So, I'm thinking the next chapter will be the last chapter of this story, but we'll see how that goes. After this story is finished, I'll be posting a few new stories. I think you guys will appreciate the change. Anyways, here's this chapter, I hope you enjoy!

11. Nightmare Come True

Kristen had half hoped that when she woke up the next morning that the nightmare would have been over. She had hoped that when she opened her eyes, Lee would have been there telling her that everything had just been a bad dream. If she couldn't have that, she wanted to wake up to realize that she was still with Barricade and that it was only her with Barricade. And if she couldn't have that either, then she wanted to wake up and realize that Abbie had been removed from her body, but that wasn't true either. Instead, everything was the same as it ever was except she was still at the mercy of the Autobots.

Someday, this all had to end.

"Good morning," the Autobot medic said as he looked down at her.

"Uh…morning," she breathed tiredly, "I hope that Abbie wasn't too much trouble."

"She wasn't anything a few restraints couldn't handle," Ratchet replied before pressing a button that caused the restraints to pop off of Kristen's wrists and ankles.

"So," Kristen mused as she watched the medic work for a minute, "Are you going to be able to get Abbie out of my body without anything happening to me?"

"More than likely," he responded, "If you had let Alice do it, then the margin of error would have been much greater."

"What's your margin of error?"

"The chances of something going wrong are 10%. You don't have anything to worry about, Kristen," he explained, "I'm finishing the preparations that need to be made on the protoform, then after that I should be ready to do the extraction."

"How long will that take?"

"The preparations? Probably another five minutes or so. The extraction itself may take a few hours. You'll be unconscious throughout the entire process though, so you won't feel anything. The only change you may feel is when you wake up and realize Abbie is no longer there."

It sounded too good to be true. However, there were still questions that Kristen had. "How come you're keeping Abbie alive?" she asked.

"To question her and see if we can find out exactly who she is. If she is a threat, then we can terminate her or lock her up, whichever is most appropriate."

"And what happens to me after this?"

"You sure are full of questions," Ratchet mused before answering, "You'll probably be in our custody. Come, the preparations are complete. The sooner we get this started, the better."

Kristen followed the directions that the medic proceeded to give her and she lay back down on the table. He then began hooking wires to her. He hooked them around her skull and a couple on her chest before he hooked the same wires to the protoform. These wires were also hooked up to a computer that Ratchet had control over. Kristen watched as he walked over to it and pressed a few buttons. She heard a faint humming noise, indicating that the transfer had begun. She looked to Ratchet who looked to her and gave her a thumbs up. It was the last thing she saw before blacking out.

It was her head that hurt the most when she woke up.

Kristen felt light headed, but at the same time, her body felt like it weighed a million pounds. She let her eyes flicker open only to notice everything seemed smaller. She figured it was a side effect of the extraction and looked over to see the protoform had morphed into the shape of a female transformer. As she looked it over, she realized that the femme wasn't that attractive. She was built more to fight than she was to look appeasing to the eye.

"Hey Ratchet, is she completely out of me?" Kristen asked only to notice that her voice sounded a little different. It sounded like it had a ring to it.

"Yes she is," Ratchet said as he looked to where Kristen was laying, "However, something happened to you that I overlooked."

Kristen felt panic surge through her body like a wave. "What happened?" she asked worriedly.

"Nothing serious or life threatening, if that's what you're concerned about," he replied, "Just take a look at yourself. You've changed."

Hesitantly, Kristen sat up and looked down over her body only to notice that she had indeed changed, drastically. A gasp escaped her throat as the realization sunk in. Somehow while Ratchet was performing the extraction, the program lock had been overridden and Kristen had assumed Abbie's body, her real body, and she looked nothing like the Abbie that was lying restrained on the table beside hers. She figured the body the protoform morphed into was more of a reflection of Abbie's personality than this one. Kristen wondered if this body was more of a manifestation of herself.

She was a soft shade of silver with black and deep blue accents. But unlike the majority of the Autobots who had blue optics, hers were as red as could be. "You don't have a vehicle form yet," she heard Ratchet explain, "But we can help you choose one. Then you may be trained to fight against the Decepticons if you wish."

Kristen had stopped listening to him, her mind was full of other thoughts and her heart was full of other desires. Now that Abbie was out of her and strapped to a table in the Autobots base, she was now the Autobots problem and no longer hers. More than anything, she wanted to leave the Autobot base and just run into Barricade's arms. She wanted to show him what she had become; she knew he would be proud, she knew he would be happy that Abbie was gone.

But, she had no idea where he was or if he was even okay. She didn't even know if she would ever see him again, even though she hoped with every fiber of her being that she would somehow get tangled up in his mad and violent ways again.

Barricade made sure he stayed a safe distance from the Autobot headquarters in order to prevent being detected. However, he did not plan on leaving soon. He was still trying to devise a way to at least communicate with Kristen and find out what was going on. He half believed that Abbie would end up causing a scene, which would lead to Kristen becoming freed. If that happened, he wanted to be ready to obtain her and take her back to Alice so that Alice could terminate Abbie. Then, Kristen would be all his for the taking.

The Decepticon tracker made a hissing noise as he relaxed his chassis down onto his tires as he sat in his vehicle form. He hated to admit it, but he knew that if he didn't feel this way about Kristen, he would not be waiting for her like he was now. Barricade knew that he could end up waiting forever for something that would never happened, but he was almost willing to. Something deep down inside him made him believe with every fiber and inkling in his body that Kristen was so worth it.

Even in her human disguise she had been so delicious, her body perfectly complimenting his holoform. He couldn't even begin to imagine what she looked like as a transformer or if she would compliment him then. But if she tasted so good as a human, if she made the perfect sounds and movements now, as a transformer…the thought made him shudder.

If only he could somehow contact her.

Kristen requested that she wasn't around when Abbie woke up. She did not want to actually meet the person that she used to share a body with. Sharing the same body had been enough, but to actually have to speak with her and put up with her, she had a feeling that it would just be too much. To her dismay, there was no other place for her to go, and she was stuck waiting in the med bay until she could gain clearance to walk around the NEST base freely. Since nobody knew if they could trust her, the clearance probably wasn't going to come anytime soon, and when it did, it was more than likely she would be assigned a guard until she could be trusted.

She sighed heavily, deciding to relax while she could. She lay back on the berth, trying to think of a way to contact Barricade. She let her optics go offline, thinking. Kristen remembered that she had dropped her phone on the floor inside of Bumblebee when he had kidnapped her more or less and brought her here. She had used her phone to contact Barricade to let him know what happened. She wondered if she could somehow get her phone back and look up the number that the Decepticon had typed into it. But, it was probably best not to ask, she knew it would draw suspicion.

"Kristen," Ratchet said, "I'm stepping out for a minute. If Abbie should wake up, just try to ignore her. I'll be back in a bit."

"Alright," she agreed. It was a few minutes after Ratchet left that she was about to fall asleep when a noise next to her startled her. She looked over only to see that Abbie was online, her crimson optics staring daggers into her soul it felt like.

"Y-You're awake," she stammered.

Abbie made as if she rolled her optics. "Please," she said, "It's not that surprising. Why don't you be the good little girl you always are and get these restraints off of me?"

Kristen sat up, looking away from her before saying, "I don't think that's a good idea."

"And why not?"

"I don't know what you'll do."

"Come on Kristen, you owe me. You got away with your life when you shouldn't have."

"I let you live inside of me, that's pay back enough."

Abbie growled, "No. That was my body until you were created to hide who I really was. I got the real me back and your own persona was created in the process."

"You're too dangerous to let go, Abbie."

"So you'll let them, the Autobots, offline me after all they've done to ensure my creation?" she persisted, "We could've been friends, Kristen. We could still be friends."

Kristen realized that Abbie wasn't going to stop until she got what she wanted. God, she hoped that Ratchet would be coming back soon. It wasn't fair that she had to put up with this, but maybe it was some kind of test. She wouldn't be happy if she found out the Autobots were secretly watching what was happening inside of the room in order to see if she were trustworthy or not. She had already made up her mind even before she had been brought here; she only wanted to be with Barricade. If that meant being a Decepticon, then so be it.

"If you truly wanted to be friends, you would've cared about my wellbeing. I haven't seen you do that once," Kristen protested.

Abbie's optics narrowed and she was silent for a few moments before she said, "Do you ever want to see Barricade again?"

Kristen's gaze went to the floor and she heard Abbie chuckle, knowing that she had found her weak spot. In a gentle voice she said, "I know how to contact him, Kristen. I can show you how to reach him if you let me go."

"I don't know…"

"Come on," she said, her voice even gentler now, "I know how he feels about you; I can see how you feel about him. You'll never see him again if you don't let me go."

"How do I know that you'll keep your end of the bargain?" Kristen asked.

"I promise. Let's have a fresh start between us, shall we? We could be great together. If you let me go, you can have everything you want; I know the only thing you want is him."

"You killed Lee, he, at one point in time, was the only one that I wanted."

"You could never be with an organic male and you know it. There is no point in putting this off; Ratchet will be back at any moment. Let me go and I'll help you find Barricade, then I'll be on my way. You know that I am your only escape."

There was something wicked in Abbie's optics that Kristen didn't trust. She had a feeling that if she let her go, it would be the end of everything. Abbie could be lying. If she let her go, she could just leave and the Autobots would never let her go then knowing she had freed Abbie. If she let Abbie go, she might kill her, and Kristen especially did not want that. There had to be another way to see Barricade.

She could ask to become an Autobot; she could ask to be trained to fight. Then, maybe one day, by chance, she would run into Barricade on the battlefield and he would remember everything. But even that sounded just as risky as listening to Abbie. If only she could remember that number he had saved in her phone…

Abbie was just about to say something else when the doors suddenly opened and Ratchet came back in. He noticed that Abbie was online almost immediately. "Ah, Abbie," he mused, "It's about time you finally woke up. We've got some questions for you."

"At least take the restraints off of me," Abbie said as she struggled against them.

Both Kristen and Abbie watched as Ratchet went to the door and summoned someone inside. Ironhide proceeded to enter and hold Abbie down while the medic removed her restraints. The weapons specialist then escorted her out of the room so that she could be questioned. Kristen sighed heavily before saying, "She almost manipulated me into letting her go."

"Well, it's a good thing you didn't," Ratchet said, "I don't think she is going to be online for very much longer. While we've done research and haven't been able to find anything on her, the very fact that her own creators, whom were Decepticons, tried to keep her from existing shows something. I fear she is nothing but a deadly weapon to both sides."

"Just as long as I never have to see her again…hey Ratchet?"

"Yes Kristen?"

"How long am I going to be stuck in here? I mean, this is your med bay, not a prison. I don't belong in here."

Ratchet studied her for a moment before asking, "Is it here in the med bay you feel you don't belong, or is it here in the Autobot base that you feel like you don't belong?"

Kristen didn't say anything, which caused the Autobot medic to sigh heavily before he went over to her and sat beside her on the berth where she was sitting. "Look, you told us yourself that you have been with Barricade the last week or so. I can understand if it is him that you trust and would like to go back to. We won't label you as a traitor if that is what you want, but we will warn you that it will not be an easy life if that is what you choose."

"You mean…you will let me have a choice in all of this?"

"We cannot tell you who to be, even if we may want you to be someone else."

"So you'll let me leave?" Kristen asked, looking to him with a hopeful expression on her face.

"That is Optimus' decision to make," he replied, "Although, I can't understand why you would want to go join back up with Barricade of all the transformers out there. He can be quite ruthless."

"But there's also another side to him that says something else," she mused and then quickly looked away from him to hide a blush.

"Oh," Ratchet said, "Now I see why you want to go back to him. Well, you sure moved on from that human you were engaged to quite quickly."

Kristen couldn't explain it. Her and Barricade…they just somehow clicked in a way that Lee and she never had. She thought about that wild ride she went on yesterday where she was holding onto his hand so tightly, balancing herself between him and Bumblebee, balancing herself between life and death. She thought about the wild and excited look in his eyes, she thought about the pure elation she had felt when he came to rescue her. The evil villain, coming to her rescue. It was a nightmare come true. She smiled inwardly at the irony of it all.

She heard Ratchet sigh heavily before saying, "Sneak out, Kristen."

She looked to him confused, "What?"

"When I turn my back, slip out the door, then you run, take a left at the first hallway you come to, then a right at the next hallway and you don't stop running until you are well clear of this base. Do I make myself clear?"

"Ratchet…I can't do that, I don't even have a way of contacting—

He typed a series of numbers into her comlink suddenly, saying, "Bumblebee had them extracted from your phone just in case. When you are far away from here, contact him and tell him where you are." He then got up and started plugging in information on a computer in the room, his back to both her and the door. "Go Kristen," he said, "This is the only chance you will get. The others are busy dealing with Abbie. You won't get another opportunity like this." He didn't hear anything.

Ratchet looked back over his shoulder, but Kristen was already gone.

Kristen did exactly as the Autobot medic had told her to and when she felt she was a safe distance from the base, she collapsed to the ground, staring up at the night sky as she tried to let her systems cool. Running away had gone perfectly, even though she hadn't gone unnoticed. She felt like she had run for hours trying to escape the sound of alarms and the flashing of lights until they finally subsided into the far distance. When her panting finally subsided, she tuned her comlink to Barricade's frequency, more than ready to get out of the location that she was currently at. She only prayed that he would still be willing to get her as she whispered his name into the darkness.

Barricade was surprised when he suddenly heard Kristen's voice on his comlink. Unsure of what was going on he replied, "Barricade here, Kristen, what is going on?" He thought that maybe she had gotten her phone back.

"I managed to get free from the Autobots; do you think you could pinpoint the source of this transmission and trace it back to figure out where I am?"

The moment the word 'free' had escaped her mouth; he had done just that and was already speeding towards her location. He was eager to know what had happened, he was curious to know just how she managed to escape. "I'll be there in about an hour," he said, "Sit tight, Kristen. Don't let anyone see you."

"Thanks Barricade," she said.

He ended the transmission, his engine roaring as he raced off into the night. Oh how he loved it when Kristen breathed his name. Once again, she didn't disappoint him. Even though she was taken away by the Autobots, she managed to get away just as quickly as she was taken. He laughed as he sped well over the human speed limits. Kristen thought she was free. She was only free until he got there. When he arrived…he smiled to himself.

Oh no, his sweet Kristen would never be free.

Until the next chapter, please review!