OUR HUNDRED&ONE REGRETS
Summary: Will Lennox understood from the very moment his team stumbled upon a graveyard of humanoid, metallic remains in the sands of Liberia that his life would no longer be in his hands. He regretfully watched, as the years would go by in between the rare occasion he would show to see his daughter, Annabelle, and ex-wife, Sarah for a day. Every visit ended with his daughter asking why he could never come home, and Lennox replying that maybe someday he might be able to tell her the reason why.
Well, that day has come today.
Fresh out of college and with a good word put in by her father, Annabelle has been recruited by Sector Seven to serve as a communications assistant—better yet, the sacrificial lamb should these newly resurrected aliens prove hostile. The troubles only deepen as the full reality of who these aliens are and why they were all dead comes to life. Annabelle and the others find themselves caught in the middle of something far bigger than what they ever anticipated. Worse, the war that drove these aliens to the brink of extinction is slowly drawing a line among the humans.
They too must answer the question that each of the aliens had to answer themselves:
Are you Decepticon or Autobot?
Rating: T
Warnings: Character deaths, bad language, and violence
Main Pairings: Annabelle Lennox/Starscream v Annabelle Lennox /Ironhide
Side Pairings (these are subject to change as the story progresses): Miko Nakadai/Jack Darby v Jack Darby/Arcee v Arcee/Bulkhead, Sam Witwicky/Mikaela v Sam Witwicky/Carly Spencer, Optimus Prime/Elita One, Jazz/Prowl, Ironhide/Chromia, Sari Sumdac/Rafael Esquivel, and Sarah Cohan/Agent William "Bill" Fowler v Sarah Cohan/William Lennox.
Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. They (Transformers) are the property of Hasbro. Some Characters with similar names to characters from other TF verses are merely as tribute to those canons and tribute alone.
Communication:
"Regular human speak..."
"Com-link, transformer speak."
PART I – How We Grew Apart
I'm a first believer in the power of change. But there is one thing I've learned, and that's the hardest part of moving forward is not looking back. Now here I sit so far away, remembering all our memories, and it's times like these that I miss you most, remembering when we were so close. Sometimes I wish I could just fast-forward through time, just to see if it's worth it all in the end. – Unknown
Lennox stood outside the pearly, concrete wall and electric wire fencing on top in the middle of the blaring, Area 51 heat in full military gear. The sweat beginning to pool against his chest and make breathing in that dry, hotter than hell air that much harder. The top rim of his black sunglasses has sweat beginnings to drip down their sleek lenses. He rolled his sleeve over his dripping, sopped head. The only variable that made this hell on Earth possible too bear was the sight of a tank compressed into a car with bulletproof wheels coming towards him. He nervously licked his chapped lips for the thousandth time.
For so long he had waited, biting his tongue till he tasted blood for this moment. He was eternally grateful for the glasses. Lennox did not want anyone to see the red tint to his blue eyes or the watery glare building along the edges. The closer the vehicle came, the faster his heart raced and the higher it jumped into his scratchy, tight throat. The excitement bubbled on his lips. He was positive he was looked silly from how his cheeks hurt so much.
Epps placed his hand on Lennox's shoulder. He nearly jumped out of his skin and military garb. Epps just calmly looked him in the eye with his confident smile being subtle on his face. "Relax," he suggested. "Your likely to scare her off if you don't."
"I can't help it," he replied back hastily. "I've waited so long." He felt the first tear come down his cheek and rest in the inside of his glasses. Again Lennox was grateful for all the sweat on his face would disguise any tears he would most definitely shed. "I talked to her last night—"
"You have been talking to that girl every night, even before she could understand what the hell you were saying," Epps commented.
If his grin could have gotten any bigger, it would have at that moment and most likely split his face in half. Lennox had indeed snuck on the phone every single night from anywhere from a minute to hours on end talking to the little girl he hardly ever saw. He was hardly every allowed to see her since monitoring him while in a civil environment without causing any ruckus was hard and risky according to his supervisors, but that did not mean was going to lose his daughter. On the rare occasion he had been allowed to go home to see Annabelle, he had felt as if he had missed years.
The first time he saw her in person she was a baby. The second she was a young toddler coloring outside the lines and asking why the Stork never brought her a baby to take care. The third time he saw her she was in sixth grade and speaking Russian fluently. The fourth time he saw her she was graduating from eighth grade and working on speaking Spanish. Then the fifth time he saw her on parents' day visitation at college. Today would be the sixth time he would have seen his little girl all grown. Lennox chewed on his cheek and tongue from the anxiety rattling his bones.
The car came to rumbling stop in front of the wall that had defined his home for over twenty years. The black windows of the desert colored vehicle rolled down where a lean, pale olive arm hung out of the dirty car. Her youthful, oblong head stuck out of the car with those kindred blue eyes of her mother looking at him. Annabelle's bronze hair was just beginning to grow back from surgery. She looked odd with boyish short, layered hair when all her life she had long, wavy locks. But to him, she was nonetheless beautiful. Her cupid lips curled into a girly grin that mirrored his own to a "t."
"What are you doing out in the hot sun, Daddy?" she called. The car door opened, and Lennox moved to accept the invitation; Epps followed closely behind to crash in the air condition sanctuary. Annabelle scooted over as the two men climbed inside and slammed the door behind them.
Epps was surprised by how much Annabelle looked like her mother. Tall and lean with an hourglass body and on the smaller end of breasts, he assumed Sarah must have simply cloned herself. Of course, Annabelle had darker skin that her mother because of her father's olive complexion. Even now, he knew her skin would become darker if she hadn't been confined to a government hospital for the past six months. That had not kept her from keeping her nails manicured or looking anything less than a young, vibrant adult in her bellbottom jeans, black heels with matching belt, and a lax, cream shirt.
"You look good," Epps commented.
"Thanks," she said through a haughty grin. She turned her attention to her father and wrapped her arms around his hot armor and sweaty skin. Her heart swelled as Lennox's arms folded around his daughter. "I've missed you so much, Daddy," she whispered into his ear.
"I, you," he whispered back. Annabelle rested against the back of the ebon' seats, sighing contently. "You've grown so much since I last saw you," Lennox stated. He cupped her face gently in his coarse hands. Her skin felt so smooth beneath his touch, like living velvet. "You look so much like Sarah. I can't believe my little girl is all grown up now."
"Dad, stop it," she begged playfully.
"I'm so proud of you," the soldier added boastfully. "I am so grateful too. You have no idea how long I have waited for the possibility of being able to tell you why I was never around during your life."
"You were around," Anna answered. "I talked to you every night." She squeezed his hand and held his as they rode on towards the mountains in the distance. "Now, can someone please explain to me what exactly I have gotten myself into?"
"They haven't told you anything?" Epps questioned.
She shook her head. "No," the woman added. "All they told me was that I had to undergo brain surgery so I would be compatible with the subjects; whatever the hell that means. So—" Her blue eyes shifted to her father and Epps. "Care to explain?"
"That is a story in and of itself," Lennox chuckled. "I am not too sure how much I am allowed to reveal to you, Anna."
"I do not need all the details," she explained. "Just enough of a backbone so I am not gonna look like that deer staring death in the headlights of car."
Epps sighed before speaking, "Well, your father and I and the rest of the family were in Liberia. We were sneaking around in the middle of the desert, supposedly tracking some goddamn idiot and his followers. Fig tripped over something in the sand. We looked and found out it was apiece to something far bigger—I mean, this was the tip of the iceberg. Lennox, your father, was looking out at the dunes and said—"
"'Holy shit, guys. Come look!'" Lennox added.
"We all came over and saw what must have been twenty or so larger metal parts sticking up and out of the desert. The winds must've been blowing just right to uncover this graveyard of humanoid, looking robots. We alerted our superiors, who ended up alerting a group called Sector Seven. As we were the ones who found the aliens, we were put under government watch—"
"Aliens?" she coughed, half laughing. "You're joking!"
"No, we are not, Anna," Lennox assured. The happy grin on her face melted down into concern, astonishment, and the purest form of surprise. Her eyelids were pulled back into her head so nearly every inch of the whites of her eyes was revealed. Anna's mouth dropped to the ground with a loud thump! "Our troop found the largest graveyard of these aliens in the history of the world."
"So, we aren't alone?" Anna inquired seriously.
"No, we are not," Epps said. "Or, at one point, we were not."
"What do mean at one point?" she asked, her voice growing graver.
Will grimaced at his daughter. He could see that regret growing inside her eyes every second this conversation dragged painfully on. His heart contracted, curling into itself for bringing her into something far bigger than what she was prepared to handle. He nervously licked his nearly bleeding, bottom lip. "We came to the point years ago when we realized we could raise 'em from the dead. Sector Seven has only been waiting to bring 'em back 'till we achieve the technology to interact with 'em on their level."
Epps could just see the question beginning to roll off her tongue. He scurried to finish Will's statement. "Sector Seven has been in the process of modifying bodies for a select group of humans to control. Like in Avatar, people will be able to control bodies that are not naturally they're own. Of course, we are not nearly at the level the scientists in Avatar are. The only way we are able to sync bodies is for people to undergo brain surgery where they insert plates chips that can decode brain signals and match them to the alien's body," he clarified. "They have been looking for one last person to fill out the team. You were a prime candidate because of your double major in communications and theater along with a minor in philosophy."
Her thin brows came together at narrow, sharp point. She wrinkled her nose at the stink of their words. "They said I would be a communications assistant," Anna growled. "Not some lab rat!"
"You are not!" corrected Will. "You are an assistant! You will be serving our main Communications Director Theodore Galloway."
"Why doesn't he do it himself?" she retorted.
"If he could, he would," Epps replied coolly. "But he has a preexisting condition that won't allow him to undergo surgery. So he needs an assistant to serve for him. You'll be debriefed as soon as you set foot inside. Then you'll meet the family. I would assume tonight they will get you inside and ready for tomorrow."
"What is going on tomorrow?" Anna demanded.
"Tomorrow you will greet the first one to awaken," her father clarified. "They want to start as soon as possible because now it is costing the government more money to keep what they call Energon from decomposing from sitting around than using it."
Anna sighed and pinched the side of her thin nose. Her hand ran up her head and through her short hair. "So I—I—" The words went limp on her tongue, flopping over into nothing but silence. Her father's hand on her shoulder felt heavier than it should have. She bristled at the touch, casting him a glare hotter than the desert sand. "You should have told me what I was getting into," she hissed through clenched teeth.
"Anna, I couldn't tell you anything," Will explained; though his voice came out more like a plea for her to calm down.
"You could have eluded to the fact that I was getting involved in something much too big for me," she snapped.
"That should have been made clear by the fact you hardly ever saw your father," Epps defended harshly.
The car came to halt inside garage lit by artificial light. Perfect timing really… Anna thrust the door open and jumped quickly out of the car, determined to get as far away from her father and that pathetic Epps. But there was no escape from this place, not with heavily armed guards and nuclear—well, she assumed nuclear—proof doors with the most sophisticated lock system integrated into them. The large garage housed several aircraft and at least several dozen tanks and military vehicles.
Standing erect in a black suit and tie with his hair brown, balding hair slicked back and shoulders squared. The older man was an inch shorter than her with beady, slimy eyes and a crooked nose. "Ah, you must be Miss Annabelle Lennox," he spoke with a charm to his voice. But his charm did not carry over into his scrawny body. "I am the Communications Director Theodore Galloway—" The man held out his hand, and Annabelle shook it with a limp hand. His mouth quivered for a moment into a disapproving frown but quickly recovered in a collected, super tiny smile. "Your arrival has long been expected." He motioned with his hand for her to follow. "Come."
"Actually, I need to talk to you, Director Galloway," Anna interjected.
"What would that be?" he inquired.
"I wish to resign," she answered quickly, probably too quickly.
He stopped midstride, turned quicker on his heels than a ballerina. "What?" Galloway muttered beneath his breath. Anna flinched at the sour sting of his words. "There is no resigning from this agency unless you die. This is a lifelong commitment, Miss Lennox."
"I did not know I would be dealing with fucking aliens," Annabelle snapped back with a sharp click of her teeth.
Galloway's thin lips pursed at her while his eyes settled uneasily on her face. She folded her arms around her chest, pouting like a small child. He raised his brows at her attitude. "If you know this is about aliens, then you know far too much to ever resign. Your life now belongs to us, Miss Lennox. If you are not content with that, then you may take your own and resign via death."
"I am not about to commit suicide," the woman rumbled unhappily.
"Well, then your only remaining option is then to either spend the rest of your life contained to a single cell without human interaction or aid us," Galloway laid out painfully clear. He leaned forward with an arrogant smirk pulling at his lips. "But I believe you would much rather be part of something bigger. Would you like your name to go down in history, Miss Lennox?"
She arched a curious brow; her scowl twisted into a sly, interested smirk. "Who doesn't?" There was a dangerous edge to her low voice.
"Then come along, Miss Lennox," he called.
Like a puppy, she followed behind the big mean wolf, noting how both guards and researchers alike scurried like timid mice out of his way. Galloway walked with the presence of an important person or, as Anna preferred, a bloated ego she just wanted to bust open like a water balloon. Down several hundred feet where the soil was cool and where people where so pale that it became mandatory for them to use a tanning bed for their health, she set foot into an observatory that had white everything, computers, laptops, walls, ceiling, floor, and just everything was white. Even the people wore white coats and shirts; the only color came from their khaki, navy, or ebon' pants and whatever pair of comfortable tennis shoes they chose.
He ushered her towards the large, one-way mirror. She stared down at what must have been twenty or so large and equally white rooms. Each room housed a large, dormant, mechanical being lying across a large with tubes full of glowing, sick purple goo dripping into their bodies. Anna pressed her hand to the cool glass while her eyes wandered over the different bodies. The majority of them were human-like, but there was small fraction—three from her count—that stood out from the rest. Instead of resting on their backs, they rested on their stomachs with their complicated, almost butterfly-like wings spread out to bask in the artificial light.
"The middle one, there," Galloway spoke, nodding towards one of the butterfly-winged aliens with his head. Anna's eyes fell to the lightest colored one. The mech's coloration was mostly gray with red and black accents combined hints of blue hidden beneath the initial layer of grey that glimmered like water. Its head was turned to the side and gave her a good profile picture of it. The alien had a single, red horn that sprouted in between his largest eyes. Speaking of the eyes, he had seven of them, each were a deep, bloody shade of red that seemed to be made of a liquid that swam behind a clear glass. There was no visible mouth Anna could perceive; though, its lower facial plates formed a rather nasty looking beak or chin—she couldn't really tell.
The head was attached to a feminine, lengthy neck. The alien looked very front heavy with his deep chest and thickly built arms. On each forearm were nasty looking but downright sexy red gun. A dull, yellow glow emanated from an amber colored airplane cock-like piece on its upper chest. The alien's legs were pitiful. The thigh was short, thick, and meaty, but the poor calf was so stretched out and scrawny she felt a twinge of curiosity as to how the creature even managed to walk. The feet of the creature greatly confused her. From the heel came brilliant red thrusters, but—Anna cocked her head to the side—either the alien walked on the balls of its feet like a chicken or walked on them like the thrusters were part of a built-in high heel.
"He is the one whom you will greet," her director informed.
"He?" Anna asked.
"We decide to call 'em all guys," called Sari. The thirty-some year old Indian woman with unnaturally dyed cherry red hair walked towards them. Anna could not understand why she had chosen to stick her shot hair into frizzy, uneven pigtails. She too was dressed in white with a pair of sleek, navy pants on. She was a gangly gal whose chest was as flat as her last roommate's personality. Her face was very round and forgettable, aside from the neon blue contacts. Anna caught herself staring at her eyes, wondering what type of contacts had the ability to reflect the light back so brightly that they appeared to glow. "That one is called Starscream. He's a real screamer."
"Screamer?" she questioned. "What the hell is that suppose to mean?"
"Oh, well, since we started injecting the Energon into them, he's been the twitchiest," Sari explained enthusiastically. "If you look closely, you can see him twitchy right now." Anna looked back to the alien. Carefully and with amusement, she caught the small movements of his wings shifting and fingers jerking from closed to open. "He's also the most vocal. He goes through phases in which he emits a very—" She made a pained faced. "Interesting sounds. Its even more of mystery as to where they come from since these aliens do not have a mouth." She turned towards Anna. "I'm Sari Sumdac, by the way, leading scientist in the project."
"Taking all the credit again, Sari?" came a high pitched but still masculine voice. Another, glowing blue-eyed team member in khaki pants, a white top, and his lab coat slung over his shoulder like he was trying to be nonchalant about being a scientist. He had a messy brown hair sleeked back and red, square glasses. He stood a foot above Sari, towering in at six foot five. The scientist looked younger than Sari, like maybe a senior in high school or freshman in college.
"Ok, Co-leading scientist," Sari corrected. Galloway rolled his eyes as she pecked his lips with her own and realigned herself next to him. "This is Raf. He manages all the coding while I work on building the technology. And Raf, this is Anna, Will's girl."
He nodded pleasantly enough; though, she would've liked if he added a smile to his thin lips. But again, she found herself staring at the strange eyes. He caught onto her stare. "The eyes are from prolonged exposure," Rag explained. "Depending on your genetics, you either get eyes like our—" He pointed to Sari and dragged his finger from her eye, to her cheek, to her lips, and then to her chin. "Or be like Jack who has red eyes."
"Prolonged exposure to what exactly?" Anna inquired as she folded her arms across her chest and huffed.
"When we synchronize you into your extraterrestrial body of course!" Sari informed. "The longer you spend in it, the more adverse affects it has one your body. One of the chronic effects is a change in the eye color. You can also suffer from migraines like Alexis does, faint-headedness, double vision, and many other effects. Most of them are only temporary. I wouldn't worry about it." She waved away the worries. "We should actually get you into your body and make any tweaks we need right now before tomorrow."
Sari grabbed hold on Anna's wrist. "So, um, I think I'm going to go hook her up," she said too happily to Galloway. "Come, Anna!" She dragged her down the hall with Anna in one hand and Raf in the other. "You can thank me later," she whispered in the young woman's ear.
"So, what do you think so far?" Raf asked as he kept pace with Sari.
"It's—it's unbelievable," Anna answered breathlessly. Sari was jogging, leading her through a maze of doors and steps to a lower level. "I honestly do not know what to think of the situation, considering about twenty minutes ago I found out aliens exist, I sold my soul to the government, and now I am a lab rat." She gave one of those fake smiles to Sari. "Otherwise, I'm pleasant," she added in a flat tone.
She laughed. "It's not that horrible," the scientists spoke. "The worse part is putting up with Carly or Galloway. The rest of us are pretty chill and close—we have our own little family. Now you are the baby sister!" Sari rubbed her knuckles into Anna's hair; she jerked away and out of Sari's grip with a growl on the tip of her lips. "But now we have to figure out whose gonna be your buddy."
"Buddy?"
She nodded. "Well, Raf and I am a couple, Jack is with Miko, and Sam is wrapped around Carly's little finger," Sari continued on merrily. "I'll have to think of who to set you up with!" She clapped her hands together loudly, and Raf sighed, looking sympathetic towards Anna. "I get to be a matchmaker!" she squealed.
"I'll stay single thank you," Anna answered. "Relationships and I get along as well as cats and dogs do."
"My cat and dog used to get along!" Sari added cheerfully, and if possible, grinning bigger; Anna's complexion grew pale and unamused. Through another door, they entered into a room with color. The floors and walls were white, along with the television, but the bright red couches, fresh flowers, and possibly not rotting fruit where a sight for sore but relieved eyes. The couches were arranged across from the television but gravitated around a glass table. To her left was a small bar with a toaster, couple box of poptarts, fridge, and microwave.
To the right, next to the window, lying down in the middle of a rather cozy, sheepskin dog bed was wallaby with a blue color and silver bell. The miniature kangaroo swerved his head towards Anna and sniffed the air like a dog. The wallaby hopped towards them with his little bells jingling happily.
"This is Rocco," Raf explained. "He's the family dog." He bent to scratch the base of Rocco's large ears. He knelt down to further scratch the obvious king of this place, Rocco. Rocco flopped back onto his side to soak up the attention. "We made a bet with Galloway, and if we won, we could get a pet to keep us sane here. We went for a wallaby since we are out in the middle of the desert."
"I see," Anna commented while subtly backing away from the vermin.
"Not a dog person?" Sari inquired.
"I do not like pets," she clarified matter-of-factly.
"He'll warm up to you," she assured. "But for now, let's go get you all settled in."
"You handle her, Sari," Raf spoke. "I'm gonna chill here with Rocco and watch Big Bang Theory."
Sari eyed him annoyingly. "Why must you watch it without me?" she asked pathetically. Anna felt herself begin to gag as she leaned down and kissed Raf on his forehead. Raf wrapped an arm around Sari's neck as he returned her kiss. Anna turned around and ran her over her face and threw her hair. While Raf murmured something into Sari's ear, she looked out the window into a grimier, factory style cage with walls four or five stories tall. The floor and walls had probably been white but with age, muck, and scratches, they looked warn and worn in. She smiled, only imaging the kind of chaos that brought on the scars.
Lined up against the wall were four more aliens; though, unlike the previous ones, they lacked a certain spark of life. The nearest was the smallest, coming in at only twenty or so feet. This one was a bright, dangerous shade of yellow, orange, and black that reminded her of a bumblebee. Even his face seemed rounded like a bumblebee's with large eyes and antennas that curled back into satanic horns. His body was built like the animal companion, compact but agile.
The next was a fiery red bot covered in white, angular patches and complete with pigtail looking horns protruding from the sides of his head. This one seemed almost feminine with a protruding chest and hourglass shape torso. But unlike the bumblebee alien, this one's legs were lengthy but by no means scrimpy. The alien looked as if her feet had been replaced by the extreme jumping stilts.
The third was the tallest at nearly thirty feet but blended in because of his fiery coloring. Brawny but with a waist that would put America's Next Top Model girl to shame, there was something admirable about him. Despite being very boxy with large shield plates on his shoulders and forearms, he appeared rather curvy for a masculine alien. But of the three, he seemed the most human proportioned, from there, Anna deducted that must have been why she was fond of him. From his lower mandible, two great tusks came out with dark, rune-like markings engraved into their ivory metal.
The last one, a twenty-eight footer, stood out, not only for its bleak, midnight navy nearly Crayola black coloring but because this one was just like Starscream. Well, close to, or at least the same general model; a deep chest, long—longer than Starscream's—neck, heavy forearms, and pathetic legs with thrusters attached at the hells. The face was much different. A tall, cyan blue sail sprouted from just above his large, dull red eye. From either side of this main eye were five more eyes of the same shade. From what Anna could only describe as a jaw-like armor were two horns that curled together to form a "c," and then the two pieces came together in a sharp chin with three prongs. Deadly but sleek, this alien was poised. The amethyst shades with the cyan details brought out the darkness.
His wings were different shaped as well; though, they stuck to the general butterfly shape. The wings were much more angular and came to sharper points. In fact, this alien had a second pair of wings that pointed towards the ground. Like Starscream, he too had vertical stabilizers on his upper thighs and a second pair of adjustable, large thrusters on his lower back. Again different, he had higher shoulder plates than Starscream, almost like shields similar to the companion on his right. The forearms were thicker, built with what she surmised was a third pair of cyan thrusters or some sort of weapon.
"That one is yours," Sari said out of the blue.
"Odd looking," Anna sneered.
She chuckled. "Yes, but man, those things are built to fly. As a pilot, I'm sure you'll get your chance to experiment with their flying abilities. It's another reason why we chose you—so those aliens like Starscream, you will be able to interact with because you appear so similar. And you're the only one with your kind of a degree who is also a pilot."
"Great," she mumbled. "I get to be the weird one. High school all over again…" Anna groaned.
"You had problems in high school?" Sari asked, shocked. "I figured you to be homecoming and prom queen."
"I was," she dismissed.
Sari didn't have anything else to say besides a small, "Oh." She grabbed Anna by the wrist again and led her through the double doors, down several flights of stairs, and eventually out into the room Anna had been gazing at moments ago.
Being on the same level as these shelled out aliens made her feel absolutely tiny and vulnerable. Anna found herself gawking up at them, and Sari dragging her along to her alien body. Wow, that sounded too weird. Then again, being surrounded by a bunch of fucking aliens was pretty fucking weird too…
"So," Sari began, and Anna realized now that the woman's nasally voice was starting to feel like sandpaper to her ears. "To get into your body, you're simply going to give it an external command to lift you to the chest and tell it to open its chest cavity. Once you've done that, simply step inside and let the magic begin." For the first time, Sari consciously left Anna's side to head towards the second alien. "If you want to keep your clothes, I suggest you take off your clothes."
Anna raised a curious eyebrow, but the rest of her face remained emotionless aside from the curiosity. "Why?" she inquired coldly, as if she had just been dealt an insult.
"You'll see," she chimed back happily.
She was left feeling unsure and most certainly unhappy, as if her scowl didn't give that away. Sari waved her hands at her to begin, coaxing her really to accept that this was more than some dream. With a deep breath, Anna exhaled and looked up to the strange alien shell. "So, uh," she babbled softly to herself. She glanced to Sari with uncertainty glimmering brightly in her eyes; the scientists grinned excitingly back at her. "Lift me up?" Her voice came out a bit too weak for her liking, for a moment, she wondered if she was actually a sane person.
The creaking, cracking, and bending and shifting of metal and wires echoed in the hall. The alien hunched over with his—err was it a female now since this alien was Anna's—hand outstretched. Cautiously she stepped onto the strange, two fingered and two-thumbed hand. Her heart began to pump viciously, cycling the adrenaline through her veins. "Take me to your chest," she spoke clearly, her voice hardening to disguise the fear. The alien lifted her up while simultaneously shifting apart her chest to reveal a silver sphere six feet in diameter. As the hand came to a stop, the silver sphere twisted, cracking open its shell to reveal a clear but blue tinted gel substance.
"The gel goo is the reason why you should take off your clothes," Sari explained. "But it's quite critical since it's the same density as our bodies. So, you can float in the middle and just relax. It also has properties that amplify and adjust to your own body."
"Great," Anna sighed dramatically, just low enough so Sari wouldn't hear. She looked down at Sari with her brows furrowed together. "How will I breathe?"
"That's a valid question," Sari answered. Anna rolled her eyes, as if any of her questions today had been invalid and off subject. "On the inside of the chest should be a mask to go over your mouth and nose. Put that on, and it'll filter out the gel from all those micro-oxygen bubbles you can't see with your eyes."
She peered inside the dark metal and caught a glimmer of a black, matt finished mask dandling off the inside from a hook. Taking it, she strapped it around her face and double checked to make sure it wouldn't move since drowning was not on her agenda … at least for now.
"Now just step in! Once you feel comfortable, just command the 'bot to sync," Sari directed.
Anna mumbled something incoherent underneath her breath as she began to slide through the small hole into the gel. Her body sliding into it made suction sounds, and Anna felt like she was stepping into a giant wad of snot. She placed a hand over her mask as her stomach began to cart wheel and do back flips in her gut. With a forceful push, Anna drove herself into the goo. She clawed her way to the center, which was more difficult than she originally intended. Beneath her mask, her scowl was burning her own lips.
She took a moment to enjoy the feeling of being suspended nearly weightlessly in the substance. Despite the cool touch from the substance, Anna felt oddly warm and giddy now that she was this far. Every twitch of her muscle felt amplified by two fold, border-lining pain but not enough to hinder the pleasure coursing through her veins. She tenderly curled her toes into the gel like she did whenever she had visited the ocean. The comparison to the two was oddly similar.
Anna's head rolled back while her scowl flipped upside down into a wicked grin. "So," she whispered gently to the alien shell. "You're a flyer too. We're going to get along famously." The last few words she purred out happily. "Now just—" Before the last could slip through her mouth, Anna's eyes filled to the boiling point with alabaster light. The breath inside her lungs was kicked out viciously as the pain rolled and charged through her nerves. She had no control over her body when it began to convulse and twist in ways she assumed impossible—hell, why should it be impossible when aliens existed?
She grasped desperately onto the first thing her fingers could curl around. Her other hand was brought to her—her heart hitched into her throat and skipped at least three beat. Anna slowly, thoughtfully dragged her fingers across her metal chest, feeling the light pressure she applied to the thin metal. She didn't, well, couldn't feel the soft metal give underneath her touch or the sharp ends of her claws, just the pressure. Just as she would flick her eyes open on command, so did her optics. The white light in her eyes settled down, not into any normal colors.
Her sight was a mixture of color from both the visible and infrared spectrum. But even then, the actual color was not the actual color of something. The brighter the object, the hotter that object was, while just the opposite was true for the cooler the object. The vision was clear, oh so much clearer! Anna felt she had been living in a fog until now. Zooming in on small, drifting dust particles or her—oh my god, was that really her hand? Anna lifted her hand for inspection. To say seeing her hand with only two fingers and an extra thumb was abnormal would be the understatement in all of the history of the human race, but—there was always a but these days—her optics fondly traced the sharped but sleek edges of hand; the amazement glowing in the pits of her new set of eleven eyes. All the same, seeing the hand before her felt so natural, as if this was her true hand. Perhaps that feeling of naturallness was what sent a shock through her heart and tensed all her muscles—or was that now cables and wiring?
Anna's breath hitched again as the air from her movements grazed against her wings. They were so, so very sensative, almost raw feeling. Very much unlike her hand, her wings behaved differently, flexing and constantly fidgeting to the minte changing air pressures. The weight of the air on her now had never felt so great! She could only describe the feeling as a dull back ache from carrying a heavy load. Anna hunched over, finding a bit of relief in her awkward looking but naturally feeling position. Now she understood why these strange, flying aliens had long necks—so they could still hold their heads up without straining otherwise short necks.
"How's it feel, Anna?" Sari inquired.
She spun her head around to meet the shining blue optics of the second 'bot who was more than seven feet shorter than herself. Sari carried herself in the alien shell just as she did in her human flesh, energetic, childish, and as a leader. "Remarkably ordinary," Anna replied through an electromagnic wave frequency. "Though the wings—" She craned her head around to watch them flex on their own accord. "Feel like someone rubbed them raw." Her tone ended harsh and annoyed, but Sari merely laughed it off as a good joke.
"Probably needs a good stretch," she joked. "If we run the diagnostics quick enough you might be—"
Her voice was cut off by the punishing shriek. Both of them had their hands shooting towards where their now imaginary human ears. Sari flinched and recoiled to the corner, doubling over to try to avoid the sound. Indeed, her azure optics flickered off as her systems experienced an overload from the audio. Anna, on the other hand, stood erect, with her curious head outstretched to find the source. Slowly she lowered her hands to her side while curling them into tight fists. Almost against her will—it would have been against her will had her curiosity not drowned out her logic—Anna found her scrawny legs stretching and contracting in an awkward looking walk towards the shrill cry. Staying behind would be like fighting gravity, a battle lost from the very beginning.
"Anna!" Sari whispered as the cry began to dwindle down. "Don't."
She glanced wearily back at her and lowered her head, not in submission but passive aggression. Out of her control, her wings bristled and whole armor shifted like standing fur would on a cat. Even her facial plates flared out a good eight inches from the internal frame. From the depths of her throat, came an eerie growl. Anna felt as if she was a third person when the sound echoed in her own head. She had not commanded the body to make such a vicious, instinctive, protective reply. All the same, she had no will to stop it, like she was on a roller coaster already in motion. Sari stumbled backwards at the fearsome appearance. Anna, feeling a deep satisfaction swirled through her blood, once again looked to where now a small, nearly inaudible cry came from in the halls. 'Twas about time she show that little twerp who was boss around these parts now. "He calls," she spoke lowly.
"He-he calls?" she asked timidly.
Anna nodded. "It's not a scream of pain but a command." Obviously, by the widening of Sari's optics, she had failed to hear the command. Inquisitively she tilted her head to the side, trying to get a better position for capturing the sound. His voice, it was low, thrumming in bitterness and frustration. Again, deeper and more compelling, the steady low growls echoed to her very core, ushering her towards him. The growls came in waves that sounded like drums. She found herself again moving towards the sliding door that separated her from the hallway to him. A deep, seething hatred started to shake her core, rumbling in her gut and egging her on to push through the door. It wasn't just an emotion that lasted for just a mere instant in time but lingered there and chewed at her restraints. Her body cruelly stiffened from the rising conflict. "He's awake," Anna whispered through a taught voice. "He's been awake for some time."
"How do you know that?" Sari asked, her voice growing more demanding like a toddler's.
She shrugged indifferently. "I can hear it in his voice," the woman answered.
"Like actual words?" she replied, questioning further.
"No, not really," Anna commented. "I can just feel it in his voice."
Another round of high pitched squeals sent Sari scuttling back to her corner with her hands over her ears, but Anna, she stood as poised as possible and stretched her neck to the absolute limit. Her armor compressed tightly against her frame till every gap was sealed. A wave of fiery fury wrapped in smoldering passion washed over her body and found the micro gaps in her armor and dripped into her systems. Each wire the wave touched burned and sizzled, leaving Anna fighting an acidic pain that kept coming. Like venom, it traveled through her system and left a paralyzing trail in its wake. Very faintly, in between the screechy noise and clutter, she heard the soft, begging, pleading, demanding, cold, and scratchy voice that called to her, "Come to me."
A/N: Thank you very much for taking your time to read this chapter. Hopefully you enjoyed it the further you went along!
Cheers to Monday!