To Protect and Serve

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or any of its affiliated characters. Only Faith and Nicole are mine. The rest belong to people with a lot more money and creativity than I've got.

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Chapter Three: In your head…

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A bluish orb of light sat floating just in front of her, its size diminished from the first time she'd seen it. She was aiming her gun at it in defense, demanding that the voice issuing from the orb should not move it any closer. Fear had run through her body in a punishing wave, prompting her 'fight or flight' response. Yet she'd just stood there, unable to move, but desperately wanting to.

A man's voice speaking to her in a language she couldn't understand, pleading with her. Demanding then, still in that unknown language. It had sounded like mechanical clicks and whirrs to her, but obviously meant something to him. The sparking and pulsing of the orb as it weaved its way towards her.

Pain then – pain and a flash of light. Feeling herself be sent flying through the air and the dull thud as she hit the side of her car. Then nothing, but there was something…

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WAKE UP!

His voice all but snarled the words at her, shocking her back to herself and into an upright position. There were people in the room, doctors and cops alike. Several uniformed officers were slumped against the wall unconscious, and she had no idea how they'd gotten that way. She did realize that she was no longer strapped down. Or, more specifically, that something had snapped the thick leather bonds with a force far greater than she could accomplish herself. That in itself should have told her something was wrong, but another feeling had superimposed itself over her conscious mind.

Hands were holding her down again, but now she was fighting back with a strength not her own. Everything kept getting foggy, with people and places blurring in and out of reality. Something was wrong, really wrong. It was the same as the last time she'd woken up. She wasn't in control of herself. No, he was in control, and panic had asserted itself again. Her head started spinning again, blackness clawing at the edge of her vision until she was certain she'd pass out again.

Don't you dare! Stay awake! You have to move!

'Can't…what's going on?' she asked of the voice in her head, feeling steadily more dizzy the longer she sat up. She lost time again with that, coming back again with her feet under her.

Stop that! Your weaving in and out like that is going to…

Suddenly his voice was drowned out by a different image appearing in front of her eyes. She was back in a squad car, in the direct path of an oncoming eighteen-wheeler. Her normal calm abandoned her and instinct took over. She could remember screaming as she jerked hard on the steering wheel to get out of the way, remembered sliding clear off the shoulder and into the woods to either side of the road with the momentum of the car. What she couldn't remember was being thrown from the car, but she had to have been.

Her hand connected briefly with the ground, pushing off hard to try and get upright again. Her body moved in a way that she wasn't sure it was supposed to, instinctively knowing how to move and what to do in order to regain her feet and get her bearings. Once she was upright again Faith looked around, realizing that she'd been thrown further from the car than she'd originally thought. There were thick trees all around her, and she couldn't even see the road from where she was.

It didn't take long for her to realize that something wasn't right. Her line of sight had been altered greatly, the trees around her no longer dwarfing her with their sheer size. She gave her surroundings a quick look, noticing that she was eye level with a tree branch that should have been well over her head. Instead, it was right next to her head. Some of these trees had to be decades old, maybe more. That meant that they were all well over her 5'7 height. That the smallest of them came up to her chin, meaning that she had to be taller than that.

A strong sense of vertigo assailed her, forcing her to lean against one of the larger trees to remain upright. Her feet still gave out, sending her to her knees on the forest floor. Faith ended up having to rest her head against the tree, breathing in and out evenly until her equilibrium reasserted itself. Still leaning heavily against the tree, the young officer got to her feet, using the tree and its branches to help keep her balance. Vertigo washed through her again once she was back on her feet, but it didn't knock her off her feet this time. Once it had passed she straightened, determined to figure out what was going on.

At that point her vision started dimming, everything around her losing its focus once again. She blindly reached out to grab onto a tree branch, hoping to ground herself to consciousness. Instead it seemed to help strengthen whatever was making her vision dim. Her body didn't seem to be moving entirely under her control, the motions more precise and direct than what she was used to. Another mind started pushing hers back, the silent demand there startling her and forcing her to realize something.

'Not my time, not my body.'

His words from before echoed in her head. This wasn't her body, and she definitely couldn't have gotten wherever she was from the hospital in Los Angeles she'd been in. Not in the blink of time it had taken to get from one place to the other. It meant, unfortunately, that she was sitting in the body of the man she'd been talking to for the last few minutes. With this in mind she ceased fighting the returned presence in her mind, allowing him to push her out of his body and successfully back into hers.

The world seemed to blur around her again, her vision coming back into focus to the sight of the white walls of the hospital. She was still in Los Angeles – still somewhere in the bowels of the hospital. Raised voices coming down the hall startled her back into motion, prompting her forward once more. She still needed to find out what the reason was for her confinement; still wanted to know why they'd treated her like some psychopath instead of the respected police detective that she actually was.

The cold tiles beneath her feet were little distraction while she was so focused on her goal. It was what had made her a good cop. She could focus on her goal and ignore everything else, including personal discomfort or injury. It was one of the reasons she kept ending up in the hospital. Faith let out a soft sound of triumph when she finally found one of the officers she worked with. He looked like he'd gotten into a fight with someone twice his size, with all the bruises and cuts that marred his features. Still, that was no deterrent to approaching him.

"Riley, what the heck is going on here?"

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Yep, that's it.
Sorry for the shortness, but I promise to have another chapter out by monday.
As always, please read and review.