Title: Owls and Larks

Author: BlueLunacy7

Chapter Warnings: Mild violence

Pairings: None at the moment but future Sam/Bee

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers, the any quotes or lyrics, or song titles in anyway, shape, or form. Basically, nothing you recognize is mine.

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Chapter 9: Ice

The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour. ~Japanese Proverb

Hours later found Sam dozing unhappily in yet another SUV with an ice pack pressed against his face after a ride in a big army chopper or so he was told, having slept through said ride. Even after that refreshing sleep, he still felt like shit.

After Bee had been captured, Sam had bit, kicked, fought and cursed with language harsh enough to peel paint, generally making the lives of the agents in the SUV with him a misery. He managed to kick out a window, leave an impressive set of teeth marks in an agent's arm and bloody another's nose and quite possibly cracked another's ribs before the strain of too many transformations without true rest, no real food and the side effects of the Cesine wearing off finally took its toll and he passed out.

Not that he got off uninjured. He now had a split lip as well as a cut inside his mouth from his teeth. His right eye was sporting a spectacular shiner whose swelling had gone down enough that he could see out of that eye now, thanks to an ice pack from a surprisingly sympathetic agent, to match the rest of the bruises that were covering his body, making movement painful. Another thing that sucked about Dragon's Bane was it slowed his healing ability down to a crawl.

Mikaela was sitting quietly next to him, no worse for wear (apparently even evil secret government agencies hesitated hitting girls), sensing at the moment that talking to a seething Sam wouldn't be a good idea. Finally the SUV stopped and they were instructed to get out.

Sam knew exactly where they were.

Hoover Dam, number one gathering place for Bad Things.

Sam didn't need his bangles to warn him that this place was creepy. He could feel the malevolence in the air. It was daytime thankfully, most of the truly nasty things came out at night but Sam was still unable to transform, it would still be a few hours yet before he could, which didn't help his mood any. Both his choker and rosary had been torn from his neck in the fight with Sector 7, so the Bad Things knew he was there as well. Hopefully, with the combination of his draconic aura and the fact it was daylight, they wouldn't try anything.

As he got out of the SUV, leaving the ice pack, he saw who was waiting for them.

Simmons.

'Oooh, you are a brave man, Simmons.' Sam thought as he approached the agent, noticing the heavy padding on the agent's crotch, 'A very stupid and suicidal man but a brave one none the less.'

"Hey kid, I think we got off to a bad start, huh?" Simmons said with a smile, trying to be the nice guy obviously, "You must be hungry. You want a latte, ho-ho, double vente machiatto..."

"Simmons," Sam interrupted with a growl, not in the mood for his bullshit right now, "if you value your life or your balls, you'll get the fuck away from me right now.'

"Now I know you're upset-"

"Upset? No, I'm not upset. You see, upset was several exits ago. I'm pissed and quickly working my way into a fucking rage." Sam snarled, happily noting that the agent flinched, "The only thing keeping me from throwing your sorry ass over the side and seeing how high you'd bounce is the fact you know where Bee is."

"Son, I need you to listen to me very carefully." Another agent intervened, most likely Simmons' boss if Sam's guess was correct, "People can die here. We need to know everything you know and we need to know it now."

"Okay, fine, you want information." Sam said nodding, "But first I want Bumblebee, my car. I want my parents. I want five minutes alone with Simmons tied up and a taser with fresh batteries. I want my bag that you confiscated from Mikaela. I want Mikaela's juvie record gone. I want you to know that if Bee is hurt, alien invasion will be the last of your problems."

"You can't threaten us!" Simmons snapped.

"Oh, it's not a threat." Sam responded with a sharp smile, "It's a promise."

"Alright," Boss agent said, "Come with me, we'll talk about your car."

After Sam issued his promise, he and Mikaela were herded over to a large group of people that included a group of soldiers with dark tans, an older gentleman who looked very important and Sector 7 agents. Recognizing one of the soldiers, Sam walked over.

"I'm Sam Witwicky." Sam introduced himself, holding a hand, "You're Will Lennox, right? Mrs. Sarah's husband?"

"Sarah told me about you helping her out." Lennox shook his hand, a look of relief passing over his face for some reason, "I owe you big."

"Nah, I was happy to help." Sam said with a slight smile, unsure if Mrs. Sarah had told him all about Sam. It also reminded him that he had yet to tell Mrs. Sarah about what Miles had seen, though it was a moot point now.

"What happen to you?" Lennox asked gesturing to Sam's battered face.

"Sector 7 was hurting a friend of mine." Sam stated with a shrug, "I objected."

"All right," Simmons called over the commotion after everyone had introduced themselves, gesturing for them to follow him, "Here's the situation as we have been able to determine: it looks as if we are facing a war against a highly advanced technological civilization. You're here because in one way or another, you've all had direct contact with the NBEs."

"NBEs?" Epps asked.

"Non-Biological Extraterrestrials," Simmons said condescendingly, "Try to keep up with the acronyms."

"Being a dick-head must be a Sector 7 job requirement." Sam commented loudly to Mikaela, earning a few chuckles from the soldiers and a glare from Simmons, which made Sam wave at him with a mocking smile.

As they walk by the massive turbines in the vast room at the base of the dam, Sam noticed some nasty critters peering out from the shadows of the humming generators. These were the Not Sure creatures, critters that most people caught out of the corner of their eyes that 'vanished' when they turned to look. The creepy feeling was getting worse.

A few moments later, they stood in front of a huge metal door at the end of a dim tunnel hundreds of feet underground, where the air was cold, dank and tasted of chemicals that Sam was learning to hate.

"What you're about to see is totally classified..." the boss agent, whose name Sam learned was Banachek, said as the door opened.

The underground cavern was vast. In the center, surrounded by muliti-level framework and girders with strands of tubes, as big as if not bigger than Optimus Prime was Megatron reradiating menace, covered in spikes and blue tinted ice.

"Dear God, what is that?" Keller gasped.

"We think that when he made his approach over the North Pole, our gravitational field screwed up his telemetry." Banachek explained, "He crashed into the ice, probably a few thousand years ago. We shipped him here to this facility in 1934."

"We call him NBE-1." Simmons stated with pride.

"Actually, his name is Megatron," Sam interrupted. Part of him wished he hadn't said anything because he now had the creepy feeling that Megatron was watching him. He brushed it off as paranoia in this creepy place.

Simmons continued, seeming to ignore Sam, "Fact is, you're looking at the source of the modern age. The microchip, lasers, cars, space flight: all reverse-engineered by studying him." He sneered at Sam, "NBE-1, that's what we call it!"

"And you'd be wrong, his name is Megatron." Sam retorted with a voice laced in ice, "Reverse-engineering? You've been cutting into him haven't you? And taking pieces out?"

"NBE-1 has been in cryostasis since 1935." Banachek stated, "It's most likely it felt nothing-"

Sam's growl rolled through the air like soft, distant thunder, "Are you sure? Or did you just play around in his insides without knowing?"

"Your great-great-grandfather made one of the greatest discoveries in the history of mankind-" Banachek started as if try to pacify Sam, sweat beading up on his forehead under Sam's gaze.

"And got locked up in the loony bin for it." Sam stated, prowling closer to Banachek, "You're planning on 'studying' Bee, aren't you?"

"A few passive scans only." Banachek held his hands up in surrender, "Nothing intrusive, no dissection."

"Good because if he ends up in pieces, so will you." Sam snapped, "And I'm pissed enough to eat the evidence." He turned to the others, "All right kids, this big scary one here is Megatron, leader of the Decepticons, essentially the Harbinger of Death, Destruction and all sorts of nastiness that the Secret Squirrel Society has been hiding from you."

"Why are they here?" Lennox asked.

"It's the All Spark, this cube-looking thing." Sam explained, feeling slightly smug that Lennox asked him rather the agents, "There are two sides fighting over it: the Decepticons, who want to use the Cube to transform machines into their new army and take over the universe. Then there's the Autobots, which Bee is apart of," He glared at Simmons and Banachek, "that are trying to stop them."

"Are you sure about that?" Simmons asked looking decidedly uncomfortable. Something about the way he asked and glanced over at Banachek that made Sam put it together.

"You know where it is;" Sam accused with a predatory smile that hurt his lip, "Don't you?"

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"This is our crown jewel."

Sam could see why. The Cube had an alien beauty to it. Exquisite symbols and glyphs were intricately carved on its gleaming metallic surface, curving and twisting over the edges and corners. Even at a distance, he could feel the energy radiating for the Cube.

"Carbon dating of the debris around the Cube puts it here around 10,000 B.C. The first seven didn't find it until 1913," Banachek said quietly, "They knew it was alien because of the matching hieroglyphics on the Cube as well as NBE-1. President Hoover had the dam built around it." Banachek pointed up, "Four football fields thick of concrete; a perfect way of hiding its energy from being detected by anyone or….any alien species on the outside."

"Wait a moment," Maggie spoke up, "Back up. You said the dam hides the cube's energy. What kind exactly?"

"Good question."

Once again the group herded into another area, this time to a room with a huge mental door, in the center of the room was a high dais with transparent box from which numerous cable ran to.

"Please step inside," Banachek instructed, "They have to lock us in,"

"Why?" Lennox asked as the door slammed shut behind them with a boom, followed by series clicks as heavy locks were engaged.

"That would ruin the surprise." Simmons said with a smile that made Sam want to hit him, "Let's just say that things can get a little crazy in here. Does anyone have any mechanical devices? BlackBerrys, key alarms, cell phones?"

"I got a phone." Glen said handing it to Simmons.

"Nokias are real nasty." Simmons comment as goggles were passed out, "You gotta respect the Japanese; they know the way of the Samurai."

"Nokia's from Finland." Maggie remarked as Simmons placed the phone into the box.

"Yes, but he's, uh..." Keller said quietly, "you know, strange. He's a little strange."

"A little strange doesn't begin to cover it, sir." Lennox commented, making Sam smile slightly before winching as he put the goggles on. His eyes focused on the box in front of him as Simmons and Banachek flipping switch around the room.

"We're able to take the cube radiation and funnel it into that box," Simmons stated with obvious pride as he hit a button. Sam felt…wrongness echo through him as a silver device on the top of the glass box ejected bright blue energy like azure lighting into the box. The phone began to shake before exploding into miniature robot with red eyes

"Mean little sucker, huh?" Simmons asked as the tiny robot it went about destroying its cage. "Kinda like the itty-bitty Energizer Bunny from Hell, huh?"

Sam simply started at the tiny Decepticon, wondering if it was a Decepticon because the technology originated from Megatron. He didn't think that Sector 7 was stupid enough to purposefully Decepticons but then again...

Sam felt slightly ill as the feeling of wrongness intensified as Simmons killed the little Nokia-bot and enjoyed the act quite a bit. Eyes fixed on the robot's smoking remains; Sam slowly removed his goggles. It was wrong that they were using such…sacred (that was the only way to describe it) energy in this way.

"You didn't think the United States Military might need to know that you're keeping a powerful alien artifact and a hostile alien robot frozen in the basement?" Keller ranted to Banachek.

"Until these events, we had no credible threats to national security," Simmons replied.

"Well, you got one now!" He snapped. As if punctuating his words, there was the sound of distant explosions and the bright lights of the room flickered. "Gentlemen, they know the cube is here."

"Well that's simply fan-fucking-tastic." Sam remarked.

"Banachek here," the agent snapped into a communication device, "What's going on?"

"The NBE-1 hangar has lost power," A staticy voice said, "And the back-up generator isn't strong enough to power the cryostasis unit…"

"Where's your armory?" Lennox demanded.

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Sam's hands shook violently, sweat trickled down his skin as his heart thump hard in chest and his stomach twisted.

He couldn't do this. He could not do this.

He had to, if he was going to save Bee.

"Sam?"

Sam jumped, almost dropping the syringe, "Okay, that's it. I'm getting you a bell."

"Are you okay?" Mikaela asked, seeing Sam's pale face. "What are you doing?"

They were in the Sector Seven armory with soldiers and agents darting about, arming themselves. Sam was sitting over in a corner on a metal box trying to get up the nerve to stick the freakishly long needle into his arm.

"Trying to give myself an injection," He said shakily as he held up the syringe he had taken from his bag that he had finally got back. It was small as syringes go, about the size of an Insulin syringe but to Sam it was the size of his arm, "This is the antidote to Dragon's Bane."

"Will you be able to transform then?" She asked.

"It will still take a little while but it'll take less time than waiting for the Dragon's Bane to wear off by itself." Sam took a deep breath and jammed the needle into his arm with a squeak. As quickly as he could with shaking hands, Sam injected the liquid into his body. Swallowing the bile that rose in his throat, he waived off Mikaela who asked if he was okay, and quickly walked over to Simmons, "We need Bee; he'll know what to do with the cube."

"Are you nuts?" Simmons sneered at him while fiddling his gun, "We're not letting that thing near the Cube!"

"It the only chance we've got!" Sam snapped as another concussion blast made the lights flicker once more.

"I have lives at stake here lizard boy!" Simmons snapped back.

"That's why we need allies!" Sam snarled getting closer to the agent, wanting to beat the shit out him for his insult. Calling a dragon a lizard was like calling a black person a nigger. The only thing saving the agent from Sam pounding his face in was that Simmons was ignorant of this fact, "We need all the help we can get!"

Lennox had enough. Pushing Sam out of the way, he grabbed Simmons by the front of his jacket, picked him up off his feet and slammed him into the vehicle next behind him, "Take the kid to his car!"

The Sector 7 agents in the armory drew their weapons as did Lennox's men. Without really thinking about it, Sam placed himself between Lennox and the agent whose gun was aimed at the Captain, hoping the agent would hesitate shooting an unarmed civilian. Even if he did shoot, Sam could take a gun shot better than a normal human.

He hoped so any way.

"There's an alien war going on, and you're gonna shoot me?" Simmons asked incredulously from behind Sam who was not willing to take his eyes off the agent in front of him.

"We didn't ask to be here." Lennox retorted, sharply.

"I'm ordering you under S7 executive jurisdiction-" Simmons began confidently.

"S7 don't exist!" Epps pointed out.

"Yeah, and we don't take orders from people who don't exist!" Lennox stated.

"I'm gonna count to five." Simmons threatened.

Lennox came back with, "I'm gonna count to three."

"SIMMONS!" Keller called through the tension.

"Yes, sir?"

"I'd do as he says." Keller stated in a slightly mocking voice, "Losing's really not an option for these guys."

"You want to lay the fate of the world on Lizard Boy's Camaro?" Simmons asked blandly, "That's cool."

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Author notes:

There maybe one or two chapters left in Owls and Larks. Of course with school starting back up, the updates with be slowing down a bit.

To my wonderful reviewers:

Mikaela-bashing is always so much fun.

On robot/human-interaction, while I don't want to give anything away there maybe hint of Human/bot relations in later chapters. I'm planning on doing a sequel to this based on ROTF, so there maybe some human/bot action there.

Reasons as to why Simmons fears Sam more that the Autobots:

Simmons was prepared for giant alien robots. He wasn't prepared really for a dragon and Sam was the first dragon that he'd seen live and in color so to speak. He got used to giant alien robots from dealing with Megatron.

Also, some of the fear of Sam is instinctual. I read somewhere that almost every culture as a version of the dragon myth that is treated with awe or fear, so think coming off to face with one would be a scary thing, especially if it's mad at you.

Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed

-BlueLunacy7