Chapter 9: Sparkdead

I dreamed. Or, at least I think I dreamed. I saw familiar faces... Arcee, Starscream, Wheeljack, Knock Out, Ratchet... They were all there, staring at me.

"What's going on?" I asked. They didn't reply. They still stood there, silent as stone. I started to walk around when I realized I was standing up, but there was no exit I could leave out of. I realized I was alone once again. lost in the waves of blackness.

Then I started to remember the fragments of what happened to me back before I was here. I was lying down, strapped to a table, shouting like a wild beast for energon. I saw my mouth split into mandibles and a mouthed, tongue-like appendage burst out of it like those wretched Insecticons had. The scene shifted into fog as I walked away from it. That wasn't me... I started to think. That couldn't have been me...

As I continued to walk through the black nothingness, I saw more views from the past. I saw me saving Arcee from the Insecticon/Terrorcon, I saw Miko introducing me to movies, I saw Wheeljack, Arcee, and Bulkhead carrying my limp body off the battlefield...

What is this? What in Cybertron is happening to me? Why am I being shown these? Hundreds of thoughts went through my head as I wandered about aimlessly in this endless limbo.

Suddenly, I heard a voice. "I... I'm sorry to tell you all this. Tailslide is... Gone" It was Ratchet's voice. What does he mean "gone?" I wondered. Then a dreadful thought hit me. Am I deactivated? Am I one with the Allspark? No... It can't be. This is a Hell compared to what it means to be one with the Allspark.

"I have to wake up" I told myself "I have to wake up!" I tried to wake myself. I ran around, I hit myself with my servos, I jumped, I yelled. Nothing worked.

"Wake up! Wake up! WAKE UP!"

I woke up.

Everything was pitch-black. Am I still trapped? I thought. I quickly realized that a cloth sheet of some sort was covering me from head to foot. I moved both my arms and I felt that there was nothing holding them down anymore. I pulled the large, white sheet off me and looked around.

A huge wave of déjà vu went through my mind as I saw that I was sitting on top of an examination table in the middle of Ratchet and Knock Out's lab. Something seemed different about my vision when I looked around. Everything almost looked black-and-white as I stared. I could still discern the different colors, red, steel, orange, purple... But the things that stood out the most were bright blue objects that were in multiple corners of the room.

As I got up to investigate, I also noticed that when I stepped on the ground, I almost didn't feel anything as well. It was almost like being numb, in a way. I shrugged the feeling off as I continued walking toward the nearest blue object. I looked into a jar, I saw a small, blue, glowing rock inside of it. I opened the jar and dumped the rock into my hand. It was and energon crystal.

I immediately realized that this wasn't right. Can I detect energon now? I wondered to myself as I put the crystal back. What is happening to me?

I went out the door of the lab and continued on down the hallway. I was pondering why I woke up alone when I heard the noise of footsteps coming from up ahead of me. I stood against the side of the wall, unsure of what to do next.

Who I saw come into view I quickly recognized as Ratchet. His head was bowed low, servo massaging the back of his neck as if it was under some form of soreness or stress. When I saw him, I instantly saw a ring, or halo, of blue light surrounding his body. He stopped and lifted his head when he got seven meters from me, mumbling something under his breath as he did so.

At first he didn't notice me, but when his optics focused on me, he gasped, and his face apparently went blank with shock. It quickly turned to terror and he slowly started to back up. "I-impossible..." He stuttered as he backed up, but tripped and fell onto his back with a shout. He dragged himself up to his feet again in lightening speed, and he ran down the hall, looking over his shoulder at me one last time as he ran.

I was confused. "What was that all about?" I asked myself. I decided to walk down the hall he ran down to investigate.

I soon heard voices up ahead, some panicked in tone, but I continued on, undaunted. I came into the room that had the groundbridge, and I saw Ratchet, Arcee, Knock Out, and Bulkhead were there. All talking together.

"Are you telling us the truth and not some joke you're planning?" Bulkhead asked. "Bulkhead, you know I don't tell jokes" Ratchet replied. "But I saw him! He was standing in front of me, right there, clear as day! I'll go show you right now if you'll at least follow me!" "I'll follow" Arcee said in a calm tone.

"What are you guys talking about?" I asked in a normal tone. They all turned and faced me in unison. "Wha-What in Cybertron..." Knock Out sputtered as he saw me. "By Primus" Arcee gasped. Bulkhead and Ratchet just stood with their mouths and eyes fully open in utter shock.

"What?" I asked again as I shrugged my shoulders.

"How are you alive?" Knock Out asked nervously. "What do you mean?" I replied. "Tailsli- I mean T-7... You've been dead... For five orbital cycles" Ratchet said.

I was taken aback. "Dead?" I asked. "What do you mean "dead?""

They were all silent until Bulkhead decided to speak. "When me Ratchet and Bumblebee were on that Insecticon ship, Knock Out was here was trying to save you. He said your spark went out while he was operating. Ratchet even confirmed it when we got back two mega-cycles later."

"Then... Then how am I here?" I asked, a tone of worry in my voice. I started to back up. "How?!" I shouted as I slammed my fists against the wall, leaving two good-sized dents in it.

"I... I don't know..." Ratchet said. I slid down the wall and curled into a fetal position. I felt sick.

Arcee approached me and laid her servo on my shoulder. "It's okay" she whispered "We'll find out what's wrong. It's probably just a glitch in the tech."

I pushed her servo away from me with my shoulder. "Get away..." I said in a hushed voice. "You need to remain calm" she said as got close to me again. "You can't just keep pushing away help like this."

As she attempted to lay her servo on me again to calm me, I could feel my jaw change shape, and, in a state of utter mania, I hissed at her.

Arcee gasped in surprise. I soon saw why. My mouth had shifted into a set of four mandibles, not unlike what the Insecticons/Terrorcons had, and a long, fanged, tongue-like appendage jumped from my mouth, as if to attack her.

I pushed her away and crawled to the other side of the wall as my mouth morphed back. Bulkhead activated his blaster and pointed it at me in reaction.

"What in the Allspark was THAT?" He yelled at me. "I... I don't know!" I yelled back. "What is going on?!" I whimpered as I crawled back into fetal position. Arcee got up, shaken by what happened, Bulkhead kept his blaster aimed at me, and Ratchet, at first shocked, bent down and began to scan me with a wrist-mounted device.

Author's notes: Gasping green bushes! This story's so juicy, you could just mistake the thing for a pork roast! I spent three, if not four hours in a row working on this, and I really want you guys's professional opinion on this… This… MAGNUM OPUS of mine. Coming soon to a fanfic sight near you… Chapter 10: Monster