AN: / I'm spoiling you guys, aren't I? I keep giving you these chapters so quickly! When I go back to school, you're going to hate me. This is slightly based off of the fact that Tessa also had a nightmare, but I want to make it very clear that Selena is not becoming an angsty character. She already is. I'm not kidding. Here, you'll see part of the reason why she's so fucked up. It's a valid reason too. After I wrote the dream sequence, I went over to my friends and said, "I'm the worst sadist ever." I honestly felt guilty for doing this to Selena and her sister and, now that I'm more sure about the exact details of what happened to them, even if none of you are finding out for a while, I feel like this horrible person for doing it. It's almost cruel. I even let Lawyer Dave leave as an apology to the human race. Wait what is- Why the hell are you back? I thought- No, Bay is not allowed to leave until I get the rights to Transformers! I know I can't handle them! They're for UlurNaga. She's much- yes, I know she only owns Tessa, but, seeing as Tessa is part of the cannon OptimusXTessa- THOSE TWO ARE FUCKING CANNON! DO NOT ARGUE WITH ME INFIDEL!
That night, Selena had nightmares. She ran through the darkness, not remembering what or who she was running from, and then she heard it: the sound of Ironhide's laughter somewhere ahead of her. "Ironhide? Dammit, Ironhide, where are you!" She sprinted towards him, but the closer she seemed to get from the origin of the noise, the farther away he seemed to go. "Ironhide? Slag it, Ironhide! I know you can hear me! Ironhide!"
She continued to run forward, desperate to reach him. She moved her feet as quickly as she could, but, eventually, she felt a familiar hand on her wrist, yanking her backwards until she fell onto the ground. She was pulled backwards until she couldn't hear the laughter of Ironhide anymore, but the sobbing of Serena. "Let go of me!" She cried out, unconsciously thrashing about in her bed. "Damn you, Gould! Let me go!"
A separate set of hands grabbed onto her and she felt herself being lifted and placed in a large tank, a tank she'd seen many times before. "No," she said, looking around herself fearfully as the lid of the tank began to close, trapping her inside. "No, stop! You can't do this! I'm a person! I'm human! Let me out!" Her screams fell on deaf ears as a strange, blue liquid began to fill the tank. "Stop, no! Please!" Her cries became pleading. "Don't do this, please. I'm begging you, don't do this!"
The liquid eventually went right over her head, cutting off her cries. She banged on the glass, her lungs beginning to burn from the lack of air. As she fought to free herself, a series of lasers, needles and knives came out of small holes in the walls of the tank. They came towards her, each one looking more foreboding than the last. Letting out the last of her air in a pointless scream, she rammed herself against the thick walls of the tank, desperate to get away from the terrible weapons inside.
As the first needle began to pierce her skin, she woke up in her room at the base.
Huffing, sweat pouring down her face, hair messy and ruined from the thrashing and crying, she tried to bring herself back. She curled into a ball, fighting to keep calm. She wasn't back there. She was at base. She was at base, where Lennox and Optimus and the others were . . . gone. To Shanghai. Where they were.
A part of her wanted to run to the nearest phone and warn them about what they might find there, but she didn't. What had happened to her and her sister was to stay between them and the others. They had no business in their lives. None of them. They had no right to know what had happened to them. To her.
Quietly, careful not to wake her sister who was sleeping far more softly than she had been, she slipped out of the room and slowly made her way to the garage, reminiscent of the last time she had made a trip there at this time. She had wound up trying to kill Lennox and some of his men. Perhaps this time would go a bit better.
When she finally reached there, she wasn't surprised to see it empty. She didn't know what she had been expecting. Tessa had long since gone home, and she'd been there when the Bots had left. She should have known better than to think they'd be waiting there for her, knowing she needed them.
No. She didn't need them. The only person shed ever needed was Serena, and she was right there. Everything else, she could do on her own. She was perfectly capable. She didn't need them. She didn't need anyone.
Still, she felt . . . better in the garage, where she could smell the scent of oil and energon, where she could feel the dirt and grime beneath her bare feet. Still, she didn't dare go back to sleep, knowing good and well that the dream would return until she had gone without sleep so long she passed out into a dreamless sleep, so she sat on her bench, next to the spot where Sideswipe would argue with Tessa after any of the crashes he had, and waited for the others to come back.
SS
Serena awoke the minute her sister left the room, and knew exactly what had made her leave. Selena had nightmares all the time, more than her. Serena had no idea why they'd been in the Middle East. By the time she became old enough to know, she and Selena had been traveling across the countries there for years, and Selena told her to just let it go and not ask again.
She remembered hands grabbing at her, she remembered other kids, though she couldn't see their faces, and she remembered, very clearly, her sister pushing her painfully against a wall with her body and screeching at someone to leave them alone.
She had been six when they left the states. That much she knew, which meant that Selena had been ten, and probably, if those nightmares were any indication, remembered every second of their time in . . . wherever they had been.
Serena wanted to be there for her sister, but she couldn't. The one time she had followed her after a nightmare, Selena had angrily sent her back to the room, shouting that she shouldn't be out there at night. Serena, who was twelve at the time, had been so shell shocked from her sister's tone that she had ran all the way back to her room and locked the door.
Selena hadn't remembered a thing the next day.
Serena thought about calling Tessa, but she didn't know her number. What was she supposed to say anyways? That she was afraid of her sister? That they had been kidnapped, and possibly tortured, as children and Selena was bearing the brunt of it all by herself? That she had no idea what to do? No.
Tessa would freak. Things wouldn't go well at all. Serena didn't doubt that she would be willing to go to the Middle East herself and give them something to think about. That was the last thing they needed.
Suddenly, she wished that Sideswipe was there. He would know what to do, and, if he didn't, he'd know how to make the whole thing look so much better than it was. That was his special talent. He could make everything better so easily.
She shook that thought away. That was not going to go well. She remembered her sisters warning clearly, and she understood it. Even being friends with the Autobots was inviting disaster, but she couldn't help it. There was just something about Sideswipe that made her feel comfortable around him, and she never felt comfortable around men. Ever.
This, of course, had nothing to do with the fact that he looked like a god in his holoform.
Serena sighed and rolled over. This wasn't helping at all. The bots were off fighting in a war she wished she never knew existed, Selena was going to be sleep deprived for the rest of the week, Tessa was falling for Optimus, which would end badly for one or both of them, and she was pretty sure that Selena was starting to reach her breaking point.
She could only shiver at the thought of what would happen when she reached it.
