{MECH H.Q.}
"Release the restraints," Silas ordered and Bumblebee saw the metal clasps detach from where they had pinned down his arms, legs and torso. He wanted to jump up and bring his blasters out to blow this place to pieces, but nothing happened. He was surprised that he could warble his distress but a snapped "Silence!" from Silas made him, and everyone else in the room, go silent.
"You will not speak, or make any of those noises you were making. Silence is a good virtue of a soldier; one who does not question orders but merely obeys instantly. Stand up." Bumblebee was horrified when his legs swung over the side and he pushed himself up. "Your designation is Stingray, you will respond to no other name. You are a machine, programmed to do my bidding, you will only take orders from me. Acknowledge with a salute." Without the 'bot's permission his right arm snapped up to salute Silas. "Very good." Silas tilted his head, his eyes running up and down Bumblebee's frame, causing the Autobot to shudder inwardly. "Walk forward five steps."
The next hour passed with Bumblebee's body responding to whatever Silas ordered him to do, and the man discovered that he had to be specific in his instructions. Telling the tall mech to shoot produced nothing, Silas had to order him to transform his servos into blasters before then telling him to shoot the targets. The human realized that by stripping the Autobot of its consciousness he had also reduced it to being unable to do anything without being told to. While this might have its disadvantages, Silas was very pleased with the end result and ordered the 'bot to shift to its vehicle mode.
Bumblebee had been banging himself against his mental prison for the better part of an hour, trying in vain to break the walls of code that separated him from his frame. How could humans come up with this technology to reduce a Cybertronian to nothing more than one of Earth's non-sentient machinery? Processor exhausted from the traumatic events it had undergone, Bumblebee shifted into his alt mode and was immediately repulsed at feeling the slight energon leak from his torn medical port and scratch neck joints begin to pool within their now confined space. Hopefully his systems would still have the ability to seal off small leakage problems without his command to do so.
Bumblebee was surprised that his frame could flinch as Silas climbed into him and sat in the driver's seat. Apparently, while his limbs obeyed Silas' orders his nervous system conveyed the 'bot's feelings and his feeling of revulsion as Silas touched him made his frame shiver.
Silas grinned as he ran a hand over the steering wheel, feeling a shuddering beneath his palms. He could probably order the robot not to do that but the power of the Autobot's fear was just so intoxicating. Let it keep something; let it hope that there was a chance it could break free some day.
"You're mine now," Silas said, pinching the steering wheel and feeling the metal beneath him jerk. "I own you. I've taken everything away from you, but it's only the beginning. Soon you will be battle tested, you will do as I say, kill who I tell you to. Human, robot, it won't matter, you will be helpless to stop me."
Curious, Silas drew his nails across the leather seat, not caring to hide the vicious smile that crossed his face as the car shuddered. "Do you remember a big blue mech, red eyes?" Bumblebee froze within his prison, was the human speaking of Breakdown? "We learned quite a bit from him, and that flyer, but it was the robot we found a few months ago that really opened the gateways for us. Thing crashed in Alaska years ago, discovered by accident and we swept in to claim it. We discovered so many of your secrets, access panels and your valuable spark but the best thing, we found was how everything you know, everything that makes you what you are, is built on codes and programs. You can download data like any of our machines; learn something new in less than a second by simply uploading the required file. But your base coding, the controls for your body, like our machines, can be changed with the right algorithm to do so." Silas grinned, "We call it the 'slave program', an algorithm that can separate your consciousness from your body and leave us in charge. It took quite a few tries to perfect but you are the end result and look how well you succumbed to me." Silas pulled a long knife from its sheath and used it to cut into Bumblebee's dashboard, "My Stingray."
Silas got out, deeply satisfied, and Bumblebee twitched at his lingering touch. He did not know what Silas had carved into him, but anyone looking into the front part of the car would see property of MECH crudely cut into across the dashboard.
"Richards," the MECH leader called, a lean man came over to him and Silas handed him a piece of paper. "Here, this is what I want the new colors to be, can't have that eye-catching yellow on important missions now, can we?" Silas turned back to Bumblebee after Richards had moved off, "I'm going to wipe everything off of you that made you an Autobot. Optimus Prime values human life doesn't he? Well, a new paint job and you," he ran a hand over the hood, "Stingray, will show those molly-coddling Autobots what a real soldier does to succeed. After a few test runs you are going to be at the head of the MECH cause, the first of many to serve me."
A last pat and Silas walked away, making room for the paint crew. Bumblebee's spark stuttered, the little scout was beyond horrified at the human's implications. He could not kill a human, even now he only wanted to maim Silas to within an inch of his life but not kill him. Killing was a foreign concept to Bumblebee, he had not even wanted to kill Magatron when the Decepticon ripped his voice box out, only pound him with everything he had. Optimus Prime had sheltered him in the regard of taking a life; he had never been put in that situation before, as the Autobot leader had not wanted someone so young to carry such a burden.
"No matter who, or the situation, you will always remember the life you cut short."
Bumblebee sunk on his tires, remembering Prime's words and hoping with his entire spark that his fellow Autobots found him before Silas forced him to take a life.
The scout was brought out of his misery by the sound of a lid popping. Bumblebee saw the black paint and was unable to move away as it was applied to his body.
AN: This chapter took a little long 'cause Silas scared even me.