Chapter Text
The GroundBridge was supposed to take less than a second. Jack Darby had crossed its green light so often that the impossible had become routine, or at least routine enough that he no longer thought much about what the machine actually did each time he used it. One step inside an abandoned missile silo, a moment of pressure behind his eyes, and the next step somewhere else in Nevada. Ratchet’s coordinates occasionally missed by a few yards, but the worst failure Jack remembered had involved Bulkhead coming through upside down against a sandstone outcrop. Miko still brought that up whenever Ratchet sounded too pleased with his calculations, usually adding a little more distance to Bulkhead’s supposed fall each time she told the story. Nothing about this afternoon suggested it would give her new material.
The portal opened onto a narrow desert road between sandstone ridges, the view through its green circumference so clear that it looked as though somebody had cut a round doorway through the silo wall. Arcee waited on the shoulder in motorcycle mode, and Bulkhead stood farther back near the rocks where their patrol had ended. Jack had spent enough time around both of them to read impatience without needing human faces: Arcee’s front wheel remained angled toward the portal, while Bulkhead shifted his weight and glanced toward the road leading back toward town. Heat shimmered above the asphalt, distorting the rocks beyond them. Jack adjusted his backpack and studied the wavering road. “That looks miserable.” He could already imagine the heat rising through the soles of his shoes.
Raf checked the weather on his phone and nudged his glasses higher with one finger. “Ninety-eight degrees.” He said the number without complaint or enthusiasm, then looked through the portal as if comparing the forecast to what he could see. Nothing in his expression suggested ninety-eight impressed him.
Miko bent closer to the portal and grinned. “Awesome. That’s basically perfect.” There was no sarcasm in it. If anything, the promise of an uncomfortably hot afternoon seemed to improve the outing in her mind, which Jack had stopped finding surprising months ago. Miko treated discomfort as evidence that something was worth doing.
Jack gave her the look the comment deserved. “You know heatstroke isn’t a hobby, right?” He tightened one backpack strap as he spoke and caught Bumblebee tilting his head nearby, the Autobot’s optics moving between Jack and Miko as if he already knew where the argument was going. Warning Miko away from anything had a poor success rate, but Jack believed common sense deserved the chance to defend itself.
Miko dismissed the concern with a shrug and told him he worried too much. She had made that accusation often enough that the exact words hardly mattered anymore; Jack could read them in the way she rolled her eyes and turned back toward the desert. He answered that one of them had to worry, which earned an amused electronic chirp from Bumblebee. Optimus, standing farther back in the silo, wisely stayed out of it.
Ratchet was less interested in their usual argument. He stood over the GroundBridge console, adjusted one setting, watched a column of Cybertronian glyphs change, then adjusted it again. Jack probably would not have noticed the repetition because nearly everything Ratchet did at the console looked equally incomprehensible from human height. Raf noticed immediately. He slipped his phone into his pocket, his attention fixed on the controls with the same intensity he gave a difficult piece of code.
“Ratchet?” Raf moved closer but stopped well short of touching anything. “You changed the correction twice.” His tone held curiosity rather than concern, though Jack had known Ratchet long enough to suspect the distinction wouldn't matter. Raf peered at the moving symbols for another second, apparently trying to make sense of whatever portion of Cybertronian mathematics he had learned to recognize.
Ratchet replied that he had refined the correction twice, not changed it because of an error. He kept his optics on the console as he explained the distinction, as though the difference should have been self-evident. Raf considered that answer for a moment, then noted that the first version was therefore less correct than the second. Jack watched Ratchet’s shoulders rise almost imperceptibly. Miko leaned toward Jack and murmured, “That means yes.” She didn't lower her voice enough to keep Ratchet from hearing, and the twitch of one optic ridge told Jack it was probably deliberate. Jack kept his expression neutral so he wouldn't reward her.
Ratchet straightened and launched into a complaint about operating highly complex Cybertronian technology while surrounded by humans who contributed commentary instead of useful assistance. He had the tone of someone who possessed several harsher versions of the same speech and had chosen the one least likely to make Optimus intervene. Jack had heard enough variations by now that the irritation sounded almost routine. “Is the commentary making it worse?” Jack asked. Bumblebee’s earlier chirp made it difficult to keep his face completely straight, but Ratchet’s immediate glare helped. When Ratchet answered yes without hesitation, Jack nodded and assured him he had only been checking.
Miko was already walking backward toward the portal. “Relax, Ratchet. What’s the worst that could happen?” Her grin widened as soon as Jack stiffened. Of all the sentences she could have said while standing beside a machine that punched temporary holes through space, she had somehow chosen the one most likely to make him nervous.
Jack stared at her. “Why would you even say that?” Every bad movie he had ever seen agreed that those words were practically an invitation, and Miko had delivered them like a direct challenge to probability. On the destination side of the portal, Bulkhead seemed to notice the conversation and leaned in slightly.
Miko spread both hands toward the perfectly stable green field and insisted nothing would happen. Raf reminded her, with irritating accuracy, that she had said something similar before Bulkhead’s upside-down arrival. Miko dismissed that as an event that barely counted because everyone had survived. Through the portal, Bulkhead gestured broadly, as if to say he disagreed with her definition. Ratchet finally told them to leave before he decided transporting humans was not worth the strain on his systems. Miko snapped a two-fingered salute at him and stepped through before he could reconsider. The green field folded around her and cleared, leaving Arcee and Bulkhead visible beyond it again.
Jack watched for a second. Nothing changed on the far side. Miko appeared beside the Autobots, the desert road remained quiet, and nobody exploded. He stepped into the portal with Raf close behind.
The crossing began exactly the way it always did. Pressure gathered behind Jack’s eyes, and his leading foot seemed to reach for ground that was somehow both inches away and miles distant. Then the pressure sharpened so quickly that he flinched. Green light turned white, the sensation of moving forward vanished, and something squeezed him from every direction. His backpack jerked sideways, hard enough to tear one strap from his shoulder, and his feet lost contact with anything he could identify as ground.
Jack tried to shout, but his jaw refused to cooperate. Miko’s hand appeared through the glare, and he reached for it without thinking, stretching until his shoulder hurt. Their fingertips missed. The space between them seemed to bend, carrying her away. Strange images glimmered past with no sensible order: unfamiliar stars, red stone beneath an orange sky, a vast curved structure suspended against blackness, blue light folding inward until direction stopped meaning anything. Jack barely registered one image before another replaced it, and nothing stayed long enough for him to decide whether he was really seeing any of it. Gravity came back without warning.
He struck pavement shoulder-first, bounced, and skidded through grit and broken glass before slamming into an abandoned vehicle. The impact emptied his lungs. His backpack tore free and vanished beneath the rear bumper. For several seconds there was no portal, no impossible sky, and no question of what had gone wrong. Only the stubborn fact that he could not breathe remained.
Air finally returned in a painful rush, bringing smoke with it. Hot metal, scorched plastic, and something chemical and bitter hung over the street. Part of the smell reminded Jack of the disinfectant that sometimes clung to his mother’s clothes after a long hospital shift, except this was dirtier and mixed with burned machinery. Sirens echoed between tall buildings. Gunfire cracked beyond the nearest intersection in measured bursts, answered by a sharper report carrying an electrical snap he had never heard from any human weapon.
A damaged public-address system boomed overhead, but static chewed the words apart before Jack could understand them. An explosion somewhere nearby sent a shudder through the pavement. He pushed himself onto one elbow and stopped when he noticed the end of his sleeve lying empty against the ground. His hand had disappeared somewhere inside it.
Jack stared at the cuff, then looked down at the rest of himself. The shirt had not changed, nor had his jeans. His body had. He tried to stand, planted one foot inside too much denim, and pitched forward onto both palms. His hands looked wrong against the pavement: short fingers, small knuckles, wrists narrow enough that his watch slid toward his hand. His arms had lost years of length between one side of the GroundBridge and the other.
“No.” His own voice answered from much higher in his throat than it belonged. Jack recoiled from the sound almost as much as from his hands. He knew that voice, but he had not heard it outside old home videos in years.
He scrambled toward the vehicle's damaged side. A warped section of metal reflected poorly, but it was enough. An eight-year-old boy looked back at him with Jack’s dark hair and eyes, a softer jaw, and cheeks that belonged in one of the school pictures his mother refused to stop displaying. His shoulders had disappeared inside a teenager’s shirt, and the sight was familiar enough to be worse than something completely alien.
Jack remembered third grade, cheap sneakers that lit up when he ran, and telling his mother he was too old to hug her where classmates could see. June had threatened to kiss both cheeks instead until he gave in. His fingers went to his chin. The small scar that should have been there was gone because he hadn't gotten it yet at eight. That detail bothered him more than it should have. It made what he was seeing harder to dismiss as an illusion or a GroundBridge-induced hallucination.
A mechanical shriek crossed the sky before he could think much further. Jack dropped flat as a purple aircraft swept between the towers. It was far too small to be Cybertronian and shaped unlike anything he had seen on Earth. Curved wings enclosed a rounded body, and strips of blue-white light glowed along its underside. Green light gathered beneath it. Jack had been around Decepticons long enough to distrust anything that started glowing before it fired.
The aircraft proved him right. Green energy struck the intersection farther down the avenue. Vehicles jumped from the road, a bus rolled onto its side, and windows burst outward across several floors of the surrounding buildings. Jack covered his head until the worst of the debris stopped falling, then fought his oversized shirt away from his face. Dust coated his tongue when he tried to breathe.
When he looked up, two moons hung above the city. Beyond them, half-obscured by smoke and cloud, floated a ship larger than anything Jack had imagined outside a movie. Its purple hull curved in broad, overlapping sections, nothing like the sharp geometry of the Decepticon warship he knew. Smaller craft moved around it in loose formations. Jack forgot the street for several seconds. Nevada was gone, and Earth might be gone with it.
A voice called his name from somewhere near the curb. It had Miko’s pitch and none of her age. Jack grabbed his jeans in both fists and stumbled toward it, nearly leaving one sneaker behind. Miko was tangled in her own clothes beside a shattered transit kiosk. One boot lay several yards away, her leggings and shorts had dropped around her legs, and her purple shirt hung nearly to her knees. She dragged her head through the collar and froze when she saw him.
Jack stopped too. Miko looked seven. The black hair and magenta streak made her unmistakable, but her face had rounded and her limbs shortened. Clothes that had fit her less than a minute ago now looked like they belonged to an older sister. Seeing the same thing happen to someone else should have made Jack feel less alone. It did not.
“You’re tiny.” Miko stared at him as though Jack’s condition somehow made more sense than her own. Her eyes traveled over the sleeves hanging past his hands and the denim bunched around his shoes, then dropped slowly toward herself. Jack answered that she was tiny too. Miko caught her waistband before it slipped farther and touched one cheek. Bravado drained from her expression as she checked her hands, arms, and legs. She said no three times, each time quieter, before finally looking back at Jack.
“I’m seven.” Whatever else she was uncertain about, she sounded sure of that. She flexed her fingers as if to confirm the memory physically. Jack asked how she could know, then immediately realized the question was foolish. Miko shot him a look and pointed out that she remembered what it felt like to be seven. Jack could remember enough about being eight to understand what she meant.
An explosion tore through the building above them before either could say more. Glass poured into the street. Jack grabbed Miko and dragged her behind the overturned kiosk as debris struck the pavement where they had been standing. They went down together in a tangle of clothing and limbs, no longer able to reach each other. Miko recovered first and searched the street. “Where’s Raf?” The question wiped every other problem from Jack’s mind.
A low armored vehicle roared through the intersection while human troops fired from behind its side plates. Blue-white bolts followed through the smoke, one boring a glowing hole through an abandoned car. Jack stayed low and shouted Raf’s name toward the far curb. Miko added her voice, moving along the kiosk's edge and scanning every patch of wreckage large enough to hide a child.
Nothing answered at first. Jack forced himself to listen past the sirens and weapons fire, then shouted again. This time a faint, impossibly young voice answered from near the curb. He and Miko ran toward it.
A collapsed advertising display had fallen across a pile of clothing, and something moved beneath the frame. Jack grabbed one edge and pulled. It barely shifted. He pulled harder, and his arms began to shake almost immediately. For one disorienting second, he couldn't understand why, then he remembered the reflection in the car. Eight years old. Of course, this body couldn't do what his sixteen-year-old body could.
Miko shoved in beside him and grabbed the opposite side. She planted both bare feet on the road, and together they lifted the frame just far enough. A tiny child crawled free. Raf was four. His orange sweater vest and yellow shirt hung from him like a blanket; one arm stayed caught in a sleeve, and his pants tangled around his legs. His glasses lay several yards away on the pavement.
Jack let the frame drop once Raf was clear and crouched beside him. Raf moved each arm, flexed his fingers, then slowly turned his head. When he said he was all right, his careful twelve-year-old cadence came out in a preschooler's voice. Jack felt his stomach tighten.
Miko retrieved the glasses and brought them back. One lens had cracked, and one arm had broken completely off. Raf held the damaged frame against his face, looked down at himself, and managed only a quiet “Oh.” It said more than any technical explanation could.
Miko crouched near him and asked how bad it was. Raf stared at his hands and answered that he was four. When she asked if he was certain, he swallowed and nodded. Jack asked whether Raf actually remembered being that age. Raf said he remembered some of it, though his fingers trembled against the broken glass while he spoke. Jack noticed and decided not to mention it.
Gunfire erupted across the avenue. Jack moved between Raf and the street, deliberately. Human soldiers had formed a defensive line behind portable barriers and abandoned vehicles, firing into shapes moving through the smoke. The first aliens were short and broad, hunched under tanks mounted across their backs. Masks covered their faces, and green and purple light pulsed along the weapons in their hands. Taller creatures moved behind them on backward-bending legs, one advancing behind an oval shield of energy.
A larger figure stepped through the smoke a few seconds later. Blue armor enclosed something far taller than any human. Its head tilted back, and four separate mandibles spread when it shouted. Jack had seen plenty of impossible things since meeting the Autobots, but experience with one kind of alien did nothing to make these creatures less disturbing.
Miko asked what they were. Raf, squinting through his damaged glasses, said they clearly weren't all the same species. A green bolt struck the human barricade before either could continue. Concrete flashed white-hot, and somebody screamed. Jack grabbed them both and pulled them farther behind the wrecked car as another burst crossed the avenue.
“Whatever they are, they’re all shooting at us.” Jack kept them low. The finer details could wait until they reached somewhere without plasma passing over it. The soldiers began retreating in sections. One group fired while another moved, then the roles reversed. Jack remembered Fowler once getting annoyed at a news report that called an organized retreat a rout. He had spent several minutes explaining the difference to a television set that had not asked. This looked organized. The soldiers knew where they were going and covered one another while they moved.
It also looked like they were losing. That distinction did nothing for Jack’s nerves. This was not an Autobot fight where humans stayed back while giants traded blows overhead. Here, a wrecked sedan counted as meaningful cover. The weapons being fired were designed to kill bodies like Jack’s, and the people fighting back survived through armor, training, and luck, not giant robots standing between them and the enemy.
He looked toward the place where the GroundBridge should have been. Only cracked pavement and drifting smoke remained. The green portal had vanished as completely as if it had never existed. Miko followed his gaze and insisted that Bulkhead would come for them. Her voice had gone quiet, and she wrapped her arms around herself as she watched the empty street. She said Ratchet would trace the GroundBridge somehow. Jack pointed out that the Autobots did not even know what planet they were on. Miko answered that they would figure it out anyway, her voice determined enough that Jack didn't ask how.
The two moons overhead made the problem harder to avoid. Jack glanced at them, then back at Miko. She looked away before he could say anything else. He let the subject die there. Proving that none of them understood what had happened would gain nothing.
Raf found Jack’s phone beneath a broken sign. The screen still worked, but there was no network, no emergency service, and nothing Jack recognized. Miko checked hers with the same result. Jack watched Raf move through menu after menu, searching for anything familiar enough to exploit.
Raf finally admitted he did not think the devices could connect to anything here. Miko asked whether he could fix that. Raf tried another setting, waited, then said he did not know. Those three words bothered Jack more than he expected. Raf didn't always have the answer, but he almost always knew which problem to attack next.
The laptop bag had landed partly beneath the collapsed display. Jack worked it free and checked the contents. The computer itself had a cracked corner. A handful of cables, Raf’s small toolkit, a water bottle, and one food bar had survived. Something as ordinary as a school bag surviving felt strangely important.
Raf pressed the power button. The screen flashed once and went dark. Miko asked if the battery had failed. Raf said maybe, tried again, and got nothing. When she asked if he could repair it, he closed the computer and said he couldn't do it here. His frustration showed in how carefully he avoided slamming the lid.
The city’s loudspeakers crackled back to life before anyone could say more. A distorted announcement reported a Covenant incursion in eastern Dawnreach, ordered civilians west, confirmed Harlow Central Station remained operational, and directed evacuees toward the western spaceport. Static consumed the end of the message, then the warning started over. Jack listened carefully the second time and caught the same names.
At least they now knew what the aliens were called. Raf reasoned that Covenant probably referred to the whole force rather than a single species, since several different kinds were obviously fighting together. Miko muttered that an alien team-up was exactly what the day needed. Another explosion rattled the storefronts and ended the discussion.
Jack looked west, where an elevated rail line curved between several towers. Harlow was the only destination anybody had given them. “We head for the station. We can figure out everything else when people aren’t shooting at us.” It was not much of a plan, but standing still was worse.
Miko pointed out that they first needed to solve the walking problem. Jack tried one step, and his jeans slid to his knees. He caught them with both hands. Raf’s clothing was even worse; his pants fell whenever he moved, and his shoes slipped loose. Jack looked toward the street and imagined trying to run from anything like this.
Anything they could not keep on had to go. Miko agreed only after establishing, with considerable emphasis, that nobody was going to look at anybody else. Jack made the mistake of saying nobody wanted to, caught her expression, and immediately admitted it was badly worded. The irritation that returned to her face was almost reassuring. They worked behind the overturned kiosk, one watching the street while the other handled the clothing. Raf needed help with most of it. The whole process would have been ridiculous under any other circumstances, but aircraft passing over the rooftops kept embarrassment from lingering.
Miko eventually declared it the worst day of her life. Jack agreed before thinking of a better response. She complained that he was supposed to argue with her, and Jack looked up at the alien warship hanging over the city before admitting he was having trouble finding another candidate. Miko considered that and conceded.
Raf’s remaining sock had twisted around his ankle. Miko pulled it free while Jack tied Raf’s shirt up at the side so he could walk without stepping on it. They abandoned most of their old clothes behind the kiosk. Jack forced himself not to linger over the pile. Those things had fit them that morning, and thinking about that would not get them to the station.
Miko studied the streets and asked how they were supposed to reach Harlow from here. Jack found a narrow service lane behind several abandoned vehicles that led toward a department store. It offered more cover than the main avenue and kept them out of the worst of the fighting. He shortened the strap on Raf’s laptop bag and slung it over his shoulder, surprised by how much heavier it felt. Miko observed that he sounded like Arcee. Jack took it as a compliment, even after she told him it wasn't meant as one. He checked both directions and moved into the service lane, with Miko and Raf following as closely as their smaller bodies allowed.
The road felt hotter than Jack expected. Broken glass and metal fragments forced him to choose every step. Raf made it only a short distance before slowing, his breathing already becoming uneven. When Raf admitted he couldn't keep up, Jack went back and picked him up. Raf was lighter now, but Jack’s own arms were weaker, and the effort began to burn much sooner than expected.
Miko came alongside and supported Raf from underneath, agreeing that she and Jack would trade off whenever either got tired. For once, she set the sensible rule, and Jack didn't argue. They moved from cover to cover, using wrecked cars and concrete dividers whenever the fighting came too close. Halfway across the block, a family emerged from a side street: a man carrying a little girl and a woman dragging two more children behind her. The man saw Jack’s group and shouted that they were going to Harlow. Jack started toward him, relieved to see adults heading in the same direction.
A plasma bolt struck the pavement between the two groups—both families dove for cover. Jack hauled Miko and Raf behind an overturned van. Across the street, the man looked back and hesitated. Jack saw the choice forming on his face, and for a second he wanted to let an adult make it for him.
Instead, Jack waved him away. The man already had three children depending on him. Adding three more in the middle of a firefight would make everyone slower. Jack shouted for him to go, and after one more hesitation, the family disappeared into a parking structure.
Miko watched the entrance and said they could have followed. Jack reminded her that those adults already had three children to protect. She pointed out that adults were still better protection than two de-aged teenagers and a four-year-old. Jack glanced at the exposed road and answered that the adults had no cover either. Miko started to argue, then looked toward the avenue and stopped.
A squad of human soldiers appeared farther down the lane. One noticed the children and broke away from the group, keeping his rifle raised while he approached. He warned them that a Covenant push was coming through the sector and ordered them to get inside. Jack shouted that they were trying to reach Harlow and asked which way to go.
The soldier directed them west through the service blocks, then north to the transit conduit. Then he looked at them properly. His expression changed when he noticed their bare feet, oversized clothing, and complete lack of an adult. He asked where their parents were.
Jack hesitated only briefly before saying they had been separated. It was technically a lie. It was also the closest answer he had. The soldier accepted it without question, pulled an emergency ration from one of his pouches, and tossed it to Jack. He told them to keep moving and stay off the open streets, then ran back to his unit.
Miko called the gesture nice after the soldier was gone. Jack pointed out that the man thought they belonged here. Miko looked around at the burning city and said it looked like it had been blown up. Jack couldn't argue, so he tucked the ration into Raf’s bag and led them on.
The department store’s side entrance had been blown inward. Broken glass covered the threshold, and smoke hung in the dark interior. Jack lowered Raf behind a concrete divider and told him to wait while he checked the doorway. Miko immediately stepped up beside Jack and pointed out that he had only told Raf to stay put. Jack clarified that he had meant both of them. Miko told him he should have said both of them, looking far too satisfied with the technical victory.
Jack stared at her for a second, then surrendered. “Stay behind me.” Arguing over wording wasn't worth the time. The entrance was clear. Jack went back for Raf, and the three of them slipped inside. The store had seen fighting. Bullet holes crossed the walls in ragged lines. Plasma had melted shelving into black, warped shapes. Portable barricades still faced the shattered front windows. Shell casings littered the floor alongside dark stains Jack made a point of not examining too carefully.
Miko examined them anyway. Her voice dropped when she said people had died here, and she stayed closer to Jack than she had outside. Jack looked toward the upper level and replied that they wouldn't stay longer than necessary. Raf warned them away from a rainbow-colored sheen spreading across a puddle near one damaged support column. Miko immediately asked what it was. Raf admitted he had no idea and suggested fuel or coolant as possibilities. Miko told him neither option was reassuring and gave the puddle a wider berth.
A child’s toy lay beside the escalator. Jack saw Miko notice it and turn her head away. He said nothing. Some things did not improve by being pointed out.
Debris blocked the escalator, but a nearby stairwell had partly collapsed, leaving enough space for children to squeeze through. Jack moved loose chunks of concrete and tested the nearest step. The structure groaned but held. Miko carried Raf while Jack steadied them from below, and by the time they reached the second floor, his shoulder ached from the laptop bag.
Miko was breathing loudly enough for both boys to hear. Raf pointed that out with genuine concern, which Miko interpreted as criticism and answered by reminding him she had just carried him up a broken staircase. Raf said he knew and looked confused by her reaction. Before the exchange could become another of their circular arguments, Jack called for a thirty-second break and admitted he needed it too.
The children’s department had taken a direct hit. Half of one exterior wall was gone. Beyond it, Dawnreach burned block by block. Human aircraft climbed into the smoke while purple fighters chased them. A Covenant dropship settled over a plaza several streets away, disgorged troops, then landed.
Miko watched another group emerge and quietly observed that there were more of them. Jack agreed. When she asked how many, he said there were enough and left it at that. Counting hostile aliens would not improve the situation.
Raf studied the enormous vessel overhead and suggested it might be coordinating the attack. Miko asked if he could tell what it was. Raf said no and kept looking. She remarked that he had said that a lot today, then immediately realized how the words sounded. Raf lowered his glasses slightly and pointed out that it was true.
Miko’s apology came awkwardly. She rubbed the back of her neck, admitted the comment had come out wrong, and apologized. Raf accepted it with a simple okay and returned his attention to the city. Jack picked up the bag and suggested they find clothes before something else found them.
Most of the clothing was ruined. Jack eventually found a gray long-sleeved shirt, dark adjustable trousers, and a green jacket with one damaged pocket. None of it matched, but it all fit closely enough. After the last hour, fashion had dropped off the list of concerns.
Miko’s options were less cooperative. The only intact top near her size came from a formal display: a dark red-purple tunic secured by ties in the back. She held it up as though the garment had been designed specifically to insult her. Jack pointed toward the nearest alternative, which had a scorched hole through the front. Miko declared that she hated the store despite having been inside only about twenty minutes. Jack commented on the short time frame, and she said twenty minutes was plenty.
Raf found a blue shirt, dark trousers, and a small jacket. The sleeves were long enough that he complained immediately. Jack suggested Miko could roll them. Raf insisted he could do it himself, and Miko reminded him that he had been trapped in his old shirt less than an hour earlier. Raf pointed out that the old shirt had been designed for someone roughly three times his current size. Miko stared at him for a second, then grinned and announced that he was definitely still Raf.
Jack smiled too. For a few seconds they sounded like themselves again. Finding underwear proved impossible. Anything close to the correct sizes sat beneath collapsed shelving and part of the ceiling. Raf suggested using something as a lever, but Jack pointed to the cracked support above the debris. Raf followed his finger and immediately abandoned the plan.
Miko folded her arms and asked whether that meant they were going without. Jack told her it was temporary and they would find something later. She answered with a flat “Fantastic,” making it clear how she felt about the promise. They found a smaller backpack for Raf and transferred the surviving supplies into it. The fitting rooms were wrecked, leaving the area behind a sales counter as the best privacy available. Miko described the arrangement as awful. Jack pointed out that it was still cover and that gunfire outside had lowered his standards considerably.
Miko insisted they take opposite ends of the counter. Jack pointed out there were barely two ends, and somebody still needed to watch the entrance. She finally agreed after warning both boys that nobody would talk about any of this later. Changing clothes should have been easy. It was not. Jack’s balance was wrong, his arms were too short, and every familiar movement required adjustment. Raf tangled in his shirt again and later struggled with his trouser fastening until his fingers started to shake.
Jack knelt and helped him. Raf started to say his hands weren't working properly, then stopped halfway through. Jack told him he knew and fastened the trousers without making him finish. He wasn't sure whether telling Raf he would get used to the new body was true, but it was the only reassurance he had. Miko helped with Raf’s jacket zipper after he missed it twice. Once they were done, Jack had Raf walk several steps, crouch, and stand again to make sure nothing slipped. Raf tolerated the inspection with visible annoyance but admitted the clothing worked.
Miko changed last. Her trousers fit well enough; the tunic did not. She twisted twice, trying to reach the ties herself, then let Raf try. His hands were too small to pull the fabric tight enough. The moment Miko looked toward Jack, she said no before he could offer.
Jack said her name and waited. Miko insisted Raf could manage it. Raf held up both hands and admitted he really couldn't. Miko glared at them both, sighed, and finally turned around, sweeping her hair aside.
Jack told her to say something if he pulled too tightly. Miko told him to get it over with. He tied the lower knot, felt her shift, and loosened it slightly. Miko immediately claimed she had not moved. Raf, entirely matter-of-fact, informed her that she had. Miko asked whose side he was on, and Raf answered that he was on nobody’s.
Jack tied the second knot before the argument continued. He had Miko roll her shoulders and raise her arms, then tucked the loose ends so they wouldn't snag. She tested the fit once more, decided it was good enough, pulled on her jacket, and thanked him quickly. Jack accepted the thanks just as quickly and let the subject die.
The public-address system crackled back to life. Civilians were ordered toward Harlow Central again. The western rail line remained open. Covenant troops had entered nearby commercial sectors. Jack looked toward the broken exterior wall and decided they had already stayed too long. They searched the footwear department before leaving and found almost nothing: one usable boot for Jack, two matching shoes for Miko, both somehow right-footed, and one child’s shoe whose partner had been crushed beneath shelving. After several minutes, even Jack had to admit they were wasting time.
Miko suggested tearing clean cloth into strips and wrapping their feet. Raf warned that the fabric would wear through quickly on concrete. Miko called that a later problem. Jack agreed, and Miko immediately asked him to repeat the part where she was right. Jack refused and handed her a strip of cloth instead. They had barely gathered enough material when metal scraped against metal downstairs.
Jack froze. Alien voices followed. He moved to the damaged railing and looked down. Three short masked aliens entered first, followed by two shield-bearing creatures. Two larger armored warriors followed, one blue and one dark red. They spread out deliberately, checking corners and covering one another. Jack did not need Fowler to explain the pattern. They were searching the store.
One of the smaller aliens looked up. It saw Jack. The creature shouted. Jack spun away from the railing and ordered Miko and Raf toward the service corridor. A plasma bolt struck the wall behind him as he reached the service door. He hit the control. Nothing happened. Jack tried it again out of reflex, but the door remained locked.
Raf pointed toward the access panel. Miko tore the damaged cover away while Jack lifted Raf toward the exposed circuitry. His arms already protested the weight, and footsteps grew closer through the aisles. Raf studied the wiring and immediately said it was neither Cybertronian nor anything he recognized from Earth. Jack told him they had noticed and urged him to keep looking. Raf traced one line with a finger, swallowed, and concentrated.
A masked alien rounded the aisle. Jack grabbed a wheeled display and shouted for Miko to push. She hit the opposite side, and together they sent it rolling down the aisle. It slammed into the alien and knocked it back, but one of the shield-bearing creatures stepped around it.
Raf touched two wires together. Sparks jumped. The door stayed shut. He announced that he had chosen the wrong pair. Miko backed away, watching the approaching alien, and asked him, with unusual sincerity, to pick a better one.
A blue-armored warrior appeared behind the shield bearer. Jack ripped a fire extinguisher off the wall and emptied it down the aisle. White vapor swallowed the Covenant, buying them at best a few seconds. Raf snapped that he knew what Jack was about to ask before Jack said his name. His fingers touched another pair of wires. The lock clicked. Raf pointed toward the door and announced that he had it.
Jack opened the door, and cold air from an exterior stairwell rushed in. Miko took Raf and started down while Jack held the door. Something struck the other side hard enough to wrench it from his grip. He slammed it shut again, but the next impact bent the frame inward. Raf spotted a red emergency handle and recognized it as a fire-barrier control. Miko grabbed it, but the mechanism barely moved. Jack joined her, and they pulled together as the service door buckled behind them.
The door burst open just as the steel shutter began descending. The blue-armored alien caught it with one hand; for a second, Jack stared. The creature looked strong enough to hold the entire barrier up. Its armored arm shook under the weight, and its mandibles spread as it tried to force the shutter higher.
Miko shouted at Jack to push. He was already doing it. They both threw their weight against the mechanism until the barrier dropped another few inches, then slammed shut. Orange light spread across the metal almost immediately. They ran.
The steel stairs hurt even through the cloth around their feet. Raf could not keep pace, so Jack picked him up again. Halfway down, Miko jerked backward when one of the tunic ties snagged on a protruding bolt. She grabbed the railing before the caught fabric could pull her off balance. Jack set Raf down and climbed back. He freed the cloth easily enough, but the lower knot had partly opened. Miko kept looking toward the orange glow spreading through the barrier above them while Jack retied it.
Raf warned that the barrier was failing. Miko snapped that they knew. Jack finished the knot, tucked the loose end beneath her jacket, and sent her down the stairs. The barrier ruptured before they reached the bottom. Plasma tore into the staircase behind them, and the whole structure shook. Jack stumbled with Raf in his arms. Miko caught Jack’s sleeve with one hand and braced herself against the railing until he recovered.
They made it outside. glass and debris covered the alley. Miko took the laptop bag while Jack carried Raf. A plasma bolt struck the wall beside them, spraying molten fragments across Jack’s jacket. A collapsed delivery truck blocked the route ahead, leaving only a maintenance door in the neighboring building. Jack pointed toward it. Miko reached it first and held it open while he carried Raf inside.
The narrow corridor beyond smelled of dust and hot machinery. Once the door shut behind them, Jack put Raf down and listened. Heavy footsteps moved somewhere outside, but no one immediately followed them into the corridor. Raf pointed deeper into the building and said there was probably another exit. Miko latched onto the word probably. Raf gave her a tired look instead of defending it, and she raised one hand in surrender before starting forward.
The corridor opened into a maintenance room filled with conduits, storage lockers, and emergency equipment. For once, the room contained things they could actually use. Jack found two bottles of water, a thermal blanket, and a sealed medical packet. Miko opened another locker and announced that she had found food. Six wrapped ration bars sat inside. Raf examined one package and admitted he could not read the markings. Miko decided it looked human enough and started opening it.
Jack took the bar before she tore the wrapper completely. They had no idea what was in it. Miko gestured toward the door, beyond which aliens were still searching for them, and argued that an invasion seemed like the perfect time to try mystery food. Jack packed the bars anyway and decided they would try them later if they had no alternative.
Water was less complicated. Raf drank first and took only a few mouthfuls. Miko went second and drank several gulps before Jack reminded her to keep it small. She pointed out that she had carried the bag. Jack reminded her she would be carrying Raf next. Miko took that as an argument for drinking more, not less, took another swallow, and finally returned the bottle. The outer door buckled inward under an impact.
Miko announced that the tour was over and headed for the far passage. They escaped through a loading bay on the opposite side. Jack stopped only long enough to wrap their feet with the cloth they had carried from the store. The improvised footwear looked terrible, but it kept most of the road away from bare skin. Raf inspected his wrappings and warned they would wear through. Jack told him they would replace them when that happened. There was no reason to solve tomorrow’s problem before surviving the next block.
Dawnreach had worsened while they were inside. Smoke covered more of the skyline. The public-address system spat out fragments about Harlow, Covenant armor, withdrawing emergency crews, and closed orbital-elevator routes before dying altogether. Jack could no longer tell whether the distant sirens belonged to emergency services or the military.
He kept them on side streets. Raf walked until he couldn't, then either Jack or Miko carried him. They traded the backpack whenever someone’s shoulders began to ache. What should have been a short distance on a map stretched into block after block of broken pavement, smoke, and detours around streets that had become too dangerous to cross. In a residential courtyard, Miko found a pair of small sandals beside an overturned bench. One strap was nearly torn in half, but the size looked close enough to help Raf. She brushed off the dust and held them out to him, saying he probably wasn't in a position to complain about fashion.
Raf tested the damaged strap and warned it wouldn't last. Jack took out the small toolkit and said he could reinforce it for now. Repairing something simple felt almost comforting after everything else. He cut a strip from one of the scavenged work gloves, wrapped it around the damaged strap, and secured it with medical tape. The repair was ugly, but it held when Raf took several cautious steps around the courtyard. Raf said he hoped it was enough. Jack answered that it was enough for now. For now had become their most useful measurement.
An armored vehicle burned at the next intersection. Two soldiers lay behind the remains of a barricade. Jack slowed before he reached them. He watched both bodies for breathing, a twitch, anything that would suggest one of them might still be alive—neither moved.
The uniforms were unfamiliar: green-gray fatigues beneath thick olive armor, heavy boots, ammunition pouches, and protective plates over the arms and legs. Jack had seen enough military gear around Fowler to recognize most of its purpose. Still, this equipment looked heavier and more advanced than anything Fowler’s people wore around the Autobot base. The armor was built for a war Jack knew nothing about, and the damage suggested it hadn't been enough.
The first soldier was a man. His helmet had landed several feet away. Soot covered his closely cropped dark hair, and his face looked older than Fowler’s but younger than Jack’s mother’s. One side of his chest armor had been burned through; the material around the wound melted rather than torn. Jack looked for any movement and found none.
The second soldier was a woman. Her helmet remained on, though the goggles had been knocked crooked. One pale cheek showed beneath them. White letters marked her shoulder plate: UNSC. Jack did not know what the initials meant, but the lettering looked official enough that he assumed it was a military organization.
A rifle lay near her hand. Even before Jack considered the weight, it was far too large for any of them to carry usefully. The sidearm on her thigh was another matter. It was still enormous by Jack’s standards, but at least it had been designed to be carried one-handed by an adult. Miko suggested they take it. She did not sound excited by the idea, and her attention kept drifting back to the dead woman’s face.
Jack did not answer immediately. The thought of touching anything on the body made his stomach twist. Another explosion echoed nearby, followed by a burst of alien weapons. Whatever discomfort he felt about the dead would not matter if the living found them empty-handed. He crouched beside the soldier.
The holster took two tries to open. The pistol inside was enormous. Jack had seen Fowler’s sidearms and police pistols back home. This looked as though somebody had taken a handgun and scaled it up past good sense.
The frame and slide were thick and blocky. The grip barely fit Jack’s hand. A squared housing on top looked like a built-in sight. Small markings identified it as an M6D and listed 12.7×40mm ammunition. The numbers meant little to Jack beyond the obvious: the cartridges were large.
Raf identified it as a ballistic weapon and read the caliber aloud. Miko stared at the oversized frame and asked whether that thing really counted as a pistol. Jack answered that apparently it did. He found what might have been the safety and deliberately left it untouched. He knew enough to know that guessing was a bad way to handle a firearm.
Miko asked what they were supposed to do with it. Jack glanced at the dead soldier and decided they would carry it until they found somebody who actually knew how to use it. He did not like taking it from her, but he liked the idea of meeting another Covenant patrol empty-handed even less. He tucked the pistol inside his jacket. The weight pulled one side of the fabric down and changed the way he walked. Jack left without looking back.
A floating Covenant vehicle swept around the next corner before they had gone another block. Jack pulled Miko and Raf behind a wall before it could spot them. The vehicle glided several feet above the street with no wheels, no visible exhaust, and no sound like any engine Jack recognized. Raf murmured, “Antigravity,” as it passed. Miko immediately asked whether he seriously thought that was cool right now. Raf pointed out that he had said one word and had not called it cool. Their argument gained momentum until Jack told them they could continue it later and moved on once the vehicle disappeared.
A transit map put Harlow less than a kilometer away. The direct route ran through streets already occupied by Covenant troops. Jack chose the longer path through office buildings, even though the extra distance made his feet ache just thinking about it. Miko asked how far they had left. Raf traced the route and estimated eight hundred meters, possibly more if they encountered another detour. When she asked how long that would take, Raf considered his four-year-old legs before answering simply, “A while.” Miko called that the most useful answer he had given all day, saw his expression, and quickly admitted she was joking.
The office lobby had been abandoned in a hurry. Most of the terminals were dead, but one still worked. The intact screen glowed behind a reception desk while papers and broken furniture covered the floor. Jack asked Raf whether he could use it. Raf said maybe and walked over to the display. Miko made a quiet sound behind them, and Raf turned immediately. She raised both hands and told him she hadn't said anything. Jack left them to it and watched the lobby doors.
Raf managed to bring up a map. Two rail icons were still moving across the display, following tracks westward toward the spaceport. He pointed them out and said two trains were active. Jack asked how he could tell, and Raf answered that the icons were moving. Miko asked if he could call one to them. Raf gave her a look and said no. She shrugged and said she had to ask.
A new warning appeared on the map. More Covenant forces were moving into nearby sectors. Jack watched several areas change color and decided they had learned enough. Whatever else the terminal could tell them would not matter if they stayed until the building was surrounded. The rear exit opened onto a covered pedestrian bridge leading toward the parking structure. They were halfway across when a blue bolt struck the wall beside Jack’s head. Concrete flashed, spraying hot fragments across the walkway.
Jack dropped behind the nearest support and pulled Raf down with him. Across the street, a Covenant marksman crouched on an elevated walkway with a long rifle trained on their position. Jack reached into his jacket for the M6D. Carrying it had been one thing. Actually firing it at someone was another. His hand remained on the grip for half a second while his mind tried to catch up.
Another shot shattered glass behind them. He pulled the weapon free. It felt ridiculous in his hands. The grip was too large, the weight poorly balanced for his size, and his arms had already started to tremble before he aimed. The alien leaned out. Jack fired.
The M6D kicked upward hard enough to send pain through both wrists. The shot struck the railing below the marksman. Jack almost lost his grip and barely caught the weapon against his chest before it fell. Miko pointed out that he had missed. Jack informed her that he had noticed and forced the pistol back down. His wrists were already throbbing, and he wanted nothing more than to put the weapon away.
Raf spotted a control panel built into the support column and said he thought it operated the barriers. Jack told him to drop them if he could and raised the M6D again, trying to keep the marksman occupied. He did not need to hit the alien. He only needed to make it hesitate. The marksman leaned out. Jack fired a second time.
The recoil still hurt, but this time he knew it was coming and kept his grip. The shot went wide again. Miko grabbed a broken chair leg and threw it into an alarm sensor. Lights flashed across the bridge, and a siren began screaming. The marksman’s attention shifted toward the movement. Raf hit the control.
A heavy barrier slammed down across the walkway. Jack shoved the pistol back inside his jacket and told them to move. They reached the parking structure and kept going until several rows of abandoned vehicles hid them from the bridge. His wrists still hurt with every step, and the M6D felt far less reassuring than it had when he first picked it up.
A maintenance cart sat abandoned nearby. Miko told Raf to get in immediately. Raf insisted he could walk. Miko replied that he could also ride and save his legs. When he hesitated, she pointed at the cart again and repeated herself until Raf climbed in.
Jack and Miko pushed. The smooth concrete floor let them move faster than they had since arriving in the city. For several minutes, the cart almost made the trip feel easy. An explosion shook the structure. Dust fell from the ceiling, and the cart struck debris hard enough to send it swinging sideways.
Raf grabbed the rail and shouted for them to slow down. Miko reminded him that they were trying not to die. Raf said throwing him out of the cart wouldn't help. Jack laughed before he could stop himself. Miko asked what was funny. Jack shook his head and kept pushing. For a moment, the argument sounded almost like something they could have had back home.
Harlow Central appeared beyond the exit ramp. Elevated tracks crossed above a plaza filled with civilians. Human soldiers held barricades around the approaches. Trains were still moving. For one second Jack thought they had made it. Then Covenant aircraft attacked the plaza.
Miko stopped beside the cart and muttered, “Of course.” She sounded too tired to be surprised. Blue-white fire struck near one of the outer barricades, and civilians scattered while soldiers returned fire. They abandoned the cart and joined the civilians running toward the station. Jack carried Raf again while Miko took the bag. No one asked where the three children had come from. Every adult around them already had somebody to protect or somewhere to reach.
A wounded woman stopped beside them long enough to reach into her bag and offer Miko a small pair of socks for Raf. Blood had soaked one sleeve of her clothing, but she barely seemed to notice. Miko thanked her and accepted the socks with both hands. The woman disappeared back into the crowd before anybody could say more. The socks fit well enough beneath Raf’s repaired sandals. A collapsed building blocked the next street, and soldiers redirected the evacuees into an underground service tunnel. Jack followed because there was nowhere else to go.
The tunnel was packed shoulder to shoulder. Children cried. Adults shouted names. Red emergency lights turned every face the same sick color. Jack kept one hand hooked in the back of Miko’s jacket whenever he could and constantly checked on Raf. He had already lost both of them once today. He was not doing it again.
A blast shook the ceiling. The crowd surged forward. A child fell. Miko shouted for people to stop pushing, but her voice was lost in the hundreds of others. She tried again, louder, and got no farther.
Jack climbed onto a low maintenance ledge and shouted that there was room ahead if people stopped shoving. His younger lungs began to hurt almost immediately, but several people nearest him slowed. Others repeated the warning farther down the tunnel. A soldier heard the change and took over, using a louder voice and better position to restore some order. The pressure around Jack eased. Someone pulled the fallen child upright. The crowd began moving again instead of crushing forward.
Raf told Jack that had helped. Jack answered that it had helped a little, checked that the child was back with an adult, and moved on. Miko watched him for several seconds and said he always did that. Jack asked what she meant. She said he always started telling everybody what to do when something went wrong. Jack pointed out that people had been crushing each other. Miko answered that she knew and that was exactly what she meant.
Jack followed her and decided not to ask whether that had been criticism. He suspected it had not. The tunnel opened near Harlow Central. Fighting covered the approach. Human soldiers fired from concrete positions while Covenant infantry advanced through smoke. Jack recognized several of the species they had already seen, along with something larger moving behind them.
A soldier at the tunnel exit waved civilians into small groups, sending each one across when the fire slackened. He noticed Jack, Miko, and Raf and asked whether they were alone. Jack said yes and shifted Raf higher in his arms. The soldier crouched long enough to tighten the cloth around Jack’s left foot, where it had begun to come apart. He warned Jack not to stop in the open, rose when a heavy weapon fired nearby, and waited for the human guns to answer. Then he dropped one hand toward the station.
“Go.” Jack ran. Plasma crossed the plaza. His foot wrappings tore against the pavement. Miko stumbled beside him but kept going. A blast struck somewhere behind them.
Jack nearly dropped Raf. Miko caught Jack’s arm and held him upright long enough for him to recover. Her grip stayed on his sleeve until he regained his balance. They reached the station steps. A medic pulled them behind cover and looked at Raf first. Raf told her his feet hurt more than anything else. The medic stared at him for half a second, apparently surprised by the careful answer coming from a four-year-old face, then turned toward Jack.
She asked about their parents. Jack said they had been separated. The lie came more easily now. Jack disliked that almost as much as he disliked saying it.
The medic gave them a quick examination, handed Jack three emergency masks, and directed them toward West Platform and Train Three. She told them to stay together. Miko gave Jack a tired look and said they would try. Jack almost laughed. Three steps later, the M6D dragged against the inside of his jacket. He stopped.
Miko nearly walked into him and asked what was wrong. Jack opened his jacket enough for her to see the grip. He had almost forgotten about the weapon, which seemed impossible considering how much it weighed. Miko looked toward the armed soldiers around the entrance and agreed that carrying it into the station was probably a bad idea.
Jack found a Marine near the barricade and approached slowly. He stopped several feet away, keeping both hands visible, and told the man he had found a weapon under his jacket. The Marine’s posture changed immediately, and one hand moved toward his sidearm. He ordered Jack to show it slowly. Jack drew the M6D, barrel toward the pavement. The Marine had him turn it around and pass it over, grip first. Jack followed the instruction exactly.
The Marine cleared the weapon and checked the magazine with movements so practiced Jack barely followed them. He noticed the two missing rounds and asked if Jack had fired. Jack admitted that he had fired twice. The Marine looked down at Jack’s hands and asked how he still had wrists. Jack flexed them carefully and answered, “Mostly.” Miko laughed quietly behind him.
When the Marine asked where the weapon had come from, Jack explained that he had found two dead soldiers near a barricade, a man and a woman, and the woman had carried the pistol. Something changed in the Marine’s expression. Jack couldn't tell whether he recognized the description or just understood what it meant. The Marine secured the M6D instead of returning it. He told Jack he had done the right thing by turning it in and warned him not to pick up another weapon unless somebody in uniform specifically told him to. Jack agreed without argument. The Marine pointed toward the concourse and told him to get on the train.
Jack walked away feeling lighter almost immediately. He had not realized how much attention he had been giving the pistol until the weight was gone. Every step since taking it had included some awareness of where it was, where the barrel pointed, and whether it might slip loose. Miko fell in beside him and asked whether he was okay. Jack looked toward the platform and told her he was. It was close enough to true. Miko studied him for another second and let the answer stand.
The station was packed. Departure boards flickered overhead while evacuation instructions repeated through speakers that kept cutting out. Civilians filled every corridor, some carrying bags, some carrying children, many carrying nothing at all. Raf spotted the west-platform marker from Jack’s arms and pointed. His legs had finally given up pretending they were fine, and Jack had stopped asking him to walk unless necessary.
Miko pushed ahead through the crowd and shouted for people to make room for a little kid. Jack reminded her that all three of them were little kids now. She shouted back that he knew what she meant and kept going. A few adults heard her and moved aside. Train Three arrived already full. The doors opened, and the platform surged forward.
Jack nearly lost his footing. Miko grabbed a handrail before she fell, and Jack caught her wrist while keeping Raf against his chest. For several seconds, the three of them held on mostly by grip and stubbornness as the crowd pressed in around them. A soldier forced enough space around them for Jack to regain his balance, shouting for people to let the children through. The crowd shifted, and they carried the three of them aboard. The doors closed before everyone on the platform could follow.
A mother remained outside while her son stood inside the train. The boy struck the glass with both hands. Jack watched the woman disappear down the platform as the train began to move. He could do nothing, and that feeling had already followed him through too much of the day. He kept watching until the station's curve took her out of sight. Miko moved closer without saying anything.
The train accelerated west. Dawnreach burned outside the windows. Purple Covenant aircraft crossed between the towers while human fighters climbed after them. Passengers sat or stood in exhausted silence. Some held children against their chests. Others stared through the windows or at the floor as if either view were easier than looking at the people around them.
Jack kept Raf against his side. Miko stayed close enough that their shoulders touched whenever the car rocked. For the first time since the GroundBridge failed, they moved without running, and Jack’s body seemed to realize all at once how tired it was. Something bright descended beyond the city. At first Jack thought it was another ship. Then a white-blue line connected the sky to the horizon.
The landscape lit up beneath it. People around the train began praying. Raf held his damaged glasses against his face and asked what it was. Jack watched the distant light spread. “I don’t know.” For once, Raf had no answer either. The train carried them toward the western spaceport while Dawnreach burned behind them.