and flung it, this one smattering against Soundwave's shoulder.

They where both laughing now as they pelted each other, Raf trying as hard as he could, Soundwave being as gentle as he could, though he did try to duck away from Raf's throws.

One volley ended with Raf on his back, panting and laughing so hard he couldn't stand back up.

"Are you...are you alright?" Soundwave asked, after manaing to get control of his own laughter.

"I'm fi-" Raf froze midsentence as he began to sit up, his eyes locked on something behind Soundwave.

Soundwave turned, tracing Raf's gaze back to the trees, his spark going cold as he saw Bumblebee's red frame starkly outlined by the trees.

When Sierra opened her eyes Jasper was long gone. Just the desert rolled away around them now.

----

A voice crackled, as if it was coming over a radio, but Sierra couldn't make out the words.

"You've got to be kidding me," the man hissed "How did you get a flat tire you idiot."

Sierra felt her heart jump as the man stepped out of the car and walked past her, towards the beige vehicle that had been following them.

Her eyes darted towards the left side of the road, a tumbled mess of boulders and stones on the rim of a canyon.

....

....

....

Her fingers found the seatbelt and unclipped it before her mind even registered what she was doing. Her hand hooked into the door handle and yanked it open and her feet were pounding against the pavment, then flying over the dusty ground.

She was going to die. They would probably shoot her. But that would be better than dying strapped to a table with needles and wires sticking out of her.

She could hear shouting and swearing behind her and instinctivly she glanced backwards, her red hair flicking in her face.

The lime green car was already off the road, racing towards her.

She made it past the first boulder. Now at least they couldn't turn her into roadkill.

She heard a sound past the beating of her own heart and her gasps for air, one that was utterly out of place in the desert. It was high-pitched and metallic, electric and whining, like metal being pulled and yanked against itself. It chilled her and she looked back again, her heart going as cold as a lump of charred black coal in her chest as she saw an impossible figure cut against the horizon. A creature, a man, a monster that rose up from where the green car had been and bounded after her on long legs.

Her heart started beating again and her blood felt like it had been set on fire as it began surging through her body again. She ran straight for the cliff, because if she was going to die, then she wasn't going to die by being stepped on like a bug.

She could hear the crack and rumble of its footsteps but she could see the rim of the cliff.

"Nowhere left to run."

It spoke and the words chilled her fire blood, but it was wrong. It didn't think she'd jump? It didn't think she was brave enough?

As Sierra's toes curled around the crumbling edge, Cliffjumper lunged for her, expecting her to stay still.

She jumped, arms spread out wide, her knees pulled up. Cliffjumper hurtled forwards, out into open empty air.

And they both fell.